Best family meals, so bloody bored of cooking/deciding

[ImFree2doasiwant]

I'm sure this has been done to death.

I'm single, and have a 3 and 5 yr old. Seperated when youngest was a baby. So it's been all on me, and I'm just so done with having to think about what to buy, cook and eat every bloody day. Evening meals in particular.

We've just had chicken goujons chips and corn on the cob because I just can't be arsed. Almost went to mcdonalds but the 3 yr old needed an emergency poo. (Nothing wrong with the meal or the McDonald's , I'm just all out of ideas and motivation)

So, what are your favourite family meals?

Preferably quick and easy to cook. I can cook, just .....done . I feel like an empty bloody she'll when it comes to this stuff.

We liked one-pot meals - Chuck it all in & let it cook:
Jambalaya
Chicken & Chorizo Paella
Chicken Jollof
Bacon Fried Rice
Sausage Pesto Pasta
Chicken, Nduja & Mascarpone Pasta
Spicy Coconut Chicken Curry Casserole
Chorizo Frittata
Tikka Salmon & Jewelled Rice

@Mummysgonetobed my friends mum.used to make corned beef hash and I loved it! Never something my mum did though, how do you make it?

this one pot pasta is a new favourite here. I replace sausage with veggie balls and leave out the chilli for ds1.
I also buy sausage meat because life is too short to skin sausages

I do corned beef hash just potatoes carrots and onions and veg stock in a pan boil it add gravy slowly and at the end a tin of cut up corned beef. Put it in a large frozen Yorkshire pudding add a dollop of tomato sauce or Henderson's relish yum

@ImFree2doasiwant I just follow the bbc good food recipe here, easy and cheap!

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/corned_beef_hash_43424

Risotto

Marking for ideas. I’ve been trying new family recipes and every single one is rejected by one child or the other. They alternate 🙄

Will try some of these ideas and see if I can manage the magic two for two.

Ready rolled puff pastry, cut into 4, or even 6 littler ones, for smaller portions

Put on piece of salmon, top,with whatever, so garlic butter, garlic and herbs,

Fold pastry into parcel, egg wash and put in oven until pastry crispy. Serve with frozen sweet potato fries - season before you put those in the oven, they're grim otherwise.

They freeze well so make extra.

Also:

Omelettes or savoury pancakes are simple, and you can chuck ham, cheese, leftover veg in etc.

Jacket potato is absolutely a proper dinner. My go to when anyone is ill.

Curry with rice and fine green beans (using the left overs from a roast chicken)
Chicken thigh casserole with new potatoes and veg
Roast and trimmings
Chicken with garlic, lemons and thyme (and a stock pot) served with rice and oak choi
Spag bol
Chilli con carne
Tray bakes
soup using the chicken bones
Pizza

Hmm the "I don't bloody know" dinner rings quite a 🔔 here.....

I feel exactly the same, it's a chore planning, shopping and cooking every meal. The only additional idea I have to add to those above is using those Coleman's packet mixes, the chicken chasseur one is good with some extra bacon and mushrooms. Throw ingredients into the casserole dish raw with the mix and water and into the oven. Serve with some new potatoes / jackets / mash / rice and veg and you're done. A pretty square meal for minimal effort

Oh, and a fry up.

Homemade tomato soup with bread and cheese - you can make it in advance and freeze it .
Spag bol followed by pasta bake the next day - cook up double the mince. You could even turn it into chilli by adding beans, and have it with pitta bread or doritos if you can be faffed to cook rice. Sopmetimes i just add extra veg to it for a 3rd meal - courgette, spinach, kale, carrot - whatever you've got.

Just seen that DC2 doesn't like beans.
My advice is to work on that. I've managed to get DS2 &3 to eat beans in chilli con carne, DS1 still picks them out and he is an adult! With hindsight I would have been tougher on fussy eaters at a younger age. Best way I ever heard to get them to eat the hated food without too much fuss was to put a tiny amount on their plate ( like 2 or 3 beans) every day for about 10 days, just so they get used to seeing it there, before asking them to eat it.
There's certain foods ( beans and peas amongst them) that just make life so much easier if they will eat them, it's really worth persisting.

Things we make again and again:

Giant cauliflower cheese as a main, not side dish. Add bacon or chopped chorizo, peas, sweet corn, chopped peppers

Chicken fritters - these come out like McD chicken strips:

Cut chicken breast into strips, dip in flour, beaten egg, and crushed crackers or tortilla chips. Fry until golden. Yum!

Macaroni pasta or any tiny pasta fried with garlic, onions or leeks, diced chorizo or bacon, grated courgette, peppers, any vegetables you have to hand really, slowly adding chicken or veg stock until the pasta is cooked.

When dd was that age and it was just me, her, a full time job and I was just about holding it all together, I did a 4 week plan for food and rotated it pretty much for 2 years.
It went something like:
M - quick- omelette/shit on toast/frozen stuff
T - jacket potatoes (no beans for me either, egg or tuna here)
W - fish - fingers, bit of salmon, from the chip shop...
Th - pizza, usually frozen, sometimes hm, delivered when really could not be arsed
F - pasta - pesto, carbonara, tuna bake or, her grim favourite, ketchup with grated cheese and olives
S - curry. Jar. Takeaway.
S - roast
And somewhere along the line she got better with food and I got better at juggling and we didnt get scurvy and now it's all good. But sometimes, food on a plate with a side of cucumber is as good as it gets and that is fine.

My DD used to like pasta mixed with tuna (no mayo!), peas and sweetcorn.
And eggy bread.
Jacket potatoes are definitely a meal. Lots of different fillings; cheese and beans, just cheese/beans, tuna or tuna mayo, chilli, chicken korma. Add lettuce and tomato on the side.

This is great. 10 mins prep:
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/roast-tikka-chicken/

Tbh I'm impressed your dc eat pasta with a sauce. Mine are hideously fussy but will eat things if i deconstruct them ie won't eat tuna pasta bake, but will eat pasta, tuna and veg all separate next to each other.

Fried eggs/ omlette with veg and rice
Chicken drumsticks or fillets cut up to make kebabs
Sweet potato wedges cook really quickly
Fried rice - stir fry some frozen veg in sesame oil, when done add cooked rice, strips of omlette, sesame seeds.
Toasties with tuna and cheese
Make mini naan bread into pizza by adding red pesto, grated cheese, sweetcoen, pineapple etc.

I feel your pain - i used to love cooking but with picky dc and no meals out it has become a complete chore

Brutal isn't it op.

Lasgane
Quiche - I put cottage cheese in it and tons of veg.
Carrot and coconut soup
Chilli wraps (leftover heated chilli, in a wrap, folded over, sprinkle cheese on, grill till bubbling)
Breaded fish, rice, carrots
Chinese beef, egg fried rice
Chicken pasta pesto
Minced beef and mushroom pie (mince, onion, chopped mushrooms, oxo, splash water, fried for 20 mins, then baked in a pie for an hour. Mega filling. Served with roast spuds and broccoli.
Grilled cheese and crudités
Macaroni chesse, with cubed ham and spinach.

we didnt get scurvy
^

I think you need to give yourself a break thinking you need to "cook properly" every night.

Find some shortcuts too.

I was a single mum too and it's a grind.

The occasional "freezer to oven" meal won't kill them or you.

If you're making something that can be frozen and eaten as a leftover always make at least twice as much as you need (dependent on freezer space of course) you'll soon build up a stock of "home made ready meals"

Use convenience foods that are actually good for them - Tinned tomatoes, ready to eat or quick cook/microwaveable grains, Tinned fish, frozen fruit and veg...

Meal plan - yes it's a chore at the time but saves you time and food waste later

Choose simple options -

Eg fresh pasta with cream cheese stirred in as a sauce, Chuck some cherry tomatoes, Tinned sweet corn or whatever on for the veg bit. Adding the veg cold actually cools the dish down just enough that kids can eat straight away in my experience

Cous cous was used a LOT in my house when dd was growing up as it's so quick and easy to do! I'd make it in the bowl I'm serving the finished dish in to save on washing up too!

"Stuff on toast" - perfectly adequate for little ones and you can supplement your own version with preferred added extras

Eggs with everything - healthy, filling and cheap! You can even do them in the oven on an "I can't be arsed day" just crack into an oiled ramekin, if you like pop some grated cheese on top, bake for around 20 mins which is also around how long most oven chips/wedges take! You can even cook beans or indeed any Tinned veg in the oven in a ramekin or similar too, but put some kind of lid on or they can dry out

Soup is an easy thing to batch cook and freeze and can easily be a meal in itself especially if served with a roll or sandwich

Nothing wrong with the occasional "picnic tea" either - picnic/buffet items like quiche. Sausage rolls, scotch eggs (quorn do lovely mini ones), falafel, cocktail sausages, mini or slices of pork pie, crudités and dips, cherry toms, pickles, bread sticks, crackers, cheese portions, Deli slices, olives, sundried tomatoes... providing a good balance of nutrients absolutely fine and one of my dds favourites growing up

jackets ate fine my favourite filling is cottage cheese and sweet corn

Nothing wrong with instant mash either goes great with casserole type dishes

I do cheats fried rice. Cook rice in microwave the day before (while I’m making that dinner). The next night
Beat a couple of eggs and cook in pan. Remove. Cook some onion and sliced ham or chicken then add the cooled rice. At the same time microwave some mixed veges - I use the pea carrot and corn mix. When the rice is warmed through add the veges the eggs plus a splash of soy sauce. Dinner

@DelphiniumBlue there not much DS2 won't eat, but beans (and banana) are on the list. He will try anythingi put in front of him, so i dobt really feel like pushing the beans!

They both eat well but I'm conscious, at their age, of keeping the variety up and not giving them the same things over and over. Ds2 will give anything a go, ds1 needs sone persuading to try stuff but usually likes it when he does.

I'm so unbelievably bored with cooking at the moment, got no enthusiasm at all.