Family favourite meals? (P4T)

[Rumblingtum]

HNY! I'm feeling a bit glum and low. Got the January blues big time. Trying to focus on some
positive, achievable things.

I'm looking for inspiration for ideas for family meals. 4 children aged 9-13. Let's say they aren't massively fussy in that they'll eat 9/10 meals I serve up (moaning quite a bit though) but I tend to go quite safe- your normal beef mince dishes, chicken and chorizo rice, sausage casserole and beige food (once a week). I'm so bored of cooking the same meals week in week out or racking my brains for ideas to use ingredients they like in different ways.

OH is vegetarian and works away a lot so generally it's a different meal for us and falls to me for cooking. I work late 3 days per week so it needs to be a quick meal those days.

One child can't eat potato products (makes him gag) so ideally I do him a portion of pasta to go with his main (he's really tiny so needs the carbs).

Any ideas? What's your fail safe family meals?

When I googled/looked in the J. O 'Family Meals' books, it's all 'pistachio and herb crusted baked cod with spinach and mung bean lentil surprise' which I'm afraid would be a waste of time and money.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure if these will be much help as we're pescatarian but the occasional veggie meal might be nice or you could substitute chicken for fish. These are some of our quick meals ie 15 to 30 mins:

Stir fry veggies with prawns/tofu/quorn. Serve with rice or noodles.
Veg and halloumi fajitas
Filled omelettes with salad and bread
Tortellini with pesto and roast or (for a very quick meal) sautéed veg
Various other pasta dishes such as seafood linguini, pasta bakes, cannelloni, lasagne. Obviously those aren't all quick but can be batch cooked and frozen.
Salmon, baby potatoes and veg
Veggie burgers (you could maybe make mince burgers?) with sides
Stuffed peppers/mushrooms
Fish cakes (shop bought ) with frozen peas, sweet corn, carrots
Gnocchi
Soup and toasted sandwiches

I think if you can make some time to batch cook certain meals it might help take the pressure off, especially as you work late sometimes. I always have hm soups, pasta sauce, bean and veg chili, fish pie (mash to be added), the odd lasagne and various curries in the freezer so very easy to just heat and add veg or whatever sides.

Fish pie
Meat lasagne
Veg lasagne
Stir fry with left over meat/fish/veg
Spaghetti with prawns & garlic
Chucken/meat curry with rice, dhaal & steamed lightly spiced veg
Veg/meat samosas with salad & raaita
Sheek kebab, naan & salad + raaita
Roast dinner
Biryaani made with left over roast meat & veg
Veg couscous with grilled fish/chicken or halloumi
Omlette and steamed veg & rice

www.vegrecipesofindia.com/recipes/punjabi-recipes/

www.slimmingworld.co.uk/recipes/vegetable-biryani

Toad in the Hole ( I have a great recipe for this and the carbs are in the batter )

Spaghetti Bolognese

Chilli con Carne

A fab recipe for smoked haddock with a cheesy creamy sauce that DH makes that makes the DC almost lick their plates

If you subscribe to the bbc good food healthy eating, they have sensible family recipes.

My only advice would be substitute or miss out the poncetastic ingredients (pomengranate molasses!?!), do one new dish a week (i get knackered and resentful easily) and stick to seasonal stuff (cheaper and the change happens automatically!).

Also Mac n Cheese ( almost forgot !) with sliced tomatoes on top

Noodles - udon pre soaked ones and then carrot, peas, sweet corn, peppers and protein of choice (I sometimes just scramble an egg through them if I have no meat) flavour with garlic, honey and soy sauce

Falafel and hummus and pita goes down reasonably well. Big plate of chopped veg - at least one thing that everyone likes!

Soup? Minestone is quite popular - carrot and onion plus a little garlic, stock, tin of cannellini beans and add pasta at the end. You can add odds and ends too plus a good hearing of Parmesan on top

Lamb mince koftes with pitta, houmous, salad
Spaghetti carbonara

Chicken fajitas
Meatballs and spaghetti
Shepherds pie

Thank you to all of you who've taken the time to answer. I'd love mine to eat all those veggies. They'd pick all the peppers out of the fajitas (but I make a fajita 'sauce' (just the veg parts blended with extra tomatoes) and there's no way they'd eat stir fry. No idea why when we (parents) love healthy meals and loads of veg. One thru love is the Joe Wicks chicken pie (with filo top) but they pick out the spinach. Grrrrrr. So annoying!!

Maybe jushing your favourites will be enough: make the best Bolognese you can, make the best toad in the hole, the best juiciest hamburger. More satisfying as a process for you, and still likely to be enjoyed (or even more so) by the hungry DC!
..and, my fish refusing will eat vast quantities of kedgeree, (made with smoked haddock, rice, spices, boiled egg, onion, spinach topped with sour cream or yogurt) oddly, so maybe give that a try.

For the meat eaters :-

Egg Fried rice with leftover veg, shredded chicken breast/leftover roast dinner meat and loads of soy sauce.
Pasta bake.
Beef stew & dumplings.
Enchiladas.
Quesadillas.
Fajitas.
Spag bol.
Macaroni cheese.
Carbonara.
Curry.
Soup n fresh bread.
Roast chicken, salad, par baked bread rolls.
Steak chips n salad.
Turkey burgers.
Pork n apple burgers.
Cooked breakfast.
Chilli.
Chicken chasseur.

Nail- they LOVE my Carbonara and its soooo easy to make- I just don't feel its all the healthy. That's prob why they love it! (brown pasta, smoked bacon, butter, garlic, eggs and parmesan) There's no veg and it's quite salty!

Aldi’s chicken parmigiano recipe always goes down well here, it’s on their website and could be served with pasta or potatoes.
Jamie Oliver’s sweet potato and chickpea curry could be good for your dh. We’re not vegetarian but have it regularly.

Some fab ideas. Thank you. Yes, they love an all day brunch and my family do them burgers once a week after school. Quesildillas they love. I'm rubbish at toad in the hole NAILS as my batter never rises. Any tips?

There's no way they'd eat salad or soup. Such a shame as I make mean HM soups.

I'm cooking from Tom Kerridge a lot recently, the dishes are low fat and sugar but incredibly tasty . Tonight is South Indian Fish Curry but my lot don't like fish , so it's got chicken instead . It does drive me mad when I've spent hours cooking and the kids just look at it and go yuck ...grrrrrrr

Following this but someone posted me a toad in the hole recipe a while back and it was the best one I ever made, have used it since. Will just find it.

Now I can't find it as it dropped off my list

115g plain flour, 2 eggs, 200ml milk. Pinch of salt. Make the batter, but roast the sausages first. Pour batter on the sausages. Must be a HOT oven 200C this is the secret to get the batter to rise perfectly

It is a Fabulous Baker Brothers recipe but without the herbs and red onion ( although I do make onion gravy with it sometimes). I have found this recipe can be upscaled successfully if you have more people than one roasting tin will feed

I do Chinese chicken thighs and veggie rice - it’s always been one of our faves.
Bone in drumsticks/thighs, brush with a little oil and sprinkled with Chinese 5 spice powder, baked in the oven for 30/40 mins. Served with pouches of egg fried rice to which I add extra sweetcorn and steamed green veg. It’s cheap and cheerful.

If you're up for toad in the hole try Bubble and Squeak in the Hole. We make it a lot and you can put anything you like in it. Meat or no meat, just whatever leftovers you have. cheaptastyandeasy.wordpress.com/bubble-and-squeak-in-the-hole/
We've been making it loads because of Christmas and chopping up all the roasted veg and stuffing, in it goes. Sausage and cheese, in it goes. There's really no rules to it. The DC ask for it almost every day at the minute.
Don't worry too much about the rise, because it's a whole meal as long as it puffs up a bit then job done.

I just tried chicken katsu curry, rice and sweet corn for the first time. Worked quite well with fairly fussy three year old DS. I used a recipe from a website called ‘My Fussy Eater’ (came up on Google). Modified the recipe slightly to taste and also added grated carrot for the obligatory hidden veg . Make sure you use mild curry powder unless yours are spice fiends...

This recipe

How about satay skewers? Cubes of chicken marinated in a bit of oil and garlic or sweet chilli sauce if they like that, with a dipping sauce made of peanut butter and coconut milk, with some mild spices if you like. Serve it with rice and steamed veg (baby corn and sugar snaps or peas go down well.)

If they like mince, how about mini pasties filled with mince, onions, grated carrots and petit pois.

Cheese and onion plait. Puff pastry with extra strip along the sides. Fill with mixture of grated cheese, beaten egg and very finely chopped onions, seasoned a bit if you like. Then criss cross strips of pastry on top. Looks pretty. DC used to love that. Not done it in ages.

Kedgeree? Mild spiced rice with onions, peas and sweetcorn and chunks of white fish.

What is beige food by the way? Seen it mentioned on here and can't work out what it is.