Hellobee Boards

Everything I cook makes a minimum of 2 meals most of the time.

Sunday: I cook a bigger roast/family meal (slow cooker beef, instapot roast chicken, etc.)

Monday is easy because DW is solo (Costco baked pasta or eggs)

Tuesday: Depending on how I feel, I’ll either cook something new like tacos, pasta if we didn’t have that already, burgers, casserole or I’ll do the leftovers from Sunday.

Wednesday: leftover from Sunday or Tuesday if I cooked something new

Thursday: pizza delivery night

Friday: usually DW and I have a kid free dinner which is typically Greek takeout and make the kids chicken nuggets or KD

Saturday: I’ll grocery shop usually so get something easy like rotisserie chicken and salad.

No one in our family is overly picky really so can’t help with that but tbh, if DW was complaining about meals, I would make her plan the meals or do the cooking. She doesn’t like as much spice or flavour as I do, doesn’t like peppers, onions, certain veggies but I cook them anyway and she picks out what she doesn’t want. She has never complained and just does Her thing. We don’t accommodate the kids complaining so I don’t see why the adults would get to do that.

Sounds like you are actually cooking a nice amount - it might be different from what other people (your fam) like to cook or eat but it doesn't make it wrong!

We typically don't eat out or order in much. Usually when we do it's a splurge/treat or it's for socializing.

My main strategy is to meal plan based around the grocery sales and then plan for leftovers. I often use them either as lunch or to have ingredients that double for another dinner. Then, I will prep that at the same time as the first dinner as much as I can. So if I'm assembling a salad for dinner, I'll make one for my lunch the next day at the same time. Or, if I make a pork roast in the instant pot it will be used for tacos one night and I'll portion some off and mix with bbq sauce to have with slaw a few nights later.

My other tactic is making extra big batches to use for the above leftovers plans as well as having a few portions for my freezer. Turkey black bean chili is always made in a 3x batch. Chili for dinner once, lunch once, and chili dogs another night, plus freezer portions.

I'm also a big fan of freezer convenience foods that I can stock up and keep on hand. Things like frozen turkey meatballs (that can be used for pasta, or a sandwich, or cut up to top a homemade pizza, or tossed in an asian sauce for stir fry with rice and veggies. Frozen gnocchi, tamales, veggies, even rice. I'm not going to cook brown rice on my stovetop for 30 minutes when I can microwave a steam-in-bag for 5.

DH eats whatever I make, and like @catgirl: he's not really picky but has some things he just doesn't prefer so I save those for nights when I might be solo. LO1 is ultra picky so I have a 3-meal rotation of things she will eat and make one of those every night for her, but they're simple and also afford leftovers.

I would eat out every single day of my life if I could. 🤣 Instead I make the following meals over and over and over again
One pot creamy spinach tomato pasta
Salmon
Lentil chili
Spaghetti with chicken sausage
Veggie quesadillas
Swiss mushroom quesadillas
Pork burritos
Chicken Caesar wraps
Creamy mushroom pasta
Pasta e fagioli
Sweet potato chili
Buddha Bowls with avo, tomatoes, nuts, barley, beets, sweet potato etc

We try to eat vegetarian which makes everything more difficult.
Does my 3.5 eat any of this? Like 5%

We eat keto, so the main dish is almost always keto friendly, and then we add cornbread or potatoes or another carb for the kids.

Chili Egg Scramble
Goat cheese, rosemary and mushroom stuffed pork chops
Charcuterie (deviled eggs, cheeses, salami, berries, etc.)
Gyros with low carb tortillas
Chicken and broccoli Alfredo
Bunless philly cheese steaks
Tacos with low carb tortillas
Grilled chicken and bacon ranch kebabs
Bunless burgers
Tuscan chicken
Salad with chicken or shrimp (Cobb, Caesar, Greek, etc.)
Keto pizza

If we could afford it, I would never cook again. We’d eat steak, lobster, chicken wings, etc. from a restaurant every night—when you’re on a limited diet, eating the highest quality food helps you stay motivated.

We probably order take-out like at least once a week night, and then 1-2 times over the weekend. It's also an ebb/flow... DH does all the cooking and we can eat out more if he's really busy one week, or he could cook everyday for a whole week the next.

Currently I am pregnant and DH is picking up a lot of the chores as well, plus I have so much food aversion, it also really swings both ways as to whether we eat out or cook. But even then our grocery bill has gone up b/c I only want to eat specific things haha.

I cook sometimes but actually my husband does most the cooking. He loves it.

We makes spaghetti
Alfrado
Mexican chicken and rice
Tacos
Rice and chicken casserole
Chicken fried rice
Sweet and sour chicken
Homemade pizza
Stuffed bell pepper
Steak and sauteed onion
Sloppy Joe's
Bbq and mac and cheese.
Roast with potatoes, carrots and onion.
List goes on....

....we eat white rice with every meal. My husband is half Korean. We are working on adding more veggies. My kids don eat a lot of this yet cause my son has texture issues and my daughter hates meat but we are working on it.

@catgirl: I tried the sloppy joe recipe last night, it was really good!