What do you feed your family?

[PyjamasBetterThanJeans]

I plan all our meals ahead, a task I hate as I can never think of what to cook. I need things suitable for 3 kids under 5 and 2 adults that are quick and easy (ideally one pot type things)

Most things I do are mince based or pasta - a bit dull but kids won't eat chicken breast

What are your tried and tested favourites?!

Lamb chops ,steak, pizza .

Worms

Creamy mushroom and chicken (use courgettes instead) with either pesto or garlic
That green curry (made mild)
Stir fry
Cottage pie
Ham, potatoes and peas/salad
Stroganoff beef,pork or mushroom
Casserole
Tortilla pizza (Loraine Pascale cheats pizza)
Roasts
Pan friend fish wish mash and greens (brown butter sauce)
Sausage and mash
Toad in the hole
Baked potato and topping

I do the same as you, plan meals every week (and also don't enjoy it - it's a necessary chore). My kids are 6 and 4 and a new baby is due any day. We do jacket potatoes with cottage cheese or beans, chicken meatballs with brown rolls and salad, tacos, Moroccan chickpeas and veg with couscous, homemade tomato soup and cheese toasties, chicken dhansk using some red lentils with flat bread or rice, pasta carbonara and peas, pork mince lettuce wraps, pork mince kebabs with couscous and peppers, fish cakes and salad, spinach and ricotta pasties, salmon fried rice...

Those are some of the meals over the last 6 months that mine have eaten and enjoyed. There are plenty of others which I've cooked that they didn't like as much...

Fried rice www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6350/fastfix-fried-rice
Oven baked risotto www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2818/ovenbaked-risotto-
Stir fry
Cheat's chilli www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/food/recipes/cheats-chilli
Gnocchi www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-broccoli-gnocchi
Lamb couscous www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/speedy-lamb-couscous

My child is very fussy so it's usually cheesy ham pasta, cheese and ham toasties, pizza, cottage pie, chicken dinner, lasagne, carbonara, bologneise, pie carrots and mash with gravy.
For quickness; tinned ravioli, tinned macaroni cheese, beans on toast or a little picnic style meal of sandwiches, muller corner, crisps and a cereal bar or piece of fruit

Nachos - can be veg or meat based chilli (I alternate and do mince one week, beans the next)
Fajitas
Enchiladas
Tacos
(Tuesday night is Mexican night)

Otherwise in no particular order
Roast meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb) with potatoes & veg
Slow cooked lamb shanks with mash
Risotto (bacon / chicken / chorizo sausage current favourites)
Pizza (Thursday nights)
Casserole (beef or chicken depending on the week) in the slow cooker with roast potatoes and bread and butter
Meatloaf, chips and veg
Pasta with a tomato and basil sauce with either bacon or sausage
Lasagne (easy to make and freeze, I usually make huge amounts of both sauces, layer up 2-3 so there's always one in the freezer for emergencies)
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Pasta carbonara (very often after making lots of lasagne when there's a lot of white sauce to use up)
Fish pie
Chicken pieces roasted with tarragon and thyme on root veg with masses of garlic, garlic mash
Chicken saagwala (super super easy, recipe here and rice
Spinach and 3 cheese cannelloni

We have a 4 weekly menu cycle so nobody gets bored and there is something every week that everyone likes. It works really well, simplified the shopping lists every week and has just made us more organised in terms of knowing what's for dinner tomorrow and getting stuff out of the freezer the night before.

Watching with interest as hate meal planning but spend too much money if I don’t!
We have lots of meals that can be flavoured up and down for the kids and adults. So last night had Chinese chow mein but only added the sauce to half the noodles and chicken/veg mix so the kids could have it plain.

do you mean just for tea times ? do you have a slow cooker at all as they are good for one pot things ? I online shop but we get our meat separately delivered from somewhere else as I prefer to get organic and just eat less meat. So I plan round that and go from there. We eat Meatballs with spaghetti and a tomato and veg sauce , roast dinners and then have left overs the next day , mince lamb hot pot , mince and dumplings , Shepard pie , spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne, beef ribs , pork ribs both with jackets and sides , steak stir fry / fajitas , some times I cook a ham joint in slow cooker then use it in omelettes, pasta, macaroni cheese or pies, quiche just use whatever we have for this, omelette/ frittata , puff pastry with toppings and cheese , pitta bread pizzas , fish pie , fish gratin , fish fingers sometimes. Cous cous salad type thing with left over roast meat and veg , vegetable stir fry with cashew nuts - I can't think of anymore at the moment but I think that's are usual stuff sometimes I will do something new , get new cut of meat ECT

I only have dd but at 20 months shes becoming a bit of a fusspot, so I'm also only doing quick easy meals as there is nothing worse than cooking for ages for her not to eat anything!

Current favourites:

Carbonara, I fry a courgette and asparagus with the bacon to get some greens in her.
Butterbean & chorizo stew
Lentil dahl with loads of spinach stirred in at the end
Mild veg curry served with udon noodles, sounds mad but it really is delicious.
Oven-fried chicken - dip boneless chicken thighs into seasoned buttermilk and then seasoned flour, put on a rack inside a roasting tin and into a hot oven for 30/40 mins. We have coleslaw/chopped veggies with this. Healthier than frying!
Gnocchi bake - cooked gnocchi, cheese sauce, lots of steamed green veg mixed together and baked for 20 mins. This freezes really well before the bake so is a good standby meal.
Sausage casserole with sweet potato wedges.

Bread and ifit.

As in if it's in the freezer/fridge/cupboard,that's what's for tea/lunch/breakfast.

We eat mostly vegetarian meals, as DH is veggie and I don't know how to cook a lot of meat and can't be bothered to cook seperate meals.
Regular meals that are quick and easy include:
pizza on Fridays (from the fresh pizza counter in the supermarket)
pasta
veggie chilli, often in tortilla wraps with guacomole, sour cream, cheese etc
mild curries/ dahl though DDs tend to make them milder by putting about half a pot of plain yoghurt on theirs
risotto
fish fingers

If I have more time:
toad in the hole
pie and mash (don't usually make the pies myself)
lentil shepherds pie

Fajitas sometimes chicken sometimes steak.
Lasagna.
Chilli.
Spaghetti bolognese.
Homemade quiche.
Steak pie.
Chicken supreme.
Taco's.
Chicken in black bean sauce.
Stir frys.
Fishermans pie.
Cottage pie.
Chicken korma.
Steak and chips.
Pizzas.
Fish and chips.
Hunters chicken.
Lamb keftas.
Chicken kebabs.
Minted lamb chops.
Gammons.
Homemade macaroni cheese.
Chicken chow mein.
Loaded burgers.
Sausage casserole.
Cooked breakfast.
Lamb tagine.
Roast dinners.
Lamb hotpot.
Beef casserole.

Most of the meals take us about 30 minutes.The one's that take a few hours we'll make up and stick in the slow cooker in the morning and then that way there's only the side dishes to prepare and cook in the evening.

The8thMonth do you have a recipe for the Moroccan chickpeas please? Sounds like something my fussy, protein dodging (see my other thread) 3yo would like.

Shamelessly following

My kids are teens but I try to base their meals around getting some veg in:-

Spaghetti with pesto (half of the spaghetti is courgette which I use a julienne peeler on then microwave the courgetti for about 30 seconds so it is soft - can't really taste the difference!) - I add tenderstem broccoli, mushrooms and petit pois to this

Stews - beef and ale stew is always a winner and I also do a lovely tarragon chicken stew, serve either with mash and 2 or 3 veg

Chicken tacos with salad

Steak with salad

Roast dinner with lots of veg

Sorry, but reading through the active threads this and the post below it would be a cracking round of Cards Against Humanity

Over the past week family meals that I have made in the slow cooker have been:
Mince and dumplings.
Sausage casserole
Pork shoulder for pulled porked served with corn on the cob wraps and salad. This is a favourite and there are leftovers for packed lunch or pork stir fry.

DD almost 2 will consistently eat:

Haddock chowder
Vegetable soups if well blended
Sausage stew with carrot and leek
Sausage and mash
Fish pie/ fish and cheesy mash
Shepherds or cottage pie
Frittata (potato and spinach) or omelette
Chicken nuggets with chips/ new potatoes
Fishfingers
Scampi
Noodles, avoiding the sauce as far as possible
Carbonara pasta
Pasta with tuna, cream cheese and sweet corn
Jacket potato with cheese and beans

I also offer these on a regular basis and occasionally some is eaten:
Chicken korma
Nachos/ chilli con carne
Beef or lamb stew
Meatloaf or meatballs
Spaghetti bolognese
Pizza

If she won't eat what I've cooked for us all, she'll be offered cream cheese or peanut butter on toast, which always goes down!

Not a lot of meat as we prefer higher welfare but are poor :
Black bean chilli
Columbian black bean stew
Dal (red lentils or - preferred - chana dal) and rice/homemade chapatis
Pasta with fried onions/bacon/olives/sun dried toms/peas/whatever's kicking around
Seasonal veg soup (lots of squash and leek and potato in winter)
Homemade baked beans

I tend to cook at least double and freeze, although that's getting harder as the DCs appetites increase!

I LOATHE having to think of what to eat, I find it so boring.

This week we have:

Stifado & rice
Microwave meal - late gym class
Mac and cheese
Sausage and bean stew
Mexican chicken stew
Pork gyros
Take away

I have a subscription to Good Food which helps.

You have just inspired me to make a cottage pie for dinner. Thank you

gateau 😂

TheGateauIsInTheChateau 😁🤣

This week's dinners
Lamb tagine (yesterday's left over meat)
Toad in hole green beans carrot/Swede mash
Chicken thighs and roasted veg
Vegetable lasagne salad
Cod with parsley sauce, saute potatoes peas, carrots and whatever is lurking
Ribs with barbecue sauce, vegetable rice
Roast beef etc

I don’t meal plan as I just can’t cope with it. My friend does and she cooks far better food than me! Things I have thrown together in the last week have been;

McDonalds
Roast chicken dinner
Mussels and chips
Spaghetti bolognese
Homemade burgers
Green Thai curry
Chickpea curry
Pizza
Pizza
Pizza