Meal planning is the bane of my life, but having grown up eating the same six or seven dishes on rotation I try very hard to mix things up.
The first thing I’d suggest is writing down a list of all the meals that you enjoy as a family. You will probably be suprised at how many you come up with. We did this and straight away it gave us a good basis and took some of the mental block away. If I’m struggling I go back to the list and am reminded of things we’ve not had for a while!
I’d recommend the bored of recipe books. They do air fryer and slow cooker ones and I found them to be very easy to follow and minimal prep needed.Also a lot of the major supermarkets have good recipe sections and if you shop online you can often add ingredients straight to basket.
in terms of ideas, we tend to stick with similar base ideas and then alter to make different.
Pasta- roast vegetable pasta bake, pasta bolganase, chilli and pasta, tortellini, large pasta shells filled and baked in oven, chorizo pasta bake, tuna pasta bake, veg or meat lasagne.
Stew- chorizo and beef stew, chicken and leak stew, goulash. Serve with mash and or crusty rolls. Often cooked in slow cooker.
Chicken- peri peri chicken,chicken skewers, lemon chicken bake, chicken gyros, stricken hoi sin chicken, tomatoes and mozarella chicken bake. Typically served with rice or fries and salad.
Chicken or veg jambalaya.
Hard or soft Tacos with chicken and salsa, chilli or baked.
Chicken curry- variations. Often made in slow cooker and using store bought paste.
Roast- beef or chicken with seasonal veg. Also something traditional like mince and dumplings or hot pot or pie and veg. Cortage or shepherd pie.
To make things easy I use store bought paste, easy garlic/ chilli and bags of ready to roast veg. Also, sometimes you can use a base for a couple of meals. Like a roast chicken and using left over for stir dry next day or lasagne with extra Bolognese for later in week.
Hope the above helps!