Give me an idea about dinner I'm at a loss with all the food restrictions

[listsandbudgets]

DD will eat fish but won't eat meat (otherwise unfussy except she loathes aubergines)

DS and I eat nearly anything except DS (8) doesn't like too much spice

DP has recently gone on a low carb diet. He'll eat pulses and some veg but won't touch bread, rice, pasta etc. etc. He also hates eggs and cooked carrots (unless he doesn't know they're in the food)

DSS is totally vegeterian and simply will not touch anything that contains coconut in any form

We've already had bean chilli, daal, fish and medditerrian veg (with potato wedges for those who'll eat them and ready meal for DSS) burger and salad (without roll for DP) chickpea koftas and huge salad,

I'm sick to death of trying to find something that everyone will eat so if anyone can think of a decent meal we've not already had this containing no eggs, cooked carrots, cabbage, meat, fish, aubergine, rice, pasta, grains of any sort, potatoes or coconut

I'll be eternally grateful. I'm so close to giving DP, DD and DSS a can of baked beans each with a spoon and ordering me and DS a takeway.

I like the family evening meal but the low carb diet is the final straw. To be fair DP does need to lose weight but he's doing it at the expense of my sanity.

PS I'm sick of chickpeas and salad!!

Why don't you hop over to the Low Carb Bootcamp topic? Stickied at the top are different recipe threads, including one for fish - I'm sure you can find something that all of you would like there!

But here's one we had the other day - baked salmon fillets with stir-fried vegetables and egg-fried cauliflower 'rice'.

Salmon fillet per person, marinated for 20-30 minutes in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and fresh ginger. Wrap them in a foil parcel and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Stir-fried veg - any veg you like! We had shallots, mange tout and baby sweetcorn. All sliced up and fried in the wok with sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and chilli (obviously lose the chilli if your DS doesn't like it).

I buy packets of cauliflower rice from Sainsbury's - it's in the fresh veg section. (You can easily make your own by chucking cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulsing till it's like couscous/rice).

First, make two very thin omelettes (1 egg for each omelette, and that would be enough for two people), place them on a board and roll them up, then slice thinly.

In a wok/frying pan, stir fry some onion/shallot and when soft add the cauliflower rice. Stir till cooked (2-3 minutes) and then add the sliced omelettes and drizzle of soy sauce.

A lentil bake/crumble type thing with chopped nuts as the crumble topping?

A creamy (so not spicy!) tofu or veg curry With cauliflower rice for your DH, regular rice for the rest of you

DIY fajitas - so everyone can pick the bits they will eat and leave the bits they won’t

I’ll keep thinking!

Can you get a raclette?

You can all sit down to a family meal but everyone cooks their own, just put out plates of veggies, cheese, eggs, passata (that better be in a jug.) new potatoes.

www.robertdyas.co.uk/giles-posner-8-piece-stone-raclette-set?source=&gclid=CjwKCAiA7939BRBMEiwA-hX5JwaWFVGolynxqMmPazfxDhIrerDrNwGZKWaQvlg6jElKo2hyFdKfuBoCbtQQAvD_BwE

If you can batch cook then could you make pies, both pastry and those topped with potato (fish pie, cottage pie) you can top with sweet potato of a mix of parsnip and swede for dh. Then you can cook everyone a pie from the freezer.

The good old Irish soup and a sandwich - veg soup but different sandwiches. DP can have extra soup.

Delegate the cooking, depending on the ages of your children maybe have them cook together one night.

Stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers.

Kebabs, some meat, some fish, some vegi. Serve with salad and cous cous.

Make curries - a fish curry with coconut milk, use korma paste then fresh chilli chopped fine you can put in after rescuing the portion for the spice hater, a chick pea daal (I use the chana dal spice mix I buy in Asda or Morrison's), rice for those who are not low carb, and I steam green beans (over the rice in the rice cooker basket) then stir fry quickly in cumin seeds and finely chopped garlic as an extra side of green stuff.

If you don't want chickpeas, try cauliflower, red pepper, onion and coconut cream curry, or both. Curries keep really well (fish aside) so worth making extra to serve up another day

I think I'd go for meat, carbs and veg for everyone, putting some veggie sausages in for the veggies, and then everyone serves up their own including the bits they'll eat and leaving the bits they won't. Could do mash, roast potatoes, couscous, flavoured rice. DH just has to leave the carbs off the plate and it isn't that much work to put some fish/chops/sausages etc in the oven for each person's preference. Change up the veg, sometimes roasted, boiled, stir fried, salad and it will feel like a different meal each time

Sorry @listsandbudgets just seen that your DH doesn't like eggs! You can leave the egg out of the fried rice in that case.

So you basically need to do low carb veggie options.

Have you tried Aquafaba? Personally I haven't but I've seen it on a few cooking programs, it is basically the water from a can of chickpeas, but it behaves like egg.

So you could do pancakes, omelettes, frittatas with individual fillings.

Have you tried seitan? It's sometimes on chinese menus as 'mock chicken' it's mainly gluten.

Basically you wash all the fibre out of some flour, bread flour or chickpea flower both work, and you can also buy it ready made either plain or flavoured as things like 'no chick strips'.

Use it like you would meat or make it into noodles that are low carb.

Thank you everyone those all sound like very useful and helpful ideas.

I think I'd got stuck in a rut trying to please everyone (and ending up pleasing no one!!)

That sounds like hard work! You've had some good suggestions; I'm afraid my solution would be to pin up a kitchen rota so they could get on with it themselves.

Haloumi and veg skewers?
Bean and Halloumi stew (you might need to use less chilli, you could always have dried chilli flakes on the table to add).
recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/main-courses/veggie-polpette-with-courgette-spaghetti Veggie meatballs]] with pasta or
Cauliflower cheese.
Field mushrooms stuffed with cranberries spinach, red onion and Stilton
Spinach and ricotta lasagne uses courgette instead of pasta. Could always serve with garlic bread for those who would like it.
Beetroot and feta burgers

Kelp noodles are very low carb and are a little like rice noodles in consistency, so you could make noodle soups with pan fried meat for everyone expect DSs.

Cauliflower rice for DP and everyone else can eat normal rice.

Burger with bacon and Brie (with a portobello mushroom to act as the bun and obviously just the Brie and vegi burger for dss)

Broccoli/cauliflower cheese soup, topped with bacon for the meat eaters and served with bread for everyone with the exception of DP.

Wedge salad with a cheese sauce, with a sprinkle of those bacon flavoured topping (that are vegetarian), served with veggi sausage or steak. Also served with wedges (BTW, sweet potatoes have lower carbs as white potatoes).

I think I would be doing tapas/smorgasbord type meals and let them choose. We often make multiple curries and eat over two/three days. People take what they like.

The no carbs adult can eat the carb free components and make their own cauliflower rice if they want. Older kids can also take responsibility for some cooking if they are fussy. Maybe you should provide ingredients rather than cooked meals!!

@Knittedfairies

That sounds like hard work! You've had some good suggestions; I'm afraid my solution would be to pin up a kitchen rota so they could get on with it themselves.

Yes me too! I just wouldn't take all this on.

As well as looking at BIWIs excellent low carb bootcamp you can also search for vegetarian and low carb on the diet doctor website.

Chilli feast. A veggie chilli and a meat one. Variety of accompaniments- wraps, rice, raw courgette ‘tortilla chips’. Leftover chilli can be frozen.

Other than DP, all you really need is veggie food. He’s an adult so can you speak to him about how hard it is and suggest he put some meals together himself.

I think DP needs to step and do some thinking! Even if you have to shop and cook, he can take some of the mental load that he has created and give you some meal ideas/recipes. Send him over to BIWI's great thread!

I'm glad you've had some good ideas because I'm very much in the 'tough' camp.
Don't want the meat? No problem, pick it out of whatever we're having. Don't want the carbs? No problem, pick it out of whatever we're having.
Mine is a family of people who like different foods, so many of our meals are just a great big salad (of different kinds) for everyone to share, with a 'I'm turning the oven on for half an hour to go with a salad, what does everyone want?' And in to the oven will go 1 jacket potato, 1 chicken Kiev, 1 piece of fish.

Thinking to what i grew up with, I'd do a roast (dh leaves out potatoes, veggie leaves out meat) or a main/ carb/ veg meal where everyone serves themselves
Just as @muddledmidget says in fact!
Keeping things separately doesn't bother me - I deal with allergies and a vegan so sometimes do parallel meals anyway (veg or meat chilli, rice or tortilla chips separately)

But once you've got a meal plan of 10-14 meals, just keep repeating. Cooking for families doesn't need to be exciting once everyone's needs are met

When the SDs are here we fall into similar patterns, so all food goes in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves.

1. A base veg curry ( chilli free) with coriander, cumin , garlic and turmeric. Any veg you fancy except carrot. I usually start off with onions and carrots sweated in the spices and butter which get blitzed to make a base before the other veg get added but if he'll notice use something else instead. The onion/ root veg give a mild sweet undertone so anything you cook in it will also be mildly sweetly spiced. This curry is not dissimilar to the mild veg curry served atop a take-away biryani so alongside the curry serve chopped steak in micro cauli rice for DH, rice for everyone else with whatever additives you like. The curry is mild and sweet enough to be good with fish or even just on its own in a bowl with a big dollop of yogurt or raita on the top. My youngest ( fussiest teen in the world with changing whims every day) never refuses it.
2. Same principle with tomato, herbs and garlic: use with pasta and cheese for the multitude and spooned over chicken breast or fish and bunged in the oven for anyone who wants that.
3. Ditto veg and chickpeas but with North African flavours ( miss out the chilli but do add cinnamon, cumin etc). Cous cous for the most but not for dh. Meat for most but prawns for pescatarian.

Those who want it spicier can sprinkle some chilli flakes or stir in a little more spice paste. But using the older version means that your 8 year old won't miss out.

While it's easy to pick out the meat or fish, if those are the bits you don't like, it's not quite so easy with the carbs, unfortunately!

However, there's also nothing wrong with the whole family (occasionally) having a lower carb meal - so if you were doing cauliflower rice, no need to make ordinary rice for everyone.