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

[wefly]

What family meals do you make in a week?

I need inspiration and also just interested to know what everyone does...

Mon - Honey mustard gammon steaks with dauphinois potatoes and veg
Tues - Halloumi burgers
Weds - Chicken cacciatore
Thurs- Sticky beef with jasmine rice
Fri - Italian sausage rolls with salad
Sat - Lamb kofta with flatbread and salad
Sun - Cowboy pie

In the depths of winter we have a lot of stews, casseroles, roasts, pasta bakes and pies!

This week:
Spaghetti Bolognese
Sausage and chips
Chicken chausseur and mash
Paella
Bean burritos
Pasta Bake

1 day a week the DC's dad feeds them so I have the night off cooking!

There’s only two of us and we had a big pack of chicken thighs to use up - so this week:
Mon - enchiladas, cooked enough for 4 portions
Tues - Lebanese one pot chicken, lentil and rice dish (also enough for 4 portions)
Weds - I’m working late but DP will have leftovers of either of these, I’ll take my portion to work
Thurs - leftovers again
Fri - no idea, will rummage in freezer and resist getting a takeaway
Sat and Sun are anyone’s guess but at least one will involve oven chips.

Other things I cook include:
Curry, of various iterations from diff countries
Spag bol
A big batch of soup
Burgers, chicken or beef, or steak sandwiches with v thin steak
Trying to cook more fish so will have that with potatoes or something
Stir fry
A really easy pasta like puttanesca is good to have up your sleeve

We also like dine in for 2 meals or those ‘takeaway’ ready meal bags you get in supermarkets.

Chicken breasts in Parma ham cooked in a white bean, spinach and tomato sauce

Tomato and bean soup with cheesy croutons

Turkey escalopes with broccoli, green beans and new potatoes

Home made pizza

Kale and broccoli gochujang tofu pasta

Pulled pork with coleslaw and corn on the cob.

Pasta and pesto (cheap)
Jacket spuds and variety of toppings to suit people's tastes (cheap)
Freezer night or homemade wedges if I can be arsed, fried egg and peas (cheap)
Enchiladas with chicken breast and peppers
Lentil Bolognese
Curry (usually vegetable or egg)
Tray bake or burgers and home made coleslaw.

I need easy, cheap food which everyone will eat. The quicker the better too. I hate providing food for my family. Any ounce of joy I once had was ground out of me long ago.
Four of us: a combination of fussy eaters, overweight adults and underweight teen have made life tricky.

Vegan versions of
Sausage mash beans
Cheesy broccoli pasta (nutritional yeast, mustard and pesto in the bechamel not fake cheese)
Roast dinner,no meat sub just stuffing
Roast Butternut squash 'mac n cheese'
Wraps with veggies and rice
Veg soup crusty bread
Lentil Bolognese

I do a monthly meal plan (well, I try) but make it easier by having about 30% of those "set" meals so = burgers on Monday, every other Wednesday is jacket potatoes, etc.

M = cheese and ham toasties with salad, houmous, crudites
T = homemade chicken soup with rolls
W = baked potato with tuna mayo, beans, green veg (beans or asparagus)
T = sausages, sautéed potatoes, other green veg I didn't use night before
F = tofu/prawn stir fry

Other things we do on the regular are things like spag bol, lemon chicken, macaroni cheese, fish and veg, also these lovely chicken thighs (boned) fried with chickpeas and served with fresh veg, homemade quiche, black bean quesadillas, curries, dals...

I've started to give less of a shit about complaints or food refusal - I tend go serve the meal and if they don't want the main component they just have the carb and the veg. There are few things they all really enjoy so I let them pick a meal a week and then I make a few things I like.

Tonight we've had risotto and veg
Monday night: fancy soup and crusty bread,
Sunday night: gammon steaks and veg
Saturday night: home made macaroni cheese
Friday night: Pizza and lots of salad

Can't remember further back than that.

Tomorrow night home made cottage pie.

Good thread I have realised that my dinners are directly proportional to my happiness so it's a long post but properly (overly) analysed

Also I WFH so stuff like omelettes, soup, beans on toast, salad and sandwiches sit in the lunches bracket for me

Monday and Tuesday - weekend leftovers, Brinner, minestrone and bread, freezer surprise

Wednesday oven risotto, egg fried rice, pasta or noodles (ideally veggie mon -wed makes me happiest!)

Then Thursday fake away with trimmings but in small amounts so for examples I cut up naans and freeze otherwise I feel guilty

Friday fish potatoes and veg for example slow roasted tomatoes, roasted broccoli and jersey royales and pan fried sea bass. The key is not roasting together but still easy after a trip to the pub.

Saturday pizza/pasta/BBQ/takeaway away

Then Sunday is weather dependent ideal is roast or BBQ but my back up is copy of Fridays dinner.

When partner is away I normally do noodle soup or a dim sum feast as he hates it.

For my bonus points I try to do a new recipe each week and then stick to a cuisine per week as we have a small household and aren't big eater so there's less waste and you dont get stuck in a rut (ie mexican) and when hosting ill have theme based around whats low in my spice rack to make sure ive got food cupboard, as 3 quid on garam marsala seeds alot for myself but when thrown into 20 for crisps alcohol and booze it seems ok. Often I don't do this and just get pizzas and prosecco as CBA

I always start out with a plan and food shop for the week, then by day 2 that plan goes out the window! No week is the same but the past week we've had:

Chicken curry and rice
Veggie tart with cream cheese and pesto
Spanish sweet potato and baked eggs
Creamy chicken with baked potatoes
Lemon and courgette risotto
Beef tacos
Oh and a KFC also!

This week we have had

pizza and salad night

peri chicken wings with new potatoes and salad

sausages in buns, with sliced pepper and red onion

pork chops with apples, mash and veggies

pasta carbonara with mushrooms and spinach on the side

Lamb kebabs in pitta with yoghurt and lettuce.cucmber chilli salad

I can’t remember further back than that!

pork and pepper enchiladas
spaghetti bolognaise
sausage traybake
Veggie massaman curry
meatballs and mash and peas
egg and chips
roast dinner

Oh and quiche is always my go to when I don't know what to cook, either a crustless quiche made with a tub of cottage cheese and any veg I can find, or a short crust pastry one with bacon and all the cheese

This week:

Slow cooked beef curry (spicy, so the kids had pesto pasta)
jacket potatoes with beans, cheese and a side salad
Mediterranean chicken and rice bake
bacon/cheese/veggie quesadillas
homemade tomato soup with garlic bread
salmon, boiled potatoes, veg and hollandaise
homemade pizza

We have Gousto 3 nights a week.
Probably pasta, chilli or jacket potatoes the other two nights.
Takeaway and Sunday roast over the weekend.
Fine diners we are not. But I do find that Gousto boxes give us a bit more variety than we'd have otherwise.

I enjoy cooking so cook everything from scratch. We normally have a rotation of:

Lasagne, garlic bread, salad
Chicken madras and naan bread
Peppered steak and mushroom pie, roast potatoes, carrots, brocolli
Homemade pizza and chicken wings
Salmon, spicy rice, salad
Steak, chips, mushrooms, salad
Pancetta and lemon wrapped cod, crushed new potatoes and whatever veg is in season
Chicken kiev, chips, salad
Sweet chilli chicken traybake

Very low effort cos I CBA

Burgers
Spaghetti
BBQ chicken skewers, rice, veg

Etc

Stews etc in winter, chilli

It's a drag, I know

Not sure what your definition of ‘family’ would be, as I don’t have kids, but the kind of things me and DP would eat over a week (mostly cooked by me, because I like cooking) would be:

chilli con carne
chicken or fish curry with rice
Chickpea tagine
Steak with salad and new potatoes
Bubble & squeak with fried eggs
Stir-fry
Chicken or fish tray bake
Maybe something like a salmon and prawn salad or a Nicoise style salad in summer
Spaghetti with a tomato based sauce

In winter we tend to have more stew/casserole type things, maybe sausage & mash or toad-in-the-hole too.

I mostly cook from scratch because I enjoy it and I’m quite good at inventing meals from whatever’s in the house, though, so we eat all sorts really. There’s no routine or anything.

This weeks dinners have been:
Roast chicken with roast veg
Tarka daal with added chicken x2 (leftovers)
Bbq sausages and veg
Omelette with ham and mixed veg
Koftas with greek salad
Pasta bolognese (frozen sauce from batch)

We often also have chilli, chicken cacciatore, pasta or polenta with putanesca, devilled chicken or lamb, home made burgers, lamb curry, lentil salad, souvlaki with greek salad.

pasta Tuesday (today was bacon and tomato)
Pizza wednesday
meat and potatoes Thursday (those marinated bbq meats or minted lamb kebabs with new potatoes & veg)
Air fryer Friday (beige stuff from the freezer)
Rice Saturday (so stir fry or curry or chilli with rice or noodles)
burgers one day (chicken breast in a bun or beef burgers)

We usually alternate:

Chicken/chorizo/bean/tinned tomato stew
Sausages, either in rolls or with oven chips and peas/beans
Chicken tempura things (big chicken nuggets) which I make into katsu curry with rice or noodles
Egg and bacon pasta or tomato pasta
Oven pizza with token salad and cucumber
Homemade vegetable or butternut squash soup
Sometimes a Thai chicken or prawn curry made with paste and tin of coconut milk
Paella
Sort of a poached chicken with orzo (cooked in the stock with the chicken, it's lovely!)
Fish fingers once in a while although they've gone off them
Cheese/ham toasties if nobody can be arsed

Family of three, all vegetarian. We have most of the following on rotation:

Pasta with pesto and spring vegetables (usually Tenderstem broccoli, asparagus and peas)

Caesar salad with sliced veggie ‘chicken’ burgers

Baked potatoes with beans and cheese

Macaroni cheese with tinned tomatoes and peas

Spaghetti Bolognese (veggie mince)

Halloumi and red pepper fajitas

Creamy bean stew with new potatoes

Daal

Homemade tomato soup and toasties

Chickpea curry

Lasagne

Chilli and sweet potatoes

Veggie sausage casserole

1. Roast / BBQ
2. Vegetarian
3. Fish
4. Pasta
5. Slow Cooker
6. Freezer Food / Take Away
7. Family Favourite

Repeat.

A pie made out of goblins.....duh. I have no idea

Same here! Other frequent dinners include chilli, stir fry, pasta and risotto. Every so often I make something more interesting/adventurous but generally I have to just go with what’s easy and I know everyone will eat.