What do your weekly meals look like for you and your fam? I generally enjoy cooking, what I don't enjoy is the negotiations that come with cooking, and with kids, it's even worse. I'm also the kind of person that could eat the same 5 dishes for a year without much fuss or question. That's the ADHD lodged in my brain for you.
The negotiation, or even the anticipation of negotiations, makes me agitated. If I could, I'd be a food dictator, but that's not how living with people works. It's annoying enough to me that I often push it to the back of my mind and just "figure it out" on the fly. That's not conducive to making good choices, though, only convenient choices.
If I'm going to do most of the cooking, I'll want a schedule of meals, so I can both plan, anticipate, and head-off any objections. I struggle with being assertive on this point, and I'm told often, "We don't need to do that much planning." Which, as someone with ADHD into my late 30s, I know is not true, and I do need that much planning if not more. Structure is something I need, and the kids at this age obviously thrive off structure as well.
So anyway, how do you tackle this? I need to get this sorted out for myself, but also for my kiddos. Kiddo 1 just had an annual checkup and is low on iron, and is growing increasingly picky about food. Kiddo 2 is still in that "I'll try anything in front of me." phase, and getting this sorted out now hopefully means I can avoid the pickiness down the line.
I'm going to cross post this in !neurodiverse@hexbear.net & !food@hexbear.net as I think it has some clear overlap.
I'm in a different situation to you - I don't like planning meals - but my solutions might be helpful to you.
I like having a set of meals and allowing people to pick from those on weekdays. There are a number of things you can do from only canned and frozen items, which means that you can make those menu items available for nearly all meals without needimlng to worry about when the food will be eaten. Before mealtime, I pick the ones I want to eat and then let the other people select from those items.
The big advantage is that you can sorta plan the meals in advance without having to get other people to commit to anything.
I find it a lot easier to give/take supplements than change diet. Obviously, I try to eat healthily, but if someone's picky giving them a gummy vitamin is the option with the least headache on your part.
Yeah, we're taking this rout. Honestly, I should probably be taking some kind of supplement as well.