I’m sick to death of it.

NanKate - I have every sympathy. There are many household chores I loathe and must do with gritted teeth - but cooking and baking are not in that category.

I not only enjoy cooking but find it therapeutic and comforting, even (as is sometimes the case) I don't eat the results.

I just baked a batch of mince pies and was sitting down to one, warm from the oven, with a cuppa when two friends walked in and that was the end of the pies! What they didn't eat, they took home.

So tomorrow I'll be knocking together another lot of fruit mince, zesting oranges, lemons and crumbling cashew nuts, choping cherries and so on to prepare for the next lot.

I probably won't be eating those either

Another one here. I catered for a family of 5 for years. Even when there was just DH and me I still shopped for 5. Gradually I became less inclined to bother and when DH died, I went off proper food completely and that was it although I often knocked up a scratch meal for 5 or 6 friends. Now my basic menu consists of salmon, smoked salmon, eggs, avocados, salads, occasional soup, bread, lots of salted butter (?) yoghurt and a continuous supply of KitKats. I just can’t be arsed and I hardly if ever eat meat unless I’m out. Today I cooked a roast with loads of veggies & a crumble for DD & her family. I was exhausted and then I had all the washing up to do after they'd left! (I don’t have room for a dishwasher since downsizing) Never again .....

I am a very lazy cook so dh does more of the day to day cooking. My biggest problem is my 'new' cooker which I haven't mastered even though I've had it two years. Why oh why has technology taken over. I was perfectly happy with an on and off button and a temperature gage. Now I can't tell whether I'm putting the grill on or cooker one or two. The hob is super sensitive and the least thing makes it decide to switch itself off. I could list many more excuses but will stop now

It’s not that I actively dislike cooking, rather that I dislike cooking much of the food Mr C likes to eat because I then don’t want to eat it. I recall we used to enjoy the same meals, now we certainly don’t. Wonder how that happened?

NanKate ' If only we could go to the carvery every week.' you say. Why not? A lot of people do. My daughter orders roast dinner for five from a local pub and goes to collect it, nearly every Sunday. It only costs around £20, so about the same as buying and cooking it!

Crazed idea......sometimes men cook.

I was just going to post that!
I often sit here parched, but I'm too lazy to get up.

Has anyone else got to the stage where you really would like a cup of tea but you just can't be arsed to get up and go and make it? And so do without?

I hate any kind of food preparation, I even try and wriggle out of making cups of tea for people. I love eating though! If I won the lottery I would have my own chef on hand to prepare anything I fancied.

I love cooking but I remember crying over the washing up. Thank goodness they invented dishwashers.

grannyqueenie

I agree with MissA; a sandwich and a cup of tea or a bowl of cereal is just fine. But twice a week, I have to cook for the GC (and DS & DIL) for after school and then I feel that I have to cook a "proper" meal. It's getting harder and harder to come up with something different, that everyone will like, and I'm always glad when school holidays mean I get a break for it. Just the planning and shopping is a chore. Trouble is, I've got a reputation in the family for being "a damned good cook" and I feel that I have to live up to it now. ?

I love cooking, it's baking I detest.
I will happily prepare vegetables, chop meat, make sauces, even conjure my own recipes.
There is goat meat in the fridge waiting to be turned into a curry.

Baking is torture, and I avoid it as well as I am able. I'm not saying I can't bake, I just loathe doing it.

DH's mother made wonderful cakes and biscuits, scones and shortbread. He misses all the wonderful sugary things. She even made her own brandy snaps for goodness sake.

I'm not making Christmas dinner this year, we are going to my son's pub as it's just going to be the two of us. I'm beginning to miss the prep and cooking already.

I love, love love to cook, and the more adventurous the better - and I went and married a man who thinks living dangerously is buying a different brand of baked beans! So when he is out ( rare occasion) I can’t wait to get out the recipe books and cook something he wouldn’t even consider?‍?

I’ll just leave this here.....

Monica That’s how I feel about it too. As it happens, today I made a big batch of celeriac & celery soup in the slow cooker, and a lemon layer cake.
MrA happened to come into the kitchen while all this was going on, & said ‘It’s really good that you’ve always liked cooking, isn’t it?’
He got my glacial stare & I told him it wasn’t cooking, but good food, that I enjoy.

I am so with you in this. I hate cooking now. I used to cook and bake all the time when my girl's were young but DH is a meat and two veg man and I hardly eat any meat. He is still working and expects a home cooked meal every night. I love it when he is away and I don't have to cook.

It seems to me that a key factor shared by most of you, is that you do not really seem to have much interest in food itself. So many of you talk about being happy with a sandwich, even every day.

Now, I do not particularly enjoy cooking, but I love food. I do not mean eating a lot, but tasting different foodstuffs, textures, combinations etc etc. The idea of living on sandwiches is my idea of hell. Even when I was living in a bedsitter, I would cook a meal every night. Nothing elaborate, I had a copy of the She 15 Minute Cook Book and other student type recipe books, but variety really was the spice of my life.

Nevertheless I do not really enjoy cooking and my reaction to any new recipe, is to look at it and see if I can simplify it. But given the choice between cooking a new recipe or a dish I like and having a sandwich, cooking something nice, intersting and tasty wins out every time, even just for myself.

Some days I can be bothered.
Others not.
Luckily my husband eats to live, so he’s not fussed whatever we have.

My favourite meal in the whole wide world is two fried eggs and (fat) chips.
Food of the gods!

If you can afford it why can’t you go out for Sunday lunch every week? At least you’d have one day where you didn’t have to cook

NanKate, try a packet of pre prepared vegetables, some sort of protein, a slug of vino , shop bought stock......honestly you can't go wrong.

I have always encouraged DH and our DC to cook to save me from the complete and utter boredom, you describe.
Like you I enjoy cooking for others, for an occasion, but the everyday can be tedium.
DH is a great cook and very creative (most of the time) but afterwards the kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it and he uses every pan we possess...... and sometimes burns them
We also host volunteers and our current French helper is a fabulous cook! Top marks for presentation too. There are sometimes 6 dishes of tasty delicacies. Think Mediterranean sundried tomatoes, roasted seeds, salads, lots of garlic and herbs and often a glass of wine. He cooks vegetarian to please me.
We do have to wait hours though and it's hard to still be hungry at 9pm! whereas when I cook I like it to be fast! omelettes, fried rice, pasta, etc. salads and grated cheese.

Same here, not surprising when 40 years of cooking one meal a day comes to 14,600 meals.

Ah, but I bet you love doing it MD. ?

NanKate, ?

I actually can't be bothered cooking for myself, I am an Earth Mother, who prefers to cook for others!

Unfortunately, DH is an awful cook. ☹️When he took early retirement, my children begged me not to let him cook, so I have no choice, or we would starve!!!