I'm boring myself with my cooking. Hit me with your midweek meals please?

[Megatron]

I'm literally boring myself to death with my own cooking and need some new ideas. I love cooking and not afraid to try new things but time restraints mean that I like things that don't take too long - 40 mins max unless it's just something you bung in the oven. So my usual staples are:

Spaghetti bolognese and various combinations using bolognese sauce.
Fish with lentils and tomatoes and crusty bread.
Sausage, mash and beans
Parmesan chicken, jacket spuds and veg
Chickpea curry, rice and flatbreads
Omelettes/Frittatas
Chinese style pork and rice
Chicken tikka and bombay potatoes
Macaroni cheese
Lentil Shepherds pie

I also have a very fussy 16 year old who snacks constantly but I need ideas for reasonably healthy snacks that he can take out with him. He doesn't like anything it seems.

Some really good ideas here, thanks for this thread, OP. Just to add to my earlier post, I often pick up reduced bits in M&S that can go in the freezer for an easy dinner. This week our menu is:

Tonight - macaroni cheese and peas
Tuesday - chicken fajitas
Wednesday - harissa chickpea stew with pita breads
Thursday - shop-bought quiche, jacket potato, salad
Friday - reduced M&S chicken thing, with stuffed potato skins and coleslaw
Saturday - reduced M&S lasagne with broccoli
Sunday - chicken satay curry with rice

We try and have a mix of things DP cooks, things I cook, and things that just get whacked in the oven.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/hot-harissa-lamb-couscous%3famp

I serve with pitta bread and tzatziki. Delicious and on the table in max 15mins

The very best carbonara: cook pasta, drain. Return to pan, glass of white wine/amontillado, reduce by half. Half pint cream with two egg yolks beaten in, a good handful of chopped ham, twist of black pepper and a morsel of garlic puree. Stir in vigorously until it starts to thicken. Chuck at ravening horde.

Peruvian chicken - cook with a dash of jalepeno or chipotle, a squeeze of lime, cumin, black pepper, garlic, chopped red pepper and onion, sweetcorn, serve with rice and green salad.

Colcannon - in an oven dish stand slices of potato on their sides, with some chopped onions, bits of bacon, dash of rosemary and seasoning, cover with chicken stock and bake til crispy on top. Serve with sausages.

Jambalaya - seasoned rice cooked with various meat, bacon and sausage bits, onions, peppers, peas.

Stuffed red peppers - cut the top from the peppers and stuff with cooked seasoned mince, onions sauteed in olive oil, mushrooms. Brush with olive oil, bake in the oven til the peppers are cooked.

This week we have:

Chicken burgers, salad and homemade wedges
Fish tacos
Blackened shrimp, mixed grain citrus salad and roasted fennel
Homemade veggie pizza and salad
Katsu curry
Some kind of pasta with leftover veg

I'm doing a lot of kebab-y things at the moment - just chunks of random meat I happened to have in the freezer like lamb shoulder, a rib eye steak that had been lurking for ages. Trim any bits of fat or connective tissue as you'll be cooking it quickly and marinate in either olive oil, garlic and harissa (plenty harissa, we like it spicy) or soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and miso paste.

Fry or grill the meat and serve over noodles, with wraps and veg, with wraps and homemade coleslaw, etc etc.

I also do a traybake at least once a week, whether it's salmon and green beans, or chicken thighs, chorizo and potato. The Diana Henry traybake book is my most used cookbook.

We either have lamb kebabs or peppers with haloumi with rainbow couscous (precooked red onion, pepper and courgette) and some sides once a week.
We also have shit tea wednesdays. Things cooked in the oven, breaded chicken or fish, chips and frozen/tinned veg.

Spaghetti Carbonara
Nachos and Chicken Fajitas
Tuna pasta with sweetcorn
Chicken and Leek Pie
Aubergene, Roast Peppers and pumpkin seed Cous Cous with lamb meat balls with spicy sauce

These all sound great- shall write them all down in the morning

@Megatron it was based on this recipe, but I'm a bit of a 'throw in the amount I fancy' type of cook, so I didn't use exact amounts and I didn't cook the garlic in the pan before I put it in the oven. I used 2/3 honey andn1/3 maple syrup and made the sauce earlier in the day and just heated and strained before I served it. It was really tasty and I'll make it again soon. I hope your fussy eater enjoys it!

www.recipetineats.com/pork-tenderloin-with-honey-garlic-sauce/

I got into a ‘red food’ rut, using tinned tomatoes that are so damn easy, cheap and nutritious. So I banned them. Have been rediscovering lots of dishes, especially ‘white’ ones.

Pork tray bake (cut ribs plus steaks) with white veggies: cauliflower, potatoes, turnips, sage & stock. Tin of rinsed white beans near the end (eg cannellini).

Colcannon: cabbage, potatoes, bacon, etc

Seafood skewers, on a lime/rice.

I’m also doing big batches of lentils, then tweaking them across the week to match the ethnicity of the dinner with spices/herbs/lemon juice etc.

And I make a ‘pesto’ that is half kale or other healthy greens. Spooned onto bruschetta, stew, soups or next to scrambled eggs. Turns ‘egg on toast’ into a much healthier meal.

I’ve downloaded those ‘Roasting Tin’ cookbooks, very versatile. Thanks to that OP for suggesting them.

@sparkli perfect, thank you and i love that website too.

I am so bored too of cooking the same old stuff. Some ideas from me are;

Felafel, hummus, tomato and cucumber salad, sachet of grains, chilli sauce and flatbreads on the side.

Easy quiche. Put some cooked lardons, sliced fried onions and grated strong cheese on a sheet of ready rolled puff pastry, score a 2 inch border, pour on the egg custard mix and bake. Serve with salad and jackets or new potatoes.

Poke bowl. Rice, cooked chicken, steak slices or Tofu, avocado, diced cucumber, edaname beans, a dollop of some of pickled slaw or red cabbage from a jar, chilli sauce, grated carrot & a scattering of peanuts.

Savoury rice. Saute some veg - peppers, mushrooms, onion, peas, sweetcorn. Add bacon if you like. Add a dash of worcestershire sauce and come balsamic glaze for flavour. Mix with a sachet of rice/grains.
I like to serve it with "pizza" mushrooms. Basically portabello mushrooms filled with a dollop of pasta tomato sauce (which I usually make and have with pasta the day before and just save some for the mushrooms), a few peppers from a jar, some cubes of mozzarella and cheddar. Bake in the oven for 20 mins.

My top super quick meal is a chorizo stew. Slice up some chorizo, add a tin or 2 of tomato's and a tin or 2 of mixed beans (depending on how many you're cooking for). Heat it all up, I like it served with focaccia, but almost any bread would work well. Takes literally 5 minutes.

@Thelnebriati

Peruvian chicken - cook with a dash of jalepeno or chipotle, a squeeze of lime, cumin, black pepper, garlic, chopped red pepper and onion, sweetcorn, serve with rice and green salad.

Colcannon - in an oven dish stand slices of potato on their sides, with some chopped onions, bits of bacon, dash of rosemary and seasoning, cover with chicken stock and bake til crispy on top. Serve with sausages.

Jambalaya - seasoned rice cooked with various meat, bacon and sausage bits, onions, peppers, peas.

Stuffed red peppers - cut the top from the peppers and stuff with cooked seasoned mince, onions sauteed in olive oil, mushrooms. Brush with olive oil, bake in the oven til the peppers are cooked.

@TheInebriati (fab name btw) I thought colcannon was potatoes mashed with cabbage? Yours sounds good.

Lots of good ideas on this thread which I am looking up and bookmarking

Mix with lots of snakes paprika and olive oil.
Can't wait to try this one

@longtompot My family is from all over the UK and Europe, and I think they swapped recipes

DD and I are going to be making a shortcrust pastry ham hock & leek pie in a bit. We're leaving it to cool down before having it for tea with salady bits.

We just had falafel (made from cheap powder mixture) txatziki cherry tomatoes cucumber lettuce and whole meal pitta.

Smoked salmon pasta with spinach

Chicken and black olive pasta

I do a tasty salmon pasta dish that's super easy. Uses any of smoked salmon, hot smoked salmon or just normal cooked salmon.

Cook pasta (tagliatelle usually, but anything really).

While pasta is cooking mix a good teaspoon of cornflour with white wine, more for more people. Drain pasta, add lemon zest, lemon juice, white wine, cornflour, creme fraiche, parmesan and black pepper to drained pasta. Mix in some of the pasta, save some to arrange on top.

I also discovered you can bake risottos: you make as normal up to the point where you'd add the stock and keep stirring, cut the water in the stock down and put in a lidded dish in the oven for 25 mins/til cooked. Then stir a bit to make it creamy and add parmesan at the end.

Lovely ideas on here

We tend to have Thai curry or sweet and sour chicken

Cajun chicken and rice / fajitas

Beef casserole (it's not a heatwave here) and cauliflower mash

Some nights I just make homemade pancakes or have scrambled egg

Piri piri couscous, I use the small prawns/shrimps instead.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/piripiriprawnsandhar_86697

Courgette and lemon risotto
BBC's easy lentil curry

This Ottolenghi chicken recipe, I've made it so many times and it's lovely.

mycookinggallery.blogspot.com/2013/09/roast-chicken-with-chili-and-basil-ihcc.html?m=1

Tonight we had new potatoes, green salad, ham, salad of tomatoes, fresh basil, red onion & mozarella.

For snacks at sport DS likes
Graze chilli & lime nuts
Blueberries
Dried mango (Lidl)

My latest dish and if you use just rol it can be vegan. Basically ready rolled puff pastry score all round the edges so the filling bit stays flat. Spread tomatoe purree or pesto on the base. Then add roasted veg with diced chorizo and cheese or chicken or whatever veg you have. Serve with salad and coleslaw. If you google it there are loads of recipes , tasty and quick