How often do you repeat meals?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I have certain staple dishes which I rotate, never having each more than once a week. I’ll make a meat dish for the family, one or two vegetable/grain side dishes and bread for all of us, and a meatless protein dish for myself. Certain things end up matched with other things almost exclusively - chicken and noodles goes with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and crescent rolls; meatloaf with sauteed veggies and pasta, roasted potatoes, baked beans, and dinner rolls; baked fish with sauteed veggies without pasta, rice, Italian green beans, and crescent rolls; enchiladas with pinto beans; hamburgers, corn on the cob, peas, and fried potatoes; tuna salad sandwiches with vegetable soup; spaghetti and meatballs with sauteed mushrooms and zucchini and garlic bread.

I have eleven or twelve staple meals, but I’ve realized that I use just four types of meat, no matter what form it ultimately takes: ground beef, boneless chicken, deli roast beef, and fish (canned tuna or frozen filets). This minimizes my time spent at the meat counter, staring helplessly at its array of glistening flesh.

I think this thread has helped me realize why I find cooking dinner to be such an exhausting and time-consuming chore.

22

I could probably eat the same thing several nights in a week if I lived by myself. In fact, when I did live by myself, and didn’t live in a dorm, I usually did make the same two or three dishes every night, and didn’t really care. Even now, if I am fortunate enough to be on my own for dinner for a week or more (which is very rare), I will usually just buy ingredients for two or three different meals, if only so I can cook a normal amount of food one night, and eat leftovers for a few nights afterwards.

However, in Real Life, I have a husband and two kids–all of whom have different eating preferences.

Mr. Kiminy prefers variety. While he doesn’t mind eating last night’s leftovers for lunch today, he doesn’t like to have the same food (or even the same main ingredient) several nights in a row, and he likes to try new foods.

Our 10yo son only really likes to eat a handful of dishes, and doesn’t mind repetition at all. In fact, when he was a toddler, he lived on macaroni and cheese with banana slices for lunch and dinner for a good solid year. He much prefers to eat foods that he is familiar with to food that he’s never seen before. He especially likes Italian pasta dishes–lasagna, spaghetti, tortellini, etc. If it has tomato sauce on it, he’ll eat it. :wink:

Our 14yo daughter prefers to eat oriental food or pizza. Aside from pizza, she does not like Italian food. When I do serve spaghetti, she insists on having the sauce on the side, and she eats the noodles with a little soy sauce and chopsticks, so she can pretend it’s oriental instead. (She actually hasn’t used a fork at home for nearly a year, regardless of what we’re eating for dinner. She just uses chopsticks.)

In an effort to make sure that everyone eats (which is important when both children are drastically underweight), I do plan out menus every week. On Saturday night, I put together a menu for the week, based on suggestions from all family members, and avoiding anything we ate the previous week. On Sunday, I go to the store and buy all the provisions for that week’s menu.

Everyone I tell this to seems to think that I am hyperorganized to do this, but it’s literally the only way I can be sure to satisfy everyone at least some of the time. The BIG advantage for me is that when I get home in the evening, I already know what I am going to fix for dinner, AND I know that I have all of the required ingredients. The advantage for my husband is that he can be sure of not having the same meal show up on the table more than a couple of times a month. The advantage for my son is that I can be sure that we have Italian food at least once a week. The advantage for my daughter is that I can be sure that we will not have Italian more than once a week, and that we will have oriental at least once a week.

Fortunately, I do like to cook, and I have yet to meet a recipe I’m not willing to try. (There are, however, a few recipes that I have tried and failed at, though.)

23

I love trying new foods, but I can eat the same thing every day. Most of the time, I do eat the same thing every day.

24

I remeber reading years ago that most families base their evening meal around 8 to 12 rotating dishes. Over time some old favourites drop out and new ones come into the rotation. Like baseball pitching staff I guess.

Recently someone at work said that they had stuffed capsicums (peppers) for dinner. I used to make them regularly before I had children but they had disappeared in the 20 years since. I made a batch and over estimated everything and ended up with huge amounts of leftovers. The next day I had another serve for lunch, another serve for dinner and the last of it for dinner the following day. And I loved it every time.

25

I’d eat spaghetti every day if I could. My wife OTOH won’t even eat leftovers, so she forces me to mix it up frequently.

26

I eat the same thing every morning, and have one or two things that I almost always have for dinner. Lunch is where any variance generally comes in.

27

Wide variety. Often the same staples, but changed up, traded places, with new sauces or spices. So sometimes we’l have spaghetti with turkey meatballs, or other times we’ll have chicken fettucini alfredo. Sometimes we’ll have spaghetti with a cheese sauce and lean ground beef mixed in.
Sometimes it’s mashed potatoes with a meat and vegetable, or a baked potato, or roasted potatoes, or hash browns.
Sometimes it’s any multitude of flavours for rice.
Sometimes I make Chinese, Thai, or Japanese dishes. The next night I’ll make something spicy and Cajun like my grandmother used to make. The next night it will be Irish. Maybe something French. Or even better, French-Canadian :wink: Or Mexican. Or Italian. I love to cook and learn new things, so I have a variety of spices and the skills to pull off some pretty darn authentic dishes.
I’ve never repeated a dish two nights in a row since I married my husband, but there are a handful of dishes that I make if I’m feeling tired and need something quick, or just a few dishes that my husband loved so much that he sometimes requests them.

I try to keep the desserts interesting, too, but they last longer, sometimes up to a week depending on how much was made.

Of course, these days, I’m learning to make the meals much lighter in fat than before. It’s a bit of a challenge, but so far, so good. I’ve only ever made one dish that my husband refused to eat again, but that’s okay - I didn’t like it, either.

28

I meal-plan for about two weeks at a time.

We eat the same things once or twice a month, not counting leftovers. Sometimes we’ll drop a dish off of the rotation or add something new. For example now that it is autumn and the weather is getting a bit cooler casseroles and stews/soups will be coming on to the rotation and sandwiches and cookout will be dropping away.

I try two new recipies each rotation, and each rotation there are a few things that I decide “screw it, too much work” and we have pancakes or BLTs instead.

And there is one recipe that has been on the list for several months now but I never make it. Don’t know why I can’t bring myself to let it go…

Twiddle

29

I vary my dinners quite a bit, but breakfast and lunch are pretty much the same thing every day.

breakfast: fruit, slice of toast, coffee.
lunch: small dish of pasta, salad, yoghurt, and fruit if the store still has any.

Actually, I’d vary lunch more if I could, but every other dish at the shop I buy from is twice as big.

30

I love to cook, and challenge myself to cook new recipes. I have a few recipes that I know I will keep and make multiple times in my lifetime, but not too many of them. I am always in search of something new.

But - I am cooking for one person. So, even though I will have a variety of recipes, the results of the recipe may be eaten multiple times in one week. Leftovers are frozen for the future.

Susan

31

I’ll usually cook three main dishes every weekend (about 4 servings each) and that’s what the menu is for lunch (which I take to work) and dinner M-Th for me and my wife. I have a couple dishes my wife in particular enjoys, so I cycle those in repeatedly when I’m considering each week’s menu.

Doesn’t bother me one bit (I eat to live, not vice versa).

32

Tell me about it! Maybe we should start a swap of sorts! I’ll send you the stuff I sick of… Kinda like trading books by mail…or something.

33

I repeat a lot. I live alone, and while I enjoy cooking I tend to find it boring when no-one else is going to eat, so I cook rather simple meals. Also, I’m on a pretty strict diet and I have no wish to spend time or energy figuring out what to eat. End result: A relatively small number of mainstays.

34

I have the most unimaginative meal ensemble evah. I freeking hate looking at cookbooks because I have to go out and purchase 90% of the ingredients. Damn. It was nice when my son lived at home. He’s much more creative in the kitchen than I am.