Your go to dinners

[Kracnen]

I‘ve got stuck in a rut and getting bored of eating the same things over and over.

On the menu is

• noodles with tofu, veg and soya sauce or a packet sauce
• pasta with pesto or tomato sauce
• rice with curry or chili
• mash with sausage and beans
• risotto from a box
• quesadillas

At the weekend we branch out to things that take more time, such as homemade pizza, roast dinner, lasagne and fajitas or tacos.

I‘m vegetarian. Happy to add meat to the meal once I’ve taken out mine, but whole family enjoys tofu and beans etc. DH eats chicken and fish and processed red meat (sausages, meatballs etc). Kids aren’t too fussy.

I rely far too much on stuff that comes out of a packet 😬

Who has some easy inspiration for me?

Home made meatballs are good - i batch cook a load and then have them with either a spicy tomato and black olive type sauce with oregano and rice, pittas etc, for like a greek type dinner, or tomato and basil and pasta.

you could do with veggie meatballs or do veggie meatballs for your own and meat for the family - i do half and half pork and beef, plenty of breadcrumbs, egg, finely chopped herbs and salt. Make them small / big marble sized and freeze them in bags x

If you are doing box risotto I wonder if you are like me and find Risottoe a challenge?
Look for Orzotto recipes which is using Orzo instead of rice.
So much more well behaved, just cooking a mushroom one for dinner

Tonight was french bread (thanks to Lidl bakery's) and butternut squash and red chilli soup

Made mushroom bhaji this week which was quick and easy

Add goat cheese and lots of pepper to your pasta and tomato sauce

Eggs? Eggs and chips and homemade slaw omelette ?

Mix up the curry with spice choice - add extra Cardomon and ginger for example to Tomatoe based curry

Halomi and mushroom ( or beetroot) burgers

Homemade soup/ lentil and carrot ; mushroom with milk vases

Home made bean burgers or Mexican beans are also good but take more effort of a weekday

Our easy veggie go-to dinners are egg fried rice, halloumi traybake, falafel burgers and 10 minute lentil ragu https://www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegan-recipes/10-min-lentil-ragu-with-spaghetti

could you try hob risotto. or look up the oven cooked ones if that too much faff

try adding some veggie chorizo to your pasta dish. sautee some onions and the chorizo with some peppers in a pan first. then stir it through the tomato sauce and pesto pasta mix.
how about enchiladas
make hot pot style with your mince.
could you do the chilli mince with jackets too
a curry with lots of veggies and some butternut sqaush. you could cook some chicken on the side and stir it through theirs at the end.
a thia curry
veggie sausage and mash pie
a cassoulet of sorts and then cook some chicken thighs on the side for the others to add in.
are the kids old enough to find a recipe and takeover one night?

Make ahead jars of Dahl are a life saver for the days where I can’t be bothered:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dal_in_a_dash_51198/amp

I also love this quick sheet pan pasta sauce (the tomato sauce on its own is delicious if you don’t fancy the beans): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024062-roasted-white-bean-and-tomato-pasta

Frittata is another easy meal and so adaptable.

Also when I make chilli I always make double the chilli and the rice.

The following day I make egg fried rice with the chilled rice using whatever I have to use up in the fridge (this sort of thing: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/fridge-raid-fried-rice). (If you make egg fried rice I highly recommend adding a dollop of Kecap Manis to make it extra special.)

Then the day after that, using the chilli I make a chilli cottage pie by boiling potatoes (sweet potatoes are particularly good here). I add the chilli to a casserole dish and top with the mash plus grated cheese and bake for about 30 minutes. It’s delicious!

https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/spanish-style-chicken-bake

Pasta eg puttanesca/Norma/Nerano
Wraps with halloumi or falafel and salads/pickles
Dal
Curry with spinach, tomato and chick peas or paneer
Egg fried rice/ omelette/ scrambled eggs/ breakfast for dinner
Sausages ( veg are fine) and beans cooked in the oven like a cassoulet
Roast veg with halloumi or feta or blue cheese ; can stick gnocchi in if you like
Soup eg butternut squash, leek and potato, minestrone

We're also a veggie/vegan household.

Risotto from scratch is actually pretty easy. The trick is to cook it in a non stick pan. I make tomato and basil risotto and "green and white" risotto as it's called in our house and mushroom risotto.

Diced onion, garlic, arborio rice and stock is the base. Then add

Tomato&basil - passata, chopped cherry tomatoes, fresh basil

Green&white - broccoli, asparagus, peas, chives

Mushroom - mushrooms, mushroom stock instead of veg, some thyme or rosemary.

Then I stir through some nutritional yeast in place of parmesan. Season to taste.

Some other faves in our house:

Paella, fajitas, tacos, cottage pie with vivera mince, sweet and sour, Thai green curry, veggie burgers.

For the sweet and sour, I use the BBC recipe. Miles better than anything you can get in a jar and it's actually pretty straightforward.

Lentil Dahl
Halloumi tacos
Cauliflower curry

Traybake -

An allium - onion, leek or celery, and garlic (don't peel)
Root veg - whatever you have to hand eg potato, sweet potato, butternut squash
Brassica (cauli/cabbage/broccoli)
Something wetter - aubergine, courgette, tomato

Chop evenly and toss with oil and seasoning

When cooked easily mixed with quinoa or couscous or rice and/or chickpeas/beans/drained dtinned lentils.

Can also add tofu/halloumi/feta

Plus seeds/nuts for crunch, fresh herbs,

Lots of dressing options.

Works well cold/warm as a salad too.

I do the same but freeze the chilli. I'm so trying your chilli cottage pie !

Shakshuka goes down well here, usually do it with the cheat Greek yoghurt flatbreads.
You could add lots more variation with your pasta dishes, mushrooms cooked in butter with lots of garlic and fresh herbs. When I'm feeling fancy I do toasted garlic and Parmesan breadcrumbs to go on top. But you could easily switch to a veggie cheese. Butternut squash and sage butter is also good.
Peppers stuffed with cous cous, roasted veg, herbs and mozzarella.
Falafel in pita with salads
Root veg casserole.
Leek and blue cheese fritata with green veg

So many lovely ideas! Thank you so much.

@AtleastitsnotMonday what's the greek cheat flatbreads?

Sorry should have said Greek yoghurt flat breads! Simply combine equal parts or Greek yoghurt and flour with a pinch of salt.
Roll flat and cook in a hot dry pan for a couple of minutes on each side. You can jazz he up a bit, I some times a bit of garlic purée to the dough or if I make them to go with a curry I add chopped coriander and Nigella seeds.

I first saw this recipe for cheat flatbreads on Jamie Oliver in the 90s when he was the naked chef. It must have been the first series and I would have been about 12 or 13. My mum let me have a go at making them and I must say I've made them at least once a month ever since for what must be 25 years!!!

We’re not vegetarian but do meat free at least twice a week. We probably use too much jar/cupboard stuff but I am okay with that! Easy options are:

Roast veg and veggie sausage traybake (I like the Linda McCartney rosemary sausages)

Veggie stir-fry with noodles/sauce

Pan fried gnocchi with either fresh pesto (shop not home-made here) and feta, or cherry tomatoes and Philadelphia cooked down to make a sauce

Veggie burgers in brioche buns, with oven chips and salad

Quiche, baked potato and veg/salad (again we do not make the quiche)

Fajitas

More effort but can be done in advance:

Chickpea curry with pita breads

Lasagne - I use peppers, squash, leeks and asparagus as my veg, and layer pesto instead of a tomato based sauce, and a supermarket bought white sauce

What's your box risotto if that's not a silly question?

I have one vegetarian child so we all regularly have vegetarian food

scrambled tofu served with rice and bao buns or gyoza

Black bean chilli

Thai sweet potato

Vegetable lasagne

I also like this recipe for chana masala. Very simple to make

meerasodha.com/recipes/workers-curry/

I think you maybe need to vary things within your scope. eg we have pasta about twice a week. Once is usually either meatballs or bolognaise due to popular demand. The other one varies massively depending on the day. In the last few weeks, we've had: Arrabiata, a version of arrabbiata with aubergine that is DS' favourite (x2 if I add chorizo), fresh filled pasta with frozen peas and pesto, creamy mushroom sauce, spinach/ricotta/lemon.

Ditto risotto - we do this every couple of weeks and recently we've had chorizo and pea (from Hello Fresh), pea and chicken and roasted butternut.

Fajitas is actually our quick and easy dinner although it's true that prepping the toppings can be a bit tedious. But we make ours with sliced onion and peppers, bit of passatta, the spices and flavourings and then halloumi alongside. Pretty painless.

A vegetarian one we all like as a quick supper, usually before we head off to a sports acitivity is to chargrilled mixed greens - leeks, spring onion, cabbage, tender stem broccoli - then fry halloumi to which we add lemon, honey, garlic when we turn it over and shove the whole lot in a wrap or pita bread.

Turkey/soya mince lettuce wraps are a midweek go to of ours, super quick and easy and healthy too!

Chop up carrots and spring onions (can also add chopped peppers if you fancy), fry off in pan with ginger and garlic paste. Once veggies have softened a bit add your turkey or soya mince and season with soy sauce to taste, a little rice wine vinegar, sriracha and either sweet chilli sauce or hoisin sauce depending on what you fancy! Garnish with fresh coriander and use lettuce as wraps to hold the mince. Can also serve with rice or noodles instead for a more substantial meal