To ask those who like food and cook from scratch without getting bored what meals do you cook most often, what does a typical week look like and what is your most used cookery book?

[Chi11iFlak3]

I’m bored of meal planning, also how do others who cook from scratch every night plan the week?

I like the simply cook spice kits so do a lot from those and I also use lots of recipes from Hairy bikers- I’ve got multiple books from them quick/diet

Three Hello Fresh meals, three Gousto meals and a takeaway…

I also don’t like meal planning. We plan for about 4 days then start over. Mostly I cook rice bowls with veg and protein. Dh makes pasta. If we make something like chilli, we freeze a portion so that one night when inspiration is lacking, that’ll make a low effort meal

I like the roasting tin cookbooks and tend to cook one night and then it’s left overs for night 2 or lunch. Sometimes I’ll batch cook - curry, bolognaise etc. if I need some quick easy go tos in the week.

we write a menu/ meal plant at the beginning of the week and pretty much stick to it.
Bbc good food has lots of good recipes.

Leek & bacon risotto is ready in 25 mins
Chicken tikka can be ready in 20 mins
we have the meat base of cottage pie batch cooked & portioned in the freezer so we just have to make mash to top.
Bolognese we also batch cook & freeze
Salmon fillet with Cajun seasoning, jacket & mange tout can be on the table in 20 mins.

We tend to plan menus based on what activities we have planned, how busy we are & how knackered we are likely to be.

I think you go through stages. Winter it's all 20 ways to do a pie or slow roast. Summer it's all fresh salads and cheese or whatever.
I'm on the jab so it's only marinaded meat and salad in my house. Pre jab it was lots of different lasagne.
I like the same meal everyday actually. I don't get bored I look forward to it.

I make lasagna (meat or veg) fairly often as it does us 3 separate dinners. I roast pork shoulder then use the leftover meat for stir fry, fajitas etc

Roast on Sunday at least twice a month, then curry or fricassee or tagine on the Tuesday or Wednesday with the leftovers. Sunday night we have soup and crusty bread and bits to sprinkle on top. Baked potatoes one night, macaroni cheese another (cheap!). Steak and mash or sausage and mash one night. Fish and rice one night (teriyaki in the airfryer).

I used ChatGPT to plan meals recently and it was fab. I put in the cuisines we like, foods we dont like, max prep time and some stuff around health (5 portions fruit/veg, beef only once, fibre etc). It was awesome. I'm a confident cook so just having the suggestions was enough I didn't need recipes. But you.could get it to do recipes as well. It took all the thinking away.

DH eats mostly vegan and so the Bosh books are favourites here. This week’s meals are pretty typical or a variation of

• spicy tomato orzo
• scrambled tofu with mushrooms
• dan Dan noodles
• bean burgers
• Channa masala
• tempeh pad Thai
• lasagna (kids’ favourite for family Sunday meal)

In general we regularly have salmon teriyaki with stir fried veg, tomato and chilli spaghetti with roasted veg, chicken katsu curry, and recently I made salmon poke bowls with grilled salmon, finely diced mango avocado cucumber and edamame with sriracha mayo and my kids loved it so much its now on the menu weekly.

@SnoopDougyDoug good idea- I’m going to make that

Rukmini iyers cook books are fantastic - quick and simple recipes and they come out fantastic

I cook from scratch 95% of the time.
I plan 5 meals at a time, write a list and then shop.
I like Pinch of nom's recipes, Taming twins, I also get loads of recipes from instagram and tiktok.
Gousto and Hello fresh are simple but really good too.

Typical week would be;

Saturday- Five guys fakeaway burgers and chips
Sunday - Roast
Monday- Pulled cajun chicken pasta made in the slow cooker with broccoli (Instragram recipe)
Tuesday- Terykai salmon stir fry
Wednesday- Gousto Indian-Style Spiced Chicken Schnitzel with slaw and potatoes
Thursday- Pinch of nom's Honey chilli chicken with rice
Friday- Gousto Chicken, sweet potato and spinach curry with lemon rice

I sit down with my children and meal plan for two or three days at a time. They are getting very good at cooking now

I make batches to eat some and freeze some. At the moment my freezer contains...

Mixed bean chilli
Roasted squash and tomato soup
Lentil soup
Lamb ragu
Tomato, leek and bacon pasta sauce
Marinated leftover roast beef for stir fries
Chickpea curry
Homemade wholemeal bread

We also regularly eat frittata, risotto, (yesterday we had mushroom risotto with lots of fresh herbs stirred in), roasted veg with pasta, fish cooked in foil parcels with potato wedges and veg and homemade pizza.

In the winter I do stews in the slow cooker.

We have a huge rhubarb patch and Apple trees, so I make crumble, and sometimes have a smaller main meal, such as something on toast or soup, and then crumble for pudding.

@Letsummercommence yes me too and I must admit that’s the one thing I’m not keen on - unlike others I can still eat pretty ok but am very conscious of calorie count etc so it’s been an awful lot of protein and veg/ salad in our house as opposed to interesting recipes if I’m honest

I have around 40-50 regular recipes that I remember the bones of so can just buy the ingredients for and then I supplement these with new ideas from that months Good Food magazine, instagram, things my husband sees and easy wins like baked potato’s.

I go back to my books when I’m bored with the rotation. I’ve had lots over the years, but the ones that I do keep and go back to are:
Fresh India by Meera Sodha
River Cottage Veg
River Cottage Every Day both HFW
Nigella Bites
Delia’s complete cookery course
Jamie Oliver 15-minute meals and Comfort Food

i had the JO 30-minute meals, but I find the 15-minute recipes do take about 30 minutes and the 30-minute recipes took me more like an hour.

Things we have quite frequently here:

Spag bol or pasta with a veggie tomato sauce
Chilli- I make a vegan one with kidney beans and black beans. Then serve it with either rice, nachos, or tortillas and usually cheese and avocado or guacamole, and salad.
Kedgeree
salmon or white fish with watercress and other greens, and chips or fried potatoes
Curry- either from scratch or using a Spice Tailor kit or similar (I buy them when they’re on special offer)
Roast chicken or lamb with veg and roast potatoes.
If we had lamb, we will have a shepherd’s pie or wraps with salad and Middle Eastern sides on the day/s afterwards.
Roasted veg, chickpeas, and feta served with brown rice, bulgar wheat, or similar.

Haven't used a recipe for years other then baked sweet stuff.

I don't do a set menu but have a few things that the whole family will actually eat.

Curry with rice and spinach cauliflower paneer

Chicken fajita/beef taco, salsa, sour cream, salad and cheese.

Bacon and veg soup with dippy bread

Kebabs, tzatziki, tomato salsa, chilli sauce and salad.

Leasgne,/spagbol/,meatballs on pasta

Chicken Caesar salad (actually did use a recipe for the dressing but know it by hear now)

Stir-fry rice/noodles usually homemade teriyaki or bought sweet chilli.

My signature creamy baked salmon (butter, cream, garlic and lemon juice thrown over the raw salmon and baked)

Bacon wrapped chicken in creamy mushroom sauce.

I made a 4 week meal plan and we just follow that (I found that 4 weeks is enough that it doesn’t get too repetitive). I also have a couple of blank days each week to give some flexibility for trying new recipes or eating out.

This week includes:
Lunches

• Monday- Wednesday: Stanley Tucci’s soup (https://theeastcoastkitchen.com/stanley-tuccis-pasta-fagioli-a-cozy-viral-classic/)
• Thursday and Friday: Roasted salmon (cold) with edamame, avocado, cucumber and spinach salad. I added some roasted seed mix and kewpie sesame dressing.

Dinners

• Monday- Halloumi and roasted veg tray bake mixed with harissa and chickpeas.
• Tuesday- Seabass with roasted potato wedges, griddled courgette, asparagus and fennel. I made a dressing with some lemon and herbs.
• Wednesday- Stir fry with marinated tofu, mushrooms, peppers, broccolini, baby corn, spring onions. I used sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and chili (I buy these and then grate/chop them and keep them in the freezer to use in stir fries or curries). Brown rice (I’m busy this week so I’ll use a microwave sachet).
• Thursday and Friday- Chicken and chorizo stew with peppers, tomatoes, olives and butter beans.

Weekend

• We’ll have lunch out
• Dinners: Chicken, lemon and green olives tagine (https://www.copymethat.com/r/4ew1wTjJw/chicken-tagine-with-olives-and-preserved/) with wholemeal couscous.

I like the roasting tin cookbooks, Veg everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, BBC good food/Waitrose/Tesco/The Guardian/Smitten Kitchen blog also often have good recipes. And Instagram often shows me recipe ideas that I adapt to suit us.

I don't "meal plan". I might not fancy whatever I thought of a week ago.
DM was roast-on-Sunday, leftovers-Monday, fish-Friday etc
Monotonous regularity which I avoid.

It's more a case of what can I do with what is in the fridge & the veg rack that I fancy eating.

I've got over 90 cook-books, & use eatyourbooks to find something if I'm lazy and/or stumped to think of something different.

@oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends I've got over 90 cook-books, & use eatyourbooks to find something if I'm lazy and/or stumped to think of something different

You are me and I claim my 5UKP 😀. I find eatyourbooks is great for throwing up new ideas when I’m short on inspiration. I also use paprikaapp for storing random recipes I’ve tried and like from online.

I do meal plan but will swap around to use up what is in the fridge or pantry. I also used to involve the DC in meal planning and cooking when they were younger and all could cook competently at least by the time they went to uni.

I'm obsessed with meal planning :) I plan a whole month then do a massive shop and prep everything I can over a couple of days (I'm a sahm), so the freezer is full of prepped meat/veg, and some complete meals, for the rest of the month. We love our food and do get bored quickly so I'm constantly saving new ideas. I use the Plan to Eat system. Each week I just tweak the plan a bit as obviously you can't get the entire month perfectly planned in one go.

My favourite books/websites are.
Recipe tin eats (both books are well worth it but also use the website, tbh probably 70% of our meals are from her! ♥️)
Also budget bytes , she's American but most stuff works fine with british ingredients
Jamie Oliver - I have several books but most used are 15min meals (as pp said take more like 30mins really) and 5 ingredients
Rukmini iyer roasting tin
Taming twins

Disclaimer at the minute it's just me and DH (1yo DS we batch cook his stuff separately) but we are about to have 2 under 2 so I can see a lot less planning and a lot more pasta and oven pizzas in our future 😂

We don’t really meal plan, but my husband does the groceries and we usually get two portions of meat and one of fish, and we build around that, adding whatever veg we have in the organic veg bag plus salad from the shop.

This week we had chicken thighs so did a big salad.
The fish was salmon so he made a beany Mexican salad with mango and avocado to go with.
We have some mince left so will probably use that to do meatballs with orzo or rice tomorrow.

The rest of the time we make vegetarian meals with whatever we have. I did a mushroom and chard risotto and he did a roast veg sauce with wholemeal pasta.

The key is to have a really well stocked store cupboard. We always have pasta, rice, cous cous and noodles, plus tins of tomatoes and lentils.