So bored of everything we eat. Please inspire me!

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I'm veggie, dp and dds are now meat eaters but since I do most of the shopping (online), meal planning and cooking (though dp is v good at doing prep etc) we eat veggie 99% of the time at home.

I tend to do lots of curries, chillis etc but we're all getting a bit bored of them tbh. It's also hard because dd1 won't eat anything in a creamy/cheesy sauce and I won't eat anything with tinned tomatoes, so that rules out a lot of pasta dishes for example.

Please inspire me!

Any good recipes with tofu maybe? Or something Thai-esqu? Or something with sweet potatoes which isn't a curry or a chilli? Or an exciting pie of some sort?

This thread is great - blatantly marking my place !

I am short on recipes, but I feel your pain re: needing inspiration for meal planning. What I did was give the dd's one day per week each where they have to add something to the meal plan (and maybe cook it with me) and dh two days. Then I only have to plan 3 days (or two if we have a meal out or takeaway). I started the dd's off by using the 'meal mixer' on the change 4 life website to get ideas. To be honest they mostly choose their 'old favourites' but occasionally make some interesting choices. Also they are more willing to tolerate something they don't like that much if they know it was someone else's turn to choose. It has been no more expensive, and I keep the old ones in case i want to recycle a week's ideas. Your cooking sounds lovely. Another thing I have done is accepted that my tastes (including being vegetarian and liking vegetables) mean that it makes sense to not always have the same meal, so I might have a sweet potato with boursin, or a chickpea thing - end result = I am happier, everyone else is enjoing meals more.

My favourite 'I cant be arsed' dinner is to griddle some veggies (usually peppers, onions, mushrooms, thinly sliced courgette etc), take a ready rolled puff pastry sheet, thinly spread tomato puree on then chuck on the veggies and some goats cheese. Cook in the oven until the pastry is golden. I usually serve it with new potatoes and a big salad. Or, cubed halloumi kebabs. Just put the halloumi onto skewers with whatever veggies you fancy and griddle. Serve with sweet potato wedges and sweet chilli sauce or oven chips if you are feeling lazy. Yum!

Oh you naughty people and your haloumi ideas - I love the stuff but dd1 would not eat it. :( I may have to give up and accept that they have meat and I don't, at least sometimes.

So - any easy meat things for 3 people, that would 'go' with new potatoes and salad, maybe? That way I could have new potatoes and salad with haloumi and they could have something else!

lamb chops/steaks?
if you can be arsed, marinade them in olive oil, lemon, chilli and black olives overnight (in fact I bet the halloumi would be nice in that marinade as well)
then fry or grill for a few minutes (3-4) each side.

Thank you. Will they stink the kitchen out and make me feel sick? :)

Oh, give them a plate of cured meats. My children will devour a pack of salami and Parma ham etc.

Or slices of chorizo fried with some onions, whole cherry tomatoes, perhaps a tin of butter beans, and a bit of wine added to make some sauce. Takes very little time.

Kebabs of any description (including the ready made one you get in the supermarket).

If you want more japanese-y inspiration you could do chicken yakitori. DS2 loves yakitori. It's just little chicken kebabs in a sauce made of 80ml soy sauce, 80ml sake (or just wine/sherry, or stock or water), 80ml mirin, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon sesame oil (simmer the sauce for 5 mins to make it into a sauce and then cover the chicken in it). You can make veggie versions of these using the same sauce and whatever you feel like on bamboo skewers really.

Or you could use the barbecue sauce recipe with any kind of meat.

open a window

Yes, open a window and stick the extractor fan on maximum!

Obviously cook the chicken for the yakitori. You can grill it. Or stick it in the oven if you hate using the grill.

feta and aubergine bake
caramelised onion and gruyere tart
mushroom stroganoff
lentil shepherds pie
butternut squash and spinach lasagne
posh mushrooms on toast
vegetarian moussaka
falafel
chargrilled vegetables/halloumi cheese/cous cous

Hope this gives you some ideas

Haven't read the entire thread so sorry if anything like this has been suggested, but I saw you like Thai and thought of this pumpkin curry recipe. This was one of my face recipes in the local Thai restaurant before we moved. Sadly none of the Thai restaurants near where we live seem to make it - so I am giving it a try some time over the next few weeks... You can use butternut squash or any other squash you fancy, it doesn't have to be pumpkin by the way.

aubergine parmigiana (or chicken parmigiana for meat eaters!)
egg/cheese mixture and mushrooms on toast
cream cheese and asparagus strudel (posh!)
cheese and vegetable pie
posh macaroni cheese - i.e. layered with something underneath
lots of different risottos
polenta with mushrooms
rosti with vegetables
mild vegetable thai curry

For new potatoes I just give the DCs sliced ham. No cooking, not much smell.

We eat a lot of pulses , bean enchilladas, chick pea curries, lentil soup. I have fussy kids and like family meals, but at least once a week they have "kid food" (eg fish fingers) so we can have some real food they don't like. On other days I try to stretch the boundries a bit, and it is working slowly.

Yes to pumpkin curry - looks fab. Thanks for the easy meaty ideas too.

Thanks to any late comers - a lot of mushrooms and cheese though, so no use for heathen dd1 who does not appreciate the powers of cheese or mushrooms at all.

Think I might have to give in and let them have a crappy 'kids' tea' sometimes, so that dp and I can have mushroom and cheese nights!

Hi, as a fellow veggie enjoying the thread. I loved filled portobello mushrooms with puy lentils mixed with onions and tomatoes and anything else you fancy (pesto), place in oven for around 20 minutes. I also put a topping on, grated cheese, walnuts - yum! Or red peppers filled with couscous, peas, pesto, grated carrot/other. Again baked in oven for 20 minutes x

What a great thread full of ideas! We are not veggie but trying to reduce meat and increase veggie meals but with a child who is gluten intolerant which can be a struggle.

We plan one night a week where we have 'kids tea' - fish fingers, M&S crisp bakes and 'adults tea' where DH and I take it in turns to choose and cook a meal we can't usually have. The kids eat early then watch TV/ go to bed while we eat so it has the added bonus of adult chat time too.

I also write the weeks meal on a wipe clean board on the wall, and when I remember I ask the kids to read it and suggest any changes. They also understand there are 'slow meals' like lasagne and 'quick meals' like eggs and they have to stick to a quick or slow meal idea because that's been based on my and DH work plans!
They seem to manage the complexity quite well

Jamie Oliver has a good spinach and feta pie recipe. His is with filo pastry, but I find that too faffy and have made it with puff pastry from Aldi and another time with homemade pastry, and it's lovely every which way. You can also just use whatever cheese is in the fridge, I usually go for a mixture of feta, ricotta and cheddar.
Serve with salad and baby roast potatoes.

There's a lovely quinoa and haloumi salad recipe on the BBC goodfood website.

I've got a couple of veggie cookbooks that are aimed at students, but which are actually great for anyone who wants inexpensive, no-nonsense recipes and no pictures to make you feel inadequate about the presentation of your own creation. My favourites are the Vegetarian Student Cookbook by Hamlyn, and Beyond Baked Beans Green.

I am not vegetarian but I have had periods of my life where i have eaten less meat .. anyway

Vegetable pancakes (scallion, corn, broccoli, etc)

Vegetarian muffins

Quinoa - I recently had the most amazing salad at a restaurant made from red quiona, black (or Italian) kale, ricotta salata, smoked almonds, with a poached egg on top. I tried to recreate it at home and it tasted pretty good, except I also added cucumber and tomato

my ds's love the quorn mince fried up with onion pepper and sweetcorn, I add a sachet of the fajita mix smokey barbeque flavour and passatta and put on the table with bowls of salad stuff ready prepared and a bowl of grated cheese, sour cream or creme fraiche and they make up their own flour tortillas with it all added. yum

My fave ever veggie recipe is aubergine tian but it's from one of the Cranks books so you may have tried it. It is amazing. We're not veggie but cook this loads anyway. Can't find recipe online but basically, slice, brush with oil & grill aubergines then sprinkle with lemon juice & salt. Fry chopped fresh (not tinned!) tomatoes with garlice, salt & pepper then layer this with the aubergines (almost like a lasagne, using the aubergine instead of pasta). Top with a mixture of creme fraiche, crushed raw garlic, lemon juice, salt & pepper, then grate some parmesan over and bake in the oven for half an hour or so. YUM.

I feel your pain ref inspiration for veggie family meals that kids will also eat. Recent hits for me (ie that DD has actually eaten) have been spinach and new potato bake on the riverford website, and their pasta, bean and broccoli soup. Onion tart from the pauper's cookbook.

Also, I know you don't like tinned but if you like real tomatoes in cooking, tomato and bread soup is good, two punnets of real tomatoes and stock, soak stale bread in balsamic and oil and bung in. It is lovely and also goes down well when served with other bits.

We had green omelette the other night - chop a packet of baby spinach, a bunch of spring onions, a small bunch of dill and a small bunchof coriander. Beat 4 eggs and add them to the chopped greens with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large frying pan, pour in the egg mix and cook till the base is set then finish under the grill. Had it warm with a creamy potato salad, a pile of grated carrot and tomatoes and cucumber. Really quick to make, tasted great.

Home made red kidney bean burgers (lots of recipes if you google it) served in pitta breads with salad and sweet chilli sauce. Delicious and cheap!