To as what a typical week of dinners looks like for you?

[Emsonline]

I need inspiration! I'm not a massive foodie. I actually quite dislike cooking... but we are a family of 2 adults and a 5 and 3 year old and I need ideas.

We're not all English. DS has been eating noodles and curry since weaning but OTOH unless he's had it at nursery I don't think he's ever had toad in the hole or a chicken pie.

- friendly smiley, not passive aggressive smiley.

Doing veganuary usually we don't eat carbs in the evening and just have quorn and salad or fish and veg but this week has been
Thai green curry and rice- bulk it up with loads of veg and cashew nuts it's so much nicer than a meat one!
Homemade pesto and pasta
Bean bake and roasted veg- it was actually disgusting and I just ate the veg 🤢
Then leftovers and eating out!

I'm not English either and yes, my was meant as a friendly one.

Taffeta it works just as well without the lentils! I add green lentils in to pad it out a bit but as long as you have enough aubergine in you don't miss them

Greenlight that's how we've been eating between new year and this week.

Visiting and leftovers!

But now I'm getting a list drawn up. I can only cope with so much randomness and cheese and crackers!

My teenager looked at me in disbelief (disgust?) As I drew up a meal plan one breakfast time..

I'm a vegetarian and trying to do more Vegan meals - as well as be a bit healthy and do easy/quick stuff...This week looked like:
M - Sweet potato butternut squash Curry (Vg) - leftovers for work M/T
T - Veg sausages, roast broccoli and sweet potato (Vg)
W - Sweetcorn chowder (Vg) - leftovers for lunch T
T - Tahini stir fry with rice noodles - leftovers for lunch F
F - out for dinner
S - Veggie pizza
S - Roasted cauliflower cheese with pearl barley and kale

Other meals I do a lot are quick/lazy things like roasted veg (usually one or combo of buttertnut squash/broccoli/sweet potato/cauliflower/aubergine/courgette) with oven things (veggie sausages, falafel, veg burgers, veg bake things), pesto pasta, scrambled eggs on pitta bread, beans on a jacket potato (sometimes with cheese).

*Carnivaloftheanimals.

I totally agree with you. The normal everyday cooks never post on these threads, only the interested cooks who have a decent weeks worth of meals to post.

I've been guilty of it myself. If I'm going through a cooking phase I will post the weeks worth of delicious dinners I've made. If I'm going through a lazy 'what's in the freezer' 'I'll just buy a jar of pasta and stir it into a pot of spaghetti' phase I keep quiet.

To be fair op did post looking for inspiration!

My cobbled together dinners this week disappointed even me!

Some lovely ideas here. We get stuck in a bit of a food rut as ds is, sadly, a fussy eater still (teenager). I used to love cooking but it's a bit of a chore now. Would love some aubergine/lentil type recipes (lasagnes) etc I could do for me and dh - we eat too much meat and would like to drastically cut this.

Slow cooker!

I joined a group on Facebook and they have thousands of recipes for slow cooker dinners.

• minted lamb stew
• spaghetti
• chicken curry
• home made lamb kebab

Tonight we're having chicken wraps

So far this week we have had
Veg curry
Veg casserole with bread
Laksa (also veggie)
Puff pastry tart (sheet of puff pastry in the oven and I added cream cheese with herbs as a base, caramelised onions, garlic mushrooms, tomatoes, olives and rocket)
And last night I made buddha bowls - 5 minute dinner inspiration from the happy pear. They were really nice.

We aren’t actually vegetarian though as eat fish. And there is only three of us (me, DH and 14 month old)

Others I tend to go for with little time are:
Smoked salmon omelette and veg
Salmon fillet with sweet potato mash and veg
Fish cakes, chips and mushy peas.
Fresh ravioli with sauce and garlic bread
Slow roasted garlic and peppers - make in to a sauce and have with pasta
Tuna May jackets with veg or salad
Mushroom fajitas (bbc good food website)
Tuna and cheese melt baguette with chips

Hate cooking and veggie house!

This week:
Monday: New M&S vegan ready meal risotto.
Tuesday: Curry made with vegetables and quorn chicken pieces.
Wednesday: Stir fry with rice noodles.
Thursday: Old El Paso chilli and garlic rice one pan meal with salad (love this).
Friday: Probably chippy!

Greenlight you are my spirit animal, my menu is not far off yours in an average week

Monday we had pork chops, mash and gravy with veg
Tuesday pizza
Wednesday enchiladas
Thursday chicken burgers
Tonight I don't know yet, can't decide what I want. I think I'd like chicken in some kind of creamy sauce.

We follow a loose formula which are meals based on the following:

• oily fish
• red meat
• pasta dish
• rice dish
• simple potato based dish
• one snacky dinner
• one freezer dinner, or occasionally takeaway or meal out

This week

Spag Bol
Carbonara
Taco Tuesday - glad i'm not the only one who religiously has mexican food on a tuesday...
Risotto - either chicken, bacon or some type of smoked sausage and load of veg too
Home made soup
Tuna paninis with salad and crisps. Usually have a tuna meal, sometimes jackets etc
Sausage and Mash with broccoli, carrots, peas

The pastas and currys are interchangeable just depending on what we fancy. Always try and make the sauces rather than jars but not hell bent on no jars if we are busy. Also with mash we sometimes have chicken, or stek, or a pie, and vary the potato, but it usually follows something vaguely like this.

Parisienne spiced chicken with balsamic mustard lentils and roasted carrots
Peri peri prawns/chicken with veggie and tomato rice
Mexican beef enchiladas with wedges and roasted peppers
Toulouse style sausage with mustardy lentils and garlic bread.

We tried a ‘Hello Fresh’ box this week.

You’ve never heard so much moaning and whinging from teens until you’ve done this.

Tonight it’s pie and mash.
Tomorrow take away.
Sunday Roast.

No lentils will feature in my menu planning until they leave home.

Gonna be honest, often quick meals in the oven. Although I am a sahm with 2 under 4 and a kitten its extremely hard to keep them under control and out the kitchen when oven is off let alone on!
But typically (not in any particular order
Roast meat, pots or rice, (dp is Caribbean) veg, sometimes Yorkshire puds
Leftover roast with pasta and sauce
Chips with chicken breast steaks/ fish fingers/ pizza, ect
Sausage/ fish in sauce/ pie with mash
Mince - chilli and rice/ sherperds pie/ spag bol, ect
Leftover mince with jacket potatoes
Often we have a light dinner in the week which might be a sandwich, beans on toast, soup and bread, toastie, chicken/pasta salad

I work a couple of evenings a week so there's always a couple of crappy quick meals. But generally:
Fri - Fish. Something fancy for me and him, we generally try different recipes but my favourite is hot smoked salmon and pine nut pasta with a nice green salad and very cold white wine . The kids refuse to entertain most of it, I have given up, they have pizza.
Sat - Usually, but not always, Mexican. We all like it, so generally either fajitas, enchilladas or tacos.
Sun - Roast. Usually pork or chicken. We find ourselves priced out of the beef market.
Mon - Something veggie - usually curry. Was tomato risotto this week.
Tues - Some sort of breaded chicken, chips and peas or ratatouille if time permits.
Weds - Frozen fish and chips and beans.
Thursday - Something with mince. I have a repertoire. The Joy :-)

This week's meal plan for your delectation

1. Homemade fish pie and veg
2. spinatkopita (feta and spinach in filo pastry) salad and rice
3. smoky sausage casserole (with tomatoes, celery, spinach, peppers, onions and lentils)
4. Baked potatoes, cheese and beans
5. roasted port fillet, carrots, french beans and boiled new potatoes
6. Lentil daal and naan breads
7. kidney bean, feta, onion and bacon pasties and veg

Lots of meat free this week which was not intentional, just think we are all so fed up with meat after Christmas and New Year. I have an excel spreadsheet of meals that I know the family will eat. If I am running low on inspiration I open that up as a reminder. If I make something new and we like it, then it gets added to the spreadsheet.

Sweet and sour chicken.
Salmon with a jar of dipping sauce poured over
Mince spat bol
Then leftover mince into hot pot,chilli,nachos
Chicken,chorizo garlic onion pasata baguette with garlic butter for topper.
Chicken diñner
Pork.mixed veg.white sauce crumble
Lentil stew.
Pearl barley sweet potato.leek.celery carrot.stock.pepper dump-in
Porridge
Puff pastry tuna sweet corn envelop
Frankfurter jar of dolmio pasta.
Eggs.
Fish with crisps herbs breadcrumb crust
Pie.
Traybake
Chickpea toss in

Fish with potatoes and veg
Soup with cheese and crackers
Jacket potatoes
Chicken, normally with chips and a vegetable
Pizza/pasta of some description
Vegetable with couscous
Sausages and mash, or in a stew/hotpot type thing

Sometimes things like roast dinner, cooked breakfast or a fish finger sandwich too.

I do freezer meal twice and pasta once, Sunday I try to do a roast or something hearty like pie/sausages and mash. Then I have one indulgant might- such as lamb chops or steak with the trimmings. One healthy night- so a big salad or stir fry. Then the final night would be something like homemade fish pie if I have the time, or burgers with salad and chips if I don't.
I do eat fairly seasonally, so in winter it's more hearty oven dishes and in the summer it's more salads and stir frys.