i need help! Ideas for dinners required, please!

[MrsPear]

Hi

I am fed up and bored stiff. Same shit week in week out. So what can i cook for 3 adults and one toddler for seven nights? No allergies and must be hearty / meat type dishes as two adults are men who are builders. At the moment it's pies, stews, roasts and pasta with different sauces. Yes we do eat fish too. Any ideas pretty please?!

Household budget £100

Different types of stews?eg pork stews with an Asian twist can be great and for us, are quite different.

Pork/lamb chops with potatoes and veg? (Lamb chops can be expensive so pork might be better but keep an eye out for specials at your supermarket. Sauna ruts often does a great deal on packets of lamb chops which I then marinade in olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary before cooking).

Grilled chicken pieces with jacket potato and salad.

Lasagna?

This is really tasty. I leave out the star anise - it says 2 in the recipe but when I used 1 I still found it a bit overpowering.

We got stuck in a rut recently with the same old thing being cooked. DH came up with the idea of choosing different countries for each night. I thought it would be really hard work, but actually its been really easy. We decide in advance which are meat meals (trying to stick with eating meat only twice a week) and then just use google. A lot of the things I've made I had totally forgotten about cooking just because I was in repetion mode. Worth a try.

Toad in the hole with lots of veg and gravy always goes down well in our house. We've recently started doing a meal LAN and everyone gets to chose at least one evening meal and that seems to helped to vary things a bit. If you like fish, how about fish crumble?

Baked potatoes with chilli con carne (ie dolled up mince with a can of kidney beans in it) and grated cheese to go on top is good solid and filling & dead easy if you have it with a salad.

Like the idea of different countries mrssnow. Over the last few nights we've had stir fry, fajitas and tonight we are having beef burgers as DS loves helping to make them.

Can you get a veg/meat box delivered? This forces me to cook things I don't normally. For example this week my plan is:

Beef pie with mash and kale
Cinnamon salmon with Harissa couscous and salad
Sausage and squash casserole
Beetroot and smoked mackerel salad with new potatoes
Butternut squash and celeriac pasties with goats cheese.

How about trying a tagine? Serve it with couscous and flatbread
Enchiladas or fajitas
Fish pie
Pasta bake

Is weight an issue for any of the adults? Only asking because we are currently loving the hairy dieters cookbook Even the curries are good and you could always tame them down with sone cream or from age fraiche for the younger ones

I have been trying out the jamie oliver 15minute meal book, and it's amazing, so easy and so different to the rut we've been stuck in.

An alternative to toad in the hole is to use lamb chops instead of sauages.

Sausage casserole is good.

Lancashire hot pot - all in one meal so less washing up.

Stew and dumplings.

make suet pastry, cook some mince and onion. Lay the mince on the pastry and roll up like a jam rolly polly and then steam or oven bake.

Boy some puff pastry, on half of it put chicke pieces, garlic and butter. Cover with the other half of the pastry and bake - serve with veg.

Pork hocks - one per person - add cider and cook (I do it in the slow cooker).

This is something I really enjoyed recently:www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1869/chicken-noodle-soup
We had roast chicken one day from which I then made a stock. I used all the leftover bits of chicken and there was plenty for the recipe. It serves 2, not 4 though.

I've looked at that Chinese braised beef recipe before. You've reminded me to try it nbee.

Pork, chorizo, bean stew is one of my favourite bbc good food recipes but I always use shoulder, not belly.

We also have minestrone soup, as that can be made quite substantial. Also really like Cheese and bacon lasagne but I add spinach.

Check out some recipes here, a variety of Indian and non-Indian stuff for adults and toddler!

Pasta bake
chicken curry
spicy fish
lamb curry
chickpeas
okra?
noodles
fishcakes

www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/