3 meals a night for 3 different people!

Longwalker

Not easy, esp in this day and age with fuel costs and food price rises

Myself I would work on the vegan, What I mean is, build the meals about the vegan , which it seams you are doing, then work on the husband/son 

Are they having the egg and meat because they are trying to up their protein portions? If do they are really wasting their time and your money. You get more protein from beans and lentils then you do meat ( in most cases )

If I were in your situation, I would if you have to have a cooked breakfast every day, then go vegan. Cook the evening meal - vegan and let the guys get that protein they feel they are missing out on at lunchtime. 

Even your son will be better served with plant based protein.Save the pennies for the wee extras they really like - like buy full fat milk instead of vegan for example 

So many veggies are better for you in terms of protein and essential amino acids and micro nutrients. Non vegans ( and this is a wide assumption btw ) tend to think we need dairy and meat , yet there are millions of vegans walking around probably healthier  then a good few of us. ( and a lot who dont have a clue and arent - so do your homework) 

Even choosing to cook only vegan but having normal bread, proper butter etc will supply each and every one of you with your nutritional needs

However filling a teen - thats a different matter. Buy fruit in season ( bar bananas as they stay the same price all year ) Use oats to make flap jacks  ( energy bars ) Boil up some hard bailed eggs for snacks. . Chicken wings are cheap ( still ) and there is actually a lot of protein in them. Cook up a pack, leave them in the fridge 

And then there is Pasta. OMG Pasta absorbs flavour, is cheap, and even if you have to buy a jar to flavour it, dead cheap, filling. I love making Nigellas fridge Noodles , great for lunches and eating from the fridge when you come in and needing a fill of food 

JIL

I dont eat meat, daughter is fussy, husband loves meat.
I often cook different evening meals but they are based around the same things if that makes sense.

For example Sunday dinner, I will do the roast potatoes, veg, Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese. My daughter may have a chilli from the freezer but have it with roast potatoes and veg.
I will have everything but no meat. I may cook a chicken or a small joint, leftover meat will then be lunch for husband.

Monday is usually Sunday dinner meat, salad and a potato product, I usually have tuna with mine and the rest of the tin will be my lunch the following day.

If we have pasta, I usually coat in a tomato sauce and add meat to some of it (meatballs, chorizo, chicken, bacon) I add mozzarella, quorn, vege bacon to mine.
I tend to do us the same, but just find ways of changing the protein but also then making sure anything always gets used up.

Last week, I made a meat cottage pie and a quorn bolognese pasta bake. 
The cottage pie made 2 dinner portions and 2 lunch portions, the bolognese made 1 dinner and 2 lunches. They all got eaten. I costed it and it was probably less than £7 for all.

When you make a meal think about what you can do to make it easier the following night. For example. Extra jacket potatoes, could they then be wedges to do some filling up on the following nights dinner? 

happydenial

I do the same as @JIL - same food all round but with variations. DH eats everything but fish, eldest loves fish/white meat, won’t eat sausages, burgers, pork etc but will eat mince, youngest hates rice and potatoes 🤦‍♀️ I cook so make what I fancy but eat most things. 

It sounds complicated but actually isn’t - the meals are the same but I serve some sort of bread for the rice/potato haters, and a piece of fish for the meat haters. This actually covers most meals - naan with curry, wraps with chilli, a chicken burger vs a beef burger, salmon instead of sausages etc. 

I know it might not be as simple for you, but you could make your vegan food with something on the side so you’re eating the same thing but adding extras on.

Rosa_Damascena

poppy811 said:

Really no need for this.  Just cook one meal and let each person take what they want.  If they want different then they need to buy it for themselves and cook it.  Sorry if this sounds harsh but your dilemma would not have existed in the past

I have sympathy with this view. As a child it wasn't take-it-or-leave-it, it was take-it-or-be forced-to-eat-it and to this day I cannot forget how much I hated it. That people spend their time on meal planning and prep and seem to enjoy it is bewildering to me (although I accept the vast majority of people do).

Siebrie

@happydenial Maybe you can persuade them that they can pick 1 food item they really abhor? All else gets eaten. It worked for a Mum I know, but never for me. We have the rule that dds have to eat as many bites as they are in years, so 14 for the eldest and 11 for the youngest (we started when they were 4 and 1), and that they have to try it at least 10 times before they are allowed to say they don't like it. This solution works better with dd1 than with dd2.

happydenial

Hi @Siebrie - thanks for your comments. I’m actually not looking for a way to change my kids eating habits, as they eat a wide variety of food from all different cuisines. I was just trying to show that it’s not too time consuming to cook a main meal for everyone and add a few different components to make it palatable for everyone - eg tonight we are having spicy chickpea and butternut squash stew with sourdough, but I’ll also do some sausages on the side for the meat eaters.