How many "dishes" do you make for dinner?

My parents always tended to prepare 2-3 dishes at dinner time, maybe a salad and an entree and a side. My mother-in-law does similar. But Cathy and I basically just make one dish. It can be a big salad or a bowl of soup or a stirfry or pizza or whatever, but it's usually cooked in one vessel and served as one entity. Is this an old-time vs. modern approach thing? Or are we weird? I don't really have any idea. So here I am asking!

When I was a bachelor, I was a fan of one dish meals. These days, most of the meals end up being around three separate dishes. Usually it is a main, a starch, and a veg. This might change depending on the main dish and what it contains. Something veggie heavy might not need a veg side.

I'm still sticking with the idea that we just make one dish usually, but sometimes we make a X-bar (like a taco bar or potato bar) with a million options -- some of which just come out of the fridge, but many often require real prep. I don't know how I'd really count that, but it's not what we do most typically in any case.

Oh yeah, Tim's response makes me wonder how much of this depends on your diet. Like, we don't eat meat, so the traditional roast beast + starch + vegetables doesn't fit into our lives the same way.

Ours are all over the place. I'd say a small majority of the time, just one, but often 2 or 3. Like most things, it depends on our mood, what we have a taste for, etc.

I have a hard time imagining just one all the time, or multiple all the time. A bowl of potato soup might be the entire meal in itself, but grilled chicken or pork chops needs a side and (if I have my way) some type of bread to go along with it. Biscuits or non-sweet white cornbread preferred.

We make 1 to 3 dishes, depending on the vibes and moods. So I voted 2 :)

Nina Surya wrote:We make 1 to 3 dishes, depending on the vibes and moods. So I voted 2 :)

I set the poll up so everyone could cast two votes (I think) to cover situations where someone had two options that are equally common, but I guess that doesn't cover three. :)

We're at 1-3 dishes also and a 4th for a rare dessert.
Our big meal is lunch though, no dinner/supper here, just a mid afternoon snack.

Some use the word dinner as either supper or lunch though? I think?

Oh also, I guess different people use words differently and "dinner" is one of those. I mean to be asking about the evening meal that is traditionally (among the folks I know best) the largest and most formal meal of the day -- thought I'm well aware that every person or family has their own eating plan.

Judith Browning wrote:We're at 1-3 dishes also and a 4th for a rare dessert.
Our big meal is lunch though, no dinner/supper here, just a mid afternoon snack.

Some use the word dinner as either supper or lunch though? I think?

In the south anyway, if your grandma says come over for Sunday Dinner, she means come eat at noon when church lets out. So growing up it was always dinner at mid day and then supper in the evening. I find myself using both dinner and supper for the evening meal now that I'm older.

Rusty Ford wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:We're at 1-3 dishes also and a 4th for a rare dessert.
Our big meal is lunch, no dinner/supper here, just a mid afternoon snack.

Some use the word dinner as either supper or lunch though? I think?

In the south anyway, if your grandma says come over for Sunday Dinner, she means come eat at noon when church lets out. So growing up it was always dinner at mid day and then supper in the evening. I find myself using both dinner and supper for the evening meal now that I'm older.

Rusty, that's what I grew up with...Illinois farm family and the noon meal was the big one called dinner.  It might all have to do with early morning farm chores and working in the fields.

Last vote in apple poll was on January 22, 2025

We do both, single dish meals like soups or stews are great in winter, I think. A role or some corn bread is probably included too. In summer a lot of one dish salads with lots of different greens and other veggies but also probably some bacon bits, grilled chicken and probably some cheese.  Fried chicken probably needs mashed potatoes and green beans. Baked chicken needs stuffing and a baked sweet potato. Fried fish needs French fries or tater tots and another vegetable. Asparagus and wild rice go nicely with baked fish.   Roast beef goes with roasted veggies, but they can pretty much all be cooked together. When I'm by myself I often go with the one dish thing, but it has a of different things in it, and I usually make enough to have it for lunch the next day too.