I’m failing at dinner. Please help!

[Anonymous]

I don’t like cooking either and neither does my 13yo. She’ll happily eat fruit and veggies though. Tomorrow night I work and she’s on her own for dinner. I bought hamburger buns and frozen chicken patties at her request. She’ll cook one of those in the air fryer and have it with tomatoes/cucumbers.
Some might say a Chicken patty is junky but I’m ok with it once/twice a week.

Cheese-spinach ravioli or tortellini in whatever sauce u all like. It’s easy to heat up as leftovers.

[Anonymous]

You have basically told your kids that your job is more important than their health. Fend for yourselves, I'm too good to make sure you're taken care of. And then you're surprised that they live on junk food. There's no cooking advice to give if you cannot see the problem with this.

[Anonymous]

Your 13 year old could be making/reheating something. Make that their responsibility. How old is the other kid?

Look up freezer meals and pick a day to prep them with everyone helping. Husband and kids need to be involved, too. Frozen pizza is fine sometimes. Use ChatGPT. Don't buy as much junk food.

Don't listen to people who blame you for working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay your kids to cook dinner…so many dinner recipes/prepared foods a 13 year old could prepare/heat up:

One-pan chicken/potatoes/roasted vegetables
Chicken in a pot with Rao’s marinara over spaghetti
Smashburgers in a skillet
Meatloaf
Frozen panko-crusted shrimp
Bagged salad kits

Couldn’t disagree with you more on bribing children not to eat junk food for dinner!

Op said to pay her children to cook, not to bribe them to not eat junk.

Still disagree and honestly am shocked anyone would think this makes sense let alone is a good idea! Kids should cook because they need to eat, not because mommy is paying them.

No different then paying your kid to mow the lawn imo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work full time and have two teens. Last school year I basically stopped cooking dinner and let my kids scrounge around for whatever they could find. This has resulted in my 13 year old eating a lot of junk food. I know I need to make some changes in the way I’m doing things.

I’m not a good cook, and I work evenings 3 nights a week so I’m not always home for dinner.

DH gets home around 8:30pm, so he’s not much help.

If you both work you can afford to dine out 3x a week.

[Anonymous]

It’s tough, and most of us have been there.

Cooking is a learned skill, not a natural ability type of artwork the shows make it seem. Find what method of learning works for you. For me it was watching YouTube tutorials and printing out the recipes.

Most dishes use many of the same ingredients (garlic, onion, salt, pepper, rice/pasta/potatoes, and a veg) and can be prepared in under and hour after you have it down. The first few times has a learning curve of course.

What’s interesting is when my kids saw me take cooking, really eating well, seriously, they follow suits. My hs age kids will actually cook themselves decent little meals when they home alone, rather than heating up garbage.

Wegmans is a life saver. They have chicken breast/thighs, pork, lamb, etc all in vacuum sealed containers that are easy to thaw in cold water. I recommend keeping some of those in the fridge/freezer for thrown together meals. They also have stir fry sauces, salsas, and pasta sauces that are pretty good. Once you get that down you can graduate to making your own pasta and Mexican sauces.

None of this fixes your weeknight problem. 8:30 is late to start dinner. I agree with the suggestion of cooking on weekends, or having something around that can be reheated.

[Anonymous]

We often do a lot of semi-homemade meals from frozen entrees..

- Costco sells some lovely frozen cauliflower crust pizzas. We add even more protein and lots of veggies (mushrooms, broccoli, peas, peppers, caramelized onions) - to make it an even tastier meal. Serve with a bowl of mixed veggi soup with sausage. Absolutely delicious.

- Another frozen meal that we love is the frozen Chicken yakatori bowl. Microwave in a large glass bowl with a spray of water according to directions. You will need one bowl per person +1. Add Sriracha, chopped minced garlic, chiffonade -spinach and cilantro, chopped - cucumber, green onions, blanched and chopped - red peppers, peas, baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts. Mix well. Sprinkled crushed roasted salted peanuts and some toasted sesame seeds. Yummy.

[Anonymous]

OP, can you afford a meal service? You can sign up for 3 meals a week for the evenings you are working. Assign your teens the task of heating up the food. Five days a week is even better.

I think going from never cooking dinner to cooking double batches of food, overseeing food prep on weekends, and meal planning in general is a lot to ask of you, since you work full time and admittedly do not like cooking. I really enjoy cooking and only work part time, and even I get sick of it.

[Anonymous]

I despise cooking, but it’s a necessary evil when you have kids.

You just need to suck it up and try out crock pot meals, meals that can be made and frozen (so kids can just microwave), meals that your kids will eat leftovers. You also need to set up some guidelines on what they can eat for dinner.