To ask what a 7 day week dinner menu looks like for you?

[postivity]

New year new ideas please!

Ours had got to the stage of something like this...:

1. burger and chips
2. pork loin steaks veg and potatoes
3. sausage, mash, peas and gravy
4. curry and rice
5. pizza and chips
6. take away or eat out
7. roast

I need to mix it up, eat less meat and more veg.

Would you mind sharing what an average week of dinners may look like to you?

Meatballs and spaghetti with cherry tomatoes
Breaded chicken, chips, sweetcorn
Sausages, mash, gravy, peas
Pizza and salad
Fajitas made with chicken and a lot of veg
Scampi, chips, peas
Roast chicken with potatoes and carrots

Mon & Tue - quick & cheerful e.g. bangers & mash, grilled fish & veg, roasted veg & chicken in one pan, fajitas, stirfry with rice or noodles etc

Wed & Thu - Something vegetarian, usually a curry made on Weds with enough leftovers for Thu

Fridays - Quick pasta & salad, usually some sort of pack of tortellini/ravioli etc (& garlic bread for the hungry teens!)

Saturdays - If I’m going to cook something fancy or a new recipe, I’ll try it on a Sat. We don’t do takeaways in January to save money.

Sunday - Usually a one pot dish - stew or casserole of some sort, often Caribbean food. I don’t do roasts often in Jan & Feb.

Sunday: Roast chicken plus trimmings
Monday: Mushroom risotto made with stock from chicken bones
Tuesday: Cottage pie with sweet potato mash topping
Wednesday: Sandwiches
Thursday: Curry and rice
Friday: Burgers and chips
Saturday: Take away

We tend to do a cuisine a night, and pick from a few options under that title eg

Mexican: Quesadillas with guacamole / enchiladas / bean chilli
Indian: Paneer curry / aubergine curry / dhal
Pasta etc: Macaroni cheese / veg lasagne / roasted veg pasta / Quorn spag bol / mushroom risotto
Fast: Veggie burger / veggie hot dog with salad / baked potato with veg
South Asian: Thai noodles / chilli tofu / Kung pao cauliflower

We'll probably have one takeaway a week, and two options from one of the above categories. Can get a bit boring, I admit.

@AtLeastThreeDrinks do you have a recipe for the burnt Aubergine chilli please, sounds lovely.

Veggies here rough menu ,
Sunday - something that takes a while, roast dinner (without meat), or roast veg lasagne or home made cheese and onion pie with veg on the side.
Monday - stir fry with marinated, fried tofu.
Tuesday - nigellas lentil chilli (without the cornbread topping although it's nice it's a faff).
Wednesday - roast veg pasta with tomato sauce and feta
Thursday- sausage and mash with veg
Friday - risotto with green veg and lemon
Saturday - home made pizza, veggie burgers and oven chips, veggie Curries or quasedias.

In summer lots more light pasta dishes, salads, quiches, potato salads, falafel etc. Also eat lots of home made soup (watercress one on bbc good food is current fave, soo good) and things like jacket potatoes for weekend lunches.

This week we are having:

M - Nando’s chicken wraps
T - veg chilli and baked sweet potatoes
W - dinner at MILs
Th - takeaway before DH leaves for 2 weeks
F - homemade pizzas and salad
Sa - smoked salmon and rice
Su - roast chicken, will make soup for lunches and maybe a curry or chicken pasta bake with the leftovers as it will only be me and 2 DC

Typical weekly menu for two adults and two under 5s.

M: Vegetable soup and bread
T: Leftover soup
W: Jacket potatoes with baked beans, cheese and salad
T: Spaghetti with smoked salmon, peas, broccoli and cream
F: Vegetable curry with rice
S: Leftover curry
S: Pasta with vegetable and tuna sauce

• pasta with a tomato sauce and loads of roasted vegetables
• salmon fillet with either steamed veggies and new potatoes or with roasted teriyaki veggies and rice
• butternut squash biriyani (brown rice) with coconut yogurt
• harissa aubergine and lentils with couscous
• stir fry with tofu and noodles
• veggie sausages and mash (as the three year old will eat it)
• Sunday roast with beef or chicken.

We’re not vegetarian but try to eat mostly vegetarian or plant based, with the exception of Sunday roasts and the occasional take away. Whenever i am feeling really bored or uninspired we look for a deal with gousto, hello fresh or mindful chef and choose things that are different from our usual choices. Many of their recipes have become part of our usual rotations!

Thai fish cakes, baked sweet potatoes and salad
Teriyaki Salmon stir fry
Pasta with griddles vegetables and halloumi with quark stirred into it

Always have roast on sunday
Monday some kind of leftover meal.. Chicken pasta bake for example.
Tuesday possibly further left over so chicken and ham. Pie with veg
Wednesday is fishcakes, cauliflower cheese and peas
Thursday is cod tagine
Friday is always "new recipe day" to avoid getting stuck in rut we make ourselves choose a new recipe each week, I use bbc good food alit for this.
Saturday is homemade pizza

1. Vegan spag Bol with moving mountains mince, carrots, onion, celery etc
2. Anna Jones sag aloo shepherd pie with tomato salad
3. Dahl with rice and kale
4. Paella
5. Stir fry
6. Pineapple and pepper stew (Hugh FW recipe)
7. Roast with mushroom Wellington

2 adults, one three year old and a weaning baby - all vegan

Spag Bol
jacket P
Chicken fajitas
Roast chicken
Takeaway
Stir fry

If you're wanting to upgrade your current menu, here's my suggestions as it's too carb heavy atm:

1. burger, corn on the cob and salad
2. pork loin steaks veg and potatoes
3. sausage, mash, peas and gravy
4. curry, daal & veg dish and rice
5. pizza, roasted pepper slices and salad
6. take away or eat out
7. roast - you can turn the roast into a curry or casserole the next day

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/easy-dinner-recipes

Spaghetti Bolognese (made with Quorn)
Omellette & chips with salad
Cheese & potatoe pie with veggies or salad
Oily fish (salmon/mackerel/trout) with rice and vegetables
Soup (vegetable or leek and potato)
Takeaway - fish n. Chips
Roast Dinner

It varies quite a bit but Thursday is almost always a 20-30 minute conversation in which we both ask each other what we’re having repeatedly in the desperate hope the other will suggest a takeaway first.

This week:

Salmon, green beans, potato wedges
Chicken, part baked rolls, chips
Chicken fajitas with cauliflower, courgette, mushrooms, aubergine, peppers, lettuce and tomato
Chicken curry: onion, carrot, pepper, potato, parsnips
Jackets, beans, cheese
Pesto and natural yoghurt pasta, (fajita veg plus bacon)
Bacon, eggs and chips
Egg bake: whatever left over veggies and bacon

Really useful, thanks! I feel a bit stuck in a rut with my menu planning.

This would be fairly typical:
Sausage bake
Feta and tomato pasta
Goats cheese frittata
Salmon with new potatoes
Kedgeree

OH will cook at the weekends, which could be anything, often something out of the guardian or a Rick Stein book.

This is what we are having this week;
Sat: butternut squash chilli
Sun: tartiflette
Mon: pizza with homemade potato salad and coleslaw
Tues: braised beef with cranberries
Wed: curry
Thursday: hallomi and bean stew
Friday: cottage pie

This week, it's ...

Sausage and bean casserole recipe here

Ravioli lasagne recipe here

Slow cooker sweet potato, lentil and coconut curry recipe here

Tandoori salmon - recipe here

Chicken taco salad recipe here

Sloppy Joe sliders recipe here

Prawn, pineapple and cashew fried rice recipe here

I will add extra veg to some of these recipes though.

This week
Nut roast & various veg
Butternut squash nachos
Macaroni cheese and caponata
Veg & cashew nut stir fry with noodles
Grilled halloumi with bean mash and roasted peppers/tomatoes
Pizza and salad
Vegetable tempura

Root vegetables Veggie curry - meera Sondha recipe
Cheesy pasta bake w/courgettes and tomatoes
Jacket potatoes with veggie chilli and sour cream/beans and cheese for kids
Sweetcorn and tomato coconut milk curry
Takeaway for grown ups/freezer food for the kids
Fish tacos
Sunday salmon roast or fish pie
We don’t eat meat and I try to have three cheaper meals per week so always have JPs/pasta bake in some form.

F!

Example of our weekly vegan meals:

Monday - Pasta and veg
Tues - Chilli
Wed - Fajitas
Thurs - Bosh bowl (grains, roasted veg, salad. Whatever we have in really)
Friday - pizza
Sat - risotto
Sun - dhal/curry

I vary from week to week so we dont get bored of the same things but a general meal plan would consist of the following:

M- chicken curry & rice
T- spagetti bolognese
W- sausage, egg & chips
T- fajita chicken tortilla wraps
F- bacon carbonara
S- takeaway or meal out
S- roast dinner

-A rotation of blackbean/sweet & sour/salt & chilli M
-A rotation of chilli/meatballs/savoury mince T
-sub out the sausages for bacon/beef burgers/fish W

• sub out the chicken for steak strips/mince beef hard shell tacos T
• sub out for mac n cheese/tomato & mascarpone F
• takeaway whatever we fancy
• different roast meat each Sunday or change for Cottage pie/some kind of pastry pie