Family meal ideas please!!

[spagbolandcheese]

Please can you give me some meal ideas for my family as I am really stuck. I was brought up mainly on ready type meals and freezer food as my parents worked full time and the lady that looked after me didn't cook, so cooking from fresh is not something I am used to ( although I long to!).

The types of meals I do make are all beef mince based and not much. I can make
Cottage Pie, spag bol and Lasagna. Most other nights the kids eat out the freezer e.g. fish fingers, pizza etc. I hate giving my kids ready meals/ freezer food and want to cook from fresh.

Please give me some meal ideas that are easy to cook for a beginner. I have a few cook books but I don't have much confidence and everything in the books looks scary to cook or too hard.

Thanks so much, i really appreciate any help/advice.

I do a mince dish which is similar to Moussaka. I peel slice and par boil potatoes. I cook mince like i would for cottage pie. When all is cooked i layer potatoes and mince so i have potatoes on top. I then pour cheese sauce over the top and cook. Just another tip i always put the dish on a baking tray in case the cheese sauce goes over the sides and onto bottom of oven or worse something cooking underneath!!

Roast chicken - put some olive oil all over the outside of the chicken and put it into a hot oven for however long it says on the label - there you go, lovely. You can do roast potatoes, too, when you're confident about it it, and any veg you fancy.

Any kind of sauce made of ingredients you like to have with pasta or as baked potato filling. For example, chop an onion, some garlic and fry them on a moderate heat while you chop other veg, eg courgettes, mushrooms, broccoli, whatever you like. Add them to the pan for a few minutes, then add a tin of chopped or peeled plum tomatoes and some herbs, eg basil or oregano (dried is fine), and there's a tasty sauce. You can add chopped bacon or chopped sausage/chorizo/any pieces of meat, eg leftover pieces of chicken from the roast the night before. And add to boiled pasta - from start to finish about 20 mins and if you make loads you can freeze a batch for the following week.

You can vary that kind of sauce with any ingredients you and your kids like, eg use flaked fish, peppers, green beans, anything really. And replace the tinned tomatoes with some cream. And use baked potatoes or rice instead of pasta. All simple and versatile.

agree, roast chicken is so easy. i do it on a monday or a friday when i don't work. i don't put oil on, it is tasty enough without. i do roast pots, and 3 steamed veg and aunt bessies yorskire puds.
chicken kebabs, with breasts of chicken, cherry toms and mushrooms.
jacket potatoes, few mins in microwave then 10 mins in oven. with baked beans or coleslaw.

macaroni cheese - there is a nice simple one in the Sainbury's magazine this month, can post if you like

fish pie - chop celery, onion and carrot, fry in a little olive oil for 10 mins until tender. add medium pot of double cream, chopped fresh dill, a squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of mustard. Take off the heat, stir in a few handfuls of strong cheddar grated.
Boil some potatoes to make mash. Add some eggs to the pan to hard boil. Put a colander over the top and chuck a bag of spinach in, turn it regualrly and it will have steam cooked in a few mins. Then assemble it all:
Buy a fish pie mix from Sainsbury's ( or a mix of smoked haddock, white fish and salmon, cut into cubes ) and lay in an ovenproof dish. Cut up cooked spinach and scatter over. Deshell eggs and cut into quarters, put these on top, then pour over creamy sauce. Then mash potatoes and put on top. I then let it cool and stick it in the fridge til I want to eat it. Very hot oven for 25 mins cooks it. Yumyumyum. No more difficult than lasagne.

If you can do a cheese sauce, do fish in cheese sauce- make cheese sauce, pour over fresh haddock/ cod/ whatever you fancy, stick in oven for 20 mins, seve with boiled new potatoes and frozen peas. Easy peasy

Chicken breasts- slice open, stick in some philidelphia cheese, some halved cherry toms, some basil, wrap in parma ham, stick in the oven for 30 mins, serve with couscous- boil the kettle, pour enough water over couscous to cover (I also usually add some chicken stock granules for flavour), leave for 20 mins.Can add salad/ any veg you fancy.

Pork chops- mix some creme fraiche with grated cheese and a teaspoon of mustard. Put pork chops in oven for 10 mins, turn, cover with creme fraiche mixture, cook for another 10 mins. I usually serve with baked potato/ boiled potatoes and veg.

Beef stroganoff- fry strips of beef, sprinkle over some paprika then a tablespoon plain flour, add stock, cook for 15 mins, stir in cream or creme fraiche, cook 5 mins, serve with noodles. I sometimes add mushrooms too

Grilled lamb chops with grilled tomatoes. Risotto is easier than its made out to be, lovely with bacon and leek.

look up the bbc Good Food site- loads of easy recipes many ready in 20-30 minutes! I try to vary my meals, but these are a few that I sometimes resort to when I want something easy. Happy cooking!

Sausage casserole is very easy.
Chicken and Broccoli bake, I use a tin of chicken soup for this.

tuna pasta bake:

feeds 4/6 depending on how hungry you all are.

350-400g pasta fusilli works best or penne
1 can on condensed tomatoe soup-campbells
1 can of cream of tomatoe soup
2 tins of tuna
200g cheese grated
1 tin of sweetcorn
1/2 pack of green pringles.

boil pasta with 2 mins spare of actual cooked time. so still has a bit of bite

drain- use same pan pour in all soup, add salt and pepper, sweet corn and tuna, and a handful of cheese, mix on a low heat until everything is covered in soup, add pasta, mix again
pour into casserole dish and sprinkle with cheese and crushed up pringles.

bake at 190 for 20 mins

serve with salad if you want. or broccolli.

it really is yummylishous, trust me

its good if you have some fussy people as there are no big chunks of tomatoe etc.

a one pan roast is always handy and quick too.
cut up mixed veg, ie, peppers, onions,broccolli, courgettes, eggplant, and halve some new potatoes so all veg is relatively similar in size, coat with a little olive oil and throw in some crushed garlic cloves, put to one side in a bowl
put chicken breasts in big wide shallow dish, roast for 10 mins at 200dgs, and then add veg for last 15 mins at 190dgs.

you can also use pork or turkey mince in chilli on jackets, or meatballs in pasta sauce etc.