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 live alone so batch cook and freeze a lot

mostly I use websites or Instagram - bored of lunch, taming twins and don’t go bacon my heart are probably my most used

So typically we have:

• Risotto (chorizo)
• pasta (chicken)
• curry (paneer or chicken)
• breaded chicken type thing
• chicken with flat bread, dips, rice
• take away
• roast or eat out

Nothing particularly adventurous (our 3yo eats dinner with us) but go to meals are:
roast chicken (I roast the potatoes and the carrots in with the chicken so it’s minimal clean up/effort)
leftover chicken in a pie or risotto (more of a weekend dish as they take a while)
sausage and mash or sausage pasta (Jamie Oliver recipe)
steak and mash
mac and cheese (another weekend option)
Peri peri chicken wraps and chips (basically chicken and Nando’s sauce in a flatbread)
carbonara
Curry and rice or Chicken tikka wraps (basically curry wrapped in a naan without rice)
Wraps (fried onion, pepper and beef with Cajun spices, rice, sour cream)
bolognese
Cajun chicken pasta
chili con carne with rice (and leftovers with jacket potatoes).

I usually cycle though these and always have pasta, rice, pesto, tuna, freezer nuggets and freezer pizza in if I need super easy meals.

roast
lwftover pie
tofu stir fry
omlette
Fish - salmon & leek
lentil curry
mushroom stroganoff

delia complete cookery or nigella

Ooh well I go through stages of either loving cooking or not being bothered at all!
so when I love it Sunday is usually either a roast or something in the slow cooker with loads of veg, then we eat allsorts this week we’ve had Chinese duck and pancakes, halloumi fajitas or halloumi and asparagus Spanish omlette, smoked salmon pasta with garlic bread and salad, sausage traybake with root veg, blackberries and pears with green veg and mustard mash!

I use loads of recipes online when we get bored of meals, I quite like Olive magazine. I used the hair bikers Asian cookbook, Itsu cookbooks and an Indian one (think it’s called something like cook Indian but born in the UK) on a regular basis.

Our family's favourite meal most nights is Rich Beef Sausages.

How is this "cooking from scratch"?

Not a cookbook person but...

Shepherd's pie (veg, mushroom, tinned tomatoes and seasoning mixed with the veg)
Grilled Salmon fillets with rice and veg
Homemade vegetable soup
Central / Eastern European meat-based stews like goulash or borscht
A roast chicken with roast potatoes and veg (chicken stuffed with onion, garlic and veg)
A honey-glazed roast gammon
Lamb Tagine with apricot sauce and couscous
Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice/ meat
Savoury pancakes
Homemade chicken nuggets
Beef milanese with mushroom and cream sauce
Leftovers risotto - whatever meat, mushrooms, veg and bonus if there's a wine bottle to be finished
Sausage and veg casserole

Normally we'd have 3/4 of those each week + one takeaway.

I cook all our meals from scratch, but I try to simplify life for myself by prepping as much as I can on the weekend. For instance, I usually bake a lot if bread and pizza bases and freeze them so I can just pull them out as I need them.

I do not use cookbooks as I usually cook traditional recipes that I have learned from family and my travels that simply are not based on a written recipe. I'm a very avid cook so generally know what goes well together, and am experienced with mixing and adding herbs, seasonings etc. to taste.

We are vegan and get a fruit and veg box. Don't meal plan. We eat things like

Dal , make a batch and freeze the rest
Pasts sauce with something to give it protein
I don't think meal planning works for everyone.

I like to pick two new recipes a week while I'm doing my online shop.
I still love my cookbooks, mainly Jamie, Nigella and Tessa Kiros but I also pick recipes from Pinterest or Good Food website.
I can always make a curry or stir-fry with whatever is left over at the end of the week.

I’m a solo working parent (my partner works away for long periods) so I have a 5 week meal plan that I stick to. I know what to order from the supermarket and what I’m cooking each night. I batch cook chilli, shepherds pie base, bolognaise, lasagne base etc. over a weekend so I just have to cook pasta/potatoes etc. when I get home.
Things like chicken goujons/ nuggets can be made in advance and frozen and I have an air fryer so I can knock up chips in 20 minutes.
It’s far from perfect and tuna pasta is a fast favourite that I (over) use in emergencies but it works quite well. I really don’t enjoy cooking but this makes it as painless as possible.

And I’m a big fan of bbc good food

I’ve been cooking for a family of 4 for over 20 years, I rarely need a recipe book except at weekends when I may try something new / slightly more elaborate. I’m a reasonable cook but have very little time for cooking during the week as I work. I often make a big batch of tomato sauce, a home made soup, a curry, a meat loaf or shepards pie at the weekend for eating on a busy evening in the week. Simple things the family eat include

Stir fry noodles with packets of stir fry veg, protein could be prawns, pork or chicken strips
Spanish omelette
Sausage, mash and veggies
Various soups and sandwiches (lentil and bacon, tomato and lentil and leek and potato are favourites)
Stews, often with dumplings, on my working from home day
Pasta with tomato sauce with a grilled salmon steak
Risottos, there is a good chicken and chorizo jambalaya recipe on bbc good food, or a prawn and lemon one
Tuna and cheese quesadillas with veg sticks
Egg fried rice
Fish fillet, new potatoes and salad / veggies
Corned beef hash
Macaroni cheese, often with cauliflower and bacon added
Scrambled eggs and baked beans on toast

Some home cooked meals are really simple and require minimal preparation. A lamb or pork chop or a piece of salmon with some nice veg; an omelette and salad; pasta with pesto, peas and prawns; soup made from left over roast veg from the weekend. If you have a bit longer bake some marinaded chicken over some veg. Even a slow cooked stew that involves shoving everything in a pot and leaving it in the bottom oven for a couple of hours does require much work, just a bit of forward planning.

I cook from scratch every night but go through phases of meal planning and winging it. This week we’ve had/going to have:

Spicy veg noodles with a spicy fried egg on top.
Carbonara
Leek risotto with prawns
Spanish omelette
Macaroni cheese
Chicken thighs with tomato orzo

These are things I’ve been making for years except the spicy noodles which is a new addition. My dd has become obsessed with chilli oil.

Serve everything with salad or steamed veg of some kind

Because you get all the raw ingredients and you cook them 🤷🏻‍♀️

Unfortunately my brain hates meal planning (I’m trying to change it but I feel miserable but a typical week probably goes like):

• sausage pasta
• vegetable rice with some sort of steak/chicken breasts
• roast chicken with potatoes and carrots
• ribs, rice and black beans
• vegetable soup
• fish rice
• roast salmon with vegetables
• bolognaise
• gratin dauphinoise (mostly weekends)

I don’t cook on Fridays so it’s either takeaway or something frozen but those are definitely my most cooked meals.

Do these hello and Gusto meals create loads of packaging? I would be up for them otherwise.

I am American, and live very close to the coast (Florida), so my meals are probably different than yours. Hopefully, I can give you some ideas, as everyone here has given me some great ideas to try!

We don't eat beef, but make tacos with ground turkey. Can also be used in burritos, and leftover chicken makes awesome enchiladas.

Grouper is a firm white fish, which we season with blackening seasoning and either grill outside or broil, for sandwiches.

I slice chicken breasts, making each into about three thin cutlets, then freeze 2-3 to a bag. I can pull them out of the freezer (they thaw fast that way!) and make a curry, or satay with rice. Lots of things can be done with chicken cutlets! Panko crusted and pan fried. I like to broil the chicken cutlets, put them on a toasted roll with fresh mozzarella slices, a handful of basil, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Chicken thighs are completely different and we roast them with za'atar seasoning or miso paste. For the miso paste, I mix in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, honey and bake until done.

We eat a lot of shrimp, which you call prawns. I'll make a newburg sauce and have that and shrimp over rice. Sometimes I make shrimp patties with an aioli sauce. For the patties, I mix in diced shrimp, onions, horseradish, panko, etc. Fry them in a pan. You can make patties with canned salmon or even tuna, too. Or, just dredge shrimp in cornstarch, and pan fry. We have a lot of fresh seafood here and any combination can be used in a seafood bake, or a chowder when the weather is cool.

We like "breakfast" for dinner sometimes, too. Waffles and maple syrup with scrambled eggs. Or omelets with hash browns. Here, we eat a corn product called "grits" that you probably don't have there. It's bland, but when served with butter, salt and pepper, it's very nice. Or, some people make a pot of grits and stir in cheddar cheese, green peppers, onion and so on.

I prefer to cook at home. My food is better, I know how it was prepared and it costs less than a restaurant.

Far less waste than our old habits used to. I was genuinely surprised. But I suppose it depends how efficient you are with meal planning. We weren’t, so it’s been great for us.

Do you actually understand how Gousto and Hello Fresh work?…

We had simple ramen tonight made with left over chicken from Sundays roast / mushrooms / bean sprouts/ mange tout and noodles.
meatballs and pasta / garlic bread yesterday with salad.
saturday we had steak and chips / mushrooms / grilled toms / peas and corn.
Friday salmon or chicken fillets with piripiri seasoning and Mexican rice (uncle Joes microwave special) with roast med veg or salad (kids don’t eat med veg)
Chicken curry tomorrow with kachumber and poppadoms (always shove a packet of the crisp type ones in when in m and s)
haven’t though about Friday yet (I’m not in - they can fend for themselves!)

Chilli, salmon & potatoes, roast chicken (but not a Sunday roast, sometimes with homemade chips, sometimes rice) pizza, fajitas, English breakfast for dinner, jacket potatoes, fresh fish and crusty bread, beef stir fry, burgers, lasagne or lazy lasagne, chicken & chorizo traybake, pasta in tomato sauce, cheese and onion, mince pasties. Soups - lentil, chicken, carrot, broccoli.
Before our busiest days I make a dish that will last for two days (so chilli, curry, a big lasagne and so on). Sometimes I make a bigger batch of rice and pair that with a different meat or fish the next night. When I make burgers I make more to freeze.
Until last year I was living in a country which had limited ready made meals and what there was was awful. I got used to meal planning and cooking and prefer it.

We eat a lot of spicy chicken thighs - cooked in a pan with thyme, garlic, and a shed load of fajita/ Piri Piri type spices. Accompanied by broccoli, rice, new potatoes, or salad and wraps.

I always have a supply of chicken thighs in the freezer as they are quick to defrost, tasty, and can be used in so many different meals.