menu planners - your best dishes please?

[katechristie]

I don't have a lot of time to cook, but try to make fresh meals as much as possible. I menu plan for the fortnight, before doing an online shop, but am struggling for insipriation - I need dishes that:

are fairly straight forward to cook
are healthy (for a mum trying to lose weight and nutritious enough for kiddies!)
are tempting for a fussy toddler and 10-month old to join in and enjoy.

I'd be really grateful if you'd share some of your favourite, fail-safe meals. TIA.

egg fried rice!

There's a good Ken Hom recipe online if you google it. I can type it out if you can't find it. It's tasty for kids and adults. And you can put all kinds of stuff in it that you need to use up. Just make sure everything is chopped up nice and small! my DC will eat pretty much all veggies if they are small and chucked into egg friend rice!

the possibilities are endless and at variuos times in the past i have put in:

• frozen peas
• frozen corn
• leftover red or green peppers
• bacon, cut into small pieces
• leftover cooked chicken
• broccoli, etc

Well we just had fish cakes, rice (a mixture of brown and white) with peas and carrots, super quick and easy. DS had it with ketchup and I had it with sweet chillie sauce.

Stir-fried veg with noodles and some sort of protein.

thank you.
egg fried rice brill, I will look for the recipe now thanks, - DS won't really eat eggs at the moment, so that's a good way to introduce them!
I have actually just got some fish cakes in this week, having given up on making my own (never managed to make anything non-sloppy despite trying various recipes!), so yes, that's a good one, thanks, esp. if I have them with mash I've made in bulk and frozen, or jkt pot, as oven on for fishcakes, then easy peasy to do the veg.
DS loves noodles and DD makes slurping noises, so that's a good one to have on a mon after roast chicken the night before, thanks!

Snap, I need these tips too, and I menu plan fortnightly. Too often I cook too many things the dds don't like so I am trying to get better. Mine are older though.Some ideas

chicken drumsticks with parsley mash and peas/sweetcorn

chicken stir fry with broccoli and noodles

mackerel rice and peas

jacket potatoes once a week - usually with cheese, baked beans and salad, or tuna

white fish/salmon, new potatoes

they really like homemade veggie soup made with lentils and curry powder. or heinz tomato

jamie oliver chicken goujons with breadcrumbs made out of cream crackers, garlic, egg and lemon juice

I do stews and bolognaises in the slow cooker without pre-browning. Chicken cacciatore is good - chicken breasts or thighs, tinned tomatoes, bacon and red wine it is really yummy - slow cooked and served with rice.

I also do pizzas and sausages and mash frequnetly

thank you, more ideas
I can't get DS to eat sweetcorn or peas (bloody charlie and lola) so am looking for ways to encourage him to eat these. - I give him about 5 on his plate! It's such a pain as they're good end of the week veggies when fresh has run out.

Salmon under the grill with an orange sauce (orange marmalade diluted with soy and mirin) - Yummy, sweet and tangy in a healthy way. Served with steamed veg and rice

Nigel Slater's chicken meatballs from Kitchen diary (I make with turkey with good results).

Pasta with a broccoli (rabe) and sausage sauce

Giant couscous with chicken, pomegranate, asparagus, spring onion

Udon noodles with chicken and veg (spinach, broccoli, mangetout, carrot - your choice) in broth/miso

coq au vin/ boeuf bourginonne with mash and veg

pasta - bolognese, cheese sauce, meatballs

fishcakes and veg/ baked beans

cottage pie (you can hide lots of veg there)

roast dinner

risotto (stock from boiled roast chicken). You can leftover roast chicken, leeks and bacon

beans on toast with grated cheese

Veg soup. (boil lots of veg, blitz with a bit of cream and serve with warm buttered baguette)

Chilli con carne

Fajitas

lamb tagine and couscous

Jamie Oliver's courgette carbonara.

A big hit.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/beautiful-courgette-carbonara

oh brill, only just managed to get back on, thanks you lovely people

This is a good one to get them eating peas. We all love it and it's super-quick.
(in my opinion you don't need the extra salt at the start, as the pesto is quite salty)

Nigella's Pea and pesto soup
Makes enough for 2 hearty bowls

750ml water
375g frozen peas
2 spring onions, trimmed but whole
1 tsp Maldon salt or ½ tsp table salt
½ tsp lime juice
4 x 15ml tbsp pesto

Fill a kettle first and put it on to boil. When it has boiled, measure the amount you need into a pan and put on the hob to come back to the boil.

Add the frozen peas, spring onions, salt and lime juice to the pan and let everything bubble together for 7 minutes (no lid on the pan, or it's too runny!).

Discard the spring onions and blitz the peas and their liquid with the pesto in a blender.

Pork and apple casserole.
Lancashire hotpot.
Omelette.
Moussaka.
Spag Bol/Lasagne.
Tuna pasta bake.
Nan bread pizzas.
Curry.
Sweet and sour veg.
Fish fingers, mash and beans.
Sausage casserole.
Risotto.
Salmon florentine.
Roast chicken.
Chicken breast in BBQ sauce.
Baked potatoes with tuna/cheese/chilli.
Cauliflower cheese.
Wrap sandwiches.
Spicy couscous with lamb, mint, tomato, cucumber.
Hotdogs and chips if things go wrong!
Stir fry.
Pumpkin/squash soup.
Jamie Olivers pork and coriander meatballs.
Mince done with red wine and redcurrant jelly and served in yorkshire puds.
Cheese and onion pie.
These are our family favourites.