Your Evening Meal 2007

meat, veg, rice

usually out of tins, lol

i work at a restaurant so i eat there 5 nights a week (pasta pasta pasta tomatoe more pasta). the only groceries i've bought in 3 months: bread, peanut butter, jam, milk, EBT, sugar. and some fruit.

i hate cooking for just myself. i have no creativity in the kitchen.

When we had housemates, one of them used to make a big Thai fish curry on a Friday, and that was great.

Mister M doesn't eat his main meal of the day at home, he has it in work, so there's just me. I usually cook up big batches of chilli and pasta sauce and stuff and freeze them. Then they're just there when I need them.

At the moment whatever my mum serves me. Actually, no, usually we eat a sandwich (with chocopaste) as we tend to have tea around noon. These days it's superduper healthy: lots of Japanese, veggies, steamed rice,... In the evening I don't feel like eating much. A few weeks ago: french fries and a sausage or two for dinner (in the evening). I'm trying to kick that greasy habit.

I plan a week's menus in advance every Friday, printing out any recipes I need off the web and sticking them in a plastic folder along with the weekly menu and accompanying shopping list. I then shop for the majority of the ingredients on the way home from work.

I mostly cook from scratch every evening - sometimes two or even three different meals at a time, because I have a husband who works unpredictable hours (and might want feeding late at night, way after the rest of us), one vegetarian daughter, and one daughter who only sometimes agrees to vegetarian food (and both of them with a busy shcedule of after school activities which finish at different times). I'll often bulk cook things like curry at the weekends when I've a bit more time, and freeze portions to help reduce some of the midweek madness esp if I'm really busy with work.

Last night we had a cauliflower, chickpea and spinach balti which was num. Tonight it's salmon and lemongrass fishcakes (process a couple of salmon fillets in a food processor with some soy sauce, lemongrass and coriander, and gently fry small patties of it in olive oil) served with steamed broccoli and a sweet potato fondant. Quick and tasty :)

One of my favourite things is to spend a Saturday morning on my own at home when everyone else is busy doing other stuff, leaving me to cook uninterrupted - just me and Saturday Kitchen on the telly (I don't much like James Martin though).

C J i want to live with you!

I swear it's so crazy in our house, I wouldn't notice one extra!

Wow, so organised! Your salmon fishcake recipe sounds like something even I could do. Yum.

Haha - CJ's evenings are v.similar to mine - a multidimensional problem of trying to feed a bunch of people who change their flippin' plans at the drop of a hat without telling anyone have different schedules and requirements. Kids' after-school sport and other activities are the main variable here, along with "I was at so-and so's house and I lost track of time" or "all the trains and buses were cancelled and I had to walk" or whatever.

The general Monday-Thursday principle is thus : there is food available from about 6.30, if I'm cooking, or a bit earlier if Mrs. Dr. C is cooking, or if I'm working at home. I much prefer it if everyone can sit down together and chat over the meal - we manage that most days, although if the kids are absolutely starving they might eat earlier if the food's ready. Friday is often 'sod it, let's all eat out' night, or sometimes a takeaway, or maybe the kids will just have pizza and ice cream, for example, early on and we'll head out on our own later

It's almost always cooked from scratch with fresh ingredients, or sometimes a chilli/spag bol/lasagne already made from the freezer. I am on cooking duties all of this week as my other half is away, so I am cutting corners a bit. For example last night I made spinach gnocchi with blue cheese, followed by some apple pie from the freezer. (OK, the potato gnocchi itself wasn't from scratch - I'm not doing that on a week night!) Tonight will be some kind of risotto, possibly bacon and fennel. The veg stock is already made, but I can't remember if I have fennel - gah! Actually, it's possible that my mother-in-law will cook tonight, so no panic.

When do you decide what you're going to eat? Do you plan meals in advance, cook in advance or buy the ingredients that day?

We generally have a think about it at the weekend and try and fit in a big supermarket run as soon as the doors open on Sunday morning. Fresh stuff that won't keep can be bought anytime during the week, as long as one of us remembers. I try and get enough for Sun-Thurs, with plenty of options. As the week unfolds the menu may well change as people's plans change or if we fancy something else. At weekends, I do most of the cooking - most Sundays I'll spend a fair amount of time cooking - either a late, boozy lunch, or dinner.