May I ask what your mid week family meals are?

[gallopingglio]

Struggling for inspiration for a family of 4.
We usually cook things like spaghetti bolognaise and chicken rice and sauce, roasts, cottage’s pie, or chops but we’re all bored of it and need new ideas.
I’ve looked in lots of books but it all looks a bit too far fetched.

Any ideas welcome, or examples of your weekly meal plan if you have one.

This week, spaghetti meatballs & tomato sauce.

Then pork and apple burgers with salad.
And chicken coconut curry

Tonight we had home made lasagne, tomorrow is steak and mushroom pie with roast potatoes, carrots and cauliflower.. Wednesday is chicken curry with baked potatoes (take about the same time in oven). Thursday will be soup and toasted sandwiches or bacon. Depends on how hungry everyone is. After that....no idea lol but

Tonigt was duck pancakes & salad.

Tomorrow egg & avocado on toast as it’s just me eating at home.

Then meatballs & spaghetti (slow cooker), pork loin steaks & veg , probably freezer fish & chips on Friday

Get a Hello Fresh or Gousto trial. It was very helpful to shake up my cooking and get inspiration which I now incorporate into my regular recipes.

Coconut curry sounds really nice, I’ll have to try that.

This week is quite chicken heavy for us
homemade chicken burgers
chicken curry- homemade korma with veg
spaghetti meatballs
Chicken fajitas
Salmon with rice and veg

Today is a whole chicken on a pile of root veggies so they all roast together and sprouts because they were on offer.
Tomorrow is enchiladas with black beans and sweet potato
Salmon risotto with asparagus and leek
Vodka sauce pasta

Other favourites include sheet pan kebabs served witb pitta, homemade hummus and a yogurt/cucumber/mint thing and loads of sliced veggies.
Irish stew in the slow cooker
Nigella pork and gnocchi in cider sauce
Brisket on baked potatoes with lots of cheese and salad

All sounds really lovely, we will like all of that.

The last few days:

Roast chicken with sweet potatoes and onions, bag of rocket on the side

Pasta with leftover chicken, roast Brussels sprouts, parmesan

Spiced rice baked with chicken thighs, wedges of squash, coconut milk

I really like an Australian website called Simple Home Edit which has a whole variety of family meals and she posts weekly meal plans too.

Some great ideas, I have a week planned already.

@gallopingglio thank you 💐 i did use the hello fresh boxes for a while but there wasn't enough food for my growing son lol

We tried a new Joe Wicks recipe tonight - sausage cassoulet. It was basically a sausage and cannellini bean stew with a herby breadcrumb topping. Was lovely!

Fajitas, pizza, lasagne, something else involving pasta, chilli, wraps, breaded frozen fish with vegetables, freezer food, soup...

This week includes a stir fry with noodles, fish pie and veg, and sausage and mash. It’s cold!

Sausage pasta (with a white sauce)
Asian style salmon, rice and stir-fry veg
Mexican something- tacos, fajitas, enchiladas etc
Always a curry of some sort, I buy a packet mix and add the recommended meat and veg
Korean BBQ pork (pork mince stir fried with sauce) veg, rice/noodles
Sea bass, potatoes and green veg.

We try to have a variety of meat and fish at least twice a week.

I have my 85yo dad living with me, he’s underweight and has very conservative taste in food 😕 so midweek meals tend to be bangers and mash with peas, homemade pies with mash, veg and gravy, cottage or shepherds pie with cabbage, beef stew and dumplings, fish with wedges and mushy peas.

If dad wasn’t here, there would be a lot more chilli, curries, stir fries, chicken or pork noodle dishes, lasagne, moussaka…I make those too and leave portions of them for DS2 (who works antisocial hours) or for DH to choose as an alternative. I mostly eat homemade soup, nuts, vegetables and fruit (I’m fat).

This week we have

• salmon stir fry with Singapore noodles
• chilli con carne and jacket potato
• king prawn risotto
• chicken gyros flatbread with chips salad and tzatziki
• teriyaki beef and rice
• steak pie mash and broccoli
• probably go out for food on Sunday

This week:
Roast lamb with a rosemary garlic & anchovy rub with braised little gem & peas.
Pasta with tomato sauce & cheese
Jacket potatoes with a variety of toppings (beans, cheese, coleslaw, hummus, sour cream, salsa) & salad.
Chicken goujions, chips & broccoli
Dunno about Friday - maybe pizza.

I'm the same as you, I get so fed up even thinking about what to make.

Last night we had teriyaki salmon with egg fried rice and long stem broccoli
Tonight - spaghetti Bolognese
Tues - chicken, potato, vegetable hash (just everything covered in seasoning and chucked in the air fryer)
Weds - chickpea traybake
Thurs - lemon and herb chicken with veg and cous cous
Friday - idaf because I'm going away for the weekend and they can all fend for themselves!

Halloumi gyros became a firm fav of ours after someone suggested them last year! We also love lasagne (I’m veggie so we have veggie mince + lots of veg like peas, sweetcorn, onion, green beans, pepper in there and it’s amazing). Also love chilli con carne and sweet potato curry. We found ‘Simply Cook’ good for new recipe ideas, they give you all the sauces you need and you just buy the ingredients. Helped us try new things and was a decent price!

Agree. Gousto Coq au Vin tonight. Sri Lanka fish curry tomorrow. Pasta ragu on Wednesday.

I do the exact same dinners as you 😂
Except add in fish , bacon & cabbage cause I’m Irish 😂 , & stews in the winter 😊

Spaghetti bolognese
Chicken or steak fajitas
Prawn spaghetti with garlic, lemon and chilli
Salmon poke bowls
scrambled egg on toast
Chilli tacos
Jacket potatoes with tuna mayo and cheese
crosta and mollica pizza bases with own toppings and salad
Spinach and chickpea curry and rice
Katsu curry with sticky rice and veg
Anythibg quick from the local butcher - sausages, burgers, kebabs

Can’t recommend the RecipeTinEats site highly enough. I would say 50% of what I cook for the family comes from there.

Winners from the site include

Butter chicken (& the quick “dump and bake” version)
Thai red curry
Lamb massaman
Vietnamese caramel pork (& the quick mince version)
Lamb shawarma soup
Taco soup
Quesadillas
Smoked sausage rice and peas (we use chorizo)
Short ribs in wine (I use stout)
Chilli con carne
Satay curry
Minestrone (although I use one can of tomatoes not two and I swap her times for putting in the potatoes and beans)
Pulled pork & wraps
Greek lemon chicken & rice one pot
Chicken shawarma rice one pot
Honey soy chicken wings
Honey soy salmon
Asian slaw

A few of these are slow cook or a bit more effort so I might cook them on a Sunday or when I have time, make enough for 2 meals and freeze half for another week’s midweek meals.

From other sites/ my head

Keema (Swathi’s recipes)
Sausage casserole (Hairy bikers)
Bolognese (bbc good food)
Pasta with courgette bacon cream
Pasta with smoked salmon peas cream
Pasta with tomato sauce & mozzarella
Pasta with tomato sauce & meatballs
Moroccan chicken tagine
Spiced lamb casserole
Risotto - eg butternut or leek & goats cheese
Steak & salad & garlic bread
Burgers & salad
Fried fish, butter & lemon, veg & potatoes
Schnitzel, coleslaw, potatoes
Sausages & mash
Fajitas

Soups too but they are generally a weekend lunch thing

Flatbreads with chilli chicken +salad.
Beef casserole (in slow cooker while at work)
Lasagna
Home made burgers
Jacket potato with salad, coleslaw, whatever in.
Home made pizza.
Sweet n sour chicken and rice.