If you have a family of 5 or more, how often do you cook dinner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Six kids. We cook five nights a week. One night is takeout, and one night is leftovers/choose your own adventure. Pre pandemic we cooked four nights a week and one night we went out for dinner.

When you say we do you mean you and someone else cook together 5 nights a week?

Yes. It's very rare that one person does all the work, from prep to setting table, all alone. Some combination of kids and an adult or two are generally involved.

[Anonymous]

I usually cook 5 nights a week.

Though sometimes its every night. I have the large instant pot snd we eat a lot of stews, chili, beans that can be made in big batches. Then depending on how I feel, I’ll add a salad or make cornbread or naan or rice as a side.

[Anonymous]

Five kids. Two adults. I cook 6 nights a week.

[Anonymous]

2-3. Family of 5. It would be more but a few of my kids are incredibly picky and we can’t agree on meals. Done being a short order cook. My kids are teens and can fend for themselves.

[Anonymous]

I cook real meals Sunday - Thursday although one of those nights is typically leftovers with new veggies. Friday we make pizza and sat typically is a frozen meal or maybe something like fish sticks and fries in the oven (Ie something easy). Sometimes
We get takeout on Saturdays instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Six kids. We cook five nights a week. One night is takeout, and one night is leftovers/choose your own adventure. Pre pandemic we cooked four nights a week and one night we went out for dinner.

When you say we do you mean you and someone else cook together 5 nights a week?

Yes. It's very rare that one person does all the work, from prep to setting table, all alone. Some combination of kids and an adult or two are generally involved.

PP you were responding to.

I think I misread OP's post. I was assuming it was about how many nights one person cooked vs. the other. Follow up question makes me think it's about how many night homecooked vs. from outside the home.

I posted that I cook 2 - 4 days a week (also with kid help prepping, or DH setting the table or something) but my kids get homecooked meals almost every night, just not cooked by me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cook real meals Sunday - Thursday although one of those nights is typically leftovers with new veggies. Friday we make pizza and sat typically is a frozen meal or maybe something like fish sticks and fries in the oven (Ie something easy). Sometimes
We get takeout on Saturdays instead.

Pretty much us. Except a bit more complex as I cook keto for myself and veggie for one teen. Planning it all is actually one of the harder elements of it! Sat AM weekly shop, Sunday major food prep day. Husband is grill master and we usually have a couple of grilled meals (veggie skewers +tofu, meat or fish) a couple of days a week. Since COVID hit he’s also been baking bread (!) 3x/week. Thursday is always leftovers/choose own adventure as one PP put it. Pre-COVID we did a lot more on the fly and much more takeout or TJs - with WFH easier to plan and chop a bit during the lunch break, etc. Have to say we eat much better these days.

I am SO impressed with the PP whose teens take on cooking responsibilities. Will have to think how we can make that happen (with extracurriculars, homework etc.)

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 6: 2 adults, 3 kids and 1 baby. Apart from birthdays or other celebrations, we only get takeout for 1 dinner per week. Thursday night is our standing takeout night. The other six nights, we either cook dinner or have leftovers.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are always brand new home cooked dinners. Saturdays we eat the equivalent of two lunches and also afternoon snacks, so nobody is that hungry at dinner time and dinner winds up being just picking at leftovers. Sunday night dinner is sometimes cooked new, and sometimes made up of leftovers from Saturday if there are a lot of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5. I cook dinner 5-6 times a week.

+1

[Anonymous]

Family of 6. I cook 5-6 nights a week. I work in healthcare and have an evening shift once a week. DH is in charge of feeding the kids that night, and they usually get takeout. Sometimes there is another night that I can't quite get it together to cook, and I will just pick up something preprepared at the grocery store or something.

I really don't like getting takeout. Now that the kids are older, it's typically $75-100 for dinner, and it's fine, but it's rarely really great.

[Anonymous]

Friday is pizza night, sometimes homemade sometimes dominos or whatever.

Eat-in the other 6 nights. I sorta have a rotation we go by/quick easy meals for sports practice nights, etc.

- Family of 6

[Anonymous]

Family of five here. Pre-pandemic we used to eat out 2-3 times a week. Now I cook at home 6 nights a week because it’s safer and cheaper. That one night is usually something like pizza or Chipotle.

[Anonymous]

Family of 6, 4 kids. I cook 4, maybe 5, nights a week. I wish I had energy to do more, but work full-time and dinner falls pretty much all on me since DH doesn’t like to cook. If left to him, kids joke he’d order takeout every night. We order out 1-2 nights a week & 1 night is leftovers. I’m easing kids into 1 night of “fend for yourself” on Fridays to replace leftovers, since even leftover night requires assembly by me. All my kids even younger are capable of getting cereal, sandwich, or soup on their own, so I know they can feed themselves one night.

[Anonymous]

Friday is always pizza, sometimes homemade, sometimes delivery. I plan for 4-5 nights of cooking. Almost always 1 leftover night and sometimes I shop my freezer for things I batch cooked. I eat smaller portions of leftovers for work lunches.
3 kids under 10 plus me and dh.

[Anonymous]

6 and I cook nearly every night. Takeout once a month