Fed up of making the same meals !

I agree absolutely re cooking the same old meals week in week out. I'm not a cook by any stretch of imagination and since being on my own the meals are very boring. Loads of cook books in the house but they all belong to my late DH. Recently tried batch cooking some chili for the first time. Followed an online recipe and it's way too hot to eat. Tried putting in more chopped tomatoes, then more vegetables and then tried eating some with lots of soured cream, still too hot though did manage to eat a little. Thought of cooking more mince to add but then thought silly to waste even more food so it all got thrown out.

Fed up WITH people saying "Fed up OF"

I felt the same so did a cookery course at my local adult education centre that gave me some new ideas and I feel in love with cooking again

I'm not a confident cook and recently ran out of ideas so started Gousto recipe boxes again. I currently get 4 meals a week. As others have said you get the recipe cards so can cook the same thing again in the future after stopping the recipe boxes. Gousto is better than others in that they specify the exact amount of spices etc in grams or teaspoons - others I've tried in the past e.g. Hello Fresh and Green Chef just say "a sachet of..." so it's a bit more difficult for those like me who prefer precise measurements. Hello Fresh and Green Chef recipe cards are A4 size so nice and easy to read (and you can download the recipe card from the website in pdf format). Gousto recipe cards are half the size so not as easy to read and although the recipes are on the website they can't be downloaded as a pre-formatted file.

With most recipe box systems you can pause your deliveries or change the number of meals quite easily. It might be a bit more expensive than buying from the supermarket but I've found the meals from Gousto much more interesting and enjoyable to cook than getting ready meals or trying to think up my own menu/find a recipe/work out what I need to buy. Fortunately my husband and I have quite wide-ranging tastes in food, although I don't like anything too spicy (I put any chilli in a bit at a time, and NEVER more than half the sachet!) There are plenty of plain recipes but of course you have a lot more choice if you're more adventurous (usually over 100 recipes to choose from each week, although some are repeated).

With Gousto, you get 60% off your first box and 20% off further boxes for two months, or 70% off your first box and 20% off further boxes for 2 months if a customer recommends you (so feel free to ask me for a recommendation link - disclaimer: I get a reward for recommending you!) I'm pretty sure with all these companies you can cancel after your first box if you don't like it.

Good luck to all those who are struggling for ideas for meals.

I love cookery books, enjoy cooking and do keep stocked larders. I can't remember when I've not cooked 3 meals a day - it's second nature

Today I tried a new farm shop. So disappointed. Their veg are good, but meat is pre-frozen, in quantities too big for me. Obviously I could thaw and cook the whole pack and refreeze, but I prefer not to have so many of the same meals and no room for anything else. I need to eat up what is in the freezer for now, then batch cook a variety of meals.

Perennial problem intensified from the moment you realise there is now catering at lunchtime for retirees to add to the evening meal.
I enjoy cooking but find the stress of following new recipes (with their demands for extra shopping and accurate measurements) just too much at 81yo.
So tweaking is what I seek, such as nanna8’s reminder that you can provide variety of fillings for baked potatoes. I find Nigel Slater and Felicity Cloake useful for suggesting changes you can bring into well known, everyday dishes.

Having spent 30 years cooking for the children, followed WW recipes for years, the the Fast800, we tried the delivery boxes and couldn't be bothered. I have to admit, we are reverting to Charlie Bighams meals. No added ingredients , just fresh food, good portions, we can choose what we fancy each day. Not every day, obviously, they are expensive but it takes the pressure off. My DH lives them with added vegetables. Chicken and salmon on other days.
I know, those ladies who cook every day will think I'm awful, but I feel that I'd rather play the piano and research my family tree!

Agree with Norah. Put any ingredients you can think of into a search engine and recipes will appear. Knspol if chilli is too hot add some sour cream or plain yogurt, top with grated cheddar, may sound strange, but try it before to throw your chilli. Yogurt works on too hot curry as well.

M0nica - you call yourself an Approximate Cook
I'm afraid I'm a Bung-it Cook which is pretty similar...

I buy things I don't know anything about in supermarkets if I shop "in the flesh".

Years ago I discovered sumac this way and more recently yuzu.

Once you have a starting point the rest is easier!

Last year I worked out that I had put over 60,000 plates of food on the table ie main meals. (That’s without all the sandwiches and snacks.) Planned, prepared and cooked. No wonder I had become bored and resentful of the whole process! I’m guessing from this thread that I’m really not the only one.

DH would eat sausage and mash or bacon and egg every day, but is appreciative of the variety I try to get into our meals. I enjoy cooking although I mostly do tried and tested favourites and we always have lots of veg, but Saturday is experiment day when I make something new and we decide whether to have it again or ditch it. A recent addition to the repertoire is Mary Berry's Hoisin Chicken with Cashews - dead simple and really delicious.

I have lost the will to cook meals like I used to. I am now using my oven as a Cupboard for my new air fryer bowls and trays. I only use the microwave for soups or ready meals and use the air fryer for cooking frozen battered fish and chips or pies.

Perhaps it is because I live alone and have done since my husband died 10 years ago so I no longer have any interest in baking or making a proper meal.

NotSpaghetti

M0nica - you call yourself an Approximate Cook
I'm afraid I'm a Bung-it Cook which is pretty similar...

I buy things I don't know anything about in supermarkets if I shop "in the flesh".

Years ago I discovered sumac this way and more recently yuzu.

Once you have a starting point the rest is easier!

Yes, I am all for trying anything new. If you do not like it, you have only bought it once.

I confess it is not cooking that grabs me, but eating. I have always, even as a child been interested in food willing to try new foods and new cuisines. It helped that my fathers job meant a peripatetic life around southeast Asia and Northern Europe, with my mother adding all sorts of dishes to her repertoire that we met there, from curries to Chinese, Belgiam and German food.

I want all my meals to be interesting and varied, and while breakfast in our household is always DIY, I prepare all the other meals from scratch or dive in the freezer for a home-made ready meal.

I have a pile of recipes cut from papers and magazines on the side in the kitchen and aim to try at least one new recipe each week.

I do a lot of stirfrys . Bung it all in, add soy and garlic or hoisin sauce or similar and add rice or noodles. My daughter does a lot of smoked salmon things with pasta- just bung it in with a cheese sauce. Hers tastes better than mine.

Have you looked at Supermarket websites for recipes? They often have new twists on staple meals and some simple and quick recipes for families.

I'm another 'bung it in' cook. I do follow recipes, especially when baking, but most of the time I just wing it and adapt things as I go along.

Just recently I have started calling DH into the the kitchen just as I am about to start cooking demanding a Sous Chef. He strolls in unsuspectingly and I say 'Do something with that, would you, while I do something with this?' The results are always very different and the cooking process anything but boring as we get under each other's feet or jostle for the sink. We are getting through rather a lot of Rennies though...

I love my slow cooker had it for about 4 years and never used it until this year. Just fill it up and leave it and ready for tea. Lunch if you do it early enough great for adding left over veg in the fridge like an odd potato or some herbs that have seen better days. I do it twice a week and eat for two days and fill the freezer with any left overs always others in there to fill other days. There are great recipes for slow cooker and air fryers on face book too

If the price of food is the chief of you worries, which I can well imagine, look for Indian recipes. Many Indian dishes can be made cheaply as they contain lentils, chickpeas, potatoes or other moderately priced vegetables. If you do not care for spicy food, you can either tone down the spices, or go to the other end of the Orient and cook Chinese food instead.

I also get really fed up with thinking of what to cook, but it occurred to be yesterday while I was in a vast supermarket, I thought of my working mother, and how limited her choices were. She would have been astounded at the array of different foods, vegetables, herbs and spices on the shelves. I still didn’t know what to buy though! I think BBC food is great for inspiration.

I have a card index with all my recipes in it and a list on my computer, so deciding what to eat is limited to 10 minutes or so every week with the list of menus, followed by checking for ingredients on the recipe card. Weeks menu planned, better things to do with the rest of my time.

Make a Spanish Stew. Quick to cook. One pan. Eat with crusty bread. Fry your chicken bits and as usual onions and garlic plus slices of chorizo. Then any veg you have hanging around plus tin of chick peas or butter beans.
Stock/paprika/tomato paste.
Make enough for 2 days
Brilliant- tasty - healthy

One very easy dinner I discovered a few years ago was the half crispy duck (from most supermarkets) that you just shove in the oven. The only prep you need to do (apart from pulling the cooked duck apart) is chop/slice some cucumber and spring onions, and put the rice pancakes in the microwave for half a minute.
It comes with hoisin sauce.
I do mostly cook from scratch, but we enjoy that every few weeks.

grandtanteJE65

If the price of food is the chief of you worries, which I can well imagine, look for Indian recipes. Many Indian dishes can be made cheaply as they contain lentils, chickpeas, potatoes or other moderately priced vegetables. If you do not care for spicy food, you can either tone down the spices, or go to the other end of the Orient and cook Chinese food instead.

We make Indian, Asian, Thai often - indeed cheaper, typically no meat using lentils, peas, tofu. I have a large range of spices, can easily make any recipe I come across.

Dare I say? Nice vegan food as well. I'm aware vegans receive an undeserved bashing - however, generally vegan food is filling, tasty, and cheap.