I didn’t get the food memo, I eat this on repeat. How to change it up?

[amberhumbrr]

Literally, this everyday:

salmon and veg with slice of bread or burgers or chicken and veg or pasta and veg for dinner. On repeat for lunch and dinner.

bacon sandwich for breakfast everyday with banana and apple and yoghurt and probiotic drink.

I am slim, I don’t care about fattening foods or healthy dishes, just want some variation!!!

Can anyone help?

Go to BBC recipes and from there you can put in your ingredients and it will suggest things to cook

Thank you

If you struggle for inspiration why not try one or the meal subscription boxes for inspiration? HelloFresh/Gousto/Mindful Chef all provide a good variety of meal options with fresh ingredients and you can keep the recipe cards to remake them yourself after.

Set yourself categories for each day to help you plan. For example
Mon
A pasta dish, e.g macaroni cheese, pasta arabiata, carbonara, linguine with crab, chilli and y tomatoes
Tues
A fish dish e.g tuna nicois, sweet chilli salmon, cod, gherkin and caper fishcakes
Weds
A meat dish e.g steak and chips, toad in the hole, peri peri chicken wraps with spicy rice and coleslaw
Thurs
A veggie dish e.g roasted veg fritata, stuffed garlic mushrooms, falafels with pita, hummus and salad.
Fri
A stew or a casserole e.g sausage and bean casserole, coq au vin, pork in cider, beef in ale
Sat
Fake away e.g burgers and chips, homemade pizza, chow mein, a curry, fish and chips
Sun
A roast, chicken, pork, beef, gammon, lamb, nut roast

Obviously loads of options for each category, you can swap around categories, change them from food types to countries, switch up sides etc. It’s just a frame to build on.

I do the categories thing as above. Works really well at providing variety whilst taking away a lot of the hassle of thinking of new ideas

We do themes. This week is.

Monday is mince (so can be anything from a cottage pie to chilli and rice). I always make it on a Sunday (I have made spag bol for tomorrow)
Tuesday is sausages - so can be sausage/mash, sausage casserole, sausage surprise, sausage meatballs. Not decided on this weeks sausage dinner yet, probably toad in the hole.
Wed is veggie night - this week it’s quorn ‘chicken’ fajitas
Thursday is freezer night - this week my planner suggests it’s a steak pie
Friday - fish (this week is grilled 5 spice salmon with veggie/noodles)
Sat is Fakeaway so anything ranging from a curry (this week is chicken) to Greek lamb kofta kebabs
Sundays - traditional roast.

It's very easy to get into a rut, especially if anyone is fussy.

I tend to take inspiration from cookery shows and books, or things I like to eat out that I think I can re-create. During lockdown 1, I did a few themed weeks based on places we should have travelled (Spain/US/Italy), and tried completely new things and techniques, which was quite fun.

I often get inspiration here too when meal planning (I meal plan every week and shop accordingly).

Oh and do you ever watch Eat Well for Less? They often have good recipes and ideas to get around various issues (takeaways/ fussy eaters/ avoiding jars etc etc).