What do you eat every week / regularly?

[daisydalrymple]

Looking for inspiration really and to pinch ideas

I meal plan every week but seem to end up relying on the same old things most weeks. Namely:
roast chicken (or sometimes other roast)
leftovers next day, usually stir fry/curry/ casserole/risotto type thing
veg pasta & salad - mushroom/courgette/pepper/toms type combo
jkt pot & salad - various fillings
fish with pots & veg (sometimes fillets, sometimes home made fishfingers, sometimes fish pie...)
mince or sausage based dish (bolognese, shep pie, cott pie, saus cass, saus with rice...)
something else usually another fish thing...

Fed up cooking / meal planning / eating it all. Sometimes I'd much rather have a bowl of cereal. I make a big pot of soup most weeks which i freeze in portions and have for lunch, so there's usually a few varieties in freezer of that.

Any suggestions for straight-forward evening meals gratefully received.

weekdays
chilli con carne or spag bol (1 packet of mince)
chicken stir fry (1 packet of chicken)
pasta dish normally with bacon and mushrooms (1/2 pack of bacon)
breaded chicken (normally on special at Sainsburys 2 packs for £5, 1 pack now)
scotch eggs, humus, plus salady bits
weekends
1 major meal on the weekend (usually a roast or a home made lasagne etc.), other meal the rest of the breaded chicken, then bits and bobs like baked beans etc.

think mine as simple as yours lol :)

Most weeks we'll have a roast, some sort of homemade pie, a pasta bake (cheesy veg or tuna) or risotto, salmon or chicken with couscous or quinoa or baked potato...
I don't really stick to regular things that much, though. Everything is always made from scratch so it depends how lazy creative I feel when I plan :o

This week's meal plan was:

Mon: homemade meatloaf, mash, broccoli, gravy
Tues: butternut squash and chorizo risotto
Weds: tuna pasta bake, salad
Thurs: homemade quiche, salad
Fri: salmon, roasted vegetable quinoa
Sat: dirty rice
Sun: bean and chorizo casserole, sweet potato wedges.

I am a massive loser and love meal-planning :o

*harrissa lamb - lamb mince cooked with tin tomatoes, onion, garlic and a spoonful of harissa paste served with cous cous or rice and coriander leaves, maybe a little feta too crumbled over the top.

*cheesy leek and bacon pie - bacon fried off with leeks then covered in cheese sauce, mash on top, bung in oven for a bit, served with peas/sweetcorn... my kids love this.

*homemade Cornish/chicken and leek pasties and salad.

*Bombay potatoes and/or curry served with chapatis and salads/relishes etc makes a nice change and v economical.

*chicken breasts stuffed with boursin, baked for half an hour on a bed of sliced tomatoes served with buttery tagliatelle and green salad. Dead easy and yum!

Oooh, that harissa lamb might go on next week's plan :o

thanks. I get all inspired to do a new plan, I write lists and lists of combinations which could go over a 4 week period, then each week think, oh I'll just have these again this week to keep things simple...
Need to start making home made quiche I think, that would add an extra option instead of omelette...
nice ideas above

we dont have roasts as we dont like them,so theres not much we eat every week without fail.

Chilli con carne we have quite regularly,theres a recipe on good food which is good,kids love it too.

Nigellas fajitas are good as they have flavour but aret too hot so you can all eat them and those who like them spicy can add chilli sauce!

Pasta norma is a winner,thats another good food recipe,actually at one point we ate that every weekend for about 2 yrs!

Sturdy soups are a staple in our diet. You can make them with all sorts of leftovers so they're really good way of using leftovers. And if there's soup left it can be part of a pasta sauce/ stew broth later.

Fish pie is another firm favourite here, usually on Fridays.

Saturday lunchtime is "leftovers lunch" where we get everything out of the fridge that's been there since Sunday, and serve it in a serve yourself kind of arrangement. Since we're all busy on Saturday mornings it's nice not to have to think about what we're eating at lunchtime.

Sausages, every Friday.

Good ones mind you! DS1 come home from school and puts them in a pre-heated oven and when I get home I cook potato wedges (which I mix with olive oil and paprika) and tomato salsa (onions, garlic, tinned toms, herbs and a pinch of cayenne pepper). I love my Friday dinners!

I always do a midweek chicken slow cooker dish - Spanish chicken or similar (with herbs, spices, small potato chunks, tomatoes and green beans).

If I do roast chicken on Sunday, we'll have chicken pasta bake during the week or if it's beef, a Thai green curry (or a cheats curry with a jar of paste).

I do lots of risottos and soups, whether on the plan or not, one or tother always crops up

chorizo and egg wraps are a weekly lunch.

Pork belly and chotizo stew.

jamies chicken pie.

Risottos - butternut squash, rosemary and chilli or seafood. Would do cheese risotto but DH won't eat cheese (weirdo)
Fajitas or tacos - my sister has a fab recipe for chicken in honey with mango salsa to go in tacos
Something with mash (pork belly, gammon, sausages). Leftover gammon is either made into ham and pea soup or used in sandwiches.
Curry - Indian or Thai with either chicken, prawns or vegetarian
Peppers stuffed with rice, chicken, chorizo, lime juice, chilli

I forgot to add the red peppers to the harissa lamb recipe. Originally the recipe was for a sauce to stuff red peppers with but I found it a pfaff so usually chop up said peppers and add to the sauce with the onions. Sounds a bit meh but is actually very good.

Forgot to add kedgeree - tinned mackerel, rice, curry powder, bit of stock... V quick and easy. I normally add peas too as the dcs don't like egg in it (cheap meal too)

We have veggie chilli & mushroom risotto every week. Every other day i make up as i go along but it generally include a pasta dish and a curry.

Today we had pheasant breast (which i cooked with a mushroom & wine sauce) & roasted veg with choc fudge cake for afters because that's what i discovered in the fridge/freezer

We eat meatballs a lot, but in different ways. I usually make loads of them with pork and beef mince, finely chopped onion, breadcrumbs soaked in milk or left over cream and parsley.
I freeze them in individual portions they don't take long to defrost.
We have them with;
onion gravy, mash and veg,
goulash sauce and rice,
tomato sauce and pasta,
Ikea packet sauce and chips,
in pittas with salad,
cold in breadcakes for lunches,
for breakfast instead of sausages,
thread on skewers and barbeque.

turkey enchiladas
chicken tikka/curry
pasta with pesto & veg
fish topped with pesto and breadcrumbs
meatballs
lasagne
chicke salad with crusty bread & coleslaw
fajitas

Steak with lardy chips, fried mushrooms and fried onions is our only constant at present. Quick and easy, everyone loves it. It's our Saturday night treat - its expensive but still cheaper than a take away.
Kids have Spag Bol a lot, fish with mustard dressing and a celeriac mash. Curry.

I use an app called Evernote to grab recipes whenever I spot them, even just creating a page to note a meal idea - the recipe is always easy to find later, it makes meal planning a lot easier as you can categorise food in a multitude of ways by attaching numerous tags. Then when it comes to meal planning ask for a search on all the tags that are family friendly, quick and chicken for example.

It has completely overhauled the way I plan - I even have a place now to keep all my self catering recipes, I take pics of recipes, cut and paste some, link to others.... I note modifications, ideas to try next time, comments from the kids!!! The possibilities are endless. You can also use Evenote on your phone or pc....love it - can you tell?!

I use Pinterest in a similar way.

Super quick things I do

Roast veg and fish:

Chop up veg of choice for roasting - inc potato to cover carb element of meal - and toss with balsamic, honey, olive oil, sea salt and herbs. But it could just be oil and salt. Roast for an hour. Put salmon on top for last 20 mins. Or could be cheapo coley.

Slow cooker pork with coke and BBQ sauce (a cliche for a reason!):

Open packaging, pour, leave for 8 hours till meat falling apart. Serve with bread, salad of choice, relishes/condiments.

Stir fried rice:

Boil brown rice if you can bear to wait 25 mins. Basmati if you can only spare ten. Toss in broccoli for last five mins with rice. Fry ready diced chicken breast with frozen blocks of ready crushed garlic and ginger (available from Tesco and sains). Combine when ready. Serve with soy/sweet chili/ lime juice/ oyster sauce for fussy family to add as desired.

Thanks for oppo to vent my late preggo food obsession.

This thread ismy new favounite thing to read
No roast for us this Sunday as we're out so this week:
Delia's greek lamb stew (but made with leftover roast lamb that I found in the freezer)
Chicken cacciatore
Pasta with bottled sauce augmented with some rummaged-for vegetable and homemade dough balls.
Homemade pizza
Delia's salmon fish cakes (from her "frugal food" although not v. Frugal with red salmon at over 4 quid for a 200g can!)
Bean stew

Often have risotto.
I am definitely going to make that harissa lamb sponkle

This weeks fairly typical:
Sunday - roast
Monday - jacket, salad , tuna sweet corn for filling
Tuesday - sausages, mash, veg or beans
Wednesday- chicken and leek pie, dauphinois potatoes, carrot and swede
Thursday - pasta bake with cheese and bacon
Friday - take away
Saturday - lasagne with roasted vegs and garlic bread

We're in a food rut at the moment. Weekly meals include:

Sausages - either with mash or in a casserole
Chicken curry
Spag bol or chilli
Chicken fajitas
Fish with veg
Roast chicken

Every bloody week. This thread is great, I'm armed with inspiration already (chicken and leek pie for example, why don't I make that rather than bloody curry with leftover chicken?)

Mmmm chicken and leak pie sounds good.
What do you use for the sauce element in the pie toomuch?

Risotto with whatever meat and veg I have ... Bacon and scallop is divine!
Meat and 2 veg
Wraps
Bolognese
Pasta bake
Stir fry
Roast
Home made crispy chicken - coated in red pesto and couscous

Recently have used this recipe - it would never of occurred to me to use chicken soup before!

www.sainsburys-live-well-for-less.co.uk/recipes-inspiration/recipes/chicken,-leek-mushroom-pie/

But prior to that use white wine/cream/butter/light Philadelphia and thickened with a little flour.

Can't beat a good pie - and life's to short to make pastry yourself i feel!!

Marking place to steal ideas :o