Food rut ... mince, chicken, chicken, mince, mince, chicken ... help!

[Millie1]

The title says it all ... we seem to spend our weeknights alternating mince and chicken. I'm sooooooooo sick of bolognese, lasagne, shepherd's pie, mince with pots & veg, chicken casserole and more chicken casserole. Yes, I'll throw in the odd stew, roast pork and roast chicken but I'm in such a food rut. Please help!

Here are my problems: ... 4 children (8,6 and almost 2). The 8 year old would win an award for the world's fussiest eater (and has nut allergy), the 6 year old has T1 Diabetes so every meal must include potato, pasta or rice (which he doesn't really eat so that's kinda out - most of the time), the 2 year olds - one would eat us out of house and home and the other is more particular but she's young enough for me to persevere with.

Older children don't like curry, chilli or spices in general. Older children don't like vegetables (I generally hide them). Okay ... older children don't like much

That's it, got it off my chest & now look forward to lots of inspiring suggestions!

Thanks!

Thanks Speedy - like those ideas.

About once a fortnight we have this VERY easy fish pie. It was on one of those Sainsbury's recipe cards years ago and is now a staple in our house.

You need a pack of ordinary salad tomatoes, 1 or 2 large potatoes, some smoked fish (haddock, cod, or smoked river cobbler which is much cheaper) and some cheese

Slice the tomatoes and cover the base of a flat oven dish. Remove the skin from the fish and cut into 'chunks' and put a layer of fish on top of the tomato. Slice the potatoes really thinly (no need to peel them) and layer on the top. Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil, then top with grated cheese and bake at about 200 for 40 mins.

Then just serve with peas/broccoli or any veg they might try.

It is really quick but tastes good and the tomatoes make a it quite saucey i.e. for kids they don't think they're eating tomatoes.

Lovin some of the other ideas on here, so am going to make some.

Also, I think this time of year food always feels like it's getting boring, as we've had the same winter veg for a while. Hopefully in a month or so it'll start to feel like there are more possibilities - bbq, sunday night spread (ham, pickles, salad etc but everyone just helps themselves)

I do have a pretty staple round of meals:

Monday is "soup monday" where I hide as many veg in soup as possible, mostly tomato (with onion, celery, carrot and tomato all wizzed up) sometimes with butter beans in it for added excitement. Make some bread in the bread maker and they're off...prob the healthiest day of the week. Have also had success with lentil soup and pumpkin/squash.

Tuna pasta bake - pasta, tin of tuna, passata, mixed herbs and either tin of sweetcorn or some peas, with grated cheese on top and baked in the oven. Always a winner as is meatballs and spaghetti - beef mince, passata/mixed herbs and spaghetti, that's all the ingredients, with a green veg or salad.

Lasagne becoming liked.

Pan friend Salmon, noodles, green beans and soy sauce.

Friday is Pizza day - usually home made dough (breadmaker), they only like passata and mozzarella on it, maybe salami occasionally.

Baked potatoes - with either cheese and baked beans or tuna mayo and "salad" (cucumber chunks, carrots sticks, one of them likes tomatoes)

Daisy (13) makes chicken breast wrapped in parma ham stuffed with Philadelphia and pesto, lots of olive oil and lemon chunks - all baked in the oven and eaten with bread for dipping and salad. In fact it's the only thing she makes and we're a bit sick of it - Sam Stern cookbook good for 9yrs+

As you see they don't like anything fussy or mixed up or tins of chopped tomatoes (passata preferred in everything).

good luck

Millie - recipe for you.

Brown off chicken then add 300 ml of chicken stock plus juice and rind of 1 lemon and some rosemary, let it simer until the chicken is cooked and the stock has reduced then add as many halved grapes as you want and about 150 - 200ml of single cream. I think thats it - off the top of my head.

Also made a yummy carbonnara last night

cook spagetti then cook of 6 rashers of bacon. Mix 200g oh phillidelphiawith 2 egg yolks and then put the spagetti, bacon, philli mix all in a pan with 300 ml of veg stock and mix it all up - Oh yes, it was yummy and my kids asked for 2nds! I have a pasta kids too!

Speedy that soda bread sounds great, will get some rye flour and try it this weekend.

More really good ideas - thanks. My list is growing and even DH is impressed!!

Homemade chicken nuggets:

chicken mini fillets
beaten egg with lots of finely chopped spinach in
smashed up cornflakes

dip chicken in egg mic and roll in the cornflakes.

Bake 180oC for about 20 mins with baked chips (chips tossed in bit of oil +/- seasoning or herbs or paprika / rock salt on baking tray)

Thanks Mrs Triangle ... that's one of our regulars although without the spinach - so another twist on an old favourite

Anytime, Millie1!

Cats - it is SUCH a fab recipe. Dan Lepard is a genius. Enjoy!

Do you all like pork? I do a stirfry with pork strips in soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds to serve with rice or rice noodles/egg noodles and whatever strifryable veg is in the fridge.

Toad in the hole - sometimes I use leftover chicken chunks from the sunday roast.

Sweet potatoes - very good in regard to GI etc, mash, baked or wedges in the oven.

Tins of tuna are fairly cheap and ring the changes from mince in your normal pasta dishes.

I have one budding food critic and one fussy eater who couldn't be more different. The fussy one is allowed not to eat one thing mushrooms which she hates the most everything else she has to try.

In reality I tend to cook the type of food I know she will eat. Some favorites are pan fried salmon fillets with balsamic vingear and sweet baked potatoes which cook well in microwave so this is a 15 min dinner served with peas or green beans.

Another one is the dreaded mince fried in mexican seasoning with top with tinned mushy peas in a wrap. I used to call it a mince and snot wrap which appealed to them both. Sounds a bit odd but the kids love it with a bit of parmesan cheese grated on top. Again super quick dinner 20 minutes. You can also put some rocket in the wrap or serve with a salad.

Another for diced lamb or neck fillet is a middle eastern hot pot. It's basically hot pot but cooked with a good pinch of Baharat spice or Ras El Hanout. Gives another dimension to a family favorite.

We get into a rut, too - mincechickenporkmincechickenmincepork, punctuated by lentils and the odd fish pie - and that's with a DD who's a pretty unfussy eater.

The trouble comes at the buying stage - I go into the shop and lo, they seem to have nothing but mince, chicken and pork (and various other types of beef, but it tends to be v. tough where we live). So I grab one of each, and then, naturally, we have nothing to go in the mince except for tins of tomatoes and various herb or spice variations.

We should menu-plan, but I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. It might. Anyway, the answer for us seems to be, rather than going recipe-mad, to gradually add more meals to the standard repertoire one by one, so that when you're in the supermarket you can remember what you need automatically.