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.

I also hate cooking. Family of 5 here, I can cook but it's such a chore sometimes.
I love pasta, nice and easy, throw a load in a pan and just throw a sauce over it. Add sweetcorn and a little cheese.
I also double up when I make a stew or lasagne and freeze them, so the days I really can't be bothered I just take them out and heat up.

Sausage salad
Chop sausages, potatoes, red onion and peppers into chucks. Bit of oil and seasoning - paprika’s nice if your kids will eat it. Roast for 20-30 minutes depending on chunk size. Salad leaves onto a plate, then top with roasted mix. Fancy it up with a bit of aioli if you do wish. You can switch out the sausage for chicken, change the veg for whatever you happen to have in so it’s very adaptable.

Laksa -
red Thai curry paste, chicken in bite sized pieces or prawns fry them up together, add coconut milk, a spoon or two of peanut butter and veggie or chicken stock (the little pots are fine). Cook for ten minutes or so. Chuck in noodles and whatever veg (frozen sliced peppers or green beans are good for this). Serve and top with chopped spring onion, chilli, and coriander leaves to taste and availability. Squeeze a bit of line over if you have it. It should be a soup but the flavours also work as a drier noodle dish if your kids would prefer, just leave out the stock and use less coconut milk

I think I need to get over the idea of it being a chore. I do like cooking, but will time constraints, and all the prep and washing up, I feel like it's "not worth" cooking "properly". Fir example, mashed potato, seems ridiculoys when theres 2 tiny portions and mine. Ditto anything roasted.

I’m not cooking for kids but I totally feel your pain. Staying with elderly parent whose cooking abilities are limited to pasta and sauce or reheating frozen stuff, whereas I like to cook from scratch. It means that if I want to eat anything different, I have to cook it because he’d eat the same three meals for eternity. He’s very appreciative of my efforts but fucking hell it’s dull. Also he’s recently decided he isn’t eating red meat, further limiting the options. I would just like someone to cook something delicious and different for me for a change.

Anyway, I did cauliflower and macaroni cheese last night and it was a winner.

Have a look at some of the new roasting tin recipe books. There seem to be lots of tasty complete meals that are all cooked in just one roasting tin.

Chicken wrapped in Parma ham.

Pizza chicken (basically, slice open chicken breast, stuff with mozzarella and passata...add pepperoni etc if you wish, then sprinkle with mozzarella)

Gammon and eggs

Salmon and new potatoes

Steak and chips

Katsu! I make double the sauce and freeze half. We love it with fish fingers for a quick meal, or chicken if I have more time.

I use this recipe but blend the sauce:

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/35405/-fakeaway--katsu-chicken-curry.aspx

@ImFree2doasiwant

I think I need to get over the idea of it being a chore. I do like cooking, but will time constraints, and all the prep and washing up, I feel like it's "not worth" cooking "properly". Fir example, mashed potato, seems ridiculoys when theres 2 tiny portions and mine. Ditto anything roasted.

Frozen mash is your friend! You can microwave as much or as little as you need Sometimes I put it straight on top of cottage/Shepard's pie filling and pop it in the oven 😀

A favourite simple supper here is cooked rice (can even use the Uncle Ben's microwave rice) mixed with tinned tuna, garden peas, fried lardons and then add soy sauce to taste.

Mine loved a really mild curry at that age
This week we've had:
Fish cakes (poach fish in milk, then mix into mash and fry)
cottage pie
veg pasta
french toast for tea because they asked, I knew they'd eat it and I couldn't be arsed with proper dinner
sausage casserole
chicken nuggets and veg

Bacon and tomato tagliatelle. Slice up bacon and an onion, fry while the pasta boils, chuck in a tin of cherry tomatoes for the last 5 minutes (or halve some fresh ones and add right at the end), stir in some chilli flakes, mix together and serve. Less than 20 minutes, we have it every couple of weeks when no one wants to cook 'properly'!

Pizza - we either make our own or get ready made base and make our own toppings, everyone has their own, my three year old will guaranteed eat hers if she's prepared it.

Chicken katsu curry - I use the wagamama recipe (it is a bit more involved than throwing everything in the oven receipe), nad I don't strain the vegetables I liquidise it into the curry.

lamb kebabs on skewers - basically throw in whatever herbs and spices I fancy into the lamb mince and fashion into kebabs on the skewers and cook under a grill

Chicken pasta with red pesto

breaded chicken and chips

fish fingers and chips and peas

Above all served with veg, my kids like broccoli and baby sweet corn, sometimes will eat carrots.

OP, a roast can be very time saving. You just do a big joint or a whole chicken, lots of extra roast potatoes and make loads of spare gravy with the drippings in the roasting tray. Then you carve all the meat and freeze it in the gravy with the potatoes in individual portions, so for several nights you have a home made ready meal of a lovely roast dinner, that can just defrost in the fridge overnight and be heated in the microwave. Most kids love roasts.
Similarly, you can make a massive stew, with a lamb shank or chops in loads of lentils, barley, carrots, onion, parsnips etc, flavoured with whatever herbs or spices you like. Leave it on a long slow oven while you do other things. You then serve one helping that night, and freeze the rest as lovely warming winter comfort food ready in 3 mins.
I also batch up home made curries, vegetable soups, shepherd’s pie, moussaka, etc.
It works out that you only have to cook from scratch every third or fourth night, which reduces the hassle considerably.

@tootiredtospeak

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

This is nothing like what I know corned beef hash to be but it sounds delicious! Corned beef hash in our house is like the bbc recipe linked below - has to be served with ketchup...

Meant to add my suggestions which is duplicating many of the others.

Bacon and mushroom risotto

Creme fraiche pasta (bacon, chicken, green veg like broccoli or green beans.) Fry all off and add creme fraiche and some cheese. The key is to get the bacon very crispy to add flavour. Can adapt for different meats and veg depending on what you have in. DH and I add lots of chilli to ours at the end!

Bagel pizzas - slice bagels and either passata or pesto with mozzarella and veg of choice. Grill and they're delicious and easy.

I feel your pain about meal planning and cooking. I'm so sick of it. Things like jacket potatoes definitely count as a meal!

Quick dinners in this house are:

Tuna sweet corn pasta - just stir soft cheese, grated cheese and bit of milk, tin tuna, tin sweet corn into cooked pasta. Season to taste. Serve to DS with cherry toms and cucumber piece

Omelette with whatever veg liked and cheese - serve with peas and green beans (both veg done in microwave so super quick)

Jacket potato or sweet potato

Grilled salmon with new potatoes and veg (often veg all cooked in same pan). Takes as long as it takes the potatoes to cook

Grilled salmon with Cabbage, garlic and bacon with splash of cream.

What about doing something in slow cooker? A stew type thing if they will eat it - add beans. Serve with bread. Might take 20 mins to get into slow cooker in morning but then just ready to dish out dinner time

Scrambled egg on toast is another good one. Quite often with fruit, Greek yoghurt, honey and nuts for dessert

Quickest dinner here is pasta, with a handful of frozen peas added at the end of cooking, then drain and mix with soft cheese.

I feel you mash pain, DP and DS like it but I don’t really, so it makes me hate cooking it even more. I’ve taken to making double and freezing it. Defrosting it takes minutes and then just add a bit more milk/butter if you think it needs it!

I also just freeze whatever leftovers we have, but I make sure I freeze some in DS4 sizes portions as well and not just family sized. Whenever I can’t be arsed to cook and if DP is working away, I pull out a DS size portion of chilli/curry/stew/casserole and he has a non cook home made meal and I —order a curry after bedtime— have something on toast.

I hear you.

My tip is once a week before you do the shopping send yourself a text or WhatsApp with a Mon- Sun rough meal plan and then every week when you come to meal plan you will have all the past weeks on the message chain for ideas.

My dc faves were
Tuna pasta sweetcorn
Macaroni cheese
Jacket potatoes with soft cheese mashed into the middles
Spag bol or meatballs

But don't forget to include your faves too

I've not made mashed potato from scratch for years!

My dd can't eat potato, so it's been a case of only making it for me and as you say it's ridiculous peeling, chopping, boiling, mashing and dirtying a pot JUST for me to have some mash!

Frozen is good, as is the chilled, i so rarely have it but when I do I want it now! That I always keep instant mash in. I know a lot will turn their noses up at that but I like it, I mostly cook and eat healthily from scratch and it's fortified with nutrients by law so why not!

@peaceanddove I've just started getting micro rice even though I've no micro! You can heat in a pan, Ive been wondering if it would work fine as fried rice? Do you happen to know?

@BiggerBoat1 nothing wrong with french toast! Eggs are very nutritious and you can do them savoury rather than sweet and have them with slices of deli meat or cheese on top

Op, agree everyday weekday cooking for DC can be very unrewarding and tedious but planning ahead definitely helps. If you allocate a food group or style of dish to each day of the week, it stops the dreaded rabbit in headlights feeling at 5.30 pm. You can also calmly point to one particular dish on the list when asked "what's for tea?" and because you are confident about it, the family don't protest too much (in theory). Just create loose categories for each day with a selection of three or four dishes under each of those, so then you know if it's Friday, it's fish, so it's going to be one of following: ie fishcakes, frozen salmon steaks in foil parcels with vegetables,, fish fingers, tuna bake etc.

Or Saturday = fakeaway eg breaded chicken and oven chip & peas, stir fry, chicken noodles, meat balls, burritos

Sunday: "roast" but you could do simpler version with roast chicken, or lamb chops, frozen Yorkshires or frozen roast potatoes, peas. Or cook a small ham in natural apple juice.

Monday: cold cuts from mini roast (easy) and tray baked veg or frozen vegetables with new potatoes or rice, small individual shepherds or cottage pies made in ramekins, shredded meat and veg in warmed wraps, or hot pork buns etc

Tuesday: vegetarian 1 with pasta or rice eg pasta with pesto or tomato sauce, or hidden veg, egg fried rice, veggie chilli, nasi goreng, pumpkin or mushroom risotto,

Wednesday: tray bake night (easy) eg sausages, or marinated chicken legs with roast veg or frozen peas and sweetcorn, rosemary lamb chops with peppers, lemon potatoes etc.

Thursday: vegetarian 2 eg veggie pizza, sweetcorn fritters, veggie burgers, chickpea fajitas, pitta pockets, thick lentil soup with etc

Create a list of breakfasts and weekend lunches too: pancakes, cheese/baked beans/ scrambled egg on toast, sausage rolls and batons of raw veg, Cornish pasties, toasted sandwiches.

Annabel Karmel has some good recipes for DC. And Dorling Kindersley do some really excellent step by step "how to cook" books for children, which contain really excellent recipes for children and adults alike. The children might like to become involved themselves at weekends. Jamie Oliver's simpler family recipes are good too.

Good luck.

I try and have at least one day a week where I cook something that's a bit more effort, then use the leftovers for quick easy meals the next 2 days when I can't be bothered.
So bolognese-style sauce with spaghetti one day. Then I buy ready made microwave mash, use it to top half the leftover sauce for shepherds pie next day.
And next day I heat a up carton of cheese sauce and the rest of the bolognese in the microwave and layer up a lasagne - into the oven with some garlic bread.
Or roast chicken one day, risotto/pasta/curry/fajitas/tacos/noodle soup with leftover chicken next 2 days. I quite often buy those meal kits for Mexican or curries or noodles.

Or sausages and mash one day, cook double the amount of sausages, make a casserole with mixed beans, tinned tomatoes and sliced leftover sausages.

If you can't face similar things 3 days running you can freeze leftovers, but I prefer to just eat it the same week.

I've just started getting micro rice even though I've no micro! You can heat in a pan, Ive been wondering if it would work fine as fried rice? Do you happen to know?

Yes it absolutely does, I use it for this all the time.

Thank you all so much for all the suggestions! Really helpful. We've had salmon noodles and veg (under MUCH protest though they did eat it, I really don't think they enjoyed the salmon) and chicken/chorizo/potato/onion traybske with salad which they loved, I'm very happy as it's a favourite.