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 think overall a delivery service like Hello Fresh or Gousto does save money /wastage. An example: our dinner last night required Hoisin Sauce. If I was making it myself I would have to buy a whole jar, use a couple of spoonfuls then put the jar in the fridge till it got mouldy and then chuck it away. My Gousto box had just the right amount in it, no wastage. I didn’t have to drive to the supermarket or pay for a supermarket delivery. And - priceless- I saved my own time in not having to go to the supermarket. It’s totally worth it for me

Those of you using, which Rukmini Iyers book would you recommend?

I have used Gousto and hello fresh before, they were really good for adding new ideas and techniques to my repertoire (I.e I would never have roasted broccoli before Gousto and now we do that a lot). We always end up fed up of all the packaging tho and cancel it.

I love cooking anyway and cook from scratch 95% of the time. We eat quite simply in the week as I finish work at 17:30 and need to turn a meal around in less than an hour.
This week we have:
-Homemade pizza
-’Marry me’ pasta (with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, lemon - DD favourite)
-Homemade pork and apple burgers
-Chicken curry and rice
-Burrito wraps (with beef chilli)
-Salmon with air fryer chips and veg (super quick for swimming evening)

Oh lord, cottage pie with cauliflower cheese topping sounds incredibly good!

We aim for 2 fish, 2 meat, 3 veggie meals a week.
I used the cherrypick app. It is brilliant at coming up with ideas and also sources the ingredients from whichever supermarket delivers in your area.
Meals we go back to every time include:
Jaime Oliver's turkey and coriander meatballs, JO: turkey, ham and leek pie.
My mum's steak and kidney pie.
Cheese and onion pie
HFW, pizza dough recipe.
Teriyaki salmon.
Chicken sweet and sour.
Tofu, green pepper, black bean sauce.
Special fried rice with spring rolls.
Butternut squash, sage, parmesan, risotto.
Nigellas sticky sausages.
Pan haggerty.
Spicy veg pasties.
Irish stew.
Veggie shepherd's pie.
Stir fry with fried egg or prawns for protein.
Smoked haddock in fishcakes or risotto.
Poke bowls.
Roast dinners, including roasts without meat...nut loaf/lentil loaf etc

For puddings:
Nadiya Hussain's coffee and choc cake is the best we've had, cheap to make and huge 💖.
Trifle
Like prev poster we grow apples, blackcurrants and rhubarb, so crumbles are a fav. As is rhubarb and ginger compote for yoghurt.

Until very recently my DH didn't meal plan at all as he was retired and I was still working, which used to drive me batty! I would do a big grocery shop online, then he would forget to take anything out of the freezer and end up going shopping for something, having something beige which didn't need defrosting, or getting a takeaway. However... I have now (mostly) taken back the reins and these are the things we cook most. Also most of these can be batch cooked and put in the freezer so we don't have to do big cooking every day.

Bolognese sauce with spaghetti (sauce can be frozen)
Chicken and broccoli taglietelle
Pork medallions in a boursin and white wine sauce with new potatoes and green beans
Tuna macaroni
Stew (can be frozen)
Goulash (can be frozen)
Curry (can be frozen)
Roast - then cold roast with mash or salad
Sausage and mash
Chicken and vegetables in a bag
Cottage pie (base can be frozen)
Pork mince with LOADS of vegetables in it (can be frozen)
Pizza - usually bought then jazzed up with our own toppings, but sometimes home made
Pasta with sauce made from whatever I can find
Stir fry - usually pork or chicken with lots of veg and noodles
Spicy chicken and rice (chicken can be frozen)
Chicken fricasee and rice (fricasee can be frozen)
Fish and chips (all frozen not home made)
Fish pie (home made) (base can be frozen)
Chicken pie (base can be frozen)
Steak and kidney pie (base can be frozen)
Stuffed marrow, when it's in season
Lasagne (can be frozen)
Coronation chicken ( I use a complicated recipe, so I freeze the curry flavouring element of the sauce)
Cassoulet (can be frozen)
Quiche

However today I am trying out a recipe for meatloaf, and I will use some of the mixture with slightly different flavourings to make meatballs to go in a sauce with pasta this evening, as DH has to go out and we will need something which can be finished off quickly.

I don't generally use a recipe book for savoury dishes - if I want to try something new I will look the recipe up online. Mostly I just wing it unless it's something that has to be just right (smoked haddock and gruyere souffles - delicious!) The internet was very useful when my freshly vegan brother in law announced a visit with only a week's notice!

I usually use Delia Smith's book of cakes for baking, and for special puddings I use the internet.

I like the BBC good food website.
You can search by ingredients, type of meal eg healthy, for two , special occasion, vegetarian etc.
I don't have a particular dish I make every week which makes eating and cooking more interesting

I really struggle with meal planning but I prefer to plan as I don’t like waste. I do mon- Thurs and dh does the weekend. I tend to do a curry, a pasta dish, a soup or salad and a jacket potato or omelette. So rather than thinking up loads of meals I’m narrowing it to a meal type then just change up the sauce/veg

@MakingSpaceForJoy I have all of them😁but definitely use the Quick one and the Green one most, possibly because I got those in lockdown when I was bored and cooking for a crowd so they saved my sanity! Gorgeous username by the way.😍

I’m always shilling it on here but Recipe Keeper app, scanned/saved recipes from loads of diff places, auto generate meal plan and add to online shopping list. Every Sat is homemade pizza night.

favourite books are the Bored of Lunch slow cooker and air fryer, Taming Twins ones, Hairy Bikers, Poppy Cooks.

We try to do 2 meals a week that are "new" or less used ones that one of us has found in a new cookery book / online / popped up on social media.

We then have a staple of about 10 meals that we rotate through having 2-3 a week that are family favourites:
Spag Bol
Carbonara
Fajitas
Hunters Chicken
Sweet and Sour
Rogan Josh
Steak and Chips
Pizza
Pie & Mash
Stir Fry
Burgers

One day a week we will have a "lazy" meal, that could be a take-away, a Charlie Bigham meal or similar, just the night we CBA to cook.

And then one night is the slow cooker night were we chuck everything in the night before, turn it on first thing and it is ready for dinner.

I think if you like to cook and more importantly know HOW to cook you don’t really need a cookbook.

I don't really plan that much at all, to be honest. When we do a supermarket shop, we just sort of wander round and say things like 'Shall we get some mince and then we can have a chilli or something at some point?' or 'Oh look, stewing steak's on offer, I could do a slow cooker thing' or 'Let's get some fish' but we don't really plan much more than that. Occasionally there might be some very specific dishes that we decide on in advance, but not that often. It's more a case of choosing some meat, fish and veg that we like the look of and then I invent stuff as we go along. We always make sure we've got eggs, cheese, rice, pasta, bacon, natural yogurt, tinned tomatoes, potatoes, various tinned pulses, tinned tuna and sardines and dried herbs and spices and then we kind of just choose meat, fish and veg and I make things up.

I rarely use recipe books for ordinary weekly meals; I just make things up. I like the chance to be inventive. I do 99% of the cooking - my choice, because I enjoy it. DP can cook and sometimes he makes specific things, but he needs a recipe. His go-to book is Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food but he cuts recipes out of the Sunday papers as well.

Hairy Bikers and Meera Sodha books are good

BBC leek and bacon risotto is tasty

I do the meal plan on Saturday usually. If the girls are here, it can become a time of robust and vocal negotiations, as everyone tries to get their favourites in!

Favourite recipe books at the moment are Hairy Dieters, Tom Kerridge Pub, and a Kiwi one we've just about worn out, Annabel Langbein 'Essentials'. Love the Good Food and Delicious magazines too.

Regular meals:
Spag Bos
Spaghetti and meatballs
Chicken in a Creamy Onion sauce on fettucine
Macaroni cheese,
Chicken Lasagne
DH's chicken casserole
My chicken casserole
Marry me Chicken
Fish pie
Roast chicken with either veges or salad
Ditto Roast Lamb
Steak with a red wine jus and veges
Marinaded lamb burgers and sweet potato fries
Chicken satay burgers
Salmon with chili ginger sauce
TK chicken curry
Sweet and sour pork and rice
Teriyaki salmon stirfry with udon noodles
Marinaded lamb rack with red wine jus and veges
Shepherd's pie
Bos Fried Chicken
Fish and Chips
Venison Bulgogi
Fish sambal
Last Minute Butter Chicken
Oven baked salmon and veges
Devilled sausages and veges
Bangers and mash
Savoury Chops
Tastes Like Honey (a Chinese Lamb Dish)

That is madness to me. My brain would explode wandering around the supermarket with no list trying to plan and shop for meals whilst walking around. I have a cupboard full of spices, and tinned tomatoes etc but I would massively struggle to have all the ingredients for most of my recipes off the top of my head, and I don't think I could just 'make up' a recipe.

I like to do a lot of cooking on a Sunday ready for the week ahead which means not having to do much else during the week.

I do a big curry and big pot of rice so that it can just be re heated when needed and maybe also serve with some naan or flat breads.

I would also do an either a chilli con carne which can be eaten along side the already made rice or with jacket potatoes or in wraps with cheese or a bolognese to have with either pasta or jackets.

I always make sure to cook more than I need when it comes to bolognese, curry, chilli’s etc so I can freeze a few batches so they can be pulled out on days where I haven’t had time to sort anything.

I also like to have a big pot of some sort of salad. Either mozzarella and sundried tomatoes etc or a tuna and boiled egg one and the this can be easily potted up to take for lunches or to grab on the go.

For snacks I like to have a big tub of cut up pepper, carrot, cucumber and celery sticks to be able to dip in hummus, tzatziki etc.

With things like this already made up it’s easy for others in the house to be able to help out with the less tricky parts of the meal like the jacket potatoes, pasta etc so it means others (even kids) can help get dinner ready.

For easy quick dinners for the spring summer I like to do quiche, roast chicken, etc with salad and potatoes and coleslaw.

I agree it’s better to shop with a list, as that way you undoubtedly create less waste, but if you’re confident with your recipe ideas, you can sometimes do it even if you haven’t planned, just by knowing what general ingredients you need.
As for making up recipes, I was kind of forced into it when a family member became diabetic (type 2) - hence the cottage pie with cauliflower cheese instead of mash, which has become a firm favourite in our house, but sweet potato and broccoli roasted with some spices also go well on top and provide a carb-lite meal.
There are also some Apps you can download, which bring up recipes for what’s left in your fridge and store-cupboard: these have given me the confidence to try making up new recipes, but by building on established combinations of ingredients found in other meals…

I just plan for 7 meals we will eat at some point that week, its not on Monday we will have xxxxx

This week the list was
Soy chicken kebabs and rice
Jollof rice with chicken stuffed with feta and sundried tomatoes
Fakeaway Chinese (this will be a Sunday meal as it takes so long to make)
Gammon & mash (I will have chilli out of the freezer as i don't like these kind of meals)
Cheats lasagne
Beef stir fry
Tikka chicken wraps
Then I just chuck on some broccoli and green beans or a quick salad

Other favourites are egg fried rice with chicken and bacon added which is handy to make if you have some leftover chicken and a couple of bits of bacon left in the fridge.
seasoned chicken with garlic smashed potatoes
shakshuka
dan dan noodles
dirty rice
steak, mushrooms, peas and chunky chips
chilli is my favourite meal i could eat it every day so i always have a batch in the freezer, the rest of the family really like roast dinner, sausage and mash etc I really don't so I will cook that for them and have my chilli.

I’m a big fan of having a winter and summer monthly meal plan that has no food waste (no leftover half packets of fresh ingredients), some batch cooked meals and some 15 minute meals or things that the leftovers can be turned into something else for another night with very little effort, with online shopping lists set up so I just have to click one button 😂 Then if I am in the mood, I’ll swap in some different meals (or an entire week of meals) or change up some ingredients or sides or add in something seasonal (asparagus and British strawberries this week). If I’m not in the mood, I don’t have to think at all!

TBH I have been using the same plan for decades since my DC were babies 😂 It doesn’t get boring because I do a lot of swapping in but I don’t HAVE to. I also have alternatives within the plan eg roast chicken on Sunday, then the leftovers become various salads, bubble and squeak, different curries or ramen on another day or a large batch of Spag Bol becomes chilli with loaded nachos or lasagne on another night. It made cooking pleasurable again rather than a chore.

Most of my recipes are in my head 😂 My favourite recipe book is the Marie Claire Food Fast book by Donna Hay. Lots of ideas for meals that can be assembled in under 20 minutes.

Another vote for gousto

We get 2 double portions of hello fresh meals so I have leftovers on 2 days. For the other 3 days it’s usually some combination of:

salmon & veggies
roast veg & feta (or chicken) salad
Sunday roast
Sunday roast leftovers as a stir fry
tortellini with salad (if I’m super busy!)

We eat stirfrys often - salmon or prawns usually - change up the veg and rice or noodles.

BBC Sea bass with sizzled chilli, ginger and garlic.

Fish tacos.

Fajitas.

Chicken thigh traybake with roasted veg.

Hot smoked salmon with veg/salad.

lamb chops with veg/salad.

I make a lot of coleslaw with oil and herb dressing. Or bean and veg salad. There are usually leftovers for lunch.

DH will rustle up a curry with a jarred sauce sometimes or I'll make one with patak's paste.

On here as need a bit of inspiration to change things up a bit.

I don’t really plan the week as such because there’s only two of us now, but these are the meals we cook quite regularly…
spag Bol (I just follow my own “recipe” using lean mince, red wine, onions carrots passatta etc)
Chicken curry (bbc good food “easy chicken curry” recipe, with added spinach and coriander)
Sausage and bean casserole (hairy bikers recipe)
chicken and veg orzo (my own throw it in recipe with lots of chopped veg, orzo, tomatoes with a dollop of cream cheese and air fried chicken thighs on top)
Stir fry with veg/noodles and grilled salmon on top
chicken paprikash with mash/veg (tesco recipe)
Jacket potatoes with salad and some kind of air fried chicken
Simple pasta dish with chopped bacon, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes (depends what I’ve got left in the fridge)

I find the best thing to do is make a list on your phone of things everyone likes (I’ve got about 25-30 on my list) then choose a week’s worth at the start of each week. I always make a large portion even for two of us so I can put some in the freezer. I don’t use many cook books now, I just google and if I find a recipe I like I’ll save it. I find Instagram quite good too, I can save recipes in the app that I like the look of.

Baked salmon filet (I buy them frozen) with couscous and stir fried veg. (20 min meal)
An omelette with salad one evening a week
I batch cook soup and take it to work.
It’s salad season, I try to make them as imaginative as possible and find recipes online.
I often make a beef mince sauce that is bolognese, then pimped up with kidney beans and lots of chilli on night 2.
Caramelized red onions atop of slice of baked goats cheese with walnuts, rocket on toast (20 mins)
A good stew in the winter (with dumplings) lasts two nights.
Greek yoghurt is always around for a quick breakfast
homemade pizzas (again 20 mins)
A carbonara or Cacio e Pepe pasta. Pesto is also quick.
Stuffed peppers baked in the oven.
corned beef hash with a fried egg.

midweek dinner that takes longer than 30 minutes after a long day at work really drains me.