Feeding a man is different to eating alone

[busybeewantstosavetime]

Eating alone my cooking is quick and easy most of the time. My partner likes to eat meat with every meal but I don’t! I would often be happy with an easy pasta dish and veg.

What are your quick mid week meals that involve some sort of meat?

my easy ones are:
Spaghetti bolognaise
enchiladas/ fajitas
meatball pasta bake

i like things like paella and risotto but cook them without meat so I’m thinking maybe cook some chicken on the side.

Any other ideas?

Oh is it not?

It depends on the meat and how much is eaten.

Well, it depends exactly what kinds of meat and how much, but high consumption of red and processed meats is certainly linked to higher levels of colorectal cancers, heart disease, type 2 diabetes etc.

This is true in my house too. He will do the work of the more complex meal, but it is still more than needs to be worked into our very busy day much of the time.

i suggest something like rice with cheese and some vegetables on the side. This is a crowd pleaser and very easy with the rice cooker. He has to add meat. Now we have to go to the store and have more dishes to wash.

Sure, as long as it works for you both. Especially with you being such a good cook! DH and I don't do exactly the same household tasks either.

If he doesn't want to eat what you're making, then why aren't you just sorting yourself out and he can cook for himself?

I (male) do most of the cooking in our house. Usually I'll make something DP likes as well but if I fancy something that she doesn't like, then she sorts herself out and I sort myself out.

This isn't a "cooking for a man" thing, it's a him dictating what you get to eat thing and a you not telling him to piss off thing.

I find it strange that families all cook for themselves instead of cooking for each other. Surely having a family meal is a nice thing to do? Not saying it always has to be the same person cooking if that doesn't work for you, but isn't it more economical and more sociable to eat together?

I get home from work much earlier than my DH, so it's always me that cooks during the week and it would seem mean to cook for myself and leave him to 'fend for himself'.

I am veggie, dh isn’t.

If i cook he either eats his portion or I freeze/keep the leftovers for another day.

if he wants something different he cooks.

simple.

with us, if you cook you get to choose what is on the menu.

If you want to ask the other one to cook something in particular, that is fine but if they don't want to cook that? tough.

I cook exactly what i want, and DH does the same. Luckily we both like broadly the same things. And we are not utter gits who would cook something the other doesn't like.

For us it isn’t strange it’s just how it works.

eldest dc is an athlete so eats around training and school, and cooks according to their schedule. Often at “mealtimes” they will be training and eat when they get in.

i am veggie, and work 3 evenings a week so am not often around either. Usually I batch cook stuff to reheat at work, or eat at lunch.

dh works 9-6 so tends to cook at 8-9 after he’s been to the gym/sorted dc2’s lift to their after school activities.

youngest dc finishes school at 3, so will usually cook themselves something substantial about 4, before they go to whichever hobby is timetabled.

when we eat together it’s usually a takeaway or a meal out at the weekend.

Easy meaty meals I cook are chicken casserole- just chuck boneless thighs, veg of your choice and a casserole mix sachet in the oven for about 2 hours and have with jacket potato, chicken or beef chow mein, chicken and mushroom pasta bake, sausage pasta ragu, coconut fish curry, chilli, tomato and prawn spagehetti, mince and tatties, chicken gyozas and teriyaki noodle or rice and veg strifry, chinese special fried rice, salmon fillets with new potatoes and veg cooked in a foil packet etc.

Also, always make sure non meat dishes have a protein source otherwise they are not filling! Bulgarwheat with roasted veg and halloumi, paneer curry, spicy mixed bean stew and sweet potato mash, cous cous with mediteranean vegetables and feta, homemade broccoli and stilton soup with crusty bread,

Thank you. I'll check those out. I usually only cook quite thick sirloins for about 2 mins on each side so I can see these would be much quicker. X

I actually like my partner. If he likes something I try to accommodate it and he does the same for me.

If you read my suggestions you will see I never said anything about insisting or being forced. I gave suggestions for how she can have her meat free food and find “hacks” to add meat for his meal without too much effort.

The question asked was “what can i make that is quick”.

You took it on a tangent about meat eaters being less masculine which is nonsense.

Food preferences are not a gender issue.

God, this thread has made me glad I am single.

Two marriages meant I fed a man every bloody day from 1987 - 2015.

In my defence, I had started on the wrong foot trying to please them whilst in the golden haze of love’s young dream. Plus I was young and stupid.

If I was to start again now (never!) I would draw my boundaries very differently.

It is so nice to be able to eat when I am hungry not at set times, and to live on the sort of snacky and light meals I prefer without negative comment and I am not greeted with the perennial “What’s for dinner?” every evening.

Dh is the same. Meals I tend to do that are so easy:

chorizo pasta (chorizo in a tomato based sauce with whatever veg is in the fridge -courgette, peppers etc)

baked potatoes,

new potatoes, hot-smoked salmon filet (ready to eat fillets I don’t even bother warming them) coleslaw, green salad.

but for most meals I tend to alternate some type of more interesting salad (lentil, beans, potato salad, coleslaw, corn salad) with some marinated meat on the side(lamb koftas, chicken thighs, pork steaks) and some sort of veg like oven cooked broccoli, green beans, cabbage etc.