My new years resolution is to make more family meals - Inspiration please

[mummytopebs]

I usually make around 3 family meals a week and the rest of the days my 2 dc eat together and me and dh have something different later.

Dh is changing his job so he is finishing earlier so I am hoping to do a family meal every night. Has anyone got any good, cheap, healthy recipes I could try. I have quite a fussy 5 year old and an 11 month old. Thanks

The Good Food magazine is also very good. I have used Tesco clubcard points to get a subscription.

I am making this chilli again tomorrow.

I've found this book to be quite good for simple family suppers. My DD is quite fussy too and seems to enjoy most of them.

Some of the recipes are quite traditional, like toad-in-the-hole, others are more unusual.

Shop around though as my copy was about £3 from our local shop.

We eat together most nights - maybe one night a week where we eat separately.

Try and think of meals in terms of the main carb and rotate them, ie pasta one night rice the next potatoes the next, bread the next.

I find that way it is easier to think of things to cook.

Pasta can be with tomato sauce, spag bog, macaroni cheese, lasagne, pesto etc.

Rice can be meatballs, chilli, curry, risoto, goulash etc

potatoes can be with stew, or ham, or fish pie, or roast chicken, or baked

Bread can be dippy egg, beans on toast, scrabled egg, toasted sandwiches etc

Added to that we have pie (which I don't normally do spuds with) or toad in the hole (ditto)

That's a good idea frenchfancy, I'm going to try that myself for the next few weeks.

I have been doing the opposite way for a couple of years but am very bored with the whole once a week planning meals bit.

The way I do it is to think of the protein bit of the meal and rotate things that way. So once a week I try and have chicken, meat, veggie, fish, then swap the other nights or do the odd pizza/meal out.

So fish would be: fishcakes, homemade goujons & chips, tuna with baked pot, salmon roasted in foil with steamed veg and mash

Chicken - roast with pots and veg, or a supermarket BBQ roasted with bread and dips as a quick 'treat' tea or curry, pasta sauce thing

Meat - mince things like chilli, spag bol, lasagne if I have a spare 2 hours!

Veggie - pasta or gnocchi and tom sauce, scrambled eggs or omelettes

Meatballs, homemade sauce & spaghetti, fish pie, fajitas, chicken casserole, pork schnitzel, homemade donner kebabs, chicken noodle soup. Those are our meals for this week :)

lovestocycle - if you do spag bol/shepherds pie (we use the same sauce for both) on monday and make 2x the amount you need for monday then save half the sauce and make lasagne on the tues - halves the time needed as you can just microwave the bolognaise and whip up the cheese sauce and assemble.

Mine love gammon steaks with an egg - I guess your 11 month old could have bacon rashers till he/she could manage the steak. Moussaka also a good one for all ages. I've got a book called "One Recipe 3 Meal Family Cookbook" which would meet your needs perfectly:ISBN 1-901688-34-8. CAT me if you can't get hold of a (cheap)copy and you can have mine as my DCs are older & I no longer need it.

This is such a rich, tasty stew but really is simple. It's also pretty cheap, using a good value cut of pork. We love it!

Ingredients

* 1lb Sliced Pork Belly (bone in)
* 50g Butter
* 2 Garlic cloves (chopped)
* 2tsp Sweet paprika
* 2tsp Caraway seeds
* 1 glass Dry white wine
* 1 tin Butter beans
* 1 pint (ish) Water

Method

* 1- Cut the Pork belly into small bite size pieces, cutting away any excess fat and the rind. Cut off the bone, but keep that to cook with the stew (cooks perks later when done!)

  2- Melt the butter in a large pan and add the garlic, fry for 2-3 minutes until soft.

  3 - Add the paprika and caraway seeds and fry for a further 2-3 minutes.

  4- Add the belly pork and cook until browned and sealed all over. Keep an eye on it at this stage, as it can catch. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

  5- Pour in the glass of wine and cook off the alcohol for a couple of minutes, then add the water, simmer for 1hr 30mins. After that time, add the butterbeans.

  6- Cook for another 30 (ish) minutes, adding more water if it gets too dry.

  7- I serve this with my herb potatoes (recipe here: <a class="break-all" href="http://www.mydish.co.uk/recipe/1767)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.mydish.co.uk/recipe/1767)</a> or some crusty white bread. Melt in the mouth.
  5. Ladle into bowls, garnish with parsley and serve with crusty white bread.

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