Same dinners all the time!!!???

[sillysausage40]

Hello. Just what the title says haha!
I've got 3 children between age 6 and 14
Every day the big question is what's for dinner lol

I find we have the same things every week.

Jacket potatoes
Spaghetti bolognaise
Roast dinner
Pasta bake
Fajitas
Shepherds pie
Lasagne
Curry
Soups & crusty bread

These all have sides weather it's a bit of Salad / rice / chips

Does anyone else feel the same? I want to spice up the menu .... xxxxx

Daughter loves those packets of frozen gyozas too.

Toad in the hole
chilli
macaroni cheese - there's a great hairy bikers recipe with bacon and mushrooms

Pad Thai is easy once you've mixed the sauce
Nigella's fear free fish stew takes 10 minutes (just don't add the sweet potato - it never cooks properly)

Without meaning to sound sanctimonious, I try to cook with as much seasonal veg as possible. Currently most of our meals involve early autumn veg like beetroot, squash, late runner beans. Chard. Then we'll move to winter veg like red cabbage, sprouts, more carrots and potatoes. Spring brings more lettuce, peas, asparagus.

I find it gives us more variety over the year and takes some of the "same old same old" out of our meals.

Liver and bacon with veg .mash and thick gravy with onions .. yum

If that's your list and everyone eats it, I think you're doing quite well! .

If you want inspiration, come join us on the meal planning thread in Food.

I think sometimes the trick is to have the same things, but do them differently. We have pasta twice a week - one usually with some kind of mince so bolognaise or meatballs or whatever. And then the rest of the time with different sauces - some tomato based, some cream based. So it's pasta... but not the same pasta week in and week out.

Similarly, we have chicken in some sort of baked/roasted form most weeks but that will vary - some times I roast a whole chicken, sometimes we do a try bake with veg and chorizo, sometimes I just bake it with a lemony marinade. Ditto curries - we regularly have curry but what type of curry changes. Sometimes it will be thai style with just veg, other times I'll do roasted veg with a satay style sauce or I'll do a tomatoey Indian style curry another day.

I also like to look through recipe books or magazines and then, when I have energy, make a point of trying a new recipe a couple of times a month then, assuming it goes down well, incorporate it into our reportoire.

How about buying a recipe book for ideas? Or look on BBC food website.

Delia's Cookery Course or How To Cook are a good start. Or Jamie's Ministry of Food.

We were like this so I changed it up by doing this.

Week 1 -
Monday - Monday Pie (basically leftovers from Sundays Roast made into a pie (either pastry or potato topped), sometimes I'd just do a bubble with egg/beans with it.

Tuesday - mince (so anything with mince, I found lamb koftas and flat breads went down well).

Wednesday - Sausage night - sausage casserole, sausage meatballs, toad in the hole and even sausage kebabs 🤣🤣

Thursday - No meat Thursday, we did a lot of Frittata!

Friday - Fish Suppers - sometimes panfried salmon, sometimes fish pie, sometimes fish and chips, sometimes King Prawn stir fry.

Saturday - Fake- Away Night - anything you can make that could resemble a Take Away.

Sunday - Always a roast

Week 2 - Countries Week

Monday - USA - mostly it was burger night

Tuesday - Greece - usually a Meze type meal

Wednesday - The Orient

Thursday - The UK - toad in the hole or a steamed meat pudding

Friday - Italy - Past night basically

Saturday - Fakeaway

I really like this idea, especially the countries one. It gets so boring making the same meals and the kids asking each day "what's for dinner?" Literally just had that conversation 😅

Here's our list for this week:
Sunday - roast (yesterday was roast pork and stuffing)
Today - spaghetti and Meatballs with homemade garlic bread
Tuesday - chicken and leftover pork and veg stir-fry with egg-fried rice and pork belly sides
Wednesday - chicken tikka masala, naan, rice and if I can be bothered homemade onion bhajis
Thursday - burger and chips
Friday - chicken and mushroom pie with sweet potato mash
Saturday - homemade pizzas

I’m making a lot of soup/ stew type things lately. Butternut squash and parsnip soup (blended with a bit of cream, nutmeg and green chilli) with crusty bread and cheese.
Fish stew with one of those fish pie mixes, potato and cabbage.
Lentil soup with loads of garlic and lemon served with flatbread and houmous.
Lamb shank and chickpea tagine.
Also lots of South and East Asian inspired food-Pad Thai, ramen with sliced roast pork ( just toast a pork tenderloin and slice when cold) sweet and sour chicken and rice.
Were not really a meat and two veg house but sometimes I do make fried chicken with mashed potato.
Hungry now!!

We ended up stuck in a good rut too and we've recently tried hello fresh and we love it!

It's taken all the mental clutter out of me head around meal planning and we find the portions a good size and are really enjoying the meals

We eat the same meals. Most people do, that why it's so monotonous and boring.

Basically the same!!!

Other things to add
fish cakes with new potatoes and veg
Brinner (breakfast for dinner - full English)
slow cooker Pulled pork with rice and veg
Stew (slow cooker) and yorkshires
Risotto (I do a butter nut squash and bacon one). Usually try to do the day after a roast chicken so can use the stock.
Fritatas

OP here
Thankyou so much everyone! I've took on all your ideas. You all sound much more creative than me! I'm using all of your wonderful ideas to spice up our life. Literally lol
I think we all get stuck in the same rut day in day out with many things including food. Especially when you have kids to think about! So it's nice to bounce off each other and share ideas xxxx

My kids quite like risotto made without white wine with saffron in.