PLEASE - Give me some meal ideas :)

[QueenQuootieSpookypieBee]

DH and I eat the same day in day out and I just cant think what else to do! Im ok with what we have for breakfast (branflakes for me) but lunch is non exsistant because I never know what to do, and dinner is the biggest minefield. Currently its ; steak, potatoes and veg, salmon, pasta and veg, lasagne, pork, potatoes and veg or chicken wraps. As you can see, its hardly adventurous!

Also, I have no idea (this is how thick I am) how you store and re-heat food. Im always scared your not supposed to reheat whatever it is I would want to, and end up binning it.

Also, I like the idea of 1/2 cooking a meal, and finishing it later (or freezing).

Please help because im totally clueless and my poor DH might waste away!

Thanks x

sheppards/cottage pie
quiche
chicken in a sauce with roasties and veg
fish pie

-quick lunches-
ommelette
jacket potatoes
salad

November's good Food Magazine has a whole section on freeze ahead meals, or eat hlf/freeze half meals. Some good ideas in there this month.

sweet and sour chicken/pork
Curry serve with rice or jacket potato
Large yorkshire pudding - with minced beef,chicken or a roast with veg in the yorkshire pud.

toad in the hole

pork chops with honey and mustard sauce..........yum lovely.

Two popular choices in our house are spag bol and chilli con carne. Both easy to cook, allow to cool and then freeze (so long as mince is fresh and hasn't already been frozen). Then you can just defrost and cook either some spaghetti or rice and dinner is ready in 10 mins!

Another one I've just started doing is from one of Jamie O's books. Fry some chopped mushrooms and garlic for 10mins add some chopped parsley and when cooled stuff it into some chicken breasts. Cut some strips of ready made puff pastry and wrap around the chicken and stick in the oven for 30-35 mins. I think JO's receipe includes a sauce made of white wine, cream and a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard. Don't think this one would freeze but it's LOVELY!!! I'm starving now!

Egg and bacon pie.
Toad in cheesey holes(add grated cheese to the batter before cooking).

Pesto pasta with pieces of chicken
Jacket potatoes with garlic mushrooms and sour cream
Baked fish with coucous and roasted veg
vegetarian chilli with rice and grated mozzarella
lentil soup with bread
thin strips of steak cooked with onions garlic and olive oil stirred through pasta with loads of fresh parmesan
Sweet potato mash with vegi sausages (cauldron ones)and baked beans

if you have mash potatoe often, mash swede into it, its lovely, but you need to make sure the swede is well cooked.

Writing all these down Thanks!

this is Delia's cheats' Boeuf Bourguignon. Really almost instant apart from the cooking time.
No browning. You can bastardise it easily by adding in celery/leeks/any old odd and sod. I do not bother with her fancy onions either. Or her bacon bits or thyme or bay leaves, come to that, and it still tastes good. Make in bulk and freeze.

Serves 4
Ingredients

1 lb (450 g) or 1 x 500 g pack cubed beef
1 x 200 g pack Tesco Lightly Smoked Bacon Bits
4 oz (110g) chestnut mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 x 180 g pack Waitrose Borettane Onions in Balsamic Vinegar
6 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 heaped tablespoons flour
15 fl oz (425 ml) red burgundy
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C).

This is what you might call an all-in-one recipe ? just place the first 8 ingredients in a medium-sized flameproof casserole and season well with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle in the flour and, using both hands, toss it all around till everything is lightly coated with flour.

Next pour in the wine, give it a good stir then ? ignoring the unpromising sight before you ? put a close-fitting lid on the casserole, pop it into the oven on the centre shelf and leave it there for 3 hours, and look forward to the minimum-effort, maximum-result supper that awaits.

Chicken curry and rice
Sausage and mash, with Yorkshire pudding
Pasta with chicken strips and red pepper, with pesto
Pasta with a passatta and a roadted veg sauce
Mushroom rissotto
Sweet and sour, with rice
Tuna steak, rice and salad
Fajitas
Spagetti Bologaise
Gammon, jacket potatos and veg
Steak, home made wedgies and salad
Shepherd's/Cottage pie
Fish Pie

Jamie's chicken and sweet leek pie goes down well here too.

I ise the Dinnerlady's cook book for a lot of ideas for day to day meals.

home made wedgies

The Swiss have a traditional dish of tagliatelle type pasta, mixed with crispy bacon bits, sauerkraut (from a jar) and apple sauce (makes anything taste nice.) My mum did it for us after a holiday in Switzerland, it was yum.

For a quick white sauce for lasagne/moussaka/pasta bake, mix an egg, some grated cheddar and parmesan and a tub of ricotta (cheaper and purer than Dairylea) or cottage cheese. I did one on saturday with cooked pasta shapes mixed in spagbol sauce topped in this white sauce and baked till golden brown. Just cool to room temp, refrigerate and scoop out portions to microwave as you need them.

As a rule of thumb if it's not got meat in it, you can reheat it as much as you like.

LOL @ wedgies - I am always making that typo