Variety, the spice of life.

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Arch

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Or so they say. However...

Due to a combination of laziness, budget and eating what I enjoy, I sometimes eat exactly the same thing 3 or 4 days running:

Breakfast: 2 x Toast with jam and honey, tea.
Lunch: Instant Noodles (see avatar), bread and butter, chocolate biscuit, tea.
Dinner: Pasta with sauce (3 or 4 daysworth made in one go at the start of the week), tea, a choccy biscuit, a bit of cheese.

I'm perfectly happy with this - it's easy (no deciding what to eat, all things I can cook quickly), cheap and I like all the items involved. There's the odd deviation, maybe I treat myself to a samosa to add to lunch, or I get a takeway. And at the weekends, NT and I eat more interestingly.

How varied is your diet?
 
We usually have the same breakfast day in, day out, season dependant. My OH's lunch pretty much never varies unless he is eating left of last night's meal for lunch... My lunch, well I'm at home and usually just have a bowl of rice with soya sauce - something I adore.

Evening meal is always set to last 2 nights (that way I can get out on my bike and not worry about what time I get home, every other day).
So I cook from scratch every other day, making enough for 2 days (sometimes 3) and we only have 3 recipes a week so to speak. They are planned, and a shopping list drawn up. The meal plan is stuck to, the shopping list not so much, but it makes life cheaper than going around the store hungry with no list.

I also do snacks and things, usually do 2 or 3 batches of scones and freeze them, then my OH will pull them out and take them to work. Better he snacks on a 150 calories (dairy free) scone than a chocolate bar (with dairy) that has nearly twice that many calories. Homemade fruit leathers are a favourite and bring all the usual "what's that" comments which he finds great in a new job - a way of meeting people who have 'stayed away' because he has yet to cut his hair since our 12 month tour and look great, but can be off putting if you don't know him.
weirdest one (so most people say) that I do for him is homemade Raw Onion Bread which he often adds to the mix with his sandwiches. Adds taste and variety, easy to make (assuming you have a dehydrator).

So you are not the only one who eats the same thing day in day out...:)
 
I'm a great exponent of the 'large vat' cookery school.

This basically means, if I'm making lasagne for example I'll make 1 huge one that will do the 3 of us for 2 days of evening meals and sometimes an extra dinner (That's the meal in the middle of the day btw, we're not posh). At the same time I'll make several small ones to go in the freezer as a handy meal when it's just me here.

Chilli con carne, curry, spag' bol', 'tater 'ash (potato hash, essentially a stew made from spuds, onion, carrot and shin beef) and other things made in one pan, will be made in large enough quantities to have on at least 2 evenings.

Sunday roasts are generally large and become the basis for several meals during the week, plus something to cut at for sandwiches.

Strangely, Dad refuses to eat the same evening meal on consecutive days, so we have to do something else for a day in between, but he'll happily have the same breakfast dish every day for 6 months.:scratchhead:
 
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one happy to eat the same days on end. My Mum is very particular to vary her diet, she won't have rice or pasta more than once a week etc. I just can't be bothered with that level of planning! Pasta (usually spaghetti) tends to win as a carb, just because it's pretty much the easiest thing to cook, and also I love it. I coat it in pesto, and then have a tomato based sauce on top, with the protein varying between tinned tuna, minced beef, or hot dog sausage. I batch cook on a Monday, my day off so I'm home all afternoon, and then I have instant dinners for the rest of the week when I don't get in until after 5pm...
 
Hi All,

I don't mind having the same thing a couple of days running but I confess I do like variety.
When the kids were of a school age and both me and my better were working full time, it was often the same or at least similar meals on the same days through the week. Not for any other reason than it was a doddle to plan and shop for but also pretty easy to know what time I had to knock off to begin to prepare food. Thursday.....that might be say spaghetti bol. so I could leave it late because there was little time needed to prepare. Routine I guess.

I always used to have cereals for breakfast or muesli, maybe porridge during the winter but recently I noticed that I would always be peckish mid morning and would maybe knock off and have some toast with my tea. I decided to change tack and began to have more of a protein based meal for breakfast either eggs or fish maybe bacon perhaps. Guess what ? No eleven o'clock cravings for grub.
I still have cereals from time to time because I like it, but if I do I always get the munchies mid morning.

I've been making good use of a slow cooker that my mrs bought last year too. TBH at first I really couldn't see the point of a slow cooker (it's just a fancy casserole dish after all) but I have changed my opinion. Great device.
 
Our version of a slow cooker is a big enamelled cast iron casserole dish on top of the wood burner.

The kettle lives there too.

Our gas bills go down in winter :D
 
I live in a melting port of cultures where food is in abundance and variety is a way of life lol

Theres eastern cuisine that ranges from malay to chines to indian to thai to korean to japanese to arab to lebanese (middle eastern)... the list goes on & on. And theres also western, be it authentic or the modified version to suit the eastern palate. And all this made available just round the corner either at the neighbourhood restaurant or the hawkers stall or the many food courts sprouting all over the place. u don't have to always go to a fancy place for good food, its almost everywhere. food & eating is a big thing hereabouts and people seem to be stuffing their faces round the clock lol.

Same goes with cooking home made food. Not only are there plenty of wet markets around for fresh produce, there are nite markets, supermarkets & hypermarkets that carry local & international foodstuff to choose from. all u need is the time, the inclination & interest to haul urself into tht hot kitchen & cook :wink:

But of course apart from having variety at ur fingertips theres also the matter of personal preference. that's how I still end up eating the same thing over & over again :)
 
If I had the money I would eat different things everyday but living on your own and on a budget you are forced to eat the same boring meals each night. I usually have leftovers from dinner, so have the same next and the same with lunch, just because it's cheaper to bulk buy some things rather than just buy 1.

But if I had more money I would buy fresh sea food, make pasta, have a roast one night, then make a fresh pizza the next. Mmmmm, a girl can dream!
 
I'm completely fine with eating more or less the same things on a regular basis. I live on my own so I cook enough for 2-3 meals every time... so usually my next 3 meals. I do enjoy variety but due to budget I have to more or less stick to the same old stuff... but it's easy to make slight variations: say you make pasta sauce which will last for two days. Well tomorrow, how about having that sauce with rice instead of pasta?
 
Ahh, yes good idea mixing the sauce with rice instead of pasta, if you haven't cooked too much and need to get rid of that aswell.... which I always end up doing. I can never seem to get pasta measurements right. It's either way too much or too little.. Never just spot on
 
I prefer consistency with my meals. I basically eat the same thing for breakfast. It's quick and I don't have to think about it. It's filling and holds me over until lunchtime. I eat yogurt with raw trail mix and a dash of cinnamon. Eating breakfast consistently is new to me. I need to make it as easy as possible.

When I cook dinner, I make enough to last a couple of days. Sometimes, I eat the same thing for lunch and dinner. I always having bagged salad mix and spinach in the fridge if I just want to eat a salad as a meal.
 
Breakfast for me is mostly the same every day. I eat one apple, 2 dates and a bunch of Goji Berries along with 2 cups of coffee. I really can`t eat anything consistent in the morning, so fresh and dried fruits work very well. Lunch and dinner however can be very varied, depending what I would like to eat on a given day. It also depends of available funds. :D
 
Monday to Friday is a mug of tea and cereal for breakfast, I get the mid morning munchies so have an apple, it takes time to munch through so I don't feel hungry again until lunch, 12.30 sandwich and a small carton or juice. Nothing then until our evening meal, we go for straight forward not too much cooking. We are creative at the weekend when there is more time. TVC likes to make up a big batch of chilli or bol which is divided into pots and frozen, just thaw and re heat, quick and easy for a mid week meal.
 
It amazes me how little variety my kids are happy with. My big boy (15 months) about lights himself on fire every morning for his cup of dry cheerios and a banana. I mean, occasionally we make eggs and grits and he's equally excited about that, but I'm telling you, he's never been tired of those O's and the banana. In fact, he gets so giddy, you'd think he'd never tasted either before.

My older two are pretty chill about eating PB&J 4 out of 5 days a week for lunch, if it comes to that. And in the winter, when fresh fruit is shipped from a million miles away, I feel like we just rotate between an apple, a pear, and a banana every other meal. But they are perfectly happy with this.

This is why I always look forward to summer and early fall, when everything in the garden and farmer's markets is abundant and fresh and colorful. It is so easy to cook in the summer. A quick meat on the grill and whatever veggie I picked up that day as a side. Oddly, you'd think I'd get sick of squash, but I feel like with all the different ways of preparing it, it is a different dish each time.
 
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