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Original poster

how many dinners do you cook in a night????

51 replies

Psychomum5 · 08/07/2008 19:21

cos I am beginning to feel like a cafe!!!

admitted, I do have allergy issues, as do three of my kiddies, but still....

anyhoo......tonight I am doing chilli for 4 of us, and baked potatoes with either beans, cheese or tuna on for the other 3.

last night was garlic chicken breasts and salad for me and DH, beans on toast for DS2, DD2 ate out, pasta for DD1 and DD3, and DS2 had chicken and chips and sgetti hoops......four meals in total!

now, most of the time, I do not mind as I can do a base (say pasta), and then do three sauces.....not so hard, and sometimes I can freeze stuff for another time (with all the dancing this works out invaluable).......tis just times like tonight, I feel a little ........argh!!!

anyone else do this tho, or am I soft/a mug/far too nice?????

OP posts:
micci25 · 09/07/2008 10:39

two at the most!! dd1 is v fussy she is given what the family eat if she doesnt like it/wont eat it she is given pasta/pancakes or sarnies instead! but is on the basis that she at least trys what every one else is having!!

RegenerAitch · 09/07/2008 10:45

roast dinner and roast root veg, then? someone can have more parsnips and fewer potatoes?

poor you, psycho, sounds like the allergies do make things difficult. although can't you add cream to a tomato sauce for them, at least that's just minor tweak.

say for example in our house dd has decided she doesn't like aubergines (having previously adored them ) but she still gets veggie moussakka. i do, however, add a couple of layers of potato so that she can concentrate on those instead (i note with interest that she does eat a good bit of aub as well, the little idiot). i do think that the different food thing might be a slippery slope that i'm keen not to get dragged down.

Jux · 09/07/2008 11:10

I have on numerous occasions in the last year or so ended up cooking 3 meals for supper: one for dh, one for dd and one for me and my mum (who'll eat anything). We have no allergy issues. The last time I did it was about 3 months ago and I swore I would never do it again. I haven't, and will not.

GentleOtter · 09/07/2008 11:19

Three to four each night....actually God knows why. ( though vegan/vegetarian/carnivore comes in to it I suppose) Baby eats anything bless him.
Sometimes it is like the dinner scenes from Mermaids so everyone can help themselves. No flags though.

I've tried to teach the older ones to cook but it is time consuming and usually we are all pretty knacked after work.

bozza · 09/07/2008 11:31

Last night was pasta with a (not very) spicy sausage and pepper sauce and bread. The night before was fishcakes, wedges, cabbage, courgettes, carrots, butternut squash.

The concession I make is doing lots of different types of veg. But Monday was a success because previously I thought that DH liked cabbage only, and DS and DD liked cabbage and carrots only. But DH now likes roast courgette as does DD and DS apparently loves roast butternut squash.

Original poster
Psychomum5 · 09/07/2008 13:34

I am not the only one......gentleOtter also does the many meals!

I am planning on wraps for dinner tonight now, altho that will still mean about three different fillings, so not one meal, more like three in one IYGWIM.

tomorrow is a free-for-all as we have dancing and cubs and scouts and they all overlap timewise, meaning DH and I are not in the house together at all until gone 9pm.....last week ended up being pizza for the boys, pasta and sauce 9the packet mix one) for the girls and then DH and I got chips from the chippy on our way home from collecting DS1 from cubs as he was at a tent putting up thing.

friday I have bought chicken thighs which I will roast and do salad and garlic bread and wedges with.....woohoo.....one meal!!!

saturday no idea, maybe spag bol, altho that invariably means spag bol for 4 of us, and tuna spag for 2, and then a plain tomato sauce for DD2 (fussy mare!). still......that is not a bad one for me, and not anything that in all honesty is awful.

raost is planned for sunday, easy.

and then we start next week........girls can cook I think. If they get to see how hard it all is, they may start being a bit less fussy, and a bit more appreciative of me and my cooking skills....

OP posts:
nkf · 09/07/2008 14:41

Stop it.
I mean it. Stop it right now.
Right now.
Stop it.

Original poster
Psychomum5 · 09/07/2008 14:54

yes mum!

OP posts:
fivecandles · 10/07/2008 18:47

One meal here too.

TBH if you do more and have led your family to expect this you can't really complain about it.

Pandering to fussiness is not a kindness either. Children need boundaries and should be encouraged to eat a varied diet.

I have a friend who is a coeliac since she is also the cook all meals are gluten free and everyone eats the same and nobody complains. So it can be done!

SNoraWotzThat · 10/07/2008 18:49

Sometimes 2, mostly 1 and sometimes with some variation because various levels of tastebuds.

fivecandles · 10/07/2008 18:50

Try replacing the scenario with this one

'How many outfits do you let your children wear each day? I find myself washing and ironing 5 different outfits for each child each day because one child will only wear yellow, one will only wear stripes and one insists on changing clothes every three hours.'

What would you think? Yet with food it's different. Why?

FAQ · 10/07/2008 18:53

usually 2, but occasionaly just the one.

I cooked a "proper" dinner for the DS's, but then more often than not I'll just make a snack for myself later once they're in bed.

MmeLindt · 10/07/2008 18:56

One meal, except if we are having anything that the kids really cannot be expected to eat.

If they don't like what I cook then they just eat potatoes/pasta/rice without sauce.

Allergies are of course different, but plain fussiness is not catered for.

My DB's stepdaughter is terrible, she will only eat fish fingers, potatoes and boiled ham. And chips/chicken nuggets. They visited me for a week last year and by the end of the week she was trying new things. If they are hungry enough then they will eat other things.

We have the rule that the food has to be tried, if they don't like it they can leave it. But they don't get alternatives.

MarsLady · 10/07/2008 18:57

1!

FAQ · 10/07/2008 18:58

MmeLindt - what sort of things would you not expect a child to eat????

itati · 10/07/2008 18:58

I cook the kids the same thing - 3 kids, and then cook again for hubby and I. Sometimes DD has something left off her plate that the boys have and sometimes hubby and I eat the same thing as them but later. When I make mash, I make enough for the kids and then just put the rest in an oven dish for us to have reheated later.

iamdingdong · 10/07/2008 18:59

1

motherinferior · 10/07/2008 19:01

Zero to one, I think.

If DP's cooking, he cooks two meals sometimes; I can't be arsed, myself.

LoveMyGirls · 10/07/2008 19:04

This is how I would start...

List all the foods everyone will eat

plan meals 1 month at a time (trying to keep the variations to minimum)

Do 2 variations of the same meal

Then they either, eat it, starve or make their own.

Will they not all eat roast dinners? (doesn't have to be all yorkshies and roast pots just veg, meat, mash and gravy?) if they would all eat that you could feed them variations of that 3 nights per week at least that's only 4 night sof cooking more than 1 meal, get your dh to do the cooking 2 nights per week (weekends) then get your older 2 to help wash up and clean down while you get the younger ones ready for bed, if the older ones help they get a reward (like stay up for an extra 30mins or pocket money or their friend can come for the afternoon or something)

2point4kids · 10/07/2008 19:06

More than 1 meal a night is a bit much. 3 or 4 is just crazy!!!

If they really must all eat different things then cant you plan meals in advance and do double portions for a few nights so later on in the week you can cook one meal from scratch and then get some chilli or bolognese out the freezer for the others?

If you plan carefully you could do that going forward so you always cook lots of one thing and have extras to freeze and then defrost something along side....

Carmenere · 10/07/2008 19:11

I have a toddler, two veggie teens and me and dp to cater for so what I do is do a basic carb to suit everyone and then usually a veggie main as we all like veggie food or if I feel like meat I will do a meat dish. To be perfectly honest I suit dp and I first, make sure the toddler has a reasonably balanced meal and the youngsters can like it or lump it. what with them being old enough to fend for themselves and all....

LazyLinePainterJane · 10/07/2008 19:17

Allergies are one thing, as are genuine phobias about food. But acquired faffiness about "this one doesn't think much of potato" and "this one turns her nose up at aubergines" would be tough in my house. Eat it or don't, but this much work is ridiculous, and the longer it goes on, the more they expect it!

ByTheSea · 10/07/2008 19:26

I generally cook one dinner. If someone really, really doesn't like it, they can make themselves a sandwich(such as DD1-9 if we're having salmon)

Original poster
Psychomum5 · 11/07/2008 07:45

ok, seems from this I am making far more work than needs.

summer hols is gonna be a changing time then!!! no more than two options, and that only because I wil still cater for the milk allergies.......DH will not eat the same as me all the time.

maybe one base, two choices to go with???

hey ho

OP posts:
TattooedGrrrl · 11/07/2008 12:51

1 or 2 here. If we eat the same time as the kids, we eat the same. If they've gone to bed, we eat something else. Sometimes i'll cook brown rice for myself and white for DH, but that's about it.