Waitrose web series: add your tips and questions on everyday dishes and have the chance to win £100 of Waitrose vouchers

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Mumsnet are working with Waitrose to produce a six-episode web TV series that will launch in September and they want your feedback to help shape this episode on cooking everyday dishes for the family.

How do you make the most out of your weekly shop? Do you have a fail-safe dish in your repertoire that you always fall back on?

Whether you're offering advice or looking for it, please post here and we'll try and take the best tips and questions and build some of them in to the microsite where the web TV series is going to be shown.

Everyone who takes part in this or any of the Waitrose threads will be entered into a draw to win £100 of Waitrose vouchers.

And if you want to star in the web series, you can find out more and volunteer here. (link to recruitment page)

[MIAonline]

Broccoli and cauliflower cheese, with steamed salmon mixed in and topped with cheese and grilled.

[TracyK]

I do that too Sop - but I just use a packet of paxo/ruskoline for the breadcrumbs. and double dip the egg/crumbs.

I tried them baked in the oven last night - thinking maybe healthier than shallow frying and the chicken wasn't as succulent. Maybe I left them in too long?

[claireybee]

Lentils lentils lentils, stretch most meals further. Can also be substitued with beans or chickpeas.

I very rarely don't have carrots and onions in so if I have nothing else I fall back on carrot and lentil burgers- chop up carrot and onion, boil lentils and cook carrot and onion (you are meant to cook them in oil separately but I am often lazy and chuck them in with the lentils ), mash it all together with seasoning, fresh parsley and any other herb/spice you want, add porridge oats or breadcrumbs to bind, form into burger shapes then grill. My kids love them..

Another family failsafe is jollof rice.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Goan Curry. Curries are great, you buy the spices in one fell swoop and you have ingredients to make a curry all at hand, all you then have to buy are meat, onions and ginger.

You can double quantities of curry paste, it will keep in a jar in the fridge for a fortnight or so. This is a gorgeous curry which is the vindaloo from Camellia Panjabi's Indian cookbook, slightly adapted. You can make it hot as you like by adding more chilli and paprika, however as it is here it is medium hot.

Curry paste:
Blend together the following:
6 garlic cloves, thumbnail sized piece of ginger, 2 tablespoons tamarind paste, 3 teaspoons hot paprika, 6 red chillis (or 3 teaspoons easy chili from a jar), 2 teaspoons ground cumin, a good slug of cider vinegar.

Blend the following in pestle and mortar: teaspoon poppy seeds, 1 star anise, 6 cloves, 8 black peppercorns. Add this to above mix and blitz until you have a curry paste which has a houmous-like texture.

Add a tablespoon of this to 500g diced pork and mix, leave to marinade for an hour or two. Put the rest of the spice paste aside.

Finely dice 2 large onions and fry in a little oil for 20 minutes on low until brown. Add spice paste and fry on low for 10 minutes. Then add pork pieces and immediately add 500ml stock. Cover and simmer for an hour.

You can add potatoes to bulk out - slice 3 jacket potatoes into wedges, splash over some oil, paprika, turmeric and ground cumin and roast in oven for 20 mins on high. Then add these part cooked wedges to the curry at the stage when the stock is added.

Just before you serve it, add a teaspoon of jaggery (palm sugar).

Serve with plain boiled basmati.

[TrishF]

Beef stroganoff - strips of beef fried up with onions (and mushrooms if you like) then add lots of sweet paprika, finish off with some creme fraiche and chives if you fancy! Serve with rice or potatoes. I like this recipe because it's tasty and really quick to make if you're a working mum and short of that precious commodity - time!

[Soop]

These homemade chicken strips work well every time, despite the suspicious looks from visiting children who can't believe they can be any good if they don't come out of a packet.
Cut up chicken breasts into strips (I bulk buy and freeze, esp when Waitrose have those large bags on special offer!!). Beat an egg in a shallow bowl. Put a couple of tablespoons of plain flour into another shallow bowl and add 1/4-1/2tspn each of celery salt and cayenne pepper (I think that's how much - I just shake randomly) and mix.
Dip each chicken strip in the egg then the flour, and shallow fry in a large frying pan in olive or sunflower oil.
Serve with mash or chips plus veg and, of course, ketchup.

[CheeryCherry]

Vegetable omlette - serves 2.

Cut 1 medium potato into cubes, boil til tender.
Gently fry 1 red onion, diced red pepper,handful of mushrooms in 2tbsp olive oil until browned.
Crack 3 eggs into jug with drop of milk, salt and pepper, mix well, pour into frying pan. Add potatoes, peas and sweetcorn if desired, then sprinkle on enough cheese to suit.
Cook on one side, then put pan under hot grill to cook the top.
Serve with salad.
Quick, simple and add/delete veg as preferred. Yum!

[cornsillk]

Beans on toast. Does that count?

[smellen]

Frozen quorn and frozen mixed grilled vegetables, with garlic, can(s) of chopped tomatoes, chopped dried chilli, black pepper and dry lasagna are all in the cupboard/freezer.

To make a lasagna, add easy cheese sauce (throw tablespoon plain flour, knob of butter, half pint of milk in microwave for a minute. Whisk together and put back in for another minute, add chopped cheese et voila).

[Yurtgirl]

Our favourite quick meal:
Tagietelle with spinach grated cheese and seeds (pumkin, sunflower or pine as you like!)
Frozen or fresh spinach work equally well
We are veggie but Im guessing you could add ham etc for animal eaters

My picky 5yo dd always loves this

[missorinoco]

Not sure that the idea is to steal borrow recipes from here, but I like the sound of the prawn recipe, CMOT.

My fallback recipe is actually from a waitrose card. (Does that count?) Fry meatballs, add a tomato based sauce, simmer for 10 minutes. Cook pasta whilst it is simmering, mix the two together, chuck mozzarella on the top and grill for 5 minutes. If you happen to have basil in that didn't expire 5 weeks ago, sprinkle over the top.

My other trip is to cook double of anything that will freeze, and freeze half for another day.

[lisad123]

quick, easy and kids like it too.

Pasta chicken pesto

Cook chicken and pasta. Mix in jar of pesto and a small tub of creme fresh. Stir. Serve and put some cheese on top.

Yummy, easy, and so easy even my DH does it.

[Zinaide]

Quick and popular here: wholemeal fusilli with broccoli and anchovies.
You cook the pasta as on the pack, draining a little of the olive from the anchovies in to stop it sticking, then add the florets from a broccoli crown four minutes before end of cooking. Drain pasta and broccoli, add rest oil from anchovies, anchovies (snipped up), crushed clove of garlic and plenty of black pepper. Warm through to soften anchovies and garlic, then serve with parmesan. On the table in 20 mins.

[CMOTdibbler]

Our super quick fave meal is:
pack of prawns (I buy when on special offer, and then freeze, and cook from frozen). Heat through, add tub of creme fraiche, add frozen peas, stir round till hot, snip chives in, and add black pepper.

Serve with pasta, or if really pushed for time, thai rice noodles.

[Cies]

Lentils are a great thing to have in your store cupboard and can make a nutricious and delicious supper in half an hour.

One of our favourites is with chorizo (the small sausage type, not the thinly sliced stuff for sandwiches). You just cook the lentils in some stock (from a cube if necessary) with chunks of chorizo, potato, carrot, celery, garlic and a bay leaf. The chorizo's oil infuses the whole dish. It keeps well in the fridge and freezes too. What more do you want in a dish?

[Housemum]

Lasagne is the big hit here - and it has the added bonus of almost tasting better the next day, or if made in advance (so it's a good dish to make double and freeze half, or if like me you are at home in the day and LO still young enough for a daytime nap, make it while they're asleep and you just need to finish cooking it later).

I don't exactly follow a recipe - heat a dollop of oil, soften some onions (plus optional garlic, maybe a few carrots chopped small for extra veg, also mushrooms if you like), add some mince and brown it, add a can of chopped tomatoes and let it simmer for about 15/20 mins while you make cheese sauce. Put a couple of spoons of butter in pan and melt, add plain flour (about same quantity?) gradually add milk, whisking all the time and heat until it starts to boil and thicken, take off the heat and chuck in grated cheese. Assemble lasagne - half the mince, layer of lasagne sheets, some cheese sauce, then mince, lasagne sheets and cover the top with rest of cheese sauce (can sprinkle a bit of grated cheee on top). Put in fridge now if you want to cook it later, or else bake now - 200 degrees C for about 20 mins. Yum.

[halkerstone]

The recipe that I always do, which seems to be successful from children to grandparents, is Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.
I use any 500g pack of mince, turkey, lamb, beef or pork that I have to hand and add breadcrumbs, grated onions, an egg, chopped fresh basil leaves- or dried mixed herbs in winter. Form into balls ,and quickly brown before putting in an ovenproof dish. I then either add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes,garlic puree, tsp sugar or a shop- bought passatta,and cook for 40 mins, adding sliced mozzarella for the last 10 minutes.Sometimes I add grated carrots, or grated celery to up the vegetable content.
This is popular served with pasta, rice, or jacket potatoes, with a mixed green salad, or chunky cucumber salad for the children.

[Lizzylou]

I don't care if I look like a Muppet, I just want a prize

If you click on the headings it starts the same thread, think MN towers have some bugs to sort.

[TrillianAstra]

*funny

[TrillianAstra]

I have no idea what we're supposed to do, but t were two threads in aactive with the same title and OP and you were the first poster on both of them and I thought it was funny. Not that you've done anything wrong, just unny than MNHQ can post something twice just like us mere mortals!

[Lizzylou]

Trillian, no, I used the links from the site post at the top, thought that was what I supposed to do?


Just desperate to win something, never blooming do though.

[TrillianAstra]

Gammon joints are fairly cheap (£3.99 for a kg in Sainsburys at the moment) and when boiled and/or roasted make very nice 'nice ham' for sandwiches or to be eaten with potatoes and salad. Much cheaper than pre-cooked nice ham.

[Sunshinemummy]

One of may fail safes is to roast a chicken which you can then add, juices skin and all, to either pasta or a salad. it's yummy, makes a lot, easy and reasonably priced.

[fishie]

grilled teriyaki salmon with noodles and peas / mange tout. superquick very healthy and popular with children. waitrose teriyaki sauce and wild atlantic salmon of course.