Eating habits - are you a repeat offender or variety is a spice of life?

[ptolemy]

One of the benefits of mostly cooking for myself, is I usually cook what I want. This often means that if I am in a mood for something, I can eat it 6 meals in a row and no one will complain... Obviously, if you cook for others, this style most likely won't be much welcomed, but with that said, I am curious about your eating habits. Is it, a variety is the spice of life (different things, not often larger batches/left overs), or you can eat same thing daily, or something in between. Is it tied to specific foods or when certain foods are in season and/or anything else?

 

[boomchakabowwow]

no way. I can't eat anything 6x in a row.

Meat. eating meat is cyclical for me. it comes and goes. veggies are the standard. I am all over the place to be honest. the biggest surprise for me is a burger. it used to be my favorite go-to meal. now I rarely eat them. I got tired of them perhaps. I dont think I have had a burger for almost two years. weird.

 

[ptolemy]

no way. I can't eat anything 6x in a row.

Meat. eating meat is cyclical for me. it comes and goes. veggies are the standard. I am all over the place to be honest. the biggest surprise for me is a burger. it used to be my favorite go-to meal. now I rarely eat them. I got tired of them perhaps. I dont think I have had a burger for almost two years. weird.

interesting, but not overly surprising actually

 

[benito]

rice+beans.

cristianos+moros, refried pintos with red rice, butterbeans with short grain... etc.


I love food.

like, all the food.

but I can't eat like a caveman all the time.

thing with rice+beans is, it digests easily (for me) and its happy healthy complicated carbs, for runnin around all day.


when I used to ride my bike a lot, the go-to lunch for centuries was always a rice+bean burrito with extra avocado.

 

[spaceconvoy]

I eat almost the same thing everyday. Potatoes and eggs with cheese for breakfast, rice and beans with either tomato or avocado for lunch. Dinner is where I go 'wild' and have either barley and carrot soup, hummus and crackers, or a fried chicken cutlet. But I'll always have a large green pepper salad with one of those three

 

[Michi]

Especially when I make stews and similar dishes, I end up with far more than what I can eat. So they go in the freezer and get consumed over the next few weeks. That way, I always have at least three or four dishes in the freezer to choose from if I don't feel like cooking.

Other than that, for once-off meals, I cook what I feel like (and what the fridge and pantry contents allow for). There are some dishes that I return to year after year. Typically, it goes something like "oh, I haven't made X in a long while, let's do that."

But I rarely end up eating the same thing several times in a row. Two times, at most, whether it's from the freezer or cooked on the spot.

 

[stringer]

My partner and I trade off dinner cooking duties. We end up with a good variety. I make the same kinds of dishes (stir frys, curries, pastas, stews, succotash, greens) over and over again but rarely ever the same way twice. She likes to make her tried and true favorite dishes most of the time. So we end up with a good variety of new stuff and nostalgic. But she travels a lot for business. So when she is out of town I revert back to my bachelor days. Ramen, frozen pizzas, hot dogs, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I just never have any energy to cook something just for myself.

 

[M1k3]

Hash browns with an over medium egg or two with some hot sauce.

 

[chefwp]

I cook about 5 dinners a week, my wife cooks one or two, and maybe we'll take the family out or do carryout once in a while. Dinner is never the same two nights in a row, but we do get stuck in weekly/cyclical ruts depending on what our current favorites are. For example, my current favorite meal to make and eat is Korean bbq chicken thighs with a ginger slaw and brown rice on the side, so it shows up on our table once every two weeks for sure, as does hot Italian sausage with peppers/onions/red-sauce, one of my childhood favorites and really quick to put together on a weeknight. My wife likes to do stir fries, makes a killer lemony one-pan orecchiette with sausage and brocollini, the kids always request she make her honey curried chicken with a Waldorf salad on the side. Ironically, they have a dad who is an ex-chef, but what do my kids only request I ever make? Hamburgers! <ok, occasionally they'll ask for spag. with meatballs or bbq ribs, but it's usually burgers>.
Lunch is a whole different ballgame, here I get into daily ruts, scrambled egg tacos, bean quesadillas, toaster/bread 'pizzas,' or just a regular turkey sammich piled with sauerkraut, any of these sometimes many times a week interspersed with dinner leftovers, depending on what's on hand and what MUST be eaten, I am loathe to throw food away.

 

[chefwp]

Hash browns with an over medium egg or two with some hot sauce.

I sometimes make this for dinner, adding a caramelized onion and cherry tomatoes, often when my older daughter is out, she doesn't like this but the wife and other daughter dig it.

 

[chefwp]

Another angle on your question, ingredients. While we don't eat the same thing meal after meal, we do seem to have ubiquitious things in the food we are eating. Chicken thighs are a main staple here, I use them with regular bbq, Korean bbq, just pan fried with Alabama sauce, chicken tortilla soup, burritos, or coq au vin, just to name the main ones I make. My wife uses them in some of her favorite recipes.
There is always a fresh loaf of sour dough bread, some flour tortillas in our pantry, and when I make red sauce I make enough to freeze and it is always available. If the block of Reggiano in the frig gets too small, I get panicky! ;-)

 

[Richieg54]

One of the benefits of mostly cooking for myself, is I usually cook what I want. This often means that if I am in a mood for something, I can eat it 6 meals in a row and no one will complain... Obviously, if you cook for others, this style most likely won't be much welcomed, but with that said, I am curious about your eating habits. Is it, a variety is the spice of life (different things, not often larger batches/left overs), or you can eat same thing daily, or something in between. Is it tied to specific foods or when certain foods are in season and/or anything else?

I am definitely a seasonal eater. I also try and mix it up for lunch and dinner.

That being said, I do eat yogurt with fresh fruit for breakfast, and some sort of taco filled with carnitas or some other pork product for dinner several times per week.

Best,
Richieg54