In a meal rut. Please tell me a family friendly (i.e. for fussy eaters) meal that I might not have tried.

[parrotonmyshoulder]

Not a lot is successful with the whole family. Any ideas gladly received. I like cooking (chance to be on my own!) and can go out to get ingredients.

Watching with interest. My kids are fine. My DH is fussy as hell and I'm sick of cooking separately!

I used to cook separately, as DC would have tea at childminders or earlier than us. But have been trying more meals together. Hard to get any veg into the kids. I usually have to serve it as a side dish - peas, sweetcorn, raw peppers (for one), cucumber (for the other), carrots but nothing ‘mixed in’. Apart from bolognese - they’ll eat that.

get them to help write a list/choose food/make it together

Whatever main dish I make I make sure there's plenty of fresh salad or veg and bread or rice or something in the table so everyone has at least something they'll eat.

A roast chicken with a separate dish of salad, one of rice or beans and one of grated cheese and a plate of wraps goes down well. Can add refried beans, guacamole and salsa to make it more authentic.

Don't know how successful it would be butbits relatively cheap and easy.

Stick tagliatelle in pan.

Fry chopped bacon, add thinly sliced courgettes and a tub of garlic and herb cream cheese. Thin it a little with some pasta water before draining the tagliatelle and tossing it through the sauce.

Mine really like random things that I thought they'd hate:

Kedgeree
Paella
Dhal
Calamari
Souvlaki

And some more standard meals:

Enchiladas / fajitas
Chicken fried rice
Lamb chops, mash, green beans
Salmon & pesto pasta bake
Pasta with bacon in tomato sauce
Roast dinners
Meatballs and rice

Not exactly earth-shattering but stir-fries are my saviour at the moment.

Or you could try cooking one element of the meal differently to make a change?
Like swapping potatoes for sweet potatoes in a roast.
Or making more of a dish with a side veg - I made sweetcorn fritters last night to have with roast chicken. Surprisingly simple. Could do that with a number of veggies or leftofters. Was basically sweetcorn, spring onion, egg, little bit of milk, flour, cayenne pepper and seasoning.

I have 1 vegetarian and 1 carnivore which makes life interesting.

We have a lot of hot chicken, roasted tomatoes, different breads and salads in the summer.
We also do a lot of roasted vegetables, rice (the packet different flavours works well) and some sort of marinated grilled meat, like lamb or chicken or halloumi. And some sort of yogurt, lime and or harissa goop to go on top.

Getting the kids to Make and eat a chow mein works well. That way everyone is only putting in what they want. There’s a really good recipe on the bbc good food website for that.

Tuna pasta bake
Jacket potato
Spag and pesto
I roast a chicken most weeks and give cold chicken with most meals
Omelette
Scrambled eggs
Stir fry
Pizza- then add sweetcorn and chicken

All pretty easy... I find the less effort goes into a meal they more they eat!

My fussy DD loves chicken and pea risotto, its the only way she will eat any cheese at all, weirdly she also likes curry

Also fried rice, I do our all separately and add whatever veg, egg etc they like, this doesn't take long at all

Would they eat a very mild curry?

DD has loved chicken korma since she was about 2. I used to put some raw veg on the side with minty yoghurt dip.

spaghetti and (home made, hide veg in them) meat balls.
A roast with a variety of veg...eg one DC might only eat peas, one carrot etc.
Chicken with sweet potato mash and corn on the cob.

Easy lunches - make your own wraps, veg and pittas to dunk in hummus.

Home made chicken coated in breadcrumbs, I coat the chicken in egg then make a mixture of breadcrumbs with garlic salt and Italian herbs mixed in and then coat the chicken in the breadcrumb mixture, shallow fry until cooked through in olive oil. I serve it with wraps or rice and corn on the cob.

Meatballs with mash or pasta.

Pasta with tomato and basil sauce and add some veg like celery and carrots in the sauce and some pancetta.

Roast dinner

Pizza made on tortillas, they get to make these themselves so they always go down well

Sausage and mash, I mix carrots in with the mash and serve with peas

I used to find that the stand and stuff tortilla boats made food that was unacceptable mysteriously acceptable.
Veg chilli with rice and salad on a plate was a no but let them stick it in a boat and they ate seconds.

Rather than cooking separate meals I break out the elements so cooked chicken, stir fried veg and plain rice works better than chicken and veg stir fry and rice. People can select more less of what the want.

We eat a fair bit of soup so that gets veg into the DC and their is always some salad.

How old are your DC?

Carbonara
Fajitas with a choice of fillings
Roast chicken, peas and bake-in-oven bread
Pasta, lardons and broccoli. Sauce optional!
Chicken drumsticks and garlic bread

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m going for a ‘meatball and garlic bread traybake’ from the BBC Good Food website tonight. Turkey mince for the meatballs. I’ll do the random selection of salad vegetables on the side! DH and I have leftover potato salad to go with ours.

If the kids are fussy get them to design a dinner plate meal. Just use a paper plate section it off and get them to pick meat/protein, veg, and carbs and do the same for both of them. Have them help you make it on their night, Then you'll probably be more successful getting them to eat it. This was the only thing that worked to get dd eating a variety of things as she had to try other people's. She now eats with no problems.
Other than that try cooking with them and allow them to add their own food the their plate.

A good one for getting veg in is Jamie Oliver's sausage pasta dish. Can't think what it's properly called but basically throw celery, carrots and onions into a blender and chop small. Cook it in some oil or butter for 5 mins. Add in sausage meat (if you can't get it just buy your fav sausages and skin them). Stir it well so it all mixes. Add in tin of tomatoes, some fennel seeds and splash of balsamic vinegar and cook. cook pasta and mix together.