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?

This week is

1. Turkey and gammon pie with mash and veg
2. Sausage casserole with crispy potatoes and veg
3. Pizzas and sides
4. Slow cooked bolognese
5. Homemade Turkey pasties(the final bit of the Christmas Turkey!), chips and beans
6. Mexican food(M&S are doing a meal deal)
7. Pasta bake

Generally I try to do 2 pasta based meals, something with a bit of spice(various curries/Mexican), an easy freezer type dinner and then a more traditional type meal for a Sunday, I don’t love roasts so don’t do them every week.

Usually looks something like this

M - vegetarian dish containing cheese (eg spinach and ricotta lasagne, roasted mushrooms with brie/feta melted in them and salad, pesto spaghetti with roasted vegetables)
T - chicken and spinach curry with chopped salad and rice
W - protein and salad or veg (usually a roasted chicken, boned lamb leg or pork loin or steak)
T - egg based vegetarian (vegetable quiche or frittata with salad, scrambled eggs with roasted mushrooms and tomatoes)
F - dinner out or takeaway (usually sushi or Vietnamese food)
S- red meat dish, slow cooked with bone in (eg beef ragu with papardelle, lamb shanks, osso bucco) and salad or veg
S - leftovers

Something like...

1. Chickpea curry
2. Turkey chili
3. Creamy lemon & green veg pasta
4. Chicken salad wraps
5. Korean firecracker meatballs w rice & veg
6. Creamy mustard chicken & potatoes (veg on side)
7. Takeaway

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Salmon with brown rice, veg
3. Chicken Carbonara
4. Bacon, cabbage, potato
5. Prawns, chorizo with rice

6.something new

1. Roast

Am thinking this week of:

Paella
Thai green chicken curry
Chilli
Tuna and ratatouille pasta bake
Tortellini with left over ratatouille
Salmon in watercress sauce (Sainsburys tub), rice and veg
Sausages mash and veg

This is my dinner menu for next week I've just written up on the fridge:

1. Salmon stir fry with noodles
2. Burgers and chips
3. Sweet potato chilli and rice
4. Chicken schnitzel with cabbage salad
5. Chicken and vegetable risotto with ciabatta
6. Pizza
7. Beef bourginon with mash and veg

1.Spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread and salad
2.Roast chicken

1. Egg fried rice with leftover chicken
2. Fish fingers, mash and peas
3. Homemade beans (butter beans in paprika and tomato sauce) on jacket potatoes or sourdough toast
4. Cheese and tomato gnocchi
5. Mushroom omelette with chips and salad

This week we are having
Lasagne with garlic bread and salad
Fish with new potatoes and green beans
Sausage hotpot
Chicken casserole with vegetables and crusty bread
Steak and doughballs
Take away
Roast

Other regular meals -

Pesto pasta
Tuna and sweetcorn pasta
Sausage and spinach pasta bake
Veggie chilli, baked on potato wedges with cheese on top, or with rice
Vegetable or chicken and veg curry with coconut rice
Breaded chicken and salad in wraps with wedges
Fajitas or enchiladas (one of those kits)
Salmon or steak with chips and salad
Homemade SF chicken burgers with chips and salad

Monday - Roast chicken dinner. Easy version where I put everything in one big pan in the oven, chicken, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips) one of the easiest dinners to make 😊
Tuesday - Left over chicken used up in fried rice. Stock made into soup for lunches
Wednesday- Fish cakes (couple of hot smoked salmon pieces, broccoli,eggs and potatoes)
Thursday- Tomato pasta or macaroni
Friday - Teriyaki chicken with rice, cucumbers, carrots
Saturday - homemade pizza
Sunday - sausage and mash/chips

Also nice with steak or salmon is jacket sweet potato and tenderstem brocolli

White fish, asparagus, baked potatoes
Salmon, broccoli, brown rice
Lentils, carrots, rice
Omelettes
Pasta with some kind of sauce
Homemade pizza (dough made in batches and frozen)
Gnocchi, roast pumpkin, feta
Rabbit and vegetables

No sauces because my 3 year olds do best with simple things.

Some great ideas here. I just meal planned for the month, in a typical week we have 1 takeaway (usually Chinese), 2 pasta dishes, 2 rice and 2 with potatoes or chips. Eg this week we’re having:

Spaghetti bolognese
Chicken pie with mash and roast vegetables
Chicken korma
Gnocchi and vegetables in a creamy sauce (may do pancetta on top)
BBQ chicken skewers with wedges
Chinese takeaway
Chicken and broccoli bake with rice

Things that have helped us have more varied meals:

1. meal planning!
2. establishing a pattern with the kids that we’ll have a variety of meals, no alternative will be offered, and they won’t all like every meal, but that’s tough!
3. linked to the above - getting them to help me make a list of meals they like, I use this to help me plan the month’s meals, and they know their favourites will come up regularly (gnocchi, meatballs, chorizo pasta, burritos, stir fry noodles)
4. while I cook from scratch most of the time I look at the calendar and plan quick bung in the oven meals (like goujons and chips) when I know I’ll be busy, but because I have a rough pattern per week it’s not too samey
5. batch cook - there are a couple of meals (like spaghetti bol. which I always cook a double portion of so it can be another quick meal
6. I get a ‘Simply cook’ box once a month which has great recipes and interesting spice mixes - some become regular purchases and others I’ve then adapted and put into our regular rotation

@Icannever

Monday - Roast chicken dinner. Easy version where I put everything in one big pan in the oven, chicken, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips) one of the easiest dinners to make 😊 Tuesday - Left over chicken used up in fried rice. Stock made into soup for lunches Wednesday- Fish cakes (couple of hot smoked salmon pieces, broccoli,eggs and potatoes) Thursday- Tomato pasta or macaroni Friday - Teriyaki chicken with rice, cucumbers, carrots Saturday - homemade pizza Sunday - sausage and mash/chips

Are you using a whole chicken or pieces? I'm pinching this. No idea why I hadn't thought of it before!

Following for ideas :)

Following for inspiration.

Our week:
Roast chicken portions with chips and peas
Sausage bake (they're wrapped in cabbage leaves and cooked in a tomato and veg sauce) served with green lentils or quinoa
Pesto pasta with chicken and broccoli
Cheese and veg quiche (DS learning pastry) with new pots and salad leaves
Chicken or fish in buns with toppings, onion rings and wedges,
Veg curries, flatbreads.
Minute steak and eggs with roast veg and baked potatoes.

Lasagne, chips and salad.
Potato royal chicken nachos with salad.
Curried sausages, sweet potato, rice and steamed veg.
Corned beef, potato salad, sauerkraut and salad.
Smoked salmon quiche with salad and roasted sweet potato.
Pulled pork burgers with coleslaw and sweet potato fries

I'm a huge batch cooker, so this week the bolognaise for the lasagne, the pulled pork and the pastry for the quiche come from the freezer.
I'll be batch cooking shredded chicken for the nachos and the curried sausages, which will be frozen for another day.

I hate deciding what are we having for dinner, so last year after my ungrateful family complained about the menu I put together a meals I rotate. Everyone knows the menu and if they don’t like it tough there will be something during the week they do like. I genuinely feel less stressed and it’s much easier doing the weekly shop when I know what we are having.
Some meals are easy and good to re-heat if we have after school clubs to get to. And we do get takeaways and freezer stuff when I can’t be bothered.
This is what I make

1. Fish pie (use a Swartz wet sauce pouch)/ Teriyaki Salmon/Mary Berry Herb Crusted Salmon
2. Sausage and Mash/ Pork Chop, pepper sauce, mash and veg.
3. Curry
4. Spaghetti Bolognaise/ Meatballs (nigella recipe made in batches and frozen)
5. Paella/risotto
6. Roast
7. Shepherds/ cottage pie & veg
8. Beef/chicken casserole with puff pastry top & veg.

Other dinners burgers and chips, breaded chicken jacket potatoes, ham egg and chips, stuffed pasta and roasted veg, omelettes

A typical week is something like:

1. Homemade vegetable lasagne
2. Roast beef
3. Oven pizza
4. Veg risotto
5. Halloumi wraps
6. Takeaway
7. Tomato pasta dish

Basically have meat once a week on average!

We are 2 adults and a 2 year old. 2 year old is going though a fussy phase so often have pasta as a back up. Typical week is:
Sunday: roast/ slow cooker recipe beef paprika or something of the BBC good food site
Monday: leftovers
Tuesday: veggie shepherds pie/ veggie Bolognese / veggie lasange substitute mince w green lentils
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: some kinda tomato pasta dish or roast veggie cous cous With halloumi
Friday: fajitas / carbonara / beef stir-fry
Saturday: takeaway

I also need inspo it's hard to keep it interesting. A wee while ago we did a dish from a different country once a week which was great during the first lockdown.

A typical might be:

Spag bol
Chicken curry & rice
Salmon stir fry
Sausage & mash
Pasta with chorizo or bacon
Chicken & veg stir fry
Roast

I need new ideas too!

Typical for us would include

Salmon noodle stir fry
Spag Bol or lasagne or spaghetti meatballs
Fish mash and buttered kale
Homemade painkillers chicken goujons with wedges and salad
Pasta with prawns chilli and tomato
Homemade pizza and salad
Thai veg curry rice and pak Choi
Pasta with chorizo and peas
Fish tacos
Roast on a Sunday. Every week in winter (bbq joint in the summer)

My New Years resolution is to do one new meal a week.

Love Reading these. Glad we aren't the only ones partial to a cheeky mid week takeaway.

Our usual suspects:

1. Salmon pesto pasta, w spinach and cherry tomatoes
2. Bangers, mash and onion gravy, w peas
3. Spag bol
4. Spicy jambalaya, w chorizo, pepper and chicken
5. Takeaway night
6. Spag bol (again) - we tend to batch cook
7. Aubergine chilli or vegan curry

I get a hello fresh or Gousto box most weeks for ease, works out a similar price. I have around 30-40 other meals I cook but I try to do a pasta dish, a something with potatoes dish, a something and rice dish, a fish dish, a roast plus eat out once and one day of leftovers/ready meals (choir night)