It’s Summer - New Season Family Recipe Planning Required - Get On Top Of Cooking Again.

[oolovelycuppa]

Hi everyone, in the winter I was on a roll, lots of home cooking, veg chopping, dough kneading, meal prepping and planning. A couple of family crises, ready meals and takeaways and a seasonal change and I can’t get my cooking mojo back.

I don’t fancy all the beef, tomatoes, stewing when I look back at my old meal plans, but I don’t just want cold salads either.

Does anyone want to join me doing more summery menu planning?

I am thinking peas, chicken and parmesan. Runner beans, broad beans, sweetcorn.
Grilled fish (probably cooked on the barbecue to stop the smell from clinging to the furniture), tagliatelle, avocados, toasted seeds, fresh basil, halloumi cheese… all that summery stuff I’d forgotten about.

I am going to do a meal plan for the week and post it here when I am done- I think the sense of ‘accountability’ helps me stick to the plan. Fancy a bit of mutual inspiration?

This week.

• Today - eating out.
• Wednesday - Tagliatelle with flaked peppered mackerel, courgettes, runner beans and baby plum tomatoes.
• Thursday - Thai green chicken curry and wholegrain rice.
• Friday - Salmon fillet, boiled new potatoes, mangetouts with minted peas.
• Saturday - Sundried tomato and black olive bread (enriched with olive oil), baby spinach, raw mushroom and feta salad (DC1 will need to suck it up and pick out the mushrooms) with lots of black pepper, grilled chicken.
• Sunday - Roast chicken, quinoa, flat beans and asparagus.
• Monday - Udon noodle soup with prawns, halved boiled eggs, tofu, finely chopped wakami, little bit of carrot, shredded greens and spring onion.

Now I can order the ingredients! 😇

I made a nice pesto salmon pasta bake yesterday
Chicken Mediterranean veg tray bake day before

I like that you utilise your oven - less time hovering over the stove. It’s a win.

It’s not very summery here at the moment. It’s raining and I’m wearing quite a thick jumper.
Anyway…
Tonight - feta baked orzo realfood.tesco.com/recipes/baked-mediterranean-orzo.html
Tomorrow - salmon burgers thecookreport.co.uk/15-minute-salmon-burgers-garlic-yoghurt/
Thursday - Tomato risotto www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/one-pots/tomato-risotto/
Friday - frittata to use up the rest of the feta www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pea-feta-summer-herb-frittata
Saturday - traybake to use up the rest of the vine tomatoes realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chicken-traybake-with-vine-tomatoes-and-courgettes.html
Sunday - maybe tacos of some kind

Thanks for adding the links!

I’m thinking I should convert some of my meals into traybakes. @SnowFrogJelly and @Forgottenmyphone, do you tend to serve the whole thing on the table and let people help themselves, or do you plate it up? Is the whole meal the tray bake or do you have things like bread or salad with it?

@CheekyAnimal I plate up in the kitchen because I’ve got small dc who might burn themselves on a piping hot dish straight out of the oven. If the traybake has carbs, protein and veg then I don’t do anything else.

Sounds a great idea. I have a summer rota that includes butternut squash and chicken traybake type things with whatever else is in the veg box. I do eat a lot of salads ( know you didn’t ask for these but..)- I love shredded spring cabbage with a really mustardy honey based dressing, loads of toasted nuts and other random things, and a salad of watermelon feta and lime zest is a big fave. BBQ sardines, mackerel, all sorts of chicken. Lazy nights some sort of wrap based pepper chicken onion chilli type fake Mexican. Homemade pesto & pasta. Love burrata and a basil oil dressing on tomatoes. But burrata is spendy. Pork loin schnitzel type stuff and garlic oven roast spuds.

One of my quick summer meals is tomato and mascapone gnocchi. I fry the gnocchi (fresh not long life) for 12 mins then add in grated carrot and garlic for a couple of mins then chopped tomatoes and mascapone. Add in spinach at the end. Always a hit with my toddler

Rice salad - boiled rice (instant pot for ease) and roasted veg chucked in (homemade or frozen are very convenient) add any extra cheese/fresh herbs/picked stuff from a jar/drizzle of sauce

Ooh I love summer food!

DS is home from uni and is all about the protein which means we will all up our lean meat/fish intake as CBA cooking more than one thing

Today we have chipotle salmon tacos with mango avo salsa and taco slaw (RecipeTinEats recipe)
Tomorrow and Tuesday as make double will have chicken burritos (innards only on Tuesday)
Weds noodle salad with peanut sesame dressing, with whole sea bream or pan fried sea bream fillets
Thursday some sort of Buddha bowl with avo grains chicken veg etc

We all love tomato toast for breakfast in high summer. Had it in Valencia for breakfast and loved it ever since:

https://www.thespanishchef.com/recipes/pan-con-tomate