Meals like curry/chilli/Bolognese

[Summerscomin]

But a bit different? Trying to get to grips with meal planning, I fall down because it sounds so boring and repetitive. I'm looking for meals that are pretty "standard" but maybe different to what I personally would normally do?! Bonus points if they/elements can be batch cooked and frozen.

E.g. pack of chicken I'd normally dice up and put in a tikka masala type curry, add some veggies and serve with rice/poppadoms.
Last time, for a change, I slow cooked the chicken breasts whole in BBQ sauce and shredded it when it was tender to make pulled chicken nachos.

Hopefully this makes sense! Basically, what are your straightforward mid-week meals? We're not fussy eaters, I don't tolerate gluten so well but can adapt!

This is my favourite thing to do with chicken at the moment. Really easy and delicious.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiNkBLCAOGI/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

One of my go to dinners are veggie omelettes, really just a way of getting lots of veg in and can be served with side of broccoli or other veg to be extra healthy or chips for something less healthy. Not a particularly exciting dinner but definitely quick and easy and everybody eats it! Salmon and veg stir fried and served with egg fried rice with a little soya sauce is another one. Again simple and a good way to get lots of veg in! I'm always looking for dinner ideas too!!

Chicken fajitas
Quorn and kidney bean enchiladas
Chicken thigh on bone tray bake
Goats cheese and/or chicken and baby beetroot salad (got a veggie and a goats cheese hater in the house!)
Blue cheese (or baby mozzarella pearls) cob salad
Sausage Tagine
Sausage cassoulet
Salmon, cream cheese and lemon pasta
Anchovy and caper pasta
Rice, dal and quick home pickled veggies

Bottom 2 are particularly economical at 60-70p a head

Chicken cacciatore
Goulash
Risotto
Boeuf bourguignon
Chickpea curry
Stroganoff

All very yummy, although maybe not things you'll be wanting to eat on warmer summer days!

Pasta dishes?
E.g;
macaroni cheese
beef Ragu pasta bake
lasagne
cajun chicken pasta

Mushroom risotto

saus/pie/chips and chips/jackets/mash?

Excellent ideas thank you!
@BeBraveAndBeKind that looks delicious, and both me and DD would like it, I even have baharat. On the list!
@LincolnIsle we do have omlettes quite often, though I'm still struggling to find eggs most weeks. It's an underrated meal!
@gogohmm I tend to avoid sausages but I quite fancy a cassoulet and been meaning to give Dahl a try for a while. Thank you for the ideas!
@CharlotteDoyle yes exactly meals like this! I can't remember the last time I made any of those except risotto which I had a few weeks ago but that's the kind of thing I was aiming for. I still like a hot dinner, sunshine or not 😄
@Sleepeazie Cajun chicken pasta and lasagne also added, thank you!

1. Mediterranean Chicken traybake - Chicken thighs on the bone with skin on. Put in a roasting tray with chunks of mixed peppers, thick slices of red onions or shallots, cherry tomatoes, a few olives if you like them, toss in a spoonful of olive oil with garlic granules and chopped or dried rosemary. You can put fresh or preserved lemons in, or sun dried tomatoes etc if you like too. Add half a glass of white wine if you want some juice. Cook for 30 mins with foil or lid on then 15-25 more until the skin is crispy and golden brown and the veg start to caramelise.
   Goes well with crusty bread or rice or potatoes.

2. English Chicken traybake. Thighs as before in roasting tin with baby potatoes, thick chunks of peeled carrots, shallots or white onions, chunks of celery and parsnip if you like (optional). Toss in a plain oil with some fresh sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Serve with steamed broccoli or peas.

3. Gnocchi bake. Fry some onions, garlic and red peppers in a big wide casserole dish. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a carton of passata, 1-2 packs of gnocchi, 2 chopped mozzarellas and a pack of fresh chopped basil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of chilli and oregano. Stir together and bake for about 20-30 mins. Serve with salad. (I'm so lazy I usually use garlic puree or granules as I hate peeling the stuff. Still tastes great.)

So your usual ingredients just cooked differently?

I regularly use mince in a sort of Asian style noodle way. Pork if I have it, beef if not. Lots of garlic and ginger and soy and lime juice and chilli etc, all mixed up with some combo of veggies such as broccoli/babycorn/aubergines/carrots/peppers - whatever I have needing using up in the freezer. It's a nice alternative to bolognaise etc.
When I remember, I also make bobotie but have a bad habit of forgetting <adds to meal plan for next week>

Chicken breasts around here are used most commonly for:
Chicken noodle soup (Thai style)
Stir fry
Fajitas
Chicken burgers
Sort of sweet/chilli chicken (fakeaway)
I am very keen to try Jamie Oliver's chicken breasts with peanut butter but haven't got around to it.

Pasta bake

Chicken enchiladas

Chicken wings with rice or potatoes side salad

This is quick and easy: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/porkfilletstroganoff_73432/amp

And so is this - I tend to serve it with rice rather than the lettuce wraps though: www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/green-chilli/

Chicken fajitas.
Chicken kebabs or pork tenderloin marinated in : ginger, garlic, hoisin, dark soy, brown sugar, five spice, oil, honey.

I've been making this a lot and it's so so tasty. I have mine with wild rice.
The recipe is fair adaptable so I don't really follow it strictly now.

https://www.budgetbytes.com/african-peanut-stew-vegan/

Look at ways to do your chilli/bolognaise but serve it differently. I batch cook so for us bolognaise is served with fusilli pasta as it is easier to eat than spaghetti. Then next time it is served in layers like lasagne, fusilli pasta, then sauce, then tuck in some fresh ripped basil leaves, small drizzle of olive oil, layer again, top with either just cheese or crush up some (corn for you) tortilla chips then top with cheese. The fresh basil adds a lovely dimension to it. Basically a sort of Ziti. I am assuming you will have gluten free pasta.

With chilli first time is rice and garlic bread, then next time we make nachos with it, layer up corn/wheat tortilla chips on a baking tray, pour over chilli, add jalapenos from a jar, top with grated cheese, layer again if needed, serve with guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

My fajitas are a sheet pan version (Laura Vitale on Youtube) so no standing around frying anything off, everything chopped, mixed in a large bowl then spread onto a baking tray.

I cook chicken off (Instant pot, frozen chicken breasts, 2 cups water, 25 minutes, always done to perfection) it is shredded for sandwiches, ripped up o add to a stir fry, wrapped in tortillas to make chicken enchiladas.

Halve a chicken breast horizontally to make two thin ones, use those as a brushetta base, chopped tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, fresh green salad.

Pinterest is brilliant for ideas as is Youtube. There are lots of meal prep videos to inspire flavour combinations.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/easy_crowd-pleasers

I thought there were some Nic looking recipes here, easy to make and many to be batch cooked

My other go to dish is tarragon chicken on delicious magazine recipes

Place marking!! Some great ideas on here.

Look up The Batch Lady on Instagram/Facebook

tons of ideas for quick hearty family meals in minutes using her batching method.

A Tagine , served with cous cous

Chicken chunks and bacon lardons dry fried, then strain. Add two pots of creme fresh and a big blob of Gorgamzola cheese and simmer. Serve over tagiatelli.

I batch cook portions and DS takes to work as they have a microwave.

Serve things differently. If you're doing chilli, put it in a dish, cover it with potato wedges, grate some cheese on and stick it in the oven for a bit. There's umpteen types of pasta shapes you can use with a bolognese sauce, and it is surprising the difference they make. Curry is nice with jacket potatoes instead of rice.

Paella is a favourite in our house and doesn't take very long.

Moussaka. I probably wouldn't freeze the topping, but that's very quick to whip up if you've batch cooked the base & frozen half.

Tonight I put two chicken breasts in oven dish with a pot of sun-dried tomatoes, some frozen chopped spinach, plenty of olive oil and a knob of butter, dried oregano and some unpeeled garlic cloves. Cover with foil and in oven until chicken cooked. Chop up the chicken and mush the garlic out of the skins. Then I added in half a pot of cream, salt and pepper at the end and back into the oven just to let the cream warm through. Serve it with pasta or bread.

Batch cooking mix it up meals:

I batch cook into flattened bags so I can snap some off and make varied meals:
Chicken curry, saag paneer, Bombay potato, dhal, cauliflower bhaji, marinated lamb chops: all freeze well and you can mix and match smaller portions with rice or bread and raita to make a mid week thali.

Pulled pork or chicken can be frozen, so you can easily reheat in the time it takes to cook corn on the cob and wedges or savoury rice cooked in veg stock.

Veg and bean (or meat and bean) chilli freezes well and can be served in a bowl with cheese and sour cream with bread for dipping, or wraps for burritos, or with rice, or over tortilla chips.

Basic pasta sauce goes with meatballs, over chicken for a quick cacciatore, with tuna for a pasta bake.

Bolognese eaten with pasta, or baked into a lasagne, or used to fill cannelloni (which you then cover with the tomato pasta sauce before baking.

Thanks so much everyone, really grateful for all the suggestions and have started a new notebook with the stuff I want to try.
@tailinthejam DD is adamant different shaped pasta tastes different too! GF stuff generally all tastes of nothing 😅 but I've found a couple of brands that are good.
I can't get on board with The Batch Lady, I'm not sure why, her recipes just don't seem to appeal to me.
I've done a huge pot of Bolognese today and lots of ideas from here now how to make it seem more appealing when I get it back out of the freezer. Top of the list is the loaded wedges!
Stroganoff, Asian mince and the peanut stew all on next week's plan. I make a lovely blue cheese chicken/bacon concoction that I'd forgotten about until pp reminded me so that will have to feature too.
Thank you again!