Dinner ideas - always cooking the same stuff!

[TheInvestigator]

Hit me with your family dinner ideas. It's just me and my 5 and 7 year olds, and I'm always cooking the same things... Bolognese, fajitas, stir frys, roast chicken, chicken & pasta in a veg sauce.... stuff like that.
So I need ideas and recipes for family dinners which the kids will enjoy!

Bump

go veggie, quite a lot of scope for interesting meals

Try some fish, salmon fillets, fish pie, fish and rice.

All kids love risottos, so easy to eat, good for using up veg too!

Falafel with houmous, pitta etc.

Enchiladas

Risotto

Stuffed peppers - stuff with couscous or rice or whatever you fancy

Puff pastry tart - a ready-rolled puff pastry sheet topped with whatever you fancy - Brie and cherry tomato is lovely; cheddar and caramelised onions; asparagus, peas, pesto and cream cheese

Frittata or tortilla with any vegetables you have lying around

Dal and rice or naan

Tagine with couscous or bulgur wheat

Tostadas - use tortillas as a base for pizza toppings then bake/grill

Loads of nice bean burger recipes, make loads then freeze same with fish cakes, I do sweet potato, tuna, sweetcorn and chilli.
Tuna pasta bake
Veggie pasta bake - cooked pasta, fried red onion, mushrooms, peppers, garlic, can of chopped toms, balsamic vinegar mixed herbs, mix with the pasta, put in oven proof dish and top with cheese and breadcrumbs then 20 mins in an oven.
Stuffed mushrooms or peppers
Puff pastry tarts and quiches
Quaesidilla
Gammon with sticky pineapple glaze
Sausage and red onion toad in the hole
Paprika chicken and veg skewers

Hungrily place marking ☺

Two of our favourite easy meals;

Chicken breast roasted with curry spices, served on rice, yogurt on the side plus a salad with watermelon and pomegranate.

Fish roasted with paprika and cumin, served on rice and black beans, sour cream on the side plus a salad with tomato and avocado.

Toad in the hole
This chicken pilaf serves one but is easy to multiple up www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7740/onepot-chicken-pilaf
Egg boats scouts.org.uk/news/2015/05/recipe-egg-boats/
Fish finger pie www.asdagoodliving.co.uk/food/recipes/simple-fish-finger-pie-for-two
Easy lamb biryani www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/lamb-recipes/easy-lamb-biryani
Fish cakes
Tuna burgers www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5863/tuna-sweetcorn-burgers
Sweet corn fritters realfood.tesco.com/recipes/sweetcorn-fritters-with-avocado-salsa.html
Cheese pancakes

We make our own fish fingers (cut up white fish or salmon into strips, dip in flour then egg then breadcrumbs then cook in the oven for about 10 minutes) and serve with mixed chips (batons of any hard vegetable like potato, sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot, beetroot, parsnip cooked for 30mins ish, less for carrot). Once you've done it a couple of times your children would be able to do the fish fingers themselves (my 4 year old can).
We also do traybake a lot with chicken joints or sausages and a random selection of roast vegetables.

Pancakes. Make a batch with 2 frying pans to speed it up then serve with grated cheese, ham, veg.

If yo make too many stuff with cheese and mushrooms and freeze for another day.

Home made spring rolls - can be easily made by a 7 yr old and a 5 year old under supervision.

Do you have a slow cooker? Chicken breasts, chopped upp with mushrooms, leek a tin of condensed mushroom soup and a tub of creme fresh. If you cook too much you can freeze with a pastry lid as a 'pot pie' or just freeze it on a dish and add the pastry lid when you are cooking it.

Duck is actually really easy to roast and if you overcook (well what a chef would consider over cooked) so it has crispy skin ios quite child friendly.

We do love roast duck legs with a recurrent sauce and roast potatoes, but I can't get duck legs in any of our supermarkets so either need to pick them up when we're in a different town or order from the butcher, but it's been ages since we've had those so that's a good reminder @sash! Will deffo get some for next week!

It's going to be lentil curry tonight and puff pastry tart tomorrow! Then will make up some meal plans for more variety and get the shopping in!

*redcurrent

Spinach and ricotta makes a lovely lasagne topped with tomato sauce. Or in filo pastry to make spanakopita or in puff pastry to make pinwheels.

Chilli and rice with some nachos on the side.

Egg fried rice with satay chicken.

I often cook beef or lamb stew at this time of year, at a very low heat in the oven. Or a whole poached chicken in stock and vegetables, then whizz the stock and veg to make a sauce for the chicken.

Tacos
Fajitas
Gammon eggs and chips
Sausage and mash
Shepard's pie
Cottage pie
Sausage casserole
Chilli
Curry
Jambalaya
Stroganoff
Fish chips and mushy peas
Corned beef hash
Cowboy pie
Lasagne
Fish pie

I am always trying to ring the changes and jazz things up. Roasting sausages in one pan with a chopped onion and cubed potatoes with garlic and rosemary is popular. Also, I made meatballs with a chorizo twist which were super easy and went down really well. Claypot chicken which couldn't be simpler and is essentially rice and chicken with a fab savoury sauce - recipe on my blog). Try Chicken with leeks and beans, or chicken with harissa, potatoes and brocollini (both recipes on ww.annamayeveryday.co.uk). Also buying a small ham is really good value because you can have it roast one day then chopped into cubes in pasta with a cheese sauce or in a pilaff, I'm going to put a recipe for this pilaff on my blog this week.

If you like Indian food you can try dal fry. It is a very easy, wholesome and healthy lentils soup that you can have as soup or paor with rice/ flatbread.

I always follow this recipe and sometimes I add garlic for seasoning.
www.cookclickndevour.com/dal-fry-recipe/

Cottage pie
Chilli
Risotto
Thai green curry
Veg curry
Corned beef hash
Frittata
Fish cakes
Meatballs and pasta
Kedgeree
Beef casserole
Lamb (or veg) tagine

Roast veg traybake
Jerk chicken

Here is one more with a twist to dal I tried from a website last night. In fact this was such a hit at home, even my kids loved it which is a rarity,

www.cookclickndevour.com/gujarati-dal-dhokli-recipe/

This is something like indian pasta in dal fry, but I totally reduced the spice and left out the green chilies for kids