What would you like for dinner, dear?

Its interesting, we are away in Cambodia and Laos for 3 to 4 months over the winter and all my meals are cooked for me. Towards the end of our time away I am really looking forward to shopping and cooking meals again, but you can bet that within 3 weeks of being home I am fed up with it. When at home we both sorourselves out for breakfast and lunch and I do the evening meal....except on Monday! When he plans, shops and cooks dinner and he is getting better at it

yes, my OH has got fussier as has got older, now only wants plain boring food, even when we eat out, which is rare, he prefers a supermarket canteen to a nice restaurant. Miss cooking for my kids who alway appreciated my food, only cooking joy now is when they come to dinner.
ladies we all seem to be signing off the same hym sheet here LOL

So I am not alone then!!!
I used to love to cook, bake and always followed latest trend/fad, have a groaning shelf of recipe books.
But 18 months ago DH was diagnosed with gall stones. And had to spend a few days in hospital, I know men are a little bit soppy when it comes to pain but poor love he was literally bent double and it was a very scary experience. Low fat diet recommended and it is a bloomin nightmare we spend ages reading labels on packets/cartons and have had to give up lots of things we used to love. But on a positive front we have both dropped about 18lbs, not been a size 10/12 since my forties but I could literally kill for a bacon butty or cheese on toast now and again.

KateK booking a hotel for Easter Sunday is a tempting idea if I can persuade 'im indoors' to go for it. As for giving my son a takeaway, he has a two hour drive to get to us - if I started giving him takeaway for lunch I'd never see him here again!

I don't mind cooking anything but making the decision what is more difficult. When I was younger with children, work etc I planned ahead. Sat down, when in the mood, and wrote meals in my diary for (sometimes) months ahead, so that when I wasn't in the mood the ideas were there. I tried to balance different types of meat, fish, veg dishes, rice, pasta etc each week and week to week. It's much easier to do this over a period of time - I rotated the roast - beef, pork, lamb, chicken. Put pasta down somewhere each week then investigated pasta recipes (in my many cookery books) for variety, same with rice. Throw in a couple of fish days and veg dishes. Job done. Shopping list easy.

I didn't always cook what was decreed for each day - sometimes didn't feel like it - but I could then flick forward a week or so and find something I did fancy.

This worked. Don't know why I don't do it now

My DH seems to have an ever narrowing list of food that he likes. I can't make anything with tomatoes, onions, spices, mushrooms, broccoli, fish, lamb, pork, pasta, any 'foreign' food for him - you can see how this is a problem so I get plain ready meals for him and cook for me!

I was so lucky with my husband. He loved my cooking, and I sort of, 'lived to cook'.
So after our three grown up children had all started independent living,
we went to live in France, so that I could experience their cuisine methods first hand.
Sadly, he died three months ago; and now I just can't be bothered to cook for one.
How I miss the fun of our meals together.

I find the supermarkets don't sell fresh foodstuffs in portions suitable for a single meal, and find myself left, at the end of the week, with lots of past their 'eat by' bits and bobs. Even home made soup palls after a few weeks, and the freezer is bulging at the seams.
I should explain that I haven't a car, so I have my week's shopping delivered by Tesco.
I find that if I order, for example one or two carrots, they send me the largest ones they can find. The record was a leek that weighed in at twenty ounces.

Anyway, I would so love to have my DH back, tucking in, full of glee again.

big freezer cook every month or so fresh fruit and veg microwave .

Leonora I'm the same except my dh died 13 years ago and I'm in England.Due to arthritis I have to use Ocado and it's the same with them.

Leonora and Galen The one thing I dread is having no one to 'tuck in with glee' I fear that if my earth mother ethos ever deserts me I'll live off toast!

I hated cooking when children were young, but started to enjoy it more when they were older and also money wasn't so tight. I like experimenting, but rarely get the chance to cook now as DH does all the cooking, he enjoys it but worries that he is taking over. I still make bread, cakes, jams & chutneys, so we balance out. That said he is currently in he kitchen making scones, which he is very good at!

I have never asked anyone what they want for dinner! I know if there is something they can't eat and we don't have any fussy eaters so they used to get what was put in front of them.

In retirement DH decided to cook and he does all the shopping too. Over time he has improved immensely and now doesn't need the recipe book as much as he did. He is learning to look and see what needs using up and make something with it. The freezer is no longer bulging with things he 'might use sometime' but he has yet to learn I don't need as much as him so we need to work on that.

Dinner is the only meal we eat together as we are on different timescales foodwise. That works too.

So now I spend my time doing things I never did before retirement which DH is not so physically fit for. It works for us.

Must be the main reason I love my single life is not having to plan meals. I did briefly dip my toe back into the relationship game but it drove me round the bend when we had finished one meal, him asking what is on menu for the next meal! My other thought is when you are both retired when does the lady of the house get a day of?

We don't, jenwren

Sorry jenwren I don't recognise the concept of "the lady of the house". We both cook, clean, garden, carry logs and share the jobs that have to be done. Surely that is what most people do?

I'm lucky because I still enjoy cooking but do find it hard to cook for just two people. For years I cooked for four children plus lodgers and still find it hard to scale down. Result: we're both overweight.

My grouch is that my husband doesn't like many vegetables, particularly brassicas and salads, so we tend to have peas and carrots. His favourites are pork chops and pasta in meaty sauce, and he is happy to eat the same for a couple of days so I can cook something with more veg for myself.

His only culinary skill is heating up soup, so I buy a large selection of tinned soups (which he loves) and he can "make" his own lunch.

Are we alone in quite liking leftovers? We have a roast regularly and then have it cold with jacket potatoes, in sandwiches, heated in gravy or as risotto. I'd take leftover roast over ready meals any day.

Like lots of GN people I enjoy cooking but just get fed up of thinking about it every day. I get the same response when I ask what I should cook which is "you know me I'm not fussy". Which is true to be honest but he will only cook if I suggest we have a homemade curry. I do cut recipes out to try them and if they are no good they don't get made again. Lunch is definitely a DIY affair although once when MIL was staying she was horrified that DH had to get his own. I confess I feel vaguely dissatisfied if we have a ready meal as though we haven't eaten properly!

Feeling lucky in the cooking department. DH has mild dementia and after years of being a meat and 2 veg only sort of a guy how now forgotten what he doesn't like so eats whatever is put infront of him!

Mamie, ha! Dream on.

My culinary expertise tonight is going to produce

A buttered slice of sourdough bread topped with
Chickenliver pâté topped with
A slice or two of tomato topped with
Soft goats cheese topped with
A sliced gherkin!

I might even run to a lettuce leaf on the side , but that requires thinking about! ( I'm not a rabbit)

Oh! And of course:- freshly ground black pepper.

Sounds delicious, Galen!!

Oooh pate and goats cheese! (burp emoticon required!)

It's very tricky to make as I'm sure you can appreciate. I don't think Delia would manage it. Suspect it's more a Nigel Slater sort of thing.
Actually it's based on a lunch I used to have sometimes when a student at the General Hospital in Birmingham. If feeling rich I'd go to the snack bar in Rackhams which produced this delicacy.

Live alone so no problems. ( That was irony! )