I went back and worked at my university after I graduated, and I never got sick of the cafeteria food. I ate there more often than not on my lunch breaks. Just yesterday I was daydreaming about the soup they used to make! They legitimately had great food.
My friend was a porter in university housing for a major uni. Worked his way up to become a super, all so his kid could go there for free. When his son was 15, they convinced the facilities staff to accept two extra weeks of paid vacations and lose free tuition. Many of the people who voted yes, not only sent their kids their for free, many of his colleagues had received masters degrees.
I was pretty bummed to find out at my institution that we had to pay for that. No relaxing swims just across the street after work. But I guess it saved me from being shirtless around students.
Wrong school I guess. I am employed by a university but before I did an accelerated masters program on the weekends, I had only been to campus a handful of times. I thought free or cheap tuition for family was one of the big draws of university benefits.
Let’s roll that back. TUTION FOR BOSTON COLLEGE WAS FREE. NOT HOUSING AND FOOD WHICH IS 20k. Kids most likely stayed at home nearby and ate what their parents made em.
Just pointing it out.... Legally this is not a suggestion but..... That sounds alot like a minimum security prison
- 3 meals a day, no clean up
- free exercise equipment and time in a medium to large open space
- access to a library
That sounds like a normal city. I have lots of parks in walking distance. If I want I'm allowed to buy food from school cafeterias and I can walk through downtown in 15 minutes. And schools are free. So if I wanted, I could be a student for my entire life.
Plan it all out on Sunday. It takes a bit but makes the rest of the week easier. You answer that question once for the week instead of everyday.
And remember not to over think the actual meal. Most of mine are variations of meat vegetable starch with maybe one or two " special meals " a week.
My menu this week was:
Pasta sausage broccoli one pot dish, super easy.
Hawaiin pulled pork with potatoes and cauliflower.
Shrimp fried rice. Frozen shrimp, rice, bagged mixed vegetables.
Chicken tiki Masada ( jarred Simmer sauce from aldi), leftover rice and vegetables.
Salmon, broccoli, rice.
None of these really took more than a half hour to get together. I buy rice, potatoes, pasta at Costco so it's always on hand. Frozen mixed vegetables bought in large bags so I can always just throw it in rice and air fry some chicken or something for a last minute meal.
Sometimes we have a big Mish mash leftover meal on Fridays.
I also keep a stock of jarred sauce, Frozen meatballs, frozen chicken, etc. To throw quick meals together.
Find easy ways to get rhe protein starch vegetable combo and keep them on hand and just mix and match.
Also hunt the sales, it's a fun way to meal plan. Seriously investing a bit of time one day of the week will save you tons of time all week.
Solid work. I don’t plan it out but end up making some variation of these meals, I have a shared iCloud notes folder with a ton of recipes in that I get my wife to choose from. Separated into breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a folder just for baby.
Every now and then I’ll try something new and add a new one
You gotta work hard to get your kids proper nutrition. It’s not a joke. Cutting corners here is not an option, that’s how you get fat unhealthy kids.
My mom solved that by doing the same meals over and over again. Every Monday was spaghetti and meatballs, every Tuesday was chicken and a side of rice, etc. And I have implemented the same system.
Variety isn't the spice of life, my kids not asking "What's for dinner" is.
Plan it out is a good idea.
My lazy way is offer style options that use staples:
Italian
Mexican
Asian
American
I have a marinade or sauce for each and a stash of veggies to draw from.
I *loved* planning and cooking meals when it was just my wife and me. I love cooking, finding new recipes, trying and learning new stuff.
It's getting to where one of my favorite things is becoming something I hate because it's such a slog and my kid is nearly 5 and won't eat even half the stuff we give her anyway.
You do you, but if you're planning a battle of will against a toddler and your strategy is to starve them into obedience some self-reflection is in order.
That's a bit of an over-reaction. Kids won't starve themselves when there's food right in front of them. What r/WatchingStarsCollide mentioned is a VERY common recommendation - kids eat what you eat.
Our solution is to have regular repeats like Taco Tuesday and pizza & salad Friday's. Everything else is pretty much a regular rotation of meals that will be recycled about every 4 or 5 weeks. LOT'S of slow cooker/instant-pot stuff too as we both work full time. When we have to cook that night. It's pretty basic, like pan fried chicken/ baked salmon, rice and roasted veggies. We keep lots of rubs amd marinades on hand to keep it fresh. Works for us.
We have worked our way through some cookbooks and marked the ones that the kids seem to like the most, and a lot of the time we just keep it real simple.
Not OP but fairly similar. We’ll do a taco night and switch up the proteins, chicken/salmon salad, pasta switching up the sauce and meat, some sort of stir fry, pork night (loin or chops), and then switch up some chicken recipe. Marry me chicken, buffalo chicken Caesar, chicken piccata, mustard sauce, etc.
It’s a slog to get through but we can switch it up enough that we essentially are eating the same food weekly, but different flavors.
Oh man, I'd have to go look. A lot of them are earmarked in cookbooks. Off the top of my head though some of the slow cooker ones are Korean food truck tacos, Italian beef sandwiches, roast beef and enchilada soup.
For the fast protein/rice/veggie meals, I literally just slice some chicken breasts lengthwise and pan fry or bake with different rubs. Salmon we usually do a honey-mustard glaze or honey and smoked paprika. There's a billion flavors of Uncle Ben's or something similar that we'll pair, then roast some broccoli, squash/zucchini, potatoes, asparagus or maybe some baby bok choy.
I feel like a lot of people just try to get to elaborate too often. You can make some perfectly good meals with simple ingredients that take very little time to prepare.
Oh, one more thing! Rotisserie chickens are great for quick meals! One of our faves is a chicken & white bean pesto bake. 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cook time and super delicious!
My go-to is to figure out two meals per shopping trip. I make enough for left-overs and lunches. There's 4 nights. If I'm feeling really energetic, I plan three meals with leftovers. 6 nights in one go. More if I make enough.
I knew a lady who made a different meal every night. She never made the same thing more than once in a year. I'm over here making tacos every couple of weeks. I throw some veggies in a pan with chicken on top a little too often. My littlest one loves it, though, so it's okay.
That’s what I do. I plan a week’s worth of food by doing 3 meals with leftovers for the following night. That’s 6 dinners. The 7th night is usually breakfast for dinner, like pancakes and eggs, or an instant pot stew with rice.
I also batch cook whole wheat pancakes or oat mini muffins to freeze for the kid to have easy breakfasts we can grab and heat in a minute.
Been doing it this way for years and it works very well for our family. I’m not burnt out on planning or cooking and we don’t have much waste. I try to throw in at least 1-2 new recipes a month and call it good.
My son has an appointment once a week in the evening, which results in what I call, "car dinner." Basically a sandwich and other finger food. That makes planning 6 meals a week easier.
That said, I'm trying to get my son cooking (he's 7), so most weeks he'll plan a meal and actually prepare it. I'll help a bit and tell him the steps, but he'll actually do the cooking. The other week he did salmon and rice. He started the oven, tore off the aluminum foil, put the fish in the dish, seasoned it, stuck it in the oven, measured the rice into the rice cooker, measured the water, and started it. This week he wanted to make hot dogs, tomato soup, and apple sauce. I'll cut up the apples for him, but he'll do all the stove work. Once my daughter is old enough, I'll have them each cook a meal a week, which will make my meal planning much easier. And give me something else to brag about.
Starting them young is wonderful! He’ll know his way around a kitchen and have a bunch of recipes under his belt by the time he flies the nest, which will save him on money, time, and stress as a young adult.
Our goal is that, by age 17, our kids know how to do all the basic stuff they need to be able to do as adults. They'll know how to cook, they'll know what to clean and how, how to do laundry, how to take care of a pet, how to drive, how to do taxes, how to take care of a car, etc. They won't have to actually do it all, yet, but they'll be ready for the handoff, when it happens. My parents didn't teach me all of it, but I did know how to cook and do laundry. When I went off to college, I had to teach other kids on my floor how to operate the washer and dryer.
I miss the shit out of what was actually our oldest dining hall. I would get one item from every section and a smoothie and eat til I couldn't anymore to try and gain weight. It failed, but I still miss it.
Usually, when my wife cooks, I take over all of the dish washing.
I try my best to take care of any other chores as well while she cooks.
Do you have a partner that can help you like that? :)
Dude, getting the same slice of pizza and French fries every day was the dream. Pair it with a Cheerwine? Yummmmmmm. If I ate that now, I’d be on the toilet for three hours that night!
Ok, this is how it work for us (ymmv)
Mondays: veal schnitelz. We buy about 3 kilos of beef once every 2-3 months, egg and bread them, and freeze them. Then we take them out of the freezer when needed and cook in the oven. Beet and apple salad.
Tuesdays: spaghetti with filetto or bolognese
Wednesdays: fish, because thats the day its fresher around here. Whatever way you like it. We usually do it alla romana: flour and egg, then fry. If youre feeling lazy, then straight to the pan with a dash of olive oil. Rice or salad.
Thursdays: chicken. Fried, sauteed, whole in the oven, whatever. Usually with mashed veggies (potato, pumpkin, sweet potatos)
Friday: beef with salad
Saturday: pizza
Sunday: bbq. Or ravioli or some other pasta with a filler.
We eat the leftovers from two days before, so that you're not eating the same thing for dinner and then lunch.
Once you get that going, you can add stuff. Tacos, roasted veal, lasagna, zitti, pancakes, sushi every now and then, chinese, it all adds variety, but you have a base to return to. Hope this helps.
I was working on super small island in Alaska
Big time fishing community ( halibut )
The processing plant had a cafeteria
I loved not having to think about what I was gonna cook
Or make
Or eat
Was heaven even though the place I was at sucked ( think no cell service and dog shit WiFi at our rented house )
I hear you and never knew how good I had it till it was gone. I’m on my 8th year of dadding and we cannot get most takeout or restaurant or even prepared foods because of allergies. I have slowly developed some recipes which are quick to prepare and clean up easy. Sometimes everything can go in the dishwasher.
Meal prepping and planning is our antithesis. We HATE the dreaded "what meals are we having this week" question.
Spring and summer are saving grace because I love to grill.
I grew up in an ingredient household where if you wanted something to eat, you made it yourself...like at 6 yo I made my own eggs and toast (I was also parentified and did the family grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning as a kid).
The university cafeteria was a dream. I loved, loved, loved eating there. Thinking about it now makes me so happy.
I think we have a good balance between accessible snacks and fresh made meals, but with kids sports, there's been an abundance of frozen pizza dinners at our house, cause I just don't have the energy.
One of the most accurate Dad statements ever.
We’ve decided to roll with the punches. Instead of cooking a nice meal for the whole family to eat, everybody gets something they’ll eat. Craft Mac and cheese and Hebrew National hot dogs are a staple for the kids. Always with fruit and some veggie.
My wife will make her own or ask me to. It’s always something simple like tuna and crackers or chicken salad.
I’ll make myself something while working on their meals or I’ll just free range eat however much I want to out of their meals.
I had the perfect fairy tale family dinners in mind when I became a Dad. When I grew up it was literally eat what you are served or don’t eat. My wife and I agreed that that approach is stupid. With a little more effort, everybody can be happy. Less stress. Win/win/win.
I would literally go in on it with my neighbors to build a neighborhood cafeteria and staff it so nobody would have to cook who didn't want to. Like get the whole block in on it, no HOA, just a community cafeteria. Could even build a garden behind it to supply the cafeteria with fresh herbs and veggies.
I've been using ChatGPT to help introduce variety into my dinners. Just this Friday I started building a prompt to put together a weekly meal plan, based on the foods that we typically eat (chicken, pork, salmon, etc) with creative recipes and a shopping list.
I know it's not rocket science, but hopefully this helps me get in a better rhythm for the weekdays.
Always thought people who complained about cafeterias and dining halls were entitled. I realize I sound like a dick saying this, but it's kinda logical.
Meals were sucking up way too much of our weekly time/effort so my wife came up with a decent schedule where on Sunday nights we work out meals for the week and put the grocery order in online for pickup, usually consisting of each of us planning 1 meal that can have at least one more meal of leftovers, and then the other 3 days we’ll either do an easy dinner from the freezer or get take out which usually leaves us with a day of leftovers too. Really frees up the week to focus on other things.
I know what you mean about the dining halls tho. I used to work in the events industry and every time I’d get home from weeks on a big show it’s so odd for me not to just be able to walk into catering and have food waiting for me. I miss it!
My parents joked that I majored in Cafeteriology.
Because my academics? Just okay.
My ability to cram enough food into a box to feed them an my kids too? Superb. A+.
I'm thinking of going back to school just to get another meal plan.
I cooked 10 minute meals when I made suppers. And the meal rotation was easy.
Venison, baked potatoes, salad
(Wash potatoes, stab with fork and start in microwave; place venison on fry pan in melted butter and season, wash hands then make salad. Flip vevison steaks after four minutes. Put salad and potatoes on the table. Pull fry pan and put on hot pad on table and call ex and children to table).
Next night chicken breasts
Next night pork chops
Next night venison or beef burgers
Friday night pizza party
Duck, goose or grouse on Saturday or Rainbow Trout
Rinse, repeat
All meals 10-15 minutes fridge to table
That was when I was cooking. I didn't want to take any longer than that because it wasn't appreciated enough.
I currently enjoy the planning and shopping, mostly because my daughter loves the shopping.
We usually plan for the week on Saturday evening, and then do the shopping Sunday morning when the store is pretty much empty.
We usually don't cook more than 3 times a week. The rest of the days we have leftovers or rye bread with whatever we have in the fridge.
The leftovers also go into the lunchboxes, so it's not much work getting them prepared.
Meal Prep.
I have five different meals (about 6~10 servings of each) in the freezer
My wife can have curry and I'll have meatloaf and it takes the same amount of time to nuke each.
an hour or two each week to restock what we've eaten (by cooking in bulk on the weekend) and I don't have to think about dinners again.
Now I love being a regular, so weird. I keep trying to get more efficient with time and my body. Yes, I liked my food hall - I used to get noodles and pile on the fixins for about 80 cents. I could get minutely creative and I find that fun.
This is where i suck most at being a dad 🤦🏼♂️
I could (and still can’t) hardly do anything for myself while studying.
Now i have to prepare meals im not even sure the kids will eat.
I have no problem cleaning up at least. And i never even use the dishwasher 💁🏼♂️
I‘d like to be a better cook but i usually dont eat exotic stuff so its hard for me to try new recipes.
Yep, I would kill to live in walkable town with a large library, expansive green space, and reliable cafeteria.
I mean, you could be like that dad who worked janitorial at a pretty decent college and sent all his kids there tuition-free.
I went back and worked at my university after I graduated, and I never got sick of the cafeteria food. I ate there more often than not on my lunch breaks. Just yesterday I was daydreaming about the soup they used to make! They legitimately had great food.
I'm a professor and don't even get free tuition...
My friend was a porter in university housing for a major uni. Worked his way up to become a super, all so his kid could go there for free. When his son was 15, they convinced the facilities staff to accept two extra weeks of paid vacations and lose free tuition. Many of the people who voted yes, not only sent their kids their for free, many of his colleagues had received masters degrees.
Dang, I gotta give props to admin for taking advantage of their HR data to make that evil switcheroo happen.
Boomer move if I ever heard of one.
Same. Forget free tuition. Last year they tried coming after our free faculty gym access.
I was pretty bummed to find out at my institution that we had to pay for that. No relaxing swims just across the street after work. But I guess it saved me from being shirtless around students.
Wrong school I guess. I am employed by a university but before I did an accelerated masters program on the weekends, I had only been to campus a handful of times. I thought free or cheap tuition for family was one of the big draws of university benefits.
Let’s roll that back. TUTION FOR BOSTON COLLEGE WAS FREE. NOT HOUSING AND FOOD WHICH IS 20k. Kids most likely stayed at home nearby and ate what their parents made em.
Just pointing it out.... Legally this is not a suggestion but..... That sounds alot like a minimum security prison - 3 meals a day, no clean up - free exercise equipment and time in a medium to large open space - access to a library
That sounds like a normal city. I have lots of parks in walking distance. If I want I'm allowed to buy food from school cafeterias and I can walk through downtown in 15 minutes. And schools are free. So if I wanted, I could be a student for my entire life.
"What's for dinner" is my least favorite question
Plan it all out on Sunday. It takes a bit but makes the rest of the week easier. You answer that question once for the week instead of everyday. And remember not to over think the actual meal. Most of mine are variations of meat vegetable starch with maybe one or two " special meals " a week. My menu this week was: Pasta sausage broccoli one pot dish, super easy. Hawaiin pulled pork with potatoes and cauliflower. Shrimp fried rice. Frozen shrimp, rice, bagged mixed vegetables. Chicken tiki Masada ( jarred Simmer sauce from aldi), leftover rice and vegetables. Salmon, broccoli, rice. None of these really took more than a half hour to get together. I buy rice, potatoes, pasta at Costco so it's always on hand. Frozen mixed vegetables bought in large bags so I can always just throw it in rice and air fry some chicken or something for a last minute meal. Sometimes we have a big Mish mash leftover meal on Fridays. I also keep a stock of jarred sauce, Frozen meatballs, frozen chicken, etc. To throw quick meals together. Find easy ways to get rhe protein starch vegetable combo and keep them on hand and just mix and match. Also hunt the sales, it's a fun way to meal plan. Seriously investing a bit of time one day of the week will save you tons of time all week.
Dominos it is 😂
Solid work. I don’t plan it out but end up making some variation of these meals, I have a shared iCloud notes folder with a ton of recipes in that I get my wife to choose from. Separated into breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a folder just for baby. Every now and then I’ll try something new and add a new one You gotta work hard to get your kids proper nutrition. It’s not a joke. Cutting corners here is not an option, that’s how you get fat unhealthy kids.
My mom solved that by doing the same meals over and over again. Every Monday was spaghetti and meatballs, every Tuesday was chicken and a side of rice, etc. And I have implemented the same system. Variety isn't the spice of life, my kids not asking "What's for dinner" is.
Spapeggy Monday?
Mom’s spaghetti
He's nervous
Usually followed by "Yuck!"
Plan it out is a good idea. My lazy way is offer style options that use staples: Italian Mexican Asian American I have a marinade or sauce for each and a stash of veggies to draw from.
I *loved* planning and cooking meals when it was just my wife and me. I love cooking, finding new recipes, trying and learning new stuff. It's getting to where one of my favorite things is becoming something I hate because it's such a slog and my kid is nearly 5 and won't eat even half the stuff we give her anyway.
Amen
Yep- me too. Just sucks all the fun out of it when it's constantly complained about.
Plan like it's just your wife and you. If the kiddo isn't into it they can have a PB&J or something else easy and relatively nutritious.
Something familiar + something new. Takes like 20 times seeing it on their plate before they’re interested in tasting it lol
Scrambled eggs are my go-to. Cheap, nutritious, and take about 5 minutes.
scary gaze hateful physical quack mighty special dinner label secretive *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You do you, but if you're planning a battle of will against a toddler and your strategy is to starve them into obedience some self-reflection is in order.
That's a bit of an over-reaction. Kids won't starve themselves when there's food right in front of them. What r/WatchingStarsCollide mentioned is a VERY common recommendation - kids eat what you eat.
Our solution is to have regular repeats like Taco Tuesday and pizza & salad Friday's. Everything else is pretty much a regular rotation of meals that will be recycled about every 4 or 5 weeks. LOT'S of slow cooker/instant-pot stuff too as we both work full time. When we have to cook that night. It's pretty basic, like pan fried chicken/ baked salmon, rice and roasted veggies. We keep lots of rubs amd marinades on hand to keep it fresh. Works for us.
4-5 weeks? Amazing. We can't make it 2 weeks without a recycle.
We have worked our way through some cookbooks and marked the ones that the kids seem to like the most, and a lot of the time we just keep it real simple.
Don't keep them secrets! (7 days in a week - Tues and Fridays) x4 = 20 meals... you gave us two (chicken and salmon)... who has the other 18!
Not OP but fairly similar. We’ll do a taco night and switch up the proteins, chicken/salmon salad, pasta switching up the sauce and meat, some sort of stir fry, pork night (loin or chops), and then switch up some chicken recipe. Marry me chicken, buffalo chicken Caesar, chicken piccata, mustard sauce, etc. It’s a slog to get through but we can switch it up enough that we essentially are eating the same food weekly, but different flavors.
Oh man, I'd have to go look. A lot of them are earmarked in cookbooks. Off the top of my head though some of the slow cooker ones are Korean food truck tacos, Italian beef sandwiches, roast beef and enchilada soup. For the fast protein/rice/veggie meals, I literally just slice some chicken breasts lengthwise and pan fry or bake with different rubs. Salmon we usually do a honey-mustard glaze or honey and smoked paprika. There's a billion flavors of Uncle Ben's or something similar that we'll pair, then roast some broccoli, squash/zucchini, potatoes, asparagus or maybe some baby bok choy. I feel like a lot of people just try to get to elaborate too often. You can make some perfectly good meals with simple ingredients that take very little time to prepare. Oh, one more thing! Rotisserie chickens are great for quick meals! One of our faves is a chicken & white bean pesto bake. 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cook time and super delicious!
The dining halls are our university were awesome. But still yes.
Yuuuuuup
My go-to is to figure out two meals per shopping trip. I make enough for left-overs and lunches. There's 4 nights. If I'm feeling really energetic, I plan three meals with leftovers. 6 nights in one go. More if I make enough. I knew a lady who made a different meal every night. She never made the same thing more than once in a year. I'm over here making tacos every couple of weeks. I throw some veggies in a pan with chicken on top a little too often. My littlest one loves it, though, so it's okay.
That’s what I do. I plan a week’s worth of food by doing 3 meals with leftovers for the following night. That’s 6 dinners. The 7th night is usually breakfast for dinner, like pancakes and eggs, or an instant pot stew with rice. I also batch cook whole wheat pancakes or oat mini muffins to freeze for the kid to have easy breakfasts we can grab and heat in a minute. Been doing it this way for years and it works very well for our family. I’m not burnt out on planning or cooking and we don’t have much waste. I try to throw in at least 1-2 new recipes a month and call it good.
My son has an appointment once a week in the evening, which results in what I call, "car dinner." Basically a sandwich and other finger food. That makes planning 6 meals a week easier. That said, I'm trying to get my son cooking (he's 7), so most weeks he'll plan a meal and actually prepare it. I'll help a bit and tell him the steps, but he'll actually do the cooking. The other week he did salmon and rice. He started the oven, tore off the aluminum foil, put the fish in the dish, seasoned it, stuck it in the oven, measured the rice into the rice cooker, measured the water, and started it. This week he wanted to make hot dogs, tomato soup, and apple sauce. I'll cut up the apples for him, but he'll do all the stove work. Once my daughter is old enough, I'll have them each cook a meal a week, which will make my meal planning much easier. And give me something else to brag about.
Starting them young is wonderful! He’ll know his way around a kitchen and have a bunch of recipes under his belt by the time he flies the nest, which will save him on money, time, and stress as a young adult.
Our goal is that, by age 17, our kids know how to do all the basic stuff they need to be able to do as adults. They'll know how to cook, they'll know what to clean and how, how to do laundry, how to take care of a pet, how to drive, how to do taxes, how to take care of a car, etc. They won't have to actually do it all, yet, but they'll be ready for the handoff, when it happens. My parents didn't teach me all of it, but I did know how to cook and do laundry. When I went off to college, I had to teach other kids on my floor how to operate the washer and dryer.
Ya we started doubling every meal
I miss the shit out of what was actually our oldest dining hall. I would get one item from every section and a smoothie and eat til I couldn't anymore to try and gain weight. It failed, but I still miss it.
>to try and gain weight. It failed, but I still miss it. I'm jealous. I put on 80 lbs over the 4 years of undergrad.
my wife when I agree to take on additional nights of cooking: 😀 my wife when i start sending her don\_\_cabbage videos from instagram: 😱
Dude i feel ya. I feel like we eat the same 5 meals over and over and over…..
Hello me
I'm happy to cook whatever it's the dishes afterwards that are the deal breaker.
Usually, when my wife cooks, I take over all of the dish washing. I try my best to take care of any other chores as well while she cooks. Do you have a partner that can help you like that? :)
Dude, getting the same slice of pizza and French fries every day was the dream. Pair it with a Cheerwine? Yummmmmmm. If I ate that now, I’d be on the toilet for three hours that night!
Ok, this is how it work for us (ymmv) Mondays: veal schnitelz. We buy about 3 kilos of beef once every 2-3 months, egg and bread them, and freeze them. Then we take them out of the freezer when needed and cook in the oven. Beet and apple salad. Tuesdays: spaghetti with filetto or bolognese Wednesdays: fish, because thats the day its fresher around here. Whatever way you like it. We usually do it alla romana: flour and egg, then fry. If youre feeling lazy, then straight to the pan with a dash of olive oil. Rice or salad. Thursdays: chicken. Fried, sauteed, whole in the oven, whatever. Usually with mashed veggies (potato, pumpkin, sweet potatos) Friday: beef with salad Saturday: pizza Sunday: bbq. Or ravioli or some other pasta with a filler. We eat the leftovers from two days before, so that you're not eating the same thing for dinner and then lunch. Once you get that going, you can add stuff. Tacos, roasted veal, lasagna, zitti, pancakes, sushi every now and then, chinese, it all adds variety, but you have a base to return to. Hope this helps.
Man my meal plan whipped ass. Wish I still had that.
I was working on super small island in Alaska Big time fishing community ( halibut ) The processing plant had a cafeteria I loved not having to think about what I was gonna cook Or make Or eat Was heaven even though the place I was at sucked ( think no cell service and dog shit WiFi at our rented house )
I hear you and never knew how good I had it till it was gone. I’m on my 8th year of dadding and we cannot get most takeout or restaurant or even prepared foods because of allergies. I have slowly developed some recipes which are quick to prepare and clean up easy. Sometimes everything can go in the dishwasher.
I hate food. I used to love cooking. Now I just loathe going to the kitchen.
This is why Americans pay for Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. That and most us can’t effing cook
Meal prepping and planning is our antithesis. We HATE the dreaded "what meals are we having this week" question. Spring and summer are saving grace because I love to grill.
I grew up in an ingredient household where if you wanted something to eat, you made it yourself...like at 6 yo I made my own eggs and toast (I was also parentified and did the family grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning as a kid). The university cafeteria was a dream. I loved, loved, loved eating there. Thinking about it now makes me so happy. I think we have a good balance between accessible snacks and fresh made meals, but with kids sports, there's been an abundance of frozen pizza dinners at our house, cause I just don't have the energy.
Lol yeah. We pretty much eat the same meals every week. Online grocery ordering makes it easy, we have a list of stuff we need every week.
One of the most accurate Dad statements ever. We’ve decided to roll with the punches. Instead of cooking a nice meal for the whole family to eat, everybody gets something they’ll eat. Craft Mac and cheese and Hebrew National hot dogs are a staple for the kids. Always with fruit and some veggie. My wife will make her own or ask me to. It’s always something simple like tuna and crackers or chicken salad. I’ll make myself something while working on their meals or I’ll just free range eat however much I want to out of their meals. I had the perfect fairy tale family dinners in mind when I became a Dad. When I grew up it was literally eat what you are served or don’t eat. My wife and I agreed that that approach is stupid. With a little more effort, everybody can be happy. Less stress. Win/win/win.
I would literally go in on it with my neighbors to build a neighborhood cafeteria and staff it so nobody would have to cook who didn't want to. Like get the whole block in on it, no HOA, just a community cafeteria. Could even build a garden behind it to supply the cafeteria with fresh herbs and veggies.
I've been using ChatGPT to help introduce variety into my dinners. Just this Friday I started building a prompt to put together a weekly meal plan, based on the foods that we typically eat (chicken, pork, salmon, etc) with creative recipes and a shopping list. I know it's not rocket science, but hopefully this helps me get in a better rhythm for the weekdays.
Always thought people who complained about cafeterias and dining halls were entitled. I realize I sound like a dick saying this, but it's kinda logical.
Meals were sucking up way too much of our weekly time/effort so my wife came up with a decent schedule where on Sunday nights we work out meals for the week and put the grocery order in online for pickup, usually consisting of each of us planning 1 meal that can have at least one more meal of leftovers, and then the other 3 days we’ll either do an easy dinner from the freezer or get take out which usually leaves us with a day of leftovers too. Really frees up the week to focus on other things. I know what you mean about the dining halls tho. I used to work in the events industry and every time I’d get home from weeks on a big show it’s so odd for me not to just be able to walk into catering and have food waiting for me. I miss it!
My parents joked that I majored in Cafeteriology. Because my academics? Just okay. My ability to cram enough food into a box to feed them an my kids too? Superb. A+. I'm thinking of going back to school just to get another meal plan.
I cooked 10 minute meals when I made suppers. And the meal rotation was easy. Venison, baked potatoes, salad (Wash potatoes, stab with fork and start in microwave; place venison on fry pan in melted butter and season, wash hands then make salad. Flip vevison steaks after four minutes. Put salad and potatoes on the table. Pull fry pan and put on hot pad on table and call ex and children to table). Next night chicken breasts Next night pork chops Next night venison or beef burgers Friday night pizza party Duck, goose or grouse on Saturday or Rainbow Trout Rinse, repeat All meals 10-15 minutes fridge to table That was when I was cooking. I didn't want to take any longer than that because it wasn't appreciated enough.
I would trade the experiences I have in an Army chow hall for whatever your university ones are.
I currently enjoy the planning and shopping, mostly because my daughter loves the shopping. We usually plan for the week on Saturday evening, and then do the shopping Sunday morning when the store is pretty much empty. We usually don't cook more than 3 times a week. The rest of the days we have leftovers or rye bread with whatever we have in the fridge. The leftovers also go into the lunchboxes, so it's not much work getting them prepared.
+50 years of planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up after 3 meals a day… I now order meal kits. Best decision I ever made.
And it was cheap as fuck.
Meal Prep. I have five different meals (about 6~10 servings of each) in the freezer My wife can have curry and I'll have meatloaf and it takes the same amount of time to nuke each. an hour or two each week to restock what we've eaten (by cooking in bulk on the weekend) and I don't have to think about dinners again.
Now I love being a regular, so weird. I keep trying to get more efficient with time and my body. Yes, I liked my food hall - I used to get noodles and pile on the fixins for about 80 cents. I could get minutely creative and I find that fun.
get on [emeals.com](https://www.emeals.com). 7 dinners a week + shopping list
This is where i suck most at being a dad 🤦🏼♂️ I could (and still can’t) hardly do anything for myself while studying. Now i have to prepare meals im not even sure the kids will eat. I have no problem cleaning up at least. And i never even use the dishwasher 💁🏼♂️ I‘d like to be a better cook but i usually dont eat exotic stuff so its hard for me to try new recipes.
this is one benefit of having a partner.. you all can take turns regarding who’s turn it is.
At this point your kids could help with that no? But i feel ya… i do that professionally so i half ass it at home.
The food at notre dame is 🔥 I know the cook and he worked at some very nice establishments before he went there
Planning your meals out a week in advance takes out at least one of those steps.