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?

Single and my week might go like this.

1. Rice dish (veg, chicken, sesame oil etc).
2. Pasta dish. (Macaroni cheese, broccoli, Bolognese)
3. Baked beans & poached eggs on toast (love this)
4. Sausage, mash & veg
5. Egg & homemade air fry chips
6. Chicken, veg, paneer curry & rice
7. Roast dinner, generally chicken, stuffing, vegetables, gravy and homemade Yorkshire pud.

Salad Fish fingers Baked potato Green Thai curry.

I rotate the carbs. Indian and Chinese are favourites. So a curry with rice one day then a chow mein or stir fry with noodles the next.

Then something simple with a jacket potato or mash, like a burger with all the trimmings or a chicken breast in a sauce, sausages in gravy.

Then bread, like a pizza, wrap, fajitas or sandwiches or something on toast if I’m in a hurry.
Then pasta, I like a creamy or cheesy sauce usually if I’m honest, rather than tomato.

Back to rice!
I rotate the protein too.

I use meat and seasoning with veg most nights. Mainly chicken thighs or Pork as these are cheaper and more versatile.
Chicken or steak with garlic butter
Chinese or BBQ Pork
Chinese Salt and chilli chicken
Peri Peri Salmon

Then I'll do a pasta dish, sausage pepper and tomato or chicken and mushroom or beef ragu.

The other night is something with chips, fish or gammon and egg. Or maybe something with mash and gravy like a pie, ikea meatballs or sausages.

I have cooked pizza from scratch but it requires a lot of planning to prove the dough, I usually get a good frozen one.

I love soup for dinner but it's not filling enough for DH and DC.

Roast chicken with all the trimmings

Left over chicken then makes two more meals out of chicken and pea risotto, chicken and sun-dried tomatoes pasta, or fajitas.

A delicious pork and noodle Chinese dish in a peanut sauce.

Homemade pizza

Sausages (quality ones), mash, baked beans (not homemade but are organic), peas

Pesto pasta (with any random leftover meat, fish or veg added).

Arrabiata or carbonara pasta if wanting something quick.

Occasionally make quiche with jacket potato and salad.

Vegetarian chilli

Bolognase made with venison mince

Tuna fritters, potato wedges and veg.

I used to do curries but DC isn't keen and I can't be bothered to cook twice.

I love Delia's complete cookery course, and recipetineats online.

Happy to give links if you want.

Recipetineats has a dough which doesn't need to prove, it's really good.

I use websites like delicious magazine- lots of recipes on there- or bbc good food. I skim them when I’m bored and add them to phone notes then go through them on a Friday and do the tesco shop.Make a list of meals and share with the husband. This week we had:
bolognaise/ veggie meatballs
Almond herb and prawn pesto
homemade pizza
tomato and coconut fish curry
Jacket potatoes

I'm going to rave about The Spicery!

Bristol based, ethical and great value, they do spices kits for everything from adventurous meals right through to individual spice packets so it can be as easy or challenging as you like.

Tonight I opened a BBQ Indian seasoning, sprinkled it on chicken and put it in the over with some handcut chips. No UPF, zero effort and absolutely delicious.

We often have the currys because you use the same 4 spice blends for everything so you just need staples in the house like chicken/alternative and some onions and tomatoes.

So easy and so much flavour and actually really good value too.

DM me if you want a referral code for 10% off a first order over £20 (and its free delivery over £12!)

https://www.thespicery.com/

A lot of it is recyclable with Gousto

I have done a weekly menu for years but do have 3 food deliveries a week to keep everything fresh. Not a fan of batch cooking or freezing stuff but occasionally freeeze left over sauces etc.

The best thing I ever did was to get a ring binder, go through all of my cookery books and photocopy the best recipes from each. I then add to this when I spot new things to try, it's really built up over the years and now there's lots of inspitation from this thread.

This way it's really easy to get ideas and switch it around as the seasons change so that we don't eat winter food in summer, seasonal changes also quite inspiring. We would never eat the same thing more than twice in a month, lunches might be an exception as there are 3 of us working full time from home and there is less time for cooking. Lots of homemade soups in winter.

This week -

Lunches:
Gammon, mixed green salad with seeds, red pepper, tomato & orzo salad.
Gazpacho, quiche & fennel slaw
Mackerel pate, ciabatta & endame bean, apple & spinach salad
Vegetable pizza with hoummus
Sausage & caramelised onion muffins
Red onion tarte tatin with rocket & avocado
Watercress soup, prawn cocktail

Supper:
Grilled salmon, wild rice with leeks, peppers, & mange tout
Pesto meatballs with roasted tomato & olives in cream sauce, spinach fettucine
Spicy chicken wings, baked potato, greek honey dip & corn on the cob
Steak burritos with peppers, guacamole, rice, wraps, & sour cream
Grilled cod, roasted tomato, asparagus, new potato & hollandaise sauce
Spatchcock BBQ chicken, potato wedges, lentil, tomato & dill salad
Lasagne, garlic bread & salad (out all day so pre-made)

This week we have eaten or have planned:
Monday - Lentil cottage pie base from the freezer. Green beans and made fresh mash
Tuesday - Home made chips, mushy peas, shop bought Jamaican Pattie
Wednesday - Veggie chilli from freezer, rice, salad
Thursday - Fresh veggie curry, bought naan, rice, salad
Friday - Rest of the veggie curry, home made chapatti, rice, salad
Saturday - Chickpea curry with tamarind sauce, home made batura, mango salsa type thing
Sunday - Cashew nut pate, Pita bread, grated carrot and sesame seed salad, cherry tomato salad, pomegranate salad with mint, parsley, walnuts and dates (looking forward to Sunday). This will also do lunches for a couple of days.
Busy during the week but have more time at the weekends to fiddle about with pomegranates and chopping dates or making something for the freezer. Veggie curry can mean anything - whatever needs using up or something more specific such as spinach and potato or tomato and aubergine.
I have many many cookery books but tend to read them for pleasure rather than following recipes. Favourites that I actually use are a really old and out of print Indian vegetarian cookery book and Prashad Indian Cookery. Also a Good Housekeeping book on the potato and things to do with them,

@MadCattery what does it mean ‘to broil’ please? I used to think it was grilling but you use ‘grill’ and ‘broil’ as distinct terms so it can’t be!

We cook everything from scratch, but usually include a couple of meals that we can eat for 2 days in a row.

EVERY week, we have a chilli! We love it and will never get bored of it. So that's always 2 nights accounted for.

Every so often, one of us will batch cook and freeze a load of portions of base curry sauce (made how the Indian restaurants make it, by blending a massive amount of veg, spices and condensed milk). Then all we need to do is cook onion and chicken, add the sauce and a blob of yoghurt or coconut milk.

We then do a lot of meals where we put mixed root vegetables into a baking dish, add spices/herbs (to make it either Mediterranean or middle Eastern flavoured), add chicken stock until it's half way up the veg, bake in the air fryer until it's well on its way to being cooked, then put chicken breasts on top and bake for another 30 mins. Add bulgur wheat 15 mins before the end and it cooks in the juices.

It’s BBQ season now, so loads of different marinades for pork, chicken, lamb, beef and salmon with various roasted mixed veg, coleslaw, salads etc. most days, and occasional (home-made) burgers or (bought) sausages.
In winter, more stir-fry, soups, cottage pie (with cauliflower cheese as a topping, not mash = low-carb!), pasta dishes, Korean-style pulled beef with bao buns, various pies (crust only on top), stews like Cajun chicken or jambalaya, and of course, Sunday roasts.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/oven-baked-risotto this is a favourite I do it without the wine and stick frozen peas and sweetcorn in.

I mainly do a lot of one pot cooking with minimal prep and then stick it in the oven.

Also oven baked Orzo a big win here.

Broil is heat from above. Grill is openly cooked directly over the heat as in Bbq.

Risotto with either chicken, prawns, bacon and veggies or mushroom, courgette or mixed veggies
Curry
Pasta with either carbonara, bacon and onion with chilli, bolognese or a cheese sauce
Roast (chicken, beef, pork or gammon) then leftover meat and salad or mash & veggies
Stews - been & red wine, chicken and bacon, lamb with Pearl barley and root veggies
Chicken supreme and vegetable rice
Crustless quiche with salad or mash & veggies
Often make soup in the winter for lunches (DH works from home and I don’t work at the moment)
Almost always have a casserole dish of chopped mixed salad made up in the fridge so I can make a 5 minute meal from meat/eggs/cheese/tuna

I'm a full time working single mum with a hungry 16yo. I tend to cook fairly simple meals. This week's suppers are

Sweet peppers stuffed with parslied sausage meat, served with wholemeal garlic bread

Mushroom risotto with parmesan

Chilli with brown rice

Pork chops, served with a fried egg on top, and couscous, peas & sweetcorn

Chicken cooked with tomatoes, peppers, new potatoes, paprika, garlic

Baked Trout stuffed with fresh herbs, with veg and jacket potatoes.

Roast gammon, roast potatoes & veg.

All are pretty low effort and easy. The risotto takes most time. If I'm in a hurry I might make cheese & asparagus or brocolli omelettes with oven chips, or pasta with seafood. Both are fast.

Roast dinner on Sunday, double it up, or have some fresh veg to add, eat again Monday night

Simply Cook 1-2 times a week, although I just cancelled it, but did use for 4 years.

Keeping it simple on busy nights e.g salmon fillet or a steak with salad

Batch cook and freeze lasagnas, bolognese, lentil stews, chilli con carne

Airfryer - once or twice a week I cook a whole chicken, dissemble and put in the fridge. Whole family uses for salads and sandwiches. I batch cook peppers and aubergine to add to meals or salads. I air fry smoked tofu to add to things or I like to just pick out a slab and eat it when I’m peckish rather than reach for something loaded.

We actually enjoy our simplest meals the best. A salmon fillet with salad leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, feta, olives and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. 5 mins prep.

Cook Books - hands down Jamie Oliver’s Air-fryer book is the most useful I’ve had in years.

Weekdays are usually easy on pot/one pan meals or things I have prepped at the weekend.

This week has been:

Salmon fishackes with steamed new potatoes with green veg

Stir fried pork with peppers and baby corn accompanied by egg fired rice.

Mushroom, courgette and pancetta pasta.

Chicken,chorizo and chickpea stew with rice (made in advance at the weekend)

Can I drop by? 😋
I'll do dishes!

Do you all have big fridges? I’ve got a tiny one as live in a very small home, so we can’t do too much prep or freeze stuff. Tempted by the hello fresh type boxes but is it more expensive than normal shopping, or cheaper because you don’t wander round the supermarket spotting random ingredients and thinking you’ll make something and then you never get round to it?

Oh that's good. I'll avoid Hello then and give Gusto a try.

Hello Fresh is def not a cheaper option.
I suppose if you're in the habit of wandering around throwing things you don't need in your shopping basket then it might work out that way, but like for like it is not cheaper - you're paying for the convenience.

I have under-counter sized fridge and freezer - it's enough for the 2 of us.

When I meal plan or one of my daughters mesl plan it s more interesting. My problem is Minday - thursday as the drudgery of it bores me. It has to be quick-ish and I dont necessarily have bandwidth to listen to my fuss-pot!

so the mealsi go to when not meal planning monday thursday - all my version)

• spag bol (with red wine if i have one open) i put plenty of veg in it like carrots and mushrooms
• Quiche lorraine (only shop bought puff 100% butter much nicer)
• a chiken kinda stir fry
• 1 fish a week with veg and rice or couscous usually salmon less animosity coming from 1 child
• another pasta dish if i cant be arsed with some passata or not

when i meal plan and/or i have bandwidth to argue what a lovely meal balanced meal it is with said fuss pot and/or i have energy/creativity

• Fajitas
• crab claws with garlic fresh cherry tomatoes parsley etc with tagliatelle
• butternut squash risotto in winter
• big salad dish like all in one. One of the fav here is 3 colours pasta, lots of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, smoke salmon and king prawns sometimes a bit of feta
• sea bass/cod/monkfish with homemada salsa
• dome chickrn dish

at the week end we ll at least one steak meal, one homemade pasta meal, one take out. Then we may be out a lot if we are, they have parties or if we go out together.

but i m stuck in a rut monday - thursday so watching with interest.
holidays is when i shop everyday at markets, read cookbooks/magazines and get creative.

i love cooking.

It is as you inly receive the ingredients. You just dont give any headspace. I ve fone similar all through covid as couldnt be arsed. A bit too carby for me though but kids loved it