AIBU to ask for "proper" meal ideas?

[Bumble1830]

I always do the same dinners, every week, I googled meal ideas and what came up was, in my opinion, are not things every day people cook on an every day basis, You have to have every single herb, pulse, and spice there is, as well as cupboard essentials such as chickpeas, capers and wine vinegar. Ok, so I usually cook the normal stuff, a spag bol, chicken casserole, roast dinners. Am I old fashioned in my cooking or is Spiced chickpeas with halloumi a normal every day dish?? And any dinner ideas would be gratefully received.

Ive always wanted to buy a slow cooker, I always thought you would need to cook stuff with "juice" so that it doesn't go dry? Can you literally stick a raw joint of beef or a chicken in it with veg's and crack on with your day? I'm actually quite embarrassed by how little I know about cooking, I thought I was quite clued up lol

The dishes we have often are:
Spag bol with garlic bread (sometimes salad)
Lasagna (as above)
Cottage pie
Pan fried chicken breasts (with various seasonings) sweet potato wedges and salad
Slimming world Diet Coke chicken with either rice or wedges
Pork steaks, mash, veg, gravy
Pork and apple burgers with wedges and salad
Tuna pasta salad (Philadelphia cheese recipe)
Gnocchi hash (pan fried gnocchi with pancetta, sweet corn, leeks, cheese) served with oven roasted chicken breast
Fish pie
Cod fillets with new potatoes and green veg

Am I old fashioned in my cooking or is Spiced chickpeas with halloumi a normal every day dish??

Yes, you are old fashioned in your cooking.

Once you’ve got a good selection of spices it gives you a good basis for plenty of meals though, and given that the shops own jars are about 80p it’s not a huge outlay. I also make sure I have things like tinned pulses, Worcester sauce, coconut milk, tomato purée in the cupboard. There are some good cookbooks around along the lines of “5 ingredient meals” that might be worth getting, or you could find recipes online. BBC food is good, you can search for chicken recipes/mince recipes etc so can use what you’ve got.

bumble yes you can do that.

@TopBitch Do I need to add a sauce or water so that it doesnt dry out?

OP...For variety I like to sometimes have thick stews, chilli served in huge individual Yorkshire puddings

Oh wow, ive just looked at slow cookers, Theres loads to choose from, Is it a matter of bigger is better? Theres only 2 of us, 3 when eldest is home from uni, Does it matter what size I get? If I buy a big one but only need a small amount of food cooking, would it still cook? Oh the shame of not knowing any of his stuff.

I'm always on a mission for quick meal ideas which fill everyone up properly!
My recent favourites are the chicken and pea traybake by nigella (I substitute vermouth for white wine or veg stick & omit the dull completely) & Hairy Bikers Spanish chicken. Both absolutely delicious

Typical week for us might be:
Cous cous and roasted veg (cous cous is really quick to make)
Baked potatoes with tuna mayo or prawn Marie rose and salad
Macaroni cheese or tuna & pasta bake or pasta and meatballs
Salmon with noodles, stir fry veg and sweet chilli sauce
Pork stroganoff or curry with rice

If I can't be bothered with proper cooking I'll do scrambled eggs on toast (plain or Parsi style).

What on earth is osso Gucci????

I used to do a there week rotating menu when the children were living at home. Usually a vegetarian adaptation of the main too. We always had half a rugby team so good, wholesome sit in the Aga things. Different things for summer and winter and scope to flex, add in meals out etc. It meant the pantry always had the basic ingredients.

I can’t remember it all now but for winter things like

Chicken pot pie and veg or vegetable pasties
Spaghetti bolognese or pomodoro
Fish pie or cheese and onion crisp bakes
Chicken, cashew and banana curry or veg curry
Tomato risotto with cheese or Parma wrapped cod
Homemade pizza
Chicken in a bun or vegetable fingers in a bun with salad
Shepherds pie and veg or root veg potato pie.
Paella or veg paella
Roast beef et al.
Roast pork et al
Roast lamb et al
Mozzarella chicken with vegetable taglietelle
Sausage casserole or veg casserole with veggie sausages
Stir fry
Homemade quiche with rice crust
Traybakes with salmon or chicken.
Tagine or vegetable tagine with cous cous

Osso bucco is made with veal knuckle I think, a bit like lamb shanks, cooked very very slowly.

I kind of start with our veg box and some favourites - so if we've got carrots, they go in a stew, leeks go on an omelette, mushrooms in omelette or Bolognese, cabbage goes in bacon, cabbage and potato mash, beetroot in a corned beef hash, and cauliflower goes in mac and cheese.
Most chunky things go in a curry and green things/carrots/mushrooms in a stir fry. I do use jarred sauces for those.

We had an incredibly easy meal tonight which was delicious. Put a few cans of Italian plum tomatoes in an oven dish and scatter some pieces of butter on top put in the oven for an hour or so.

This alone makes a lovely pasta sauce but you can also place some garlic cloves (with skin on) olives, halved onions and roast these for around 40 minutes. Mix everything together at the end (minus the garlic skins of course) You can also put some mozzarella in with the tomatoes towards the end.

It has become one of my favorite simple meals which is very difficult to get wrong and takes a few minutes to pull together.

Another vote for sausage casserole - fry onion, add sausages, garlic, tin of beans/lentils (I like flageolet but you can use any), tinned tomatoes. Add herbs, chili, seasoning to taste. Works very well in a slow cooker but you can also knock it up in 30 mins.

One thing that has totally changed the way we cook is getting a weekly veg box. It means we structure meal planning around what's in the box and I think we're probably healthier as a result. Lots of roasted veg where you just bung it in a tin with some olive oil and it's done 45 mins later. Or cheesy veg bake - very good with almost any veg you can think of. Plus it's all seasonal and you get nice stuff that you wouldn't necessarily in the supermarkets.

We typically have:

Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese
Halloumi with spicy rice and salad or with falafel, hummus and cucumber
Homemade Nandos - chicken breasts roasted with packet spices, with spicy rice, peri peri chips and corn on the cob
Special fried cauliflower rice - eggs, peas, sweetcorn, onion, bacon and frozen individual packets of cauliflower rice
Toad in the hole with veg
Lasagne (frozen) with garlic bread/peas/salad
Baked camembert with garlic bread to dip - it's AMAZING
Pasta bake
Pie and veg
A lot of my food comes from a freezer

I get my meal inspiration from the packet flavour mix section in the supermarket .

One of my favourites is Beef Stoganoff, which I sometimes make with chicken instead. I slice half the mushrooms in big slices, and the rest I finely grate, some with the peppers. Then my DSs pick out the big vegetables thus 'avoiding' them . I serve it either with rice or fettucini.

A spice mix of some sort on chicken thighs (with or without skin) and baked in the oven is great.

Another nice one which I had to change a bit because the original ingredients aren't available here is skinless chicken thighs, a little bit of tinned French onion soup, pureed dried apricots, and tinned sweetcorn. Plonk it all in a dish and bake in the oven. Serve on rice.

(In Oz I would use apricot nectar, packet French onion soup, and sweetcorn - haven't quite replicated the taste but not too bad!)

I got us a subscription for The Spicery for Christmas. It comes with all the spices required and gives you a list for fresh or cupboard ingredients. Yes u get two packs each months, every other weekend sorted for one day.

But yes, I do have shelves full of spices as we cook a lot of Thai at the weekend or Indian if it is jut DH and me. Otherwise I use the BBC food website, print recipes and try to do at least one new a month. I work three days so these days are the fast and furious dinner days, the others I try to get something new or more complicated done.

DD eats with us each night anyway so no need for child and adult meals cooked separately.

I know exactly what you mean. DCs are fussy so it's hard to think of meals. I am so fed up of eating the same thing. DH and I have decided to have a monthly date night where we cook a proper grown up dinner together and drink wine and enjoy our kitchen!

Things we eat are:
-Salmon with pineapple, rice, spring onion, broccoli, peas, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce.
-spag bold, extra veg, garlic bread
-homemade burgers, homemade chips, salad
-homemade meatballs, pasta, salad, garlic bread
-toad in the whole, veg, toasties
-roasted meat, veg, potatoes
-sauasage and mash, veg
-shepards pie/cottage, veg
-chicken drumstick, spices, homemade coleslaw, corn on cob, salad
-hunters chicken
-rice with mixed veg and or meat
-jacket potatoes with various fillings

• fajitas, rice, cheese, wraps, salad

-gammon, egg, chips, beans or tomatoes and peas

• cous cous, veg, meat

-chilli -sauasage, mash, veg -chicken breast wrapped in Parma ham, mini toasties, veg -homemade fishcakes, veg, rice/pots -Roast chicken, boiled pots, boiled egg, salad -homemade pizza

• fish fingers, mash, veg

-curry, rice -steak, homemade chips, salad

• lamb steaks, cous cous, veg or pots and veg.

-lasange, salad, garlic bread -chicken, chorizo, veg and rice -chicken drumsticks, roasted veg, roast pots all roasted together -all day breakfast! -potatoe rosti, pouched egg

Will think of more later! We have jacket spuds every Monday as DD has sports club. And a slow cooker meal at least once a week.

Chickpeas and halloumi is my go to dish 🙈

A super speed recipe I read on here which was a huge hit with my DC was savoury pancakes. 3 tablespoons of plain flour, 3 tablespoons of milk and an egg, mix it and add any fillings you want. We usually have ham sweet corn and cheese. The above makes enough for 3 pancakes for one person. My DC can make it for themselves. From fridge to mouth in less than 10 minutes!

Spiced chickpeas and halloumi is very much a normal everyday dish. Cheap store cupboard ingredients that can be made into a meal quickly, well halloumi is in the fridge but it lasts for months.

Where I live spices and cans of pulses are dirt cheap. I still enjoy making British dishes such as toad in the hole and cottage pie. Probably a lot healthier than tons of cheese ( however trendy it is) and deep fried falafel.
I don't eat meat ( well not for over 40 years) but I still drool over liver and onions and boiled bacon or ham hock with parsley sauce.

Oh and I have to mention Lidls £1.50 " wonky " box of veg. Available Saturdays only by me. A great starting point to planing cheap meals.