Can anyone spend a bit of time reading this and then giving me some ideas of meals we can have that are healthy and simple to make, we are very willing to try, but I just don't know how!
We have found ourselves in a real rut and I just can't seem to find a way out of it. We are a family of three (soon to be four, DS is 4 years old) and at the moment we are living on things like egg and chips, battered cod and fritters, pizza, and the very occasional jacket potato here and there and aside from the fact that most of what we eat is obviously unhealhty and expensive, I am sick to my back teeth with it!!
Now, we have gotten into this situation over the years because I really can't cook, which means DH has to, and after a long 12 hour+ day at work he can't be bothered to do much more than shove something in the oven/fryer (can't blame him!!) but I am really going to try very hard to learn to cook, especially if it means we have something nice to eat.
The other problem we have is that 9 times out of 10 we all have different dinners, we are all terribly fussy eaters:
DS won't eat anything with any sort of wet/sloppy sauce (gravy, soups, stews), although he loves rice and pasta, we can never find anything to go with it because of the sloppyness, he is also very very very reluctant to eat any fruit and veg, we give him dried fruit and fruit juices, which helps a bit but he has absolutely no fresh fruit and veg. he actually kept a strawberry in his mouth for over an hour a few weeks ago because he just wouldn't swallow it - this is what worries me the most, I can't physically force him to eat it.
DH cannot stand even the slightest bit of onion/garlic/peppers, we have to check every single ingredients list to make sure there is no onion/garlic powder in it, and he isn't keen on many vegetables although will eat lots of fruit.
I am not keen on curry powder, and although I love things like homemade stews and shepherds pies and things like that, I never feel like I have had a proper meal if it doesn't include chips, I do realise that is utter nonsense and I am really trying to change my POV on this. I am very lazy with food as well, would much rather grab a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar than an apple.
The other thing we can't get our heads around is we have read people saying stock up on fruit and veg and salad stuff, it is cheap and lasts for ages, but when we do try to follow this we end up bringing half the fresh food aisle home with us (which usually costs us more than our usual shop - we aim for about £100 a week, would like to bring this down rather than upping it!), eating some of it, and then chucking most of it in the bin on day 3 because it has gone off, or dried up, or gone brown or something....
I know I have waffled on, and it is a big ask, but if anyone can help us find some good healthy meals that we will all eat, that I can cook, that doesn't include sodding chips, please help us!!