Food rut

[Teawithfrenchtoast]

We are in such a food rut. There are 4, sometimes 5 at home. One is vegetarian, one has a milk allergy and one likes a high protein diet. I have run out of meal ideas, I tend to cook the same few meals on repeat and everyone is bored! What would be your number one go to family meal?

Chick pea & potato curry? Ticks all your boxes, it’s a one pot meal, can be prepared in advance or done in the slow cooker, great for meal prep.

You could also do a non meat chilli or tacos

Quorn meatballs and spaghetti is very popular here

Are these all adults? I’ve got to be honest, I’d get them all involved rather than try and sort it all yourself.
All sit down and ask them all to come up with their top five meals so you have a list of 20-25, then try and find the ones on the list that can easily be adapted to suit everyone. If they’re adults, they can also take turns cooking them!

Our weekly menu includes things like this

Chicken, spinach and chickpea curry (I follow the bbc easy chicken curry recipe but add to it. You could make it with the spinach and chickpeas and add some chicken to it for the meat eaters)
Veggie pasta bake (I just roast a load of veg, make a spicy tomato sauce and mix with pasta then bake in oven with breadcrumbs/parmesan on top, you could leave a portion cheese free)
Build your own tacos (we make spicy prawns or chicken but could be done with quorn or just veggies)
Jacket potatoes with chilli (I batch cook both meat and a veggie chilli so it’s usually available from the freezer)
Tray bake with harissa chicken thighs, loads of different veg and new potatoes (veggie could have with chickpeas instead of chicken)

Chuck the info in AI and ask it to do a 7 day meal plan that covers all bases

I definitely agree with the above comment about using AI. I spent a while chatting with it about my own criteria and it came up with some good suggestions. I also find it helpful giving feedback after a meal and refining things for next time.

What do you usually make? And the person with a milk allergy, are they okay with butter/hard cheese? (Some people can eat those, just not milk or cream). The high protein person, is it just meat or are they happy protein from beans etc?

Well whats their contribution even if its just to ideas?

Offensive quite honestly some of these attitudes to mum (presumbly mum) cooking dinner every night - boring

Presumably you are not a 5 star restaurant with an 'ever changing seasonal menu' showing 'inventiveness and creativity'. Why not have a poster up of 'my story'.

Join our meal planning thread. It helps with ideas! Although as someone with a dairy intolerant DD who is also a bit fussy, there's a lot of double meal prep over here which is infuriating.

Our current favourites, for ideas if you're looking are:

Slow cooker pork shoulder tacos with a mango/pineapple salsa.
Pork mince stir fry
"Green gnocchi" - home made pesto, steamed greens with creme fraiche on gnocchi. Top with mozarella or burrata.
Chicken burrito bowls (even DD eats these, albeit sans any chilli)

Ramen. It’s quite easy to make a veggie option with miso/veg stock, and then I serve some sticky tofu, edamame beans, stir fried veg, sliced fresh ginger and chilli, hard boiled egg or teriyaki chicken. It’s a faff but it’s lovely!

Also we love pea, broad bean and mint risotto.

Fajitas are also good - chicken for the meat eaters and you can use halloumi sticks for the veggie

My quick go to meals -
boil then puree a butternut squash with some crème fraiche and parmesan. great pasta sauce which keeps well and you could add chorizo, bacon.

Courgette orzo with goats cheese - grate a courgette, add to a bakig dish with orzo pasta, stock, chilli flakes and garlic. Cover and bake for 30 mins, then add goats cheese and bake uncovered until the orzo is tender.

Chick pea and sweet potato curry

I’m DF and we all like these fajitas. I replace the sour cream with mayo from Lidl as their Mayo is DF but you can get DD sour cream.