Can we have a staple recipes thread?

[Kyrptonite]

I need foolproof simple ideas really as I'm stuck in a chicken and ham pie, spaghetti Bol, shepherds pie, roast rut!

What are your most trusted recipes that don't require hours of cooking and expensive ingredients?

Turkey burgers.

Turkey mince, grated courgette, salt pepper and whatever herbs you like and have to hand.

Mix well, form into patties and cook for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees in the oven.

Serve on rolls with salad etc. they're cheap to make, take a few minutes to prepare (the grating of the courgette is the longest bit) and taste really nice. Where turkey can be dry the courgette makes it really moist and binds it together. You can't taste the courgette either: my dd1 hates courgette but she will happily eat these.

Place marking for tomorrow. Excellent idea OP.

I do a Cuban chicken pie quite regularly-whole chicken required and plenty of tinned sweet corn. You can vary the ingredients and it feeds the five thousand.

Cheese and Bacon Puff. Thick Yorkshire pudding batter, add grated cheese, chopped bacon and spring onions, add some sweetcorn too if you like. Pour into greased oven dish, bake at 180ºc for about 30 minutes until puffed up and golden. We usually have it with tomato salad, but the kids like it with baked beans too (ugh, my nemesis).

Toad in the hole. I add grain mustard and red onions to make it interesting, but it's one of my go to dinners.

Lasagne. If in doubt I do lasagne, standard beef, chorizo and squash/pumpkin, chicken and mushroom. Basically like what's in the fridge soup, but with lasagne

Leading, naturally, to what's in the fridge soup. We often have soup with bread as a meal.

Spaghetti carbonara- untraditionaly I add onions and peas in the quest for five a day, but we have it regularly.

Fish pie (frozen white fish and a can of tuna, with tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and anything else I fancy eg spinach, sweet corn - chuck it all into a white sauce then to with mash and bake.

Chilli - minced beef, peppers, onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, chili, beans, passata - simmer for ages, serve with wedges or baked spuds.

Can't-be-arsed-chicken - chicken, peppers, tin of condensed mushroom soup, served with rice.

What a great idea for a thread I need some inspiration!

Ready roll puff pastry tart, my DS eat anything with a pastry base and the bases are a bargainous 59p in Aldi freezer. Top with whatever's to hand...
Left over spag Bol sauce and cheese... Peppers, tomato and mozarella, creme fraiche with ham or bacon bits and sweet corn and a good topping of grated cheese... Leftover roast veg or whatever in the fridge needs using!
Or their favourite is cheesy been puffs (yuk!) cut into 4, put a spoon of beans and Gerard cheese, fold over and press edges together with a fork...
Bake on gas 5 for 25 minus
Serve with sweet potato wedges and its dinner in 30 minutes.

Grated cheese, in fact!

We have big soups with fresh bread a lot, too. It's a challenge to find things we all eat (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby) but the dc would eat rice every day if they could, which means a lot of; dal and rice, risotto (so tired of this), bean chilli and rice , special fried rice.

We occasionally have sausage casserole or another meaty thing done in the slow cooker. Sometimes I make a massive salad with lots of interesting bits in, which DH and I eat while the kids chew on pieces of cucumber and devour a loaf of fresh bread.

I'm in a rut too, it's very dull.

If you like pies then you could try Greek Pie for a change

You can use minced lamb or beef or lamb stew meat. Cook with a chopped onion, tin of tomatoes, seasoning and any veggies such as peppers, courgettes, aubergines etc till you have a thick pie filling.

Take about 6-8 filo pastry sheets and line an appropriate dish, place filling in the centre and then bring up the overhanging filo pastry sheets and crunch up till you have a round pie shape. Brush with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some sesame seeds (optional). Serve with herby new potatoes and feta salad. You can do a vegetarian one with feta/butternut squash/asparagus

And winter soup... Potato, sweet potato or squash, swede and carrot simmered in stock or water with garlic, bay leaf, sage or thyme and a teaspoon of caraway seeds if you like that kind of thing. I cook a large mug of red lentils for 20 mins, chuck this in and blend.

Kids could eat this every day, I get sick of it but its great on the days DH and I want something spicy the kids would refuse.

Sausage and roasted veg basically variety of root veg cut bite size and roasted (we use any combination of baby potatoes, parsnips, beetroot, carrots, sweet potatoes) with sausage pieces for about 45 mins. I add a load of chopped sweet peppers, tomatoes and red onions about 20 mins before the end. You need large baking sheets! Nice with some barbecue sauce too.

Fish pie frozen fish pie mix, parsley sauce, sweetcorn, topped with mash and cheese and baked. Easy.

Thai green chicken curry with rice- everyone likes this.

Jackets with tuna mayo with salad and/or roasted veg

Pesto pasta with potato & variety of veg & pine nuts

Beef casserole with jackets/ broccoli

Mug bread.
2.5 mugs flour
1 mug warm water
Enough salt to cover the bottom of the mug.

Mix all together. Leave in a warm place for 20 minutes. Knead into a smooth dough. Leave for an hour to double in size.
Shape into a blob or out in a loaf tin. Leave to double in size.
Bake for 40 minutes at 200.

Ice cream
I tin sweetened condensed milk.( the caramel sort if you can get it)
300ml double cream.
Flavouring of choice(unless you're using caramel)

Whisk together til soft peak.
Freeze.

Thanks to baking James and Nigella

Cheese and potato pie - saute leeks and/or onions. Make mash. Mix lots of grated cheese into mash. Add leeks/onions. Put in a greased oven proof dish and top with more grated cheese. Bake until golden.

You can do it in a pastry case too, which tastes lovely but is a carb overload.

_

Sausage casserole - saute diced onion, carrot, green pepper, celery, couple of cloves garlic. Add grainy mustard, paprika, honey. Add tub of passata. Cook until the vege is nearly soft. Add either sliced hotdog sausages (I use veggie ones) or fried/roasted normal sausages (ditto) and a drained tin of either green lentils or butter beans. Add salt and pepper and more honey, mustard, paprika as needed. Add lots of chopped flatleaf parsley if wanted. We like it with hassleback potatoes.

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cooked rice, tuna, cooked peas and/or sweetcorn.

mix, heat, add a bit of cream cheese, seasoning and garlic oil.

my kids wolf this down!

(you can use left over chicken instead of tuna, tomato sauce instead of cream cheese)

enchiladas
fry a finely chopped red onion and pepper in some oil until beginning to soften, add in turkey mince
(approximately 100g per person) and cook until done (around 8-10minutes). Add some frozen peas or
sweetcorn and cook for 2 minutes more. Spoon in 2 heaped tbsp red pesto and 1tbsp tomato puree. You
can add 25g grated cheese if liked here (we don't as DH hates cheese). Spoon into tortillas and roll up.
Slice in half and put into baking tin. Top with HM tomato sauce and/or grated cheese. Bake until golden
on top at 180degrees (approx 10-15mins).

meatballs
finely chop 1 onion, grate a peeled apple, crush a clove of garlic, crumble a chicken stock cube and add
to a bowl with 500g lean beef mince (or mixture of beef and pork mince) and 2 tbsp tomato puree. Use
your fingers to combine ingredients and then roll into small balls. Coat with flour and fry in a large pan
until all sides are brown and they are cooked through (approx 15mins). Serve with HM tomato sauce
and pasta (in our house it's crusty bread as DH hates pasta).

Curlew - is this self raising flour? No yeast? What's the bread like?

Oops. And a sachet of yeast! _