To ask for your meal time recipes?

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I didn’t know where to ask his and I’m new here so I’m sorry if it’s the wrong place.

I’m stuck in a rut with what I cook for our family on an afternoon/evening. I tend to do the same old, same old week in and week out.

It tends to be chicken curry with rice and broccoli, spaghetti bolognaise, mince and onion with veggies mash and sometimes Yorkshire’s or dumplings etc and one night a week I’ll just do bacon and egg sandwiches. OH has said that he’s bored of eating the same all the time but I just can’t think of anything else that they’d all like.

DSD hates fruit and veg if any description, keep giving her it in the hope that she’ll eventually give it a go but no success yet. DD hates cheese and any sort of potato, even chips and OH isn’t keen on anything too spicy.

Lasagne is our family favourite. Homemade pizzas. Spaghetti and meatballs. Homemade soups are always a good one to make the kids have a good whack of veg, blended, with some nice crusty bread.

Those are tricky tastes to manage!

If they will all eat pasta how about trying some different sauces like pesto? If they would eat fish (even if fish fingers or similar) you could do those with some veg. Will your daughter eat sweet potatoes? Sweet potato chips are lovely with fish.

If you want super easy things then kievs can just be bunged in the oven - you could do them with veggies and rice.

It's more of a faff but you could try making your own burgers - it's super cheap and you can do a big batch all at once and freeze them. How about spaghetti and meatballs, to vary the bolognese a bit.

You could also try a 'picnic tea' - a few plates of cheese cubes, sliced fruit, finger sandwiches, veggies and dip etc. That might encourage your step daughter to try some new veggies.

Quiche is really easy if you buy the shortcrust pastry pre-rolled, and it keeps really well for packed lunches as well. You can serve it with salad, veggies, etc or just on its own.

Would they eat soup? That's another easy thing to make in batches.

Hope some of these are helpful! X

I go on the BBC good food recipes and look there.

Jacket potatoes with variety of fillings
Salmon with terriyaki sauce (bought) and sticky rice and brocolli
Meatballs with spaghetti
Sausages with mash
Risotto
Fajitas
Lamb koftas with flat breads and salad

We regularly eat:

Shakshuka with nice crusty bread
BBC Good food peanut chicken curry with added aubergine/green beans, rice and naan
Mary Berry's express lasagne
Tagine made with lamb mince with pita, hummus, baba ganoush, salad
Shepherd's/cottage pie
Crispy skinned roast chicken thighs, mashed potato, veg and gravy (not rocket science but it's delicious comfort food!)

Also, you can replace all the potato with mashed sweet potato or similar, if that's more acceptable to your DC.

Oh, and toad in the hole.

Our current fav is this super easy lamb biriyani - it's not very spicy at all so child friendly also.

www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/lamb-recipes/easy-lamb-biryani

What would your OH like to eat and/or cook? If he's bored of what you are providing, what brilliant ideas does he have instead?

I just made chicken enchiladas for the first time yesterday and they went down a right treat.
I brought one of those kits just to start me off but basically had that brought chicken and grated cheese- just don't put on your dd that doesn't like it.
It has all the instructions on the back which is great as I'm not the best cook

Hamburgers, with whatever toppings each person likes.
YY to toad in the hole above but did you know in the war years they made batter pudding with chopped ham, or bacon, or whatever they had, so it doesn't have to be toad in the hole evey week: if Yorkshire pudding batter is a carb the whole family will eat together then use it for more things!
Carbonara: eggs, bacon, then grate parmesan over only for those who like cheese.
Frittata/omelette/Spanish tortilla/foo yung: basically any of a number of heavy egg based dishes.

Anything you make with mince you can make with cubed meat too.
Have you considered a mild chilli instead of a mild curry? One day with rice, the next in wraps with trimmings as burritos.

The more limited their choices the less they will try new things: they like rice so try a beef in black bean sauce, or a sweet and sour, or an oyster sauce: none of these are particularly spicy but they do have very different flavours.

garlic bread or pizza without cheese, quesadillas,
soup: lentil and bacon is neither vegetable or potatoey and is cheap and filling.

Your DD likes veg but not potatoes and your SD vice versa? bangers and mash with onion gravy: one with normal mash, one with cauliflower. You and DH get both! Yum!

LBOCS2 could I have your lamb tagine recipe please?

We have a lot of Mexican type food, fajitas, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, chilli con carne etc. Some are old El Paso kits but I often make my own too. I find lots of elements where people help themselves work well for trying to please the masses.
I do a few different tray bakes, a chicken and sausage one, chicken tomato and basil, chicken with wine and veg, pork and mustard.
Big pigs in blankets with mustard mash, greens and onion gravy.
Omelettes with fillings,
Paprika pork with rice,
Beef/chicken/pork casserole,
Beef/chicken/ham risotto
Chicken and ham pie, beef and ale pie
Cottage pie, shepherds pie, I sometimes use sweet potato or mashed carrot,swede and potato on the top.

Notso, it's a very fiddled with version of a BBC Good food one (I couldn't think of anything to do with lamb mince other than shepherds pie, and I had at least half of the ingredients in the recipe!)

Pack of chopped soffrito mix
Pack of lamb mince
2 big cloves of garlic
An aubergine
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp clear honey
100g soft dried apricot, quartered
1 stock cube

Cook the soffrito and cubed aubergine in some oil until it's soft in a relatively high sided frying pan. Push it to one side or put it in a bowl, then fry off the lamb mince until it has a bit of colour. Chuck in the spices and the garlic (crushed), cook those for a minute or so, then mix the soffrito back in. Put in the apricots and honey, stir, crumble in the stock cube and then pour over enough hot water to just cover it all. Give it a stir then cook down until it goes a bit gloopy and sticky - like a thickish sauce rather than wet.

I serve it either with couscous or (more often) with toasted pitta, various dips, tomato and coriander salad and a mint and yoghurt sauce.

Mostly beef stew.
Pork chops, veg and and apple sauce
Salmon (cajun or BBQ with baby potatoes)
Curry
Chilli (I use cajun not chilli)
Sausages and mash
Pasta pesto
Steak and chips
Shepard's pie
Pretty boring here!!

A really easy one is toad in the hole using ready made giant yorkshire puds (aunt Bessies, and they are the size of a side plate). Heat up one per person and fill with sauages, gravy peas and mash, or whatever you want.
Roast chicken legs are cheap and easy to do, serve with whatever they will eat.
Fish? You don't mention it. Spaghetti with salmon and rocket (I think it's called puttanesca or something similar), or even fish fingers, or home made fish cakes made with tinned tuna and mashed potato, perhaps your spud hating child could be tempted.
Somebody mentioned soups. You can sneak an awful lot of veg. In there, serve with lots of crusty fresh bread. Very filling. A stick blender is really useful here.