Cooking family meals day after day... ARGHHHHHHHHHH!

[valiumredhead]

I am about to throw the oven out of the window, I am SO fed up with churning out meals that everyone will eat ever day. I AM SO BORED!!!

Soooooooooooooooo, can you tell me what you eat please? - I need inspiration before I explode with boredom! Doesn't have to be fancy, I just need ideas.

I cook -

Lasagne
Stew
Butterbean casserole in the SC
Pork and cider and apple in the SC
Gammon in the SC
Sausage and mash and onion gravy
Baked potatoes with cheese or tuna and salad
Spanish chicken
Morrocan chicken with cous cous
Salmon and noodles
Cod
Spag bol
Cottage pie
Roast dinner
Pasta with tomato based sauce
Beef and shallot stifado
Curry
Egg and chips!

SURELY I can cook more than 18 meals but I am in such a rut I can't think of anymore

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

Emily's thighs!

I often do soup as a dinner in the slow cooker, minestrone with plenty of beans and pasta, or did oxtail this week. Very filling if you add pasta, rice, lentils or beans to a soup.

I also do a quick chorizo potato thing where you boil pack of new spuds, add to a frying pan of chopped chorizo and onion, saute together and have poached egg on top. Really quick dinner and lovely.

Nicely remembered twinkle

lentil and bacon soup -YUM recipe please as that sounds delicious! :)

Thank you all for the suggestions, much appreciated!

What is Stromboli go?

I am almost comatose with the boredom of it all

YY!!

peppers stuffed with rice/red onion/tuna and topped with mozzarella, so easy and always goes down a storm chez ravelstein

It looks more exciting than my list

tuna & garlic tomato sauce spaghetti
lentil and cauliflower dahl with rice
breaded fish with mash and brocoli
tuna & olive tomato sauce with spaghetti (had again as quick dinner choice when friend turned up and she doesn't eat meat, only fish)
cottage pie for saturday tea
toad in the hole, mash with green beans and brocoli
chicken fricase (sp) with mixed frozen vegtables added and colcannon to soak up juices

My current fave is giant yorkshire pud filld with mash, sausages, peas, lashings of gravy and mint sauce. YUM!

lentil and bacon soup -
finely chop 2 onions and 2 sticks of celery. gently fry in olive oil in a biiig soup pot until soft and golden. add 125g smokey bacon and fry until cooked. Then 4-6 finely chopped cloves of garlic. Add in 225g puy lentils and stir until the lentils are coated in all the bacon fat. Next is 2 tins chopped tomatoes, then a litre of veggie stock and 400ml water. bring to the boil, then cover and simmer very gently until the puy lentils are cooked.

this does 2 adults and 2 dc for 2 nights.

to serve, cook some macaroni (about 50g each) and put a little in each bowl. then ladle on the soup, and finish with parmesan and black pepper.

This week...

Enchiladas - I make a massive one and freeze half for another night

Pork loin steaks with crushed new potatoes or jackets and sweetcorn and/or roasted veg like courgette/sweet pot/aubergine/peppers

Chicken and Chorizo with peppers and rice

Roast chicken, pots and veg

Chicken soup, homemade with potatoes and carrots - like my mum makes, simple but possibly the best dinner in the world!

some of mine -
lentil curry
mushroom strongonoff
sausage casserole
lentil chilli
" " enchilarders
toad in the hole
roast veg with cous cous
moroccan sweet pot & chickpea stew with cous cous
jacket pots with various toppings
veg burgers
butternut squash risotto
roast dinner
lentil spag bol
lentil shepards pie
falafel
various soups
stirfry
beans on toast
omlette
all i can think of at the minute

pls can you share your spanish chicken and morrocon chicken recipes?
thanks!
we do similar and i feel like you- same old same old all the time, but we try to eat together and DD (age 2) has a v limited repetoire she will actually eat

mushroom strongonoff - can I have the recipe please - pretty please?

the last 5 nights
smoked mackeral & grapefruit salad (not teenage boy friendly, he and his pal had pizzas
bacon, egg & tomatoes
sausage, onion gravy, mash and stirfry cabbage
chicken, veg stirfry with noodles
shepherds pie & peas.
puddings, have made 2 chocolate cakes this week,
homemade watercress and potato soup, carrot & coriander soup for lunches
out tomorrow night
roast on sunday.

bugger new ideas, I just don't want to do it any more.

If it was down to me I would have a cheese and tomato sandwich most nights. sausage and chips the rest

its a made up one with a bit of mix & match from different ones but sooo tasty, i serve with brown rice.
fry onion & garlic
add lots of mushrooms
i add parika, pepper - think thats it
add creme frachie
add fresh dill at the end
you can add stock too if you like.
its a really tasty quick meal

also cook veg lasagna
spinach, sweet pot & chickpea curry
pizza & calzone

For a series of authentic and speedy curires I use the miss masala blog, which hasnt had much entries recently (since she sold the book i think) but has a whole stash of recipes if you have a reasonably well stacked spice cupboard.

I tend to go through phases of different countries/cultures cooking when i get bored, it helps to perfect (ok, improve) techniques and ease the tediousness. I am currently in a sort of persian/iranian food phase (think grilled meats/saffron rice/big salads/handfulls of mint leafs and walnuts/soft cheese). Might go all oriental next, would love to learn to make a decent kung po chicken!

After reading this thread I am going to make stew next week in the slow cooker - a bog stew and I am not going to freeze it we are going to eat it all week. Saves on washing up and hard slog, reduces shopping list considerably and that is going to make life easy for me
Monday to friday beef stew

I have no idea what a bog stew is - perhaps I meant beef - not sure.

Valium - Stromboli recipe v. child friendly and you can put whatever you have in it!

Here is the Moraccan chicken recipe www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10760/chicken-and-couscous-onepot

Spanish chicken is a sort of made up version of a Nigella recipe -

skinless thighs, bag of shallots,lardons or chorizo,new potatoes halved - all in a big dish ( I use a big teracotta type thing, you get my drift) with a really good glug of olive oil. In the oven at about 170 for half an hour.

After half an hour add big squirt of tomato puree, I chicken oxo(Knor is too salty) cube dissolved in half a mug of water and a tin of cherry tomatoes.

Back in the oven for at least another 30 -40 minutes and keep bunging it back in for 10 mins or so until it is done. It goes from 'Hmmmmm not sure if this is done' to 'Oh yeah, that's definitely done' - you will see the difference

Thank you for the recipes - definitely going to try the lentil one and the stromboli looks good.

I realised last night that I am not bored, I just HATE cooking savoury food. If I could cook cakes for every meal I would be very happy

Ooh, stromboli! I make pasties, which are sort of the same concept...basic dough, fill whatever you've got, bake. :)