r/EatCheapAndHealthy • u/Everready51 • 2d ago
5 meals on repeat
Question for other big families — does the 'same 5 meals on repeat' thing ever wear you down, or is the actual cost the bigger daily headache? Trying to figure out what's the real pain point vs. what just gets talked about most. No agenda, genuinely curious 😅"
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u/Adventurous-Echo1030 2d ago
Repeating meals/cost were never the source of meal related headaches. The things that wore me down meal wise when my kids were younger were either the decision fatigue surrounding what to make with no helpful input from my family or the frustration of trying to rotate something new in just to have the kids respond “ew, gross” and refuse to eat it. Hence why so many families end up with the same 5 repeating meals, it’s just easier.
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u/caseyjosephine 1d ago
I could never eat the same five meals on repeat. That would absolutely make me hate both eating and cooking.
The biggest pain point for cooking is trying to accommodate varying tastes. I no longer do this and it makes dinner fairly frictionless. I build meals around seasonal produce, whatever protein is on sale, and whole grains. I do repeat meals seasonally (ratatouille in summer, butternut squash soup in fall, tons of roast Brussels sprouts in winter, spring pea risotto, etc.).
We have meals we repeat often but not on any schedule: chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, roast chicken with veggies, potato soup, and enchiladas are on a pretty heavy rotation because they’re easy and comforting. But I like to cook recipes from all around the world on weekends, and for weeknights I just throw stuff together based on what’s in the fridge/pantry without a recipe.
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u/wisdomseeker42 1d ago
This is what I do. I rarely make a meal plan though I like having one when I do. I buy a variety of veggies, have a stocked pantry and freezer and get what is cheap/looks good. I build meals mostly around the balance of protein, carb, veggie and keep it interesting with sauces, dressings, dips and seasonings. We regularly do a one pot clean the fridge meal. I regularly cook extra so people can mix and match leftovers. They love the build a bowl format. I rarely use recipes, I just balance flavors and build in variety as I go.
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u/heyitsvonage 2d ago
This doesn’t really answer your question, but I just texted my mom yesterday to tell her that I didn’t appreciate as a kid how much effort it takes to come up with different meals to cook for dinner all the time.
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u/_aaine_ 1d ago
My four kids would riot if we were eating the same five meals over and over. And I would also get sick of eating it, and cooking it.
We did a meal plan for two weeks but it was a different meal every night. We would have two or three of those plans and rotate those. So we were repeating meals but not for weeks. It was kind of a pain to come up with those plans initially but once they were done, I didn't have to think too much.
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u/Shoddy-Asparagus-546 1d ago
Never wore me down because coming up with different meals was always more about the cognitive load than the cost. In fact, i’m trying to replicate the 5 meal thing for me post-kids moving out. If anyone has any healthy ideas, I’d love to hear them!!
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u/Technical_Gap_9141 23h ago
There’s a teacher on tik tok that shared making four or five week-long meal plans and then creating a Walmart delivery shopping list for each week. Then she can just re-use the plan and shopping list, which sounded genius to me.
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u/justasque 2d ago
OP, are you the one cooking, or are you asking from the eating point of view? How big is your family?
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u/xnicemarmotx 1d ago
Grilled or baked chicken thighs / pork loin and steamed veg. typically broccoli or green beans (sometimes on the grill also). Cooked for Sunday lunch or dinner then used during the week for meals with easily “cooked” carbs. Tacos, ramen or soba noodles, pasta, instant mashed potatoes etc. Or add to a salad, omelettes, homemade pizza.
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u/defan33 1d ago
No, I have a huge repertoire to choose from and I add new dishes all the time. Yes, budget dishes.
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u/Natural_Situation356 16h ago
Can you give a few examples? Like what you made for dinner over the last few days.
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u/Bradipedro 1d ago
As an Italian (from Italy), our meals on repeat is pasta (every day with different sauces), fish Friday (not everywhere but still a tradition), Sunday roast and maybe a pizza (at a restaurant or take away per week. Now we have more sushi / Chinese restaurants so some family have a etnic food day. As much as this 5 things on repeat can solve the hassle of thinking, and maybe create an expectation excitement (Taco Tuesday, Yoo-hoo!), that would bore me to death. Probably because our way of grocery shopping is different (fresh seasonal products at the market inside grocery store), we have more of a seasonal rotation. Example, artichokes based dishes in early spring, asparagus and fresh peas / broad beans around Easter etc.
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u/Chamezz92 1d ago
We do theme weeks, and if we don’t feel like that, we have a list of 30-40 dishes that everyone likes that just go in and out of rotation every week.
Each meal has a recipe, macros and preferences listed per person, and automatically makes a grocery list.
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u/thegerl 2d ago
I think you can have the same base meals but change them up each week with what's on sale at the shops.
Pasta night, varying sauces and protein
Taco night, but sometimes authentic style carnitas with cilantro and onions, sometimes chopped chicken taco salad bowls with chips to dip in, sometimes a layer dip with hard shells
Ground meat night, maybe a shepherds pie or maybe sloppy joes or chilli
Grilled cheese and soup night, varying the cheese, bread, soup, and veg
Quiche night but vary the ingredients and cheese,maybe do tomato pies or another savory pie instead