How many different dinners are cooked every evening in your house? am sick of it!!!

[mumonthenet]

With three kids between 16 and 11, all of them going to and from gym, hobbies, friends', all of them with their own fads, plus me and dh starving at 6.30 and half asleep by 9pm, evening meals are chaotic and an awful lot of work in this house.

What do you do?
Cook a massive pot of stew on a Monday and tell em to microwave it til Friday?

It's worse than when they were toddlers, even if they do occasionally load the dishwasher.

DH and I eat soup, fish/meat and salad every evening. The kids will only eat carrot soup (which dh hates). Kids hate fish. DH loves fish. One dd comes in at nearly ten pm starving after training 3 nights a week, and there's only so many meals you can cook and keep warm in the oven.

The whole thing is ridiculous - think am going to have to start laying down the law - just not sure which law!

Most days, I only do one meal and every eats it or goes hungry.

On days where one of the kids might need to eat earlier, then they all eat early, and I cook again for myself later on.

mine are alot younger than yours, i have a 5, 3 year old plus me being a vege and dh and boys are meat eaters. Ds2 eats pretty much anything in sight, ds1 is fussyish. I'm also sick of it - but ds1 is ultra skinny and i've tried the " eat it or starve" approach - and he lost too much weight (he's already underweight and it's not a good approach as he really isn't interested in eating!).

How about make a big pot of carrot soup and they can help themselves as and when. Get heaps of bread (beans, chesse on toast, or toasties, french bread pizzas, quick easy meals, big spag bol, chilli lasange, in freezer, Jkt pots. Tbh i'd get the older ones to sort their own out. Tell them to get whatever they fancy for tea out before hand I am a vege and by the time i was 15-16 i was making my own food as i didn't like what my parents were eating and she refused to keep cooking lots of meal.,

Maybe try telling them that it's getting out of control and you'll happily put them in jkt spuds, pizzas etc - but you'll not be cooking from scratch unless they eat what you're both having.

Maybe do a big roast once or twice a week and say that's what everyone is having.

I think they sound like they're used to being pampered.....pretty much like my own kids!!! good luck

I try to do that at weekends, with maybe a bowl of pasta with butter and cheese for those who don't want to eat my menu. But I always fall into the trap on school nights that they're hungry, tired, full of activities and homework. Feel like a bad mum if I don't offer a choice, and I know it's really stoopid.

Tell me to toughen up please!

but if you make up big meals to shove in the freezer, have loads of garlic bread, pizzas' etc, just get eh older ones to sort what they want. My mum had no idea what to feed me when i was younger, and i used to eat quite a bit of crap, but i don't think it matters too much , providing they are eating loads of fruit, veg & drinking milk etc.

Maybe do 2 nights of their meals that you all eat, 2 nights yours and then do easy food, either from the freezer or toasties and chips, etc

myermay, I also have a skinny slightly asthmatic dd and if she doesn't like what's on her plate she simply will not eat it.

At weekends I allow that to happen but feel bad on school days when she probably hasn't had a square meal at lunchtime either.

And tell me, if you have a fridge full of the goodies to make a balanced meal out of eggs cheese bread beans etc., will they actually go and do it? Or will they just fill up on yoghurts and cookies? Should I let that happen for a week and see if, when starvation sets in, they start to eat properly?

keep crossing posts!

I cook one meal. I am not a short order cook.

quite, st.

just cook the once here,may alter something for fussy 5 yr old ds

but dd 16 either eats when we do or sorts herself out

Maximum of 2; but thn there are usually a variation of a theme.

I don't eat meat. DH and DD do. I do the shopping, planning and cooking - DH and DD get what I prepare. I cook something different (if doing meat for them) for me. And we all eat together at the same time the majority of nights.

i do atleast 2 different meals a night.sometimes 3.the children and i are veggie but dh isnt.dd is very fussy,ds1 is medium fussy and ds2 eats whatever-usually the spicier the better.

I cook one meal. If they aren't all here then they can warm it up later if suitable or if they don't like it then they cook their own. I try to cater for the majority which generally means that dd (the youngest at 14) won't like what we're having but she's very able in the kitchen.

If mine want food at odd times they cook it themselves. DS is a very good cook - he's been at university for 2 years so he's had a lot of practice. If left to herself DD would just eat bacon & cucumber, but she's nearly always with her boyfriend who likes to cook & can make a good meal out of pretty much anything usually pasta & some kind of sauce or a stir-fry.

Sometimes it is bacon - they came in at 2am the other day after a gig - they were very quiet, but the smell of bacon woke me up....

I also cook only one meal but because of DS2s conservative taste in food my menu plan is extremely short. When he gets to university we can finally bring back mushrooms and other exotica!

Mine are too young to help themselves to food so i don't have that problem yet - although i occasionally find my 2 year old with his mouth full of biscuits, but i know he'll eat his tea.

How old are you guys then? I think the 16 year old is big enough to make his/her own food, if they don't like what is on offer.

Don't feel bad, food is food, and beans, egg on toast is a good meal for them. What's the point in slaving away, if they're not going to eat it - also it's a waste of money,

Would they eat say pizza, chips and salad/veg/beans. Macoronni cheese, chilli adn nachos, spag bol with loads of cheese on top, pesto pasta, soup and french bread. All followed by fruit, yoghurts, and cake etc. I think thats' quite substantial!!! Maybe my cooking skills are just crap!

cheesesarnie, so glad to hear there's another one of us who's fallen into this trap!

Lily, that's another thing- you tend to limit your cooking to the lowest common denominator don't you?

Yes, they do tend to eat that kind of pizza/chips/pasta/eggs/soup, but not all of them like all of that if you see what I mean.

Yes you're right egg on toast followed by fruit and yog is a perfectly balanced meal. I must start restructuring my shopping list and teach the younger ones a few more cooking tricks.

I have always only done one meal. If they are out late for some reason I either save a meal for them and they heat it up in the microwave or they get something themselves when they get in.

I cook one meal, people there at the time eat, the rest re heat. If they don't like it, they sort themselves and clean up after, I'm not their personal chef (4 kids - 14-19)

I do one meal and if anyone not home it gets covered up for reheating later.

The only exception is, if we have mash I make macaroni for DS who hates mash. So we have sausage, mash peas etc, DS has sausage macaroni etc.

Mine are only 8 and 11, but I cook one meal and that is not going to change. For one thing, if I had to provide separate dinners for fusspots, we couldn't afford for them to do any activities. I also cannot provide ingredients for different people to cook themselves different meals; it is not economical.

I will say that we have quite a varied diet though, and I do try to remember everybody's favourite meal and make sure it comes round regularly (if not too expensive).

Ds has just emerged from a fussy phase, during which he ate very little. He's still alive. I just cannot believe that a healthy active NT child will starve themselves to death, if you don't turn it into a major battle ground.

One meal here. Kids are almost 6 and 3.

if i could get dh to go veggie i could cut it down to one meal!!

I cook one meal per evening. They get what they're given or they don't get!

one meal when I am off work, 2 meals (5ish and 7ish) when I work

but your children are 11-16

they should be sorting themselves out a lot more imo

one meal at, say 6pm, or whatever time is best for most people in your house, come to an arrangement maybe

they eat what you give them OR make something themselves - I used to do Batchelors Savory Rice (does that still exist?) as my mum didn't stand for any nonsense of "I don't like it" as she quite rightly said, she was not running a hotel

anyone late can zap in the microwave

hungry people at 10pm can do cheese on toast!