Staple Family Meals - share them with Lidl: chance to win £100 NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

The team at Lidl would love to hear what your staple family meals are in your family What's on your repertoire of dishes everyone likes? Have you adapted any older family favourite recipes for new diets or likes/ dislikes? How do you dish up something everyone likes? What accompanies your favourite dishes? Is there a recipe you turn to time and time again?

Whatever your Staple Family Meals are, Lidl would love to hear them!

Please post your recipes on this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get £100 worth of Lidl vouchers (note the winner will be sent 4 x £25 vouchers, one voucher can be redeemed per transaction).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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Lots of great ideas here. Our staples are chilli, Bolognese, curry, lasagne and home made pizza.

CheeseEMouse Grabbed your recipe, sounds good for our largelystew loving meat eating, but also including a vegetarian, family!

My fall back quick/healthy meal is egg fried rice - I boil rice with peas and sweet corn, quick fry some peppers then make a tiny omelette and mix it all together. Both kids love it, it takes 10mins and I feel good as they've had 3 veg!

We've adapted shepherds pie and use celeriac in with the potato on top, or turn it in to cowboy pie by adding baked beans and chilli powder to the veggie mince mix and using sweet potato to top it

Tinned tomato and mackerel pasta.

So simple! Cook pasta, open x amount of canned mackerel in tomato sauce (depending on how many people you are serving), place into a bowl and shred it - drain pasta, put back onto the hob, add the mackerel, stir and stir, season, add some creme fraiche for extra creaminess and top with grated cheese... delish! So quick and versatile

We always use lidl its great value and the fruit and veg lasts so well our current staples are:

Thai red curry with brocolli and chicken
Cauliflower rice and prawn curry with mangetout
Butternut squash, bacon and brie or stilton pasta
Sausage and Apple puff pastry twist
Roasted veg with feta, pesto and bulgar wheat
Orange and ginger marinated duck or chicken stir fry
Leek and mushroom chicken with pearl barely

Fajitas, stir fry, lasagna and Bolognese are always a great staple as well and I mix it up with whatever meat/veg/cheese we currently have in so it's always different

So many delicious healthy things! Thanks lidl!

Our favourites are all Mexican, fajitas, nachos and tacos. You can smuggle lots of veg in too!

Mince and tatties
Roast chicken dinner
Spanish chicken with chorizo (Nigella)
Spaghetti bologniase
Chilli and wraps
Chicken pie
Steak pie
Baked potatoes with tuna/cheese/beans
Carbonara
Fish pie in cheesy sauce with mashed potato

That’s all the meals that everyone loves

May sound dodgy, but Cauliflower Chowder, family was sceptical at mums new recipe idea, mainly because it falls in to the nutritious bracket, now I have demands to make it weekly, quick too so ideal for a mid week tea.

One diced onion,
Two diced celery stalks, and carrots
Soften in pan with butter and garlic.
Chuck in whole roughly chopped cauliflower for 5 mins.
Then add 30g flour, stir.
Add 250 ml milk, 1 litre of stock.
Simmer until cauliflower cooked.

Delicious as is, or I add chicken for a whole meal, DC’s dunk bread in it obviously

spegetti bolognase and pasta babe are staples in this house make great midweek dinners

Chicken shawarmas (marinade chicken thighs in the juice and zest of a lemon, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1tbsp oregano, 2 tsp paprika, 1tsp cayenne, 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice) skewer n cook in the oven for an hour. Slice off the skewer n serve in warm pittas with salad.

Asian turkey burgers. Blitz in a processor 3 spring onions, 2 garlic cloves n a 2cm piece of garlic. Pack of turkey mince and a tbsp of light soy. Blend in food processor till combined nd make into patties. I usually get four out the mix. Can double up and freeze them.

Slow cooker beef stew. Two chopped onions and two garlic in the pot. Two or three chopped carrots. Some chopped spuds. Pack of beef stewing mince. Beef stock pot and two or three bayleaves. Worcester sauce and a splash of water. I switch on at bed time and cook for almost twenty four hours for super tender meat. Thicken with cornflour an hour before serving,

One of our staples is Spag Bol. I make a big pot of it and put the leftovers into a pie adding more mushrooms and spinach. I've recently changed to just a pie top though in order to cut down because we love pastry!
Another staple is fresh soup; sometimes homemade, sometimes bought in Lidl or Sainsbury/Tesco if on offer.
We also love jacket potatoes but, we disagree on how the skin should be! Dd prefers soft skins, I don't. She loses as I don't have a microwave which means she won't eat the skins.

Chicken stir fry with noodles

Omelette with peas/sweetcorn/tomato

Jamie Oliver's daal with spicy fried eggs - make a big batch and freeze it. So tasty and a quick meal to put together, plus it's low cal!

One of our budget favourites is lentil and sausage hotpot. Pack of sausages, tin of lentils, butternut squash, tin of tomatoes, an onion and some garlic, bit of seasoning. Brown onion and sausages together in pan, add chunks of squash, lentils and toms and then cook slowly. Perfect!

Pasta is always a winner, either cheesy - quick cheese sauce made with flour, milk and grated cheese and butter on the hob- or a simple Bolognese - I tend to use up veg by making tomato sauces, Italian herbs with chopped tomatoes, veg fried in a bit of garlic then all simmered together, and this can be had with pasta alone or mince added. Dc love Pagetti! We also use the sauce for homemade pizza using flatbread or bagel as the base.

Chicken traybake tasty and simple choice. Roast for about an hour; chicken thighs on a large baking tray. Adding diced potatoes, onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, drizzle with olive oil and squeeze a lemon over it all. Bon Appetit!

Few quick and easy dishes.
I fry mince meat in bulk with tomato puree or with grated fresh tomatoes and use this for lots of thing such as:
1-) As bolognese sauce for pasta, combined with greated cheddar
2-) As bolognese sauce on top of freshly boiled rice (fake con carni without chilli as we dont like chilly)
3-) Same as above, but using bulgur wheat instead of rice, takes 20 mins max to prepare it from start to the table.
4-) Same as above, but using quick cook couscous instead of rice, takes 7 minutes from start to the table.
5-) Cooked mince meat in a pan, heated , break 3 eggs per person and cook the eggs on low heat for a few minutes and add black pepper to taste. A yummy meaty omelette. Takes 6-7 mins.
6-) Cooked mince meat (let's say one glass full) and mix it with frozen mix vegetables (ideally peas and chopped mini potatoes and carrots) and add tomato sauce and herbs (mint or oregano ideal) and add two glass full of water with spoonful of tomato puree.Boil for a while and voila, mix veg casserole. Goes wonderful with warm french bread and butter. Takes 15-20 mins max.
7-) Couscous or bulgur wheat or rice, topped with tin of heated baked beans.
8-) Cooked mince meat rolled inside ready to roll pastry, chucked into the oven, in 20 minutes you have a yummy pastry. Sometimes i add frozen peas and carrots into the mince meat with black pepper. Very tasty.
9-) Microwave jacket potato for 10 minutes and take out the skin and mash with a bit of milk and butter, then add tuna mayo sweetcorn combo
10-) Jacket potato as above but add grated cheese and baked beans instead.
Many more...

Staple meals here (by which I mean that I make at least one of them every week)
roast chicken
pasta & meatballs
Cajun chicken with pitta bread & wedges
curry or chicken fried rice
"something" with mince, usually cottage pie or Bolognese!

Thing we enjoy most is our fake Chinese. Homemade chips, curry sauce, stir fry, homemade egg fried rice, fried off kale with soy sauce to make seaweed. And then we make spring rolls with veg, mince and lasagne sheets rolled up and baked! Feels naughty but cheaper and everyone can pick and choose what they want!

Hugh fearnley-whittingstall's oven roasted ratatouille with sausages (quorn ones for me and meat for the others) with a hunk of freshly baked bread. Firm fave all year round !

Creamy mushroom pasta.
Fry loads of mushrooms with some garlic, add a good slug of cream (can use creme fresh). The sauce will go brown now. Mix through cooked pasta (tagliatelle). Parmesan liberally.

I'm a big slow cooker fan as it means I can sort it out in the morning. Our staples are:
Chicken & veg curry
Chilli con carne
Spaghetti bolognaise
Stuffed peppers

Non slow cooker favourites include:
Chicken & veg stir fry
Chicken fajitas
Enchiladas

I must admit since shopping at Lidl my whole outlook and the amount I spend has altered drastically. I plan my meals and buy what I need to see us through the week as a family and that includes....
meatballs and passata which I bake in the oven with garlic and herbs.
Chicken thighs baked and cooked with pasta pesto. Mushroom etc for the adults plain for the kids.
Spatchcock chicken and chunky veg, broccoli etc.
Couple of cold weather dinners like chicken and mushroom slices/ steak bakes and curly fries, spaghetti hoops.
Smoked haddock, egg fried rice and egg (kedgeree)
Always like a full breakfast for my boys.... poached eggs, bacon with no fat, bread in the oven, bits and pieces from the bakery like croissants and pain au chocolate.
All for half the price of Tesco :)

Sausage bake here! Veggie sausages because we don't eat meat with plenty of sweet potatoes, red onions, peppers, courgette and aubergine all sprinkled with rosemary, garlic and sea salt and roasted together in a pan. Delicious, easy and hardly any washing up!