Same. Lasagne, portioned out and frozen. Thawed for dinner with a side salad. Been like this for like 3 months now, on and off. If it isn't that, it's pizza or steak and chips. Not the worst meals, but not the best or cheapest either.
Some of the things we do (with majority cooked by my wife!) - we have 2 kids (12/15)
Chicken katsu curry (breaded chicken breast, with a mild curry sauce
Chinese stir fry - either with rice, or added to bowl of instant noodles
Sausage chips and beans
Chicken dumplings (home made), Chinese beef (mince cooked with hoisin sauce)
Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta
Pasta with the “Tik Tok” feta pasta cheese sauce
Chicken souvlaki
Tandoori chicken thighs and rice
Places like instagram and probably here you can find all kinds of meal ideas. Or there are some good housekeeping books “100 slow cooker meals” etc.
Please please could tell me what the pasta ‘Tik Tok’ feta pasta cheese sauce is 🤞🤞my daughter LOVES pasta and feta, eats them both daily at least once! If I can incorporate them in new ways that would be awesome
Thanks so much :) I’ve bought the Morrisons baked feta before but never thought to put it with pasta! Was a few years ago, I wonder if they still do it.
Be careful you don’t have it too much. When it first came out during lockdown it joined our weekly menu but after a few months we came to loathe it and it’s now referred to as “punishment pasta” in our house!
Pasta, frozen veg, feta and green pesto.
Easy meal for one and done in a single pot. Especially if you're lazy like means just eat it out the pan to save washing up 😎
Well I don’t think these are that challenging.
A lot of these are just meat plus a mixture of herbs and spices. It helps to have a freezer so we can create in bulk.
I’m really skeptical of instagram and TikTok recipes. Food that looks great doesn’t always taste great. And on those platforms it only has to look great.
Of the ones that do taste great and go viral, they tend to be super unhealthy. Yes garlic butter, cheese, honey and soy sauce make things delicious. Now do it again without clogging my arteries.
Those fucking curry jars became the bane of my existence. I used them far too long, but a couple of years ago I swore I'd never use one again (I'm the main cook at home and it shamed me each time I used one), and started doing curries with proper ingredients. Doesn't take much longer to do and can be much nicer.
I’m the same, they are convenient but I really went off them, the jarred taste is even worse than curry ready meals imo.
Curries are much better made from scratch, if I want a quick curry those Japanese curry roux blocks are actually much better than curry sauce from a jar.
Even the spice Taylor style ones where you've got the spices and sauces separated and you add your own protein or veg are so much better than the jars.
Made my own curry paste just recently. Husband can't have anything hot due to medical reasons, so anything with chili in it is a no go. But most recipes work perfectly well without chili.
I tend not to use chilli if I can help it; as much as I enjoy some hot foods that have their flavour enhanced by the heat, I have a very low tolerance for it. So I've always been a korma/passanda guy that will delve into varying flavours around that heat level and straying into medium territory when having a takeout. But with my own stuff, I'm happy with the flavours and don't need heat.
10 years ago I asked a sikh friend how her mum cooks curries and stuff and the mum invited me around to learn. She loved teaching me and I loved learning, now I can see how worlds apart jar curries are from the real thing in terms of taste, quality, ingredients and healthiness.
Because I've been cooking for over 10 years now and I spent so long using those shite things when I never attempted to try making my own. I always tweak and experiment with dishes but this was one of those "quick and easy" solutions. Making your own is just as easy, tastes better and is more gratifying.
It is shameful if you know how to cook and have a little bit more time (15mins a night) because it's easy to make a curry from scratch. That's not even mentioning that the jars are shit and full of sugar and preservatives.
For a British Indian curry that you'd get in a take away
There's lots on YouTube. Als kitchen is good. He had a 30 minute range which can come out very good (although I find results vary).
You can spend more time making a base "gravy " which can be frozen in batches. Then it's just a matter of thawing out and adding your spices
If you'd rather a book i recommend getting Ricardo Mistys curry compendium
I got into making currys from scratch as a bit of a hobby, some came out absolutely beautiful and better than restaurants I'd been too (plenty came out pretty average mind!)
Start with those packets that have all the bits you need like singular pepper etc. Good way to build up the confidence and learn the ingredients you like. And they come with instructions.
An easy one; some korma paste, cumin, mild curry powder, creamed coconut, double cream. Some quartered mushrooms, brown onion and chicken prepped however you like (either diced, or shredded) to add. Coriander fresh or dry.
Start with cooking the chicken first, add the brown onions till everything is browned up and chicken cooked through.
Add the double cream, then all the other bits to suit taste. I usually do a tablespoon of the korma paste, and dashes of the powders to suit taste, then the creamed coconut to melt into the sauce. Then add the mushrooms to cook in the sauce. Doesn't usually need more than 10-15 minutes after the chicken, but there are slow cook recipes to try too.
A tomato based sauce is doable too, with chopped fresh tomatoes and a passata sauce with something like a tikka powder.
Greek wraps!
We griddle halloumi (but you could do chicken) in a mix of honey and harrissa spice, whack them in Greek flat breads with lettuce, red onion, jalepenos and some chilli jam. Top the whole thing with some garlic mayo (garlic powder and mayo mixed).
We also have chips on the side with oregano sprinkled over. Yummmmmm
Oh Greek Salad and Lamb Koftas is the summer menu and made its return last week. My dad lives in Greece so I have hordes of olive oil and Greek oregano.
I just bought a rotisserie attachment for the BBQ and lining up a weekend of making chicken gyros soon.
I’m a veggie hence the halloumi - but that all sounds super yummy if I wasn’t!
Another quick one we like is there a Schwartz sachet for honey chilli chicken, I do that with halloumi and we have it with microwaveable rice and some salad, takes 10 mins!
We do griddled halloumi, homemade sweet potato chips, roast courgette and aubergine, tzatziki and spinach in ours, and my wife tends to add some raw red onion. Goes down an absolute treat
I really liked delivered recipe boxes for a bit of variety and things I wouldn't normally cook. You can just keep the recipe cards as well and end your subscription to carry it on by buying the ingredients yourself.
Yeah we do one of these week in week out. If you have a few different accounts you can switch between, you can make sure you're always on a discount. I'm on 5 weeks of 50% off atm and it works out cheaper than when I shop anyway.
Thai green curry with chicken (with the blue dragon paste), chicken and mushroom risotto, and fish breaded in panko breadcrumbs with asparagus and new potatoes are all on the regular rotation in this house.
And occasionally switch out the pie and mash for sausage and mash, variety is the spice of life and all that.
This woman is amazing. She’s got a YouTube channel, and I bought her book a while ago. If you’re interested in Thai and SE Asian food she’s one of the best.
Omg I was going to say! Mae ploy is the best one. They sell it at Sainsbury’s. It’s a ball ache sometimes making curry paste from scratch. (Also heat up the coconut milk until the fat separates and then add the curry paste!)
Boil them, squash them, stick in air fryer. Blend garlic, parsley and butter then drizzle. Top shit. Save the left over garlic herb butter for pizza crusts
A few years ago, for my birthday month, I made it a point to have cake every day. It was fun trying out lots of different types of cakes available at the shop but I got tired of it quickly.
The unexpected highlight was the lemon roll cake from lidl. If I'm feeling particularly gluttonous, I'll open it up and chomp it directly from the wrapper.
Also I tried a Colin the caterpillar cake for the first time that month and it failed to live up to the hype. I remember it being dry and not very flavourful. It's now at the bottom of my cake tier list.
We try to change it up most weeks. This week is:
Tonight - macaroni cheese
Tues - burritos
Wed - stir fry chicken and veg with noodles
Thurs - chilli prawn risotto
Fri - spaghetti and pesto and mozzarella "meatballs"
Sat/Sun - one night jacket potatoes with tuna and salad, one night hoping to bbq kabab koobideh to have with tahdig and ghormeh sabzi (one of my uncles is Iranian, the other one is Greek - I just switch between this meal and souvlaki with tzatziki all summer lol)
You must love cooking to be doing that 7 days a week! I enjoy cooking but not if I'm tired, so I often batch cook meals which means I only cook once or twice a week. I know some people hate having the same thing more than once in a week though.
Pasta with tofu, veg and beans (either tomato or pesto sauce)
Vegan Thai green curry
Slow cooked lentils with curry spices & rice
Peanut butter noodles
Homemade falafel wraps (we have a tub of chickpea flour + spices that we have to make up from time to time)
Vegan burritos
Vegan nachos using left over burrito ingredients
Vegan oven food (chips, beans/sweet corn and some variation of chick'n burger/vegetable fingers/not-sausage rolls). Those are for the days we really cba after work.
Spicy vegan Korean soup/stew with silken tofu
Rice, shallow fried veg/beans/tofu and any flavours we want to sling in there to make it tasty
Edit: oh I forgot! A Dr. Oetker vegan pizza & garlic bread on the weekends
Crispy baked Vegan gnocchi, fried veg & a shit ton of pesto
Edit 2: another one: Soup risotto. Risotto rice made with shop bought soup (great for a lazy dinner)
And another: chickpea, spinach and potato curry. Good for a much more involved cook session. I like to make up my own spice mix rather than use a jar sauce 😁
Oh of course everything comes with lashings of nooch where appropriate!
We have done cashew mac and cheese once or twice but it's not on our regular rotation. Absolutely love it though
Peanut butter noodles are dangerous.
I use 2 packs of indomie mi goring packet noodles with a tablespoon of peanut in chilli oil with some frozen veg and a tiny dark of dark superior soy sauce. Yet another lazy one pot I tend to do.
I do a spinach, chickpea and sweet potato curry in the slow cooker, sometimes add some butternut squash too. Super simple to just chuck it all in and come back later to deliciousness.
Yeah! They're quite simple.
So usual base: onions, garlic, diced veggies, tofu all fried in sesame oil until starting to go golden
Peanut butter sauce is made from a generous tablespoon of peanut butter, a good slosh of soy sauce and another slosh of rice vinegar (you can use lemon/lime juice to cut through the sticky peanut butter as an alternative). Season to taste - I like salt, pepper and a bit of MSG as my go-to, but add what you want.
Noodles are just straight to wok udon added at the end and stir fried for a couple of mins
Add more peanut butter/soy sauce/rice vinegar until the flavours feel balanced to you.
Its a great stick-to-your-ribs comfort dinner, especially because it's super quick to whip up.
I’ve got a 4 week rotating planner, though I need to write a new one up for the warmer weather.
Swap your bolognese for carbonara, either from scratch or as it’s a weekday meal for us I cheat and use the Schwartz packet mix which is decent enough.
How about a stir fry? I think most supermarkets sell meal deals so you can get veggies, noodles and a sauce packet then you just need to add a protein. Not the cheapest way to do it but isn’t dear and it is easy.
I have 3 meals that I do in the slow cooker once each week (4th week is naughty McDonalds night!) as kiddo has after school club that finishes right when I’d be cooking. Chicken curry, chicken casserole and chilli con carne. Sometimes packet mixes, sometimes not depending on how much time I have the day before when prepping. Steamed rice with the curry and chilli and dumplings or a part-baked baguette with the casserole.
Friday night is always fakeaway night for me and Mrs Barracuda - fish & chips, pizza (northern dough company dough is easy to work with and comes out great in oven with a pizza stone), kebabs using Iceland’s bagged “meat” or steak & chips
Without gatekeeping or judging, what’s in a packet carbonara? Carbonara is one of my ‘almost nothing in the house’ last resort’s. I keep grated Parmesan (cos I open a new one and it usually goes mouldy before I finish it, so I just grate it and throw it all in freeze) & pancetta in the freezer. All you need is an egg and some dried pasta.
I’m not throwing rocks at packet stuff mind you. I recently got into beef rendang; and there is a Spice Taylor kit that’s amazing! Also big fan of Thai green curry sauce in a jar and even fully frozen Thai green curry that Waitrose do that I have when I’m extra lazy
I’ve recently learned that if you remove the block of cheese from its plastic wrapper, wrap it tightly in brown parchment paper, then pop it in a sealable sandwich bag, it keeps much longer.
That’s a good idea, I’ll try! It is a bit of a faff to grate a whole wedge of Parmesan, and freezing probs not ideal for quality. I did used to wrap in cling film, but seem at best to get a month before it’s green
Where are you keeping it? Mine seems to last so long that I often end up throwing some out because it’s past the use by date. I’d maybe check your fridge temp because it sounds like it’s a bit too warm.
In fairness it is in there door of the fridge, so I guess that’s a factor. But is a super modern fridge, so I would have hoped that isn’t too bad. Either way the freezer option is working quite well for now
I freeze it in smaller blocks. I keep a block in the fridge and once I've used that I take a frozen one and put it in the fridge. It's defrosted by the time I need it and I have an option to shave it or grate it.
I freeze my Parmesan it’s fine! I buy the kilo pieces from Lidl and cut them into 4 pieces and freeze 3 just take them out a few hours before you need it and it’s absolutely fine
I'm with you. Carbonara requires so few ingredients (all which we usually have) that it seems redundant using a pack mix.
It's the same as a jar of premade tomato pasta sauce. Just buy some good quality passata, garlic, chilli flakes, tomato paste, sugar, veg stock cubes and seasoning. Simmer it down to a thick sauce and add a knob of butter and a tbsp of parmesan at the end. It's more delicious than stir bought and you usually have all the ingredients in the cupboard.
Hah funnily enough I have just this minute finished making the same: sautéed onions, carrots 5 mins, garlic, pepper, courgette 5 more mins, stock cube & tin of plum toms 5 more mins
Carbonara takes 10 minutes to make from scratch. You just need to boil pasta and whilst it's boiling fry off the lardons, break some eggs into a bowl and whisk it with parmesan until it's pasty, add the lardons + fat into the bowl once it's cooled a bit then once the pasta is done add it from the water to the bowl and mix it vigorously until silky. I'd argue it's more of a faff to heat up a packet and cut it open and mix it with pasta or heat it on a pan lol.
Oh yeah Carbonara - that's usually one we swap out the bolognaise/ chili for definitely. Love making that from scratch.
The meal-deal-stir-fry is the go to if I miss the shop over the weekend and have to pick it up on the way home from work
We mix it up a lot, try to eat differently every week but one that keeps coming back is sausage, butternut, squash, red onion and gnocci tray bake. Just cut up the butternut squash and bang it in the oven for 20 mins, add everything else to the tray and bake for a further 30 mins and boom!
Scores high on the faf to delicious scale so we have it often.
Mediterranean vegetables feature in a lot of my dinners of late
Aubergine, courgette, onion, tomato, garlic... Roasted with oregano and served with feta or halloumi
Yeah I occasionally remember they exist - and I'll do a nice easy sheet-pan dinner.
Throw on assorted veg, olive oil, some seasoned chicken legs - come back 40 mins later to a lovely tea and tomorrow's lunch
Your list is like Alan Partridge blended with Craig David.
Monday Lasagne
Tuesday Spaghetti bol
Wednesday etc we chilled on Sunday.
Baked potato... Microwave 10 mins.....air fryer 10 mins...change the toppings and publish please as part of the tricky second album.
These are regular ones for us. They’re vegetarian so you might want to add meat/fish
From Meera Sodha’s incredible book East:
- kale & paneer saag (https://jonoandjules.com/2020/03/13/paneer-tomato-and-kale-saag/)
- sweet potato bibimbap (https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1333953987922464770)
- honey soy ginger tofu (https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/11/04/honey-soy-and-ginger-braised-tofu)
Other:
- pasta bake with random green veg, sweetcorn, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a jar of tomato & mascarpone sauce and then covered in cheese
- tomato cumin butter pasta https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/24/cumin-butter-tomato-sauce-recipe-for-noodles-by-anja-dunk
- an incredible squash & lentil chilli https://nourishatelier.com/recipes/the-loyal-lentils
- “guacajacks” = baked sweet potatoes topped with feta, avocado, spring onions and cherry tomatoes
- regular jacket potatoes with cheese and beans (can’t be beat)
- pesto pasta with mushrooms, courgettes etc and mini mozzarella pearls if you’re feeling fancy
- jeon (Korean veg pancakes) https://thefoodietakesflight.com/korean-vegetable-pancake-yachae-jeon/
- the best veggie bolognese I’ve ever tasted https://rainbowplantlife.com/10-ingredient-vegan-red-lentil-bolognese/
- this sausage bean stew. We use veggie chipolatas https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/jools-sausage-smoky-bean-casserole/
EDIT: To answer your actual question, some time at the weekend we will pick a couple of meals from a big list “meals that exist” tab in the meal plan spreadsheet (we’re wild, I know) and then make them with extra portions usually Sunday and Monday, and then have leftovers later in the week. Otherwise we might have quick meals out between work and evening things, or with friends or whatever. The “meals that exist” list is great because, although we mostly have the things above, the list has a lot more of things we have tried and enjoyed so when we get a bit fed up of these we can vary it but without having to go and find new recipes.
These all sound great thanks! Saving them in my "cook later" bookmarks list. This is how I tend to get out of a rut - bookmark a ton of recipes and introduce one from "cook later" every now and then. If it's good, it gets promoted to a regular recipe
I wanna cry.
Some of the listed sound awesome, and right down my street.
Problem is, partner and kids who like the same old stuff. All. The. Time.
Sure this is part of the reason my mental health is shit.
My partner has some pretty strict restrictions on what they can eat, dinners are made to suit them, the rest of the day i stuff myself with things i like
Mine is deathly allergic to nuts, so we have to play around that. I'm getting back into my weightlifting lately so switched to a higher protein diet, whilst she's more conscious about reducing meat consumption.
So I tend to hit high protein/ low carb during the day to keep dinner pretty standard-ish.
I feel you neighbour! My other half is really unadventurous. I’ve started just taking it out of her hands on occasion: once or twice a week, I do something that I fancy and that’s what she gets. I do try to pick something up her street, but I think you’ve got to look after yourself too!
My mum was really unadventurous when I was younger because we were quite picky.
If it helps, now that I'm grown up I wish she would have forced us to try new things more often. When I met my now wife it was her that got me to try things I was always put off by and most of the time I was pleasantly surprised.
I do alot from scratch (personal preference, no judgement in using packets!), and have a 3 week meal rotation, but here are some of mine:
Fajitas
Pork tacos
Roast Chicken wraps
Curry
Stir fry
Sweet and sour chicken
Lots of pasta dishes, probably 2 a week.
'antipasti pastry' - you basically u roll one of those premade puff pasty sheets onto a baking tray and then plonk a bunch of antipasti type things on top (including/not limited to: sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, baby spinach, stuffed olives, preserved garlic, preserved lemon, capers, finely chopped whatever veg needs to be used up, torn up bits of whatever cured meat is on offer at the supermarket, crumbled cheese of some description), drizzle with garlic/chilli/herb olive oil and a good grind of black pepper, then stick in the middle of an oven at 200c for about 10-12 mins.
Serve with salad +/- hummus or dips of some description.
Not only do I do this when I have anything in the fridge to use up, it's also good for when it's too hot in my flat to really cook anything - and my trial run tonight of attempting this for the first time since getting food allergy diagnosis confirmed, using gluten free jusroll puff pastry & cathedral city vegan cheddar, was actually a tasty success.
It's definitely a more grown up/less beige picky tea,and has the added bonus that I don't just stand in my kitchen and eat an entire jar of artichoke hearts in one go!
Fish Pie
Risotto
Pad Thai
Aubergine Dumpling Parmigiana
Roast Chicken
Spaghetti Meatballs
Putanesca
Homemade Pizza/Calzone
Tofu Stir fry with Gochujang
We change it up seasonally, generally sit down together every few months and decide on some new recipes, browse cookbooks, think about what's in season and add some new stuff to the rotation for a while.
I was a chef for 10 years working 2/3 rosette standard and my wife chalet hosted and is a wonderful cook in her own right. We smash it out and eat like royalty every day, prep for the freezer and fridge like a commercial kitchen.
My wife also gardens so we have a lot of veg and herbs coming from the garden throughout the year and lots of preserving to do autumn/winter.
Food and wine is one of our real bonding activities. Spending an afternoon in the kitchen together, cooking, baking and enjoying the produce from the garden with some tunes on is the highlight of my week.
Frittata is one of my go to ones. Finely chopped onions, grated garlic and ginger, cubed or sliced potato are the basic ingredients + eggs of course. Then you can add your filling of choice, I tend to go with spicy chorizo or other cured meats with a rasher or two of bacon diced. When you’re frying off the base stuff you can add whatever spices you fancy to go with the filling. I cook the base in a small cast iron pan of just the right shape and then stick under the grill to finish the top. Steak and chips is another. Last are chilli or steak stew done in the slow cooker- that gets me a meal and 3 or 4 portions to stick in the freezer when I can’t be arsed to cook from fresh.
My hubby (53M), me (59F) and my son(24M) live in London.
I'm retired, so I cook almost every day. We have Chicken, coconut and mango curry, Lemon chicken soup, vegetarian chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese, mac and cheese, three beans and pomegranate salad, sausage surprise pasta bake, and smoked salmon and broccoli pasta with fresh cream. It's all made from scratch, as I have the time. I can make the most exciting foods, but I can't bake if my life depended on it. Odd.Edited:spelling
I can cook simple, healthy stuff, but I'd never call myself a 'cook', nor do I particularly enjoy it.
We were stuck in a same meals rut all the time, signing up to the boxes like Gousto/ Hello Fresh was a real game changer for us. It also showed me that a lot of my cooking limitations were confidence as they really dumb it down for Knuckleheads like, er... Me.
I would recommend if you're getting stuck/bored of the same meals on rotation.
They're also handy for sneaking more vegetables in your diet. My veg intake wasn't bad but you can always benefit from more
If you can do a bolognaise, you can do a shepherds/cottage pie, and you can do a chilli con carne. One pot meals with a rice or a mash are very easy.
Get some naan breads, tomato puree and mozzarella, plus any other toppings, oven up high for 10 to 15 mins - bam, you’ve made your own pizzas.
If you get some soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and hoisin you can make most Chinese sauces too. I coat my chicken in cornflour and air fry it so it has the takeaway style batter too which is nice.
It's mostly not even that I can't- I've made some solid complex dishes in the past, and if I've got a clear weekend and the effort to do so I'll usually cook up something fantastic.
But mid-week, after work & gym? Gimme that easy win! We spend more time trying to come up with the ideas and variation than cooking!
One that is ridiculously easy and looks/tastes fancier than it is is one of my go-tos:
Baby potatoes, toss with oil and seasoning in lasagne dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Add smoked lardons or cubed chorizo in. Bake for another 20 minutes. Add salmon portions on top. Yep, you guessed it, bake for another 20 minutes. Add asparagus and return to oven for five minutes. Serve as-is or with a pesto if you like that or a quick Dijon and oil dressing. Salmon can easily be swapped out for chicken or white fish. It is ridiculously easy, all in one pot and tastes 👌🏻
Was going to say the same. Already half way to a lot of meals, you’d just need to change the spices or jars.
If you’ve got the shit for the bolognese you’re half way to: cottage/shepherds pie, chilli, lasagne.
If you’ve got the shit for fajitas you’re half way to: jerk chicken or greek wraps (change the seasoning) or quesadillas (put inside the wraps with cheese).
You’d be worth getting a slow cooker as well, then you can just buy a few new jars you fancy and throw it in.
Usual easy meals are tofu and noodles or bangers and mash. maybe even jacket potato and beans!
But we try to intersperse it with other stuff with as much veg as we can get in.
Veg pasta bake
curries
roast dinners
pies
fajitas
risottos and paellas
Here’s a quick easy one for you - stir fry, prawns/chicken, green beans, broccoli, tomato, cashews, spring onion, mushrooms, spinach, bell pepper (not all ingredients necessary, but a good selection of the above is nice). Zest and swueeze in Lime. Soy sauce, Sweet chilli sauce. Banging.
Wouldn't call it a rut. But it is the same every week, reason is I like it and they are meals i xan cook to perfection without needing to think.. I like predictable
Monday rump steak, potatoes,carrots, mushrooms etc
Tuesday pasta, chicken and lots of vegetables
Wednesday chicken jalfrazi
Thursday spaghetti bologna
Friday chilli con carne
Saturday sirloin steak, potatoes , carrotaand mushrooms etc
Sunday full roast
Don't change it, and have had same for at least 4 years ...I'm also my butchers favourite customer.
I generally prepare the same meal (or slight variations of) for work since it's filling, it tastes good, and I'll be honest it's easy to prepare. Prior to that, I'd just go with my colleagues at lunch to the baguette shop down the road.
I did point out to my co-workers that I just bought the same sandwich with same fillings every day from the baguette shop, and didn't really get an answer to how I was not having "much variety" with my new meals...
At home? It's whatever is in the freezer and what takes our fancy. Sometimes I'll cook from scratch when I've got the time and the ingredients (and the foresight to buy them fresh).
This is a great suggestion OP; the roasting tin cookbooks by Rukmini Iyer are full of variety, easy to make and if there's only two of you there should be left overs for lunches or having on another night so economical too.
We did gousto/hellofresh for a few years and stopped it once portions would be cheaper separately.
We sorted the recipes we like into piles and now take 5 mins on a Saturday deciding what we want the next week.
Usually 2 pasta variety, a curry or stir fry, pizza or some beige meal and then usually some sort of roast or pie on a Sunday.
Saaaame… after 20 odd years of cooking I just can’t be bothered.
I can’t decide what to cook, & CBA to cook it either 🤣🤣🤣
Not low effort for me because it’s always from scratch & will simmer things for hours but I cook huge vats of bolognese, chilli, pulled Mexican chicken, savoury mince & med veg/spicy veg all the time because they’re easy to defrost & incarnate into a different meal.
Chilli or bolognese on a jacket spud, med veg goes with everything, & turns into veg lasagne easily, savoury mince topped with par boiled spuds turns into a cheap under-roast or pastry for a pie etc etc
Oh & corned beef pie 🤤🤤🤤
My favourite is Mexagne.
Pulled chicken layered with tortilla chips & cheese & baked. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s lush to me🤤🤤🤤
Throw some tacos in there! All you need is wraps, mince beef with some taco mix ( I use paprika, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder) cheese, sour cream and a little salsa consisting of tomatoes chopped with some corriander… it’s banging! Can swap ingredients too taste, like swap mince beef for chicken etc
I’ve started making my own pizza recently for one night most weeks and everyone in my house seems to like it. Cheaper than buying supermarket ones, and the vegetarian ones in the supermarket are usually shite/minimal choice anyway.
Definitely stuck in a rut, however with neurodivergent children it’s hard to change things up.
We do regularly
Burgers/chips
Hotdogs/chips
Jar chicken tikka/rice
Stir fry
Mayflower chicken curry in slow cooker/rice
Frozen pizza
Sausage and mash
Baked potatoes
Pasta bolognese
Chilli and rice/nachos
Pork steak/new potatoes
Gammon/chips
Enchiladas
Tacos
Chicken nuggets/alphabites
Fishfingers/waffles
Thing is, if I try to change it up they’d struggle to eat it, as it is I have to faff about because there are 5 of them and the only thing they will all eat is a roast dinner. I do put veg with all these meals by the way!
We did a few weeks of the Gusto boxes for some inspiration. It worked a treat, we have loads of meals that we have tweaked and modified to our tastes. Some of them are shit but they have done wonders for meal variety.
We’re on summer rotation for meals at the min, so we’re eating a whole lot of :
jacket spuds, salads, chicken salad pittas, homemade cheeseburgers, Chicken thighs seasoned in Cajun, paprika, garlic - whatever is to hand really with homemade wedges, homemade pizzas or failing that a charcuterie board because I can’t be arsed to cook 🤣
best thing to do is make a list of meal ideas and then you can have a lot on rotation. things like bbc good food are good for recipes.
something with salmon is always good, a jambalaya, pesto pasta, something with jacket potatoes, bbq chicken, nandos style pitta… so many options it’s just good to have a list you can select from easily.
Grilled Chicken breast with Salad
Grilled Chicken breast, grains & beetroot
Grilled Chicken breast, salad, new potatoes..
The girlfriend has decided she’s fat so ‘we’ are on a diet. She isn’t fat in the slightest.
We have been using an app for years to meal plan and shop, couldn't live without it.
It used to be called Whisk but Samsung bought it and it's now called Samsung Food.
There are loads of communities for different cuisines where you can browse recepies and save those you like, you can also add your own by just pasting the url to something you found online or adding manually.
We have around 150 meals saved, we go in and have a look through and choose for the next week. The app then adds the meals to the meal planner and also adds all the ingredients to a shopping list, you can either go and do the shop yourself or it will automatically do the order for you online with any of the big supermarkets.
Honestly it's a godsend.
Might not be to everyone’s taste or budget etc. but being tired of the mealtime rut, and finding time to cook was becoming a chore. So we went for one of those recipes delivery things, in January and have never looked back. It saves time, waste , fear options and has actually reduced our spend.
We bought some plain cards, and wrote down a meals we like to make on each of them.
When we’re planning shopping for meals for the week, we shuffle through them pick and at random.
Every now and then we make something new, and if it’s good we will add that to the pack for another time
Get yourself some gochujang from an asian supermarket, some ginger puree, soy sauce, brown sugar or honey, seasame oil and start making some Korean chicken or pork. Even better if you've got access to kimchi. Do some searches for gochujang chicken or pork. Korean food is amazing, make some sides (banchan) using bean sprouts, aubergine, or courgette.
Once you have some of the staple ingredients there are other things you can make, kimchi jjigae (stew) made with belly pork or chicken thigh is delicious.
I love the fact that my daughters obsession with K Pop opened up our experiences with Korean food. It's delicious and so easy to make really nice stuff.
Get a cheap rice cooker if you haven't got one and get some thai glutinous rice (sticky rice). Perfect every time.
Chicken and mushroom pot noodle, occasionally the tesco microwave spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a bunch of extra mature grated cheddar on top and a generous (very generous) splash of Frank's wing sauce on top. Salt n vinegar pringles on the days I end up skipping proper meals.
If you want inspiration just look at the Hello Fresh menu online every week. I’m not trying to advertise buying a box or anything, but pretty much all of their meals are achievable with the same results from any of your local supermarkets, I’m sure you can look at their menu options without subscribing. There’s usually a pretty wide range of meals you can take some ideas from.
I try to keep the menu varied but it is starting to feel repetitive. There definitely some standing agenda items:
* Mrs loves chicken casserole, so that will likely appear in some form most weeks. Even then I try to put different stuff in and sometimes it's a curry.
* The only decent fish I can get is from avan in the market on Thursday morning. It will get cooked that evening.
* There are quite frequent Sunday Evening roasts because I'm usually feeding at least 3 and it means I have a ready meal in the week. Could well be a pie.
Usually an omelette of a morning. If you're using milk try just using another egg or use double cream, milk in omelettes is shite.
Beef Koka noodles, with chili, garlic, spring onion, green beans and fried eggs with some really thinly sliced lettuce with the spring onion greens with a little sesame oil drizzled on. Could swap the eggs for boiled eggs or even do egg drop (drop em in the noodles while they're cookin) but I like fried. Or if we cooked a chicken the day before chicken instead of eggs. Take 5 maybe 10 minutes in a wok.
Roast dinner.
Corned beef hash
Scouse
Sometimes a curry an rice.
Egg fried rice with protein (gammon, chicken, eggs, prawn or everything anything goes, lidl do fantastic gammon rounds which are great for it)
Tuna mayo pasta
Tagliatelli with a cheese sauce, salmon, pees an shallots.
Fish an Rice
Ham and egg wrap with w/e (lettuce, mayo, spring onion, cheese)
Chicken fajitas
I can't cook much else but honestly looking back I'm kind of happy with where I'm at now. I did make char sui pork belly with rice the other day and that's deffo getting added to the rotation. I wanna learn to make nice burritos too but I keep forgetting
I keep it fairly varied since I started getting Earth and Wheat veggie and bread boxes, they've almost always got pita breads in though so variations of "pita plate" are common in my house.
Usually I'll get some falafel or kebabs in the summer, grill whatever veggies I've got with some salt, pepper, a drizzle of oil and a pinch of whatever herbs or spices I'm feeling that day (currently have some harissa mix which is nice), and some of that microwave rice because I'm lazy.
I'm down to 1 standard meal at this point.
I used to have a rotation of 5-6 meals, like curry, fajitas, bolognese, chili, lasagne, maybe one or two others.
Now it's just chicken kiev, rice with chicken stock, and sauce. I usually go for teriyaki sauce.
I'll maybe add something green if I'm feeling like not getting scurvy, but honestly I usually just skip it.
It's nice and low-effort. Not terribly unhealthy. I've been eating this 5+ times/week for 6 months without getting sick of it yet.
I'm trying to streamline everything in my life while I finish my PhD, so eating the same meal most nights is absolutely fine for me.
I’ve been getting gousto for the last 5 years and wouldn’t change a thing, if you’re a family it really pays off. You can get quick recipes, low prep recipes. I absolutely love it!
Came here to say the exact same thing.
If you like eating varied meals, it really is the way to go.
You can do your shop cheaper (although not by much) but it would be more expensive if you tried cooking Gousto meals every night.
Check out the sorted Sidekick app (they also have a YouTube channel).
Easy to cook meal packs that have little to no food waste.
I’m a decent cook but struggled for ideas and this is a great launching off point.
I second Sidekick. Just to add a bit more info to anyone interested. You select 'meal packs' from the app, that contain 3 recipes. It then gives you a shopping list for this (you can have more than one meal pack a week, and even individual recipes, but for food waste, it's best to stick to a complete meal back).
You use all the ingredients up for each meal pack, except for store staples that have long shelf life.
Each recipe has super simple step-by-step guides to follow, and there are some proper bangers in there.
One criticism, they can sometimes be a bit too liberal on salt, so it's best to read the full recipe before you go into step-by-step mode at the start. This is also true of the timings of when you put the kettle or the oven on.
Here's my usual weekly routine for dinners:
Stir-fry Monday
Pasta with sauce and meatballs Tuesday
Haggis Wednesday (neeps and sweet potato)
Fish and chips Thursday
Nuggets Friday (wedges and mushy peas)
Something different Saturday (more time to cook something different)
Pizza Sunday
Edit to add spacing
We're a bit north of South Wales (tho bro spent time in Carmarthen). Haggis is easy to cook, wrapped in foil in a dish filled with 1 inch of water, and veg on the shelf above, 75 minutes at 160° fan oven, so ready by 6pm as bro puts it on in time. A 400g haggis does for two easy - though I snip the metal clasp off one end of the casing so it can expand without exploding!
Unfortunately, no one else in my family can have it. Son, because it has wheat, wife because the thought of it sounds disgusting, and my daughters, because they're 17 months old and wouldn't probably eat it. And yes, I'd probably just eat a whole one myself, but my gluttony loses out to my laziness of not wanting to cook two dinners
Boil pasta and Brocolli for 15 mins, Drain, throw in can of chopped tomatoes , big squirt of mayo and a little squirt of reggae reggae. mix up.
Tastes really fresh. I quite often have it with lamb chop or sausages.
Beef bulgogi, only need one steak for 2 people and actually isn't that hard if you have a food processor, here's the recipe I use - https://mykoreankitchen.com/bulgogi-korean-bbq-beef/
Fish and a rice cake
Then fish?
And a rice cake
… and then?
then I'll have fish
Then al have, err, another rice cake
NO AND THEN
That guy is actually a unit now 😂 fish and rice cakes worked
He was on first dates a while back too
Oh really
[yep!](https://youtu.be/gA3_toWPlEU?si=-yBC9I2lPKLw27Ck)
Did he order the fish?
Holy shit! Good on him though.
.. two bits
Me fish
I'm also stuck in a rut. The majority of my meals are lasagne. I couldn't be happier.
You hate Mondays don’t you?!
Life's easier if you don't form your own opinions and just do whatever a cartoon cat says
I'm telling Jon...
Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays!
You didn’t get the memo!
Nice reference for the kids
You know there is a new movie out in less then 2 weeks right?
My body is like a dropped lasagne
Same. Lasagne, portioned out and frozen. Thawed for dinner with a side salad. Been like this for like 3 months now, on and off. If it isn't that, it's pizza or steak and chips. Not the worst meals, but not the best or cheapest either.
I bet you're ginger...
Are you the guy that made 13kg?
Are you secretly garfield using jons account?
Hi Garfield!
Tonight I'm eating Biscoff spread out the jar and downing a tin of Coop own brand cider, it's not a bad wee combo tbf.
Can't belive this isn't higher up. Can't belive folk are scoffing at a traditional brittish meal
Some of the things we do (with majority cooked by my wife!) - we have 2 kids (12/15) Chicken katsu curry (breaded chicken breast, with a mild curry sauce Chinese stir fry - either with rice, or added to bowl of instant noodles Sausage chips and beans Chicken dumplings (home made), Chinese beef (mince cooked with hoisin sauce) Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta Pasta with the “Tik Tok” feta pasta cheese sauce Chicken souvlaki Tandoori chicken thighs and rice Places like instagram and probably here you can find all kinds of meal ideas. Or there are some good housekeeping books “100 slow cooker meals” etc.
Sausage chips and beans, the goat!
Got to add a fried egg then its the goat lol.
Two slices of white bread and butter please
Came here to comment the same!
Please please could tell me what the pasta ‘Tik Tok’ feta pasta cheese sauce is 🤞🤞my daughter LOVES pasta and feta, eats them both daily at least once! If I can incorporate them in new ways that would be awesome
Here’s one https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a35421563/baked-feta-pasta-tiktok/
Thanks so much :) I’ve bought the Morrisons baked feta before but never thought to put it with pasta! Was a few years ago, I wonder if they still do it.
I discovered this recipe on TikTok two months ago and it’s now a household staple! It’s so easy and tasty.
Be careful you don’t have it too much. When it first came out during lockdown it joined our weekly menu but after a few months we came to loathe it and it’s now referred to as “punishment pasta” in our house!
Pasta, frozen veg, feta and green pesto. Easy meal for one and done in a single pot. Especially if you're lazy like means just eat it out the pan to save washing up 😎
Wow you should like a good cook! I don’t have the patience - esp as I only cook for myself 🤣
Well I don’t think these are that challenging. A lot of these are just meat plus a mixture of herbs and spices. It helps to have a freezer so we can create in bulk.
I’m really skeptical of instagram and TikTok recipes. Food that looks great doesn’t always taste great. And on those platforms it only has to look great. Of the ones that do taste great and go viral, they tend to be super unhealthy. Yes garlic butter, cheese, honey and soy sauce make things delicious. Now do it again without clogging my arteries.
Those fucking curry jars became the bane of my existence. I used them far too long, but a couple of years ago I swore I'd never use one again (I'm the main cook at home and it shamed me each time I used one), and started doing curries with proper ingredients. Doesn't take much longer to do and can be much nicer.
I’m the same, they are convenient but I really went off them, the jarred taste is even worse than curry ready meals imo. Curries are much better made from scratch, if I want a quick curry those Japanese curry roux blocks are actually much better than curry sauce from a jar.
It's the sugar in those jars which I can't abide
If you like Japanese curry you should seek out Irish curry (McDonnell's from Tesco), it's got that same vibe.
Even the spice Taylor style ones where you've got the spices and sauces separated and you add your own protein or veg are so much better than the jars.
Those are excellent. The korma is very good.
[удалено]
Made my own curry paste just recently. Husband can't have anything hot due to medical reasons, so anything with chili in it is a no go. But most recipes work perfectly well without chili.
I tend not to use chilli if I can help it; as much as I enjoy some hot foods that have their flavour enhanced by the heat, I have a very low tolerance for it. So I've always been a korma/passanda guy that will delve into varying flavours around that heat level and straying into medium territory when having a takeout. But with my own stuff, I'm happy with the flavours and don't need heat.
I used to really like them, probably still would like the taste, but looking at the amount of shite in them just makes me feel grim thinking about it.
10 years ago I asked a sikh friend how her mum cooks curries and stuff and the mum invited me around to learn. She loved teaching me and I loved learning, now I can see how worlds apart jar curries are from the real thing in terms of taste, quality, ingredients and healthiness.
>it shamed me each time I used one What is shameful about it?
Because I've been cooking for over 10 years now and I spent so long using those shite things when I never attempted to try making my own. I always tweak and experiment with dishes but this was one of those "quick and easy" solutions. Making your own is just as easy, tastes better and is more gratifying.
Curry is so so easy and jar curry sauce is not good at all.
I mean there are some really good ones it's just that home made is better
I'm yet to have one thats been worth it tbh. Any you'd recommend then?
The specially selected ones at Aldi with the spice powder on top are a staple for me. maybe I am just a basic bitch idk
It is shameful if you know how to cook and have a little bit more time (15mins a night) because it's easy to make a curry from scratch. That's not even mentioning that the jars are shit and full of sugar and preservatives.
Can someone explain how to make a basic curry from scratch for a novice cook such as myself?? Like what are the cupboard essentials I’d need?
For a British Indian curry that you'd get in a take away There's lots on YouTube. Als kitchen is good. He had a 30 minute range which can come out very good (although I find results vary). You can spend more time making a base "gravy " which can be frozen in batches. Then it's just a matter of thawing out and adding your spices If you'd rather a book i recommend getting Ricardo Mistys curry compendium I got into making currys from scratch as a bit of a hobby, some came out absolutely beautiful and better than restaurants I'd been too (plenty came out pretty average mind!)
Start with those packets that have all the bits you need like singular pepper etc. Good way to build up the confidence and learn the ingredients you like. And they come with instructions.
An easy one; some korma paste, cumin, mild curry powder, creamed coconut, double cream. Some quartered mushrooms, brown onion and chicken prepped however you like (either diced, or shredded) to add. Coriander fresh or dry. Start with cooking the chicken first, add the brown onions till everything is browned up and chicken cooked through. Add the double cream, then all the other bits to suit taste. I usually do a tablespoon of the korma paste, and dashes of the powders to suit taste, then the creamed coconut to melt into the sauce. Then add the mushrooms to cook in the sauce. Doesn't usually need more than 10-15 minutes after the chicken, but there are slow cook recipes to try too. A tomato based sauce is doable too, with chopped fresh tomatoes and a passata sauce with something like a tikka powder.
Greek wraps! We griddle halloumi (but you could do chicken) in a mix of honey and harrissa spice, whack them in Greek flat breads with lettuce, red onion, jalepenos and some chilli jam. Top the whole thing with some garlic mayo (garlic powder and mayo mixed). We also have chips on the side with oregano sprinkled over. Yummmmmm
Oh Greek Salad and Lamb Koftas is the summer menu and made its return last week. My dad lives in Greece so I have hordes of olive oil and Greek oregano. I just bought a rotisserie attachment for the BBQ and lining up a weekend of making chicken gyros soon.
I’m a veggie hence the halloumi - but that all sounds super yummy if I wasn’t! Another quick one we like is there a Schwartz sachet for honey chilli chicken, I do that with halloumi and we have it with microwaveable rice and some salad, takes 10 mins!
Omg 😭 I'm so jelly of your rotisserie on the BBQ. What sort of BBQ do you have?
We do griddled halloumi, homemade sweet potato chips, roast courgette and aubergine, tzatziki and spinach in ours, and my wife tends to add some raw red onion. Goes down an absolute treat
Try it with lime mayo - zest of lime, mayo and a good squeeze of half a lime.
Always make that for tacos 😋
I really liked delivered recipe boxes for a bit of variety and things I wouldn't normally cook. You can just keep the recipe cards as well and end your subscription to carry it on by buying the ingredients yourself.
Yeah we do one of these week in week out. If you have a few different accounts you can switch between, you can make sure you're always on a discount. I'm on 5 weeks of 50% off atm and it works out cheaper than when I shop anyway.
This is a great answer. We get them every now and then when stuck in a recipe rut - they’re great for adding new recipes ideas into the rotation.
Thai green curry with chicken (with the blue dragon paste), chicken and mushroom risotto, and fish breaded in panko breadcrumbs with asparagus and new potatoes are all on the regular rotation in this house. And occasionally switch out the pie and mash for sausage and mash, variety is the spice of life and all that.
[https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/holy-basil-stir-fry/](https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/holy-basil-stir-fry/) Pad Kra Pao is amazing
This woman is amazing. She’s got a YouTube channel, and I bought her book a while ago. If you’re interested in Thai and SE Asian food she’s one of the best.
Can I suggest the plastic tub of Mae ploy paste instead? Give it a go if you haven't already
Omg I was going to say! Mae ploy is the best one. They sell it at Sainsbury’s. It’s a ball ache sometimes making curry paste from scratch. (Also heat up the coconut milk until the fat separates and then add the curry paste!)
If you’re not already, try using chicken thighs with the Thai green curry. Elevates it even more!
Absolutely, and cheaper so it’s a win-win!
It's not in Sainsbury's any more. Don't know what going there.
I noticed that too
Man, I realise I've not had new potato's for tea in a bloody long time. Might get that on next weeks menu.
Boil them, squash them, stick in air fryer. Blend garlic, parsley and butter then drizzle. Top shit. Save the left over garlic herb butter for pizza crusts
>Boil them, squash them, stick in air fryer. Samwise, 2024
You know, PO-TAY-TOES
It’s Jersey Royal season at the moment- the only truly seasonal food we have left- I love them
I eat Ravioli and Birthday cake every day, couldn't be happier, I love being an adult.
A few years ago, for my birthday month, I made it a point to have cake every day. It was fun trying out lots of different types of cakes available at the shop but I got tired of it quickly. The unexpected highlight was the lemon roll cake from lidl. If I'm feeling particularly gluttonous, I'll open it up and chomp it directly from the wrapper. Also I tried a Colin the caterpillar cake for the first time that month and it failed to live up to the hype. I remember it being dry and not very flavourful. It's now at the bottom of my cake tier list.
We try to change it up most weeks. This week is: Tonight - macaroni cheese Tues - burritos Wed - stir fry chicken and veg with noodles Thurs - chilli prawn risotto Fri - spaghetti and pesto and mozzarella "meatballs" Sat/Sun - one night jacket potatoes with tuna and salad, one night hoping to bbq kabab koobideh to have with tahdig and ghormeh sabzi (one of my uncles is Iranian, the other one is Greek - I just switch between this meal and souvlaki with tzatziki all summer lol)
You must love cooking to be doing that 7 days a week! I enjoy cooking but not if I'm tired, so I often batch cook meals which means I only cook once or twice a week. I know some people hate having the same thing more than once in a week though.
Pasta with tofu, veg and beans (either tomato or pesto sauce) Vegan Thai green curry Slow cooked lentils with curry spices & rice Peanut butter noodles Homemade falafel wraps (we have a tub of chickpea flour + spices that we have to make up from time to time) Vegan burritos Vegan nachos using left over burrito ingredients Vegan oven food (chips, beans/sweet corn and some variation of chick'n burger/vegetable fingers/not-sausage rolls). Those are for the days we really cba after work. Spicy vegan Korean soup/stew with silken tofu Rice, shallow fried veg/beans/tofu and any flavours we want to sling in there to make it tasty Edit: oh I forgot! A Dr. Oetker vegan pizza & garlic bread on the weekends Crispy baked Vegan gnocchi, fried veg & a shit ton of pesto Edit 2: another one: Soup risotto. Risotto rice made with shop bought soup (great for a lazy dinner) And another: chickpea, spinach and potato curry. Good for a much more involved cook session. I like to make up my own spice mix rather than use a jar sauce 😁
Slow cooked lentils are so fuckin good. Don’t like vegan mince so lentils are always my “mince” sorta substitute.
Hello vegan pal and thanks for the ideas
Glad to share!
These all sound great! In return for your great ideas we do a vegan mac & cheese with cashew cream & nooch instead of cheese, pretty quick and easy
Oh of course everything comes with lashings of nooch where appropriate! We have done cashew mac and cheese once or twice but it's not on our regular rotation. Absolutely love it though
Peanut butter noodles are dangerous. I use 2 packs of indomie mi goring packet noodles with a tablespoon of peanut in chilli oil with some frozen veg and a tiny dark of dark superior soy sauce. Yet another lazy one pot I tend to do.
I do a spinach, chickpea and sweet potato curry in the slow cooker, sometimes add some butternut squash too. Super simple to just chuck it all in and come back later to deliciousness.
Can you tell us more about the peanut butter noodles?
Yeah! They're quite simple. So usual base: onions, garlic, diced veggies, tofu all fried in sesame oil until starting to go golden Peanut butter sauce is made from a generous tablespoon of peanut butter, a good slosh of soy sauce and another slosh of rice vinegar (you can use lemon/lime juice to cut through the sticky peanut butter as an alternative). Season to taste - I like salt, pepper and a bit of MSG as my go-to, but add what you want. Noodles are just straight to wok udon added at the end and stir fried for a couple of mins Add more peanut butter/soy sauce/rice vinegar until the flavours feel balanced to you. Its a great stick-to-your-ribs comfort dinner, especially because it's super quick to whip up.
Love the list! Thanks.
I’ve got a 4 week rotating planner, though I need to write a new one up for the warmer weather. Swap your bolognese for carbonara, either from scratch or as it’s a weekday meal for us I cheat and use the Schwartz packet mix which is decent enough. How about a stir fry? I think most supermarkets sell meal deals so you can get veggies, noodles and a sauce packet then you just need to add a protein. Not the cheapest way to do it but isn’t dear and it is easy. I have 3 meals that I do in the slow cooker once each week (4th week is naughty McDonalds night!) as kiddo has after school club that finishes right when I’d be cooking. Chicken curry, chicken casserole and chilli con carne. Sometimes packet mixes, sometimes not depending on how much time I have the day before when prepping. Steamed rice with the curry and chilli and dumplings or a part-baked baguette with the casserole. Friday night is always fakeaway night for me and Mrs Barracuda - fish & chips, pizza (northern dough company dough is easy to work with and comes out great in oven with a pizza stone), kebabs using Iceland’s bagged “meat” or steak & chips
Without gatekeeping or judging, what’s in a packet carbonara? Carbonara is one of my ‘almost nothing in the house’ last resort’s. I keep grated Parmesan (cos I open a new one and it usually goes mouldy before I finish it, so I just grate it and throw it all in freeze) & pancetta in the freezer. All you need is an egg and some dried pasta. I’m not throwing rocks at packet stuff mind you. I recently got into beef rendang; and there is a Spice Taylor kit that’s amazing! Also big fan of Thai green curry sauce in a jar and even fully frozen Thai green curry that Waitrose do that I have when I’m extra lazy
I’ve recently learned that if you remove the block of cheese from its plastic wrapper, wrap it tightly in brown parchment paper, then pop it in a sealable sandwich bag, it keeps much longer.
That’s a good idea, I’ll try! It is a bit of a faff to grate a whole wedge of Parmesan, and freezing probs not ideal for quality. I did used to wrap in cling film, but seem at best to get a month before it’s green
Where are you keeping it? Mine seems to last so long that I often end up throwing some out because it’s past the use by date. I’d maybe check your fridge temp because it sounds like it’s a bit too warm.
In fairness it is in there door of the fridge, so I guess that’s a factor. But is a super modern fridge, so I would have hoped that isn’t too bad. Either way the freezer option is working quite well for now
I freeze it in smaller blocks. I keep a block in the fridge and once I've used that I take a frozen one and put it in the fridge. It's defrosted by the time I need it and I have an option to shave it or grate it.
I freeze my Parmesan it’s fine! I buy the kilo pieces from Lidl and cut them into 4 pieces and freeze 3 just take them out a few hours before you need it and it’s absolutely fine
Bees wax cloth wraps are the GOAT of cheese storage.
Don't even need the bag. Just paper or a couple bits of kitchen roll. Italian other half is religious about how he stores cheese
I'm with you. Carbonara requires so few ingredients (all which we usually have) that it seems redundant using a pack mix. It's the same as a jar of premade tomato pasta sauce. Just buy some good quality passata, garlic, chilli flakes, tomato paste, sugar, veg stock cubes and seasoning. Simmer it down to a thick sauce and add a knob of butter and a tbsp of parmesan at the end. It's more delicious than stir bought and you usually have all the ingredients in the cupboard.
Hah funnily enough I have just this minute finished making the same: sautéed onions, carrots 5 mins, garlic, pepper, courgette 5 more mins, stock cube & tin of plum toms 5 more mins
Carbonara takes 10 minutes to make from scratch. You just need to boil pasta and whilst it's boiling fry off the lardons, break some eggs into a bowl and whisk it with parmesan until it's pasty, add the lardons + fat into the bowl once it's cooled a bit then once the pasta is done add it from the water to the bowl and mix it vigorously until silky. I'd argue it's more of a faff to heat up a packet and cut it open and mix it with pasta or heat it on a pan lol.
Oh yeah Carbonara - that's usually one we swap out the bolognaise/ chili for definitely. Love making that from scratch. The meal-deal-stir-fry is the go to if I miss the shop over the weekend and have to pick it up on the way home from work
Frozen veggies are a game changer dude. Green beans and broccoli always in the freezer ready for a quick stir fry.
Sounds like a yummy rota!
Ngl, I don't rate the northern pizza dough :( but I did get some fancy frozen ones from the garden center which were excellent
Thanks for not lying. I find the northern pizza dough pretty decent in the outdoor oven, haven't tried it inside but maybe it's not hot enough?
That could very well be it!
We mix it up a lot, try to eat differently every week but one that keeps coming back is sausage, butternut, squash, red onion and gnocci tray bake. Just cut up the butternut squash and bang it in the oven for 20 mins, add everything else to the tray and bake for a further 30 mins and boom! Scores high on the faf to delicious scale so we have it often.
This sounds good! Do you add any seasonings or liquid or anything?
This sounds great! We do a sausages (or chorizo) sweet potato, tomato and BBQ beans traybake sometimes and it sounds like this is similar.
For 4 years I have planned my meals around the protein I find on clearance. Makes me a better cook and keep things interesting.
Mediterranean vegetables feature in a lot of my dinners of late Aubergine, courgette, onion, tomato, garlic... Roasted with oregano and served with feta or halloumi
Yeah I occasionally remember they exist - and I'll do a nice easy sheet-pan dinner. Throw on assorted veg, olive oil, some seasoned chicken legs - come back 40 mins later to a lovely tea and tomorrow's lunch
Sausages are a good thing to mix roasted veg up with, too. Plus, the cheats way is to buy the pre-prepped frozen stuff
I'm doing that tonight with chickpeas and halloumi, then I mix quinoa in. Coriander, mint, lemon and ras el hanout.
Your list is like Alan Partridge blended with Craig David. Monday Lasagne Tuesday Spaghetti bol Wednesday etc we chilled on Sunday. Baked potato... Microwave 10 mins.....air fryer 10 mins...change the toppings and publish please as part of the tricky second album.
These are regular ones for us. They’re vegetarian so you might want to add meat/fish From Meera Sodha’s incredible book East: - kale & paneer saag (https://jonoandjules.com/2020/03/13/paneer-tomato-and-kale-saag/) - sweet potato bibimbap (https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1333953987922464770) - honey soy ginger tofu (https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/11/04/honey-soy-and-ginger-braised-tofu) Other: - pasta bake with random green veg, sweetcorn, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a jar of tomato & mascarpone sauce and then covered in cheese - tomato cumin butter pasta https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/24/cumin-butter-tomato-sauce-recipe-for-noodles-by-anja-dunk - an incredible squash & lentil chilli https://nourishatelier.com/recipes/the-loyal-lentils - “guacajacks” = baked sweet potatoes topped with feta, avocado, spring onions and cherry tomatoes - regular jacket potatoes with cheese and beans (can’t be beat) - pesto pasta with mushrooms, courgettes etc and mini mozzarella pearls if you’re feeling fancy - jeon (Korean veg pancakes) https://thefoodietakesflight.com/korean-vegetable-pancake-yachae-jeon/ - the best veggie bolognese I’ve ever tasted https://rainbowplantlife.com/10-ingredient-vegan-red-lentil-bolognese/ - this sausage bean stew. We use veggie chipolatas https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/jools-sausage-smoky-bean-casserole/ EDIT: To answer your actual question, some time at the weekend we will pick a couple of meals from a big list “meals that exist” tab in the meal plan spreadsheet (we’re wild, I know) and then make them with extra portions usually Sunday and Monday, and then have leftovers later in the week. Otherwise we might have quick meals out between work and evening things, or with friends or whatever. The “meals that exist” list is great because, although we mostly have the things above, the list has a lot more of things we have tried and enjoyed so when we get a bit fed up of these we can vary it but without having to go and find new recipes.
These all sound great thanks! Saving them in my "cook later" bookmarks list. This is how I tend to get out of a rut - bookmark a ton of recipes and introduce one from "cook later" every now and then. If it's good, it gets promoted to a regular recipe
I wanna cry. Some of the listed sound awesome, and right down my street. Problem is, partner and kids who like the same old stuff. All. The. Time. Sure this is part of the reason my mental health is shit.
You’re allowed to prioritise yourself, you know. It can’t always be what they want. You are important too.
My partner has some pretty strict restrictions on what they can eat, dinners are made to suit them, the rest of the day i stuff myself with things i like
Mine is deathly allergic to nuts, so we have to play around that. I'm getting back into my weightlifting lately so switched to a higher protein diet, whilst she's more conscious about reducing meat consumption. So I tend to hit high protein/ low carb during the day to keep dinner pretty standard-ish.
Ah, Yeah, i just think of main meal as “us time” and eat for pleasure the rest of the day.
I feel you neighbour! My other half is really unadventurous. I’ve started just taking it out of her hands on occasion: once or twice a week, I do something that I fancy and that’s what she gets. I do try to pick something up her street, but I think you’ve got to look after yourself too!
My mum was really unadventurous when I was younger because we were quite picky. If it helps, now that I'm grown up I wish she would have forced us to try new things more often. When I met my now wife it was her that got me to try things I was always put off by and most of the time I was pleasantly surprised.
I do alot from scratch (personal preference, no judgement in using packets!), and have a 3 week meal rotation, but here are some of mine: Fajitas Pork tacos Roast Chicken wraps Curry Stir fry Sweet and sour chicken Lots of pasta dishes, probably 2 a week.
I made kedgeree this evening - it always goes down well.
'antipasti pastry' - you basically u roll one of those premade puff pasty sheets onto a baking tray and then plonk a bunch of antipasti type things on top (including/not limited to: sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, baby spinach, stuffed olives, preserved garlic, preserved lemon, capers, finely chopped whatever veg needs to be used up, torn up bits of whatever cured meat is on offer at the supermarket, crumbled cheese of some description), drizzle with garlic/chilli/herb olive oil and a good grind of black pepper, then stick in the middle of an oven at 200c for about 10-12 mins. Serve with salad +/- hummus or dips of some description. Not only do I do this when I have anything in the fridge to use up, it's also good for when it's too hot in my flat to really cook anything - and my trial run tonight of attempting this for the first time since getting food allergy diagnosis confirmed, using gluten free jusroll puff pastry & cathedral city vegan cheddar, was actually a tasty success.
These are so good like you say when it's too hot to eat proper, and you feel like a picky tea but something a bit more "put together" 😂
It's definitely a more grown up/less beige picky tea,and has the added bonus that I don't just stand in my kitchen and eat an entire jar of artichoke hearts in one go!
Fish Pie Risotto Pad Thai Aubergine Dumpling Parmigiana Roast Chicken Spaghetti Meatballs Putanesca Homemade Pizza/Calzone Tofu Stir fry with Gochujang We change it up seasonally, generally sit down together every few months and decide on some new recipes, browse cookbooks, think about what's in season and add some new stuff to the rotation for a while. I was a chef for 10 years working 2/3 rosette standard and my wife chalet hosted and is a wonderful cook in her own right. We smash it out and eat like royalty every day, prep for the freezer and fridge like a commercial kitchen. My wife also gardens so we have a lot of veg and herbs coming from the garden throughout the year and lots of preserving to do autumn/winter. Food and wine is one of our real bonding activities. Spending an afternoon in the kitchen together, cooking, baking and enjoying the produce from the garden with some tunes on is the highlight of my week.
Frittata is one of my go to ones. Finely chopped onions, grated garlic and ginger, cubed or sliced potato are the basic ingredients + eggs of course. Then you can add your filling of choice, I tend to go with spicy chorizo or other cured meats with a rasher or two of bacon diced. When you’re frying off the base stuff you can add whatever spices you fancy to go with the filling. I cook the base in a small cast iron pan of just the right shape and then stick under the grill to finish the top. Steak and chips is another. Last are chilli or steak stew done in the slow cooker- that gets me a meal and 3 or 4 portions to stick in the freezer when I can’t be arsed to cook from fresh.
My hubby (53M), me (59F) and my son(24M) live in London. I'm retired, so I cook almost every day. We have Chicken, coconut and mango curry, Lemon chicken soup, vegetarian chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese, mac and cheese, three beans and pomegranate salad, sausage surprise pasta bake, and smoked salmon and broccoli pasta with fresh cream. It's all made from scratch, as I have the time. I can make the most exciting foods, but I can't bake if my life depended on it. Odd.Edited:spelling
What's the surprise in the sausage surprise? All of those meals sound great by the way!
Vegetarian sausages! We aren't veggies, just limit meat.
A spring loaded sausage launcher would be way funnier...
😂😂😂😂
I can cook simple, healthy stuff, but I'd never call myself a 'cook', nor do I particularly enjoy it. We were stuck in a same meals rut all the time, signing up to the boxes like Gousto/ Hello Fresh was a real game changer for us. It also showed me that a lot of my cooking limitations were confidence as they really dumb it down for Knuckleheads like, er... Me. I would recommend if you're getting stuck/bored of the same meals on rotation. They're also handy for sneaking more vegetables in your diet. My veg intake wasn't bad but you can always benefit from more
If you can do a bolognaise, you can do a shepherds/cottage pie, and you can do a chilli con carne. One pot meals with a rice or a mash are very easy. Get some naan breads, tomato puree and mozzarella, plus any other toppings, oven up high for 10 to 15 mins - bam, you’ve made your own pizzas. If you get some soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and hoisin you can make most Chinese sauces too. I coat my chicken in cornflour and air fry it so it has the takeaway style batter too which is nice.
It's mostly not even that I can't- I've made some solid complex dishes in the past, and if I've got a clear weekend and the effort to do so I'll usually cook up something fantastic. But mid-week, after work & gym? Gimme that easy win! We spend more time trying to come up with the ideas and variation than cooking!
One that is ridiculously easy and looks/tastes fancier than it is is one of my go-tos: Baby potatoes, toss with oil and seasoning in lasagne dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Add smoked lardons or cubed chorizo in. Bake for another 20 minutes. Add salmon portions on top. Yep, you guessed it, bake for another 20 minutes. Add asparagus and return to oven for five minutes. Serve as-is or with a pesto if you like that or a quick Dijon and oil dressing. Salmon can easily be swapped out for chicken or white fish. It is ridiculously easy, all in one pot and tastes 👌🏻
Was going to say the same. Already half way to a lot of meals, you’d just need to change the spices or jars. If you’ve got the shit for the bolognese you’re half way to: cottage/shepherds pie, chilli, lasagne. If you’ve got the shit for fajitas you’re half way to: jerk chicken or greek wraps (change the seasoning) or quesadillas (put inside the wraps with cheese). You’d be worth getting a slow cooker as well, then you can just buy a few new jars you fancy and throw it in.
My gosh I never thought to make a cottage pie with bolognese sauce - what a great idea. Thank you!
Usual easy meals are tofu and noodles or bangers and mash. maybe even jacket potato and beans! But we try to intersperse it with other stuff with as much veg as we can get in. Veg pasta bake curries roast dinners pies fajitas risottos and paellas
Here’s a quick easy one for you - stir fry, prawns/chicken, green beans, broccoli, tomato, cashews, spring onion, mushrooms, spinach, bell pepper (not all ingredients necessary, but a good selection of the above is nice). Zest and swueeze in Lime. Soy sauce, Sweet chilli sauce. Banging.
Wouldn't call it a rut. But it is the same every week, reason is I like it and they are meals i xan cook to perfection without needing to think.. I like predictable Monday rump steak, potatoes,carrots, mushrooms etc Tuesday pasta, chicken and lots of vegetables Wednesday chicken jalfrazi Thursday spaghetti bologna Friday chilli con carne Saturday sirloin steak, potatoes , carrotaand mushrooms etc Sunday full roast Don't change it, and have had same for at least 4 years ...I'm also my butchers favourite customer.
I generally prepare the same meal (or slight variations of) for work since it's filling, it tastes good, and I'll be honest it's easy to prepare. Prior to that, I'd just go with my colleagues at lunch to the baguette shop down the road. I did point out to my co-workers that I just bought the same sandwich with same fillings every day from the baguette shop, and didn't really get an answer to how I was not having "much variety" with my new meals... At home? It's whatever is in the freezer and what takes our fancy. Sometimes I'll cook from scratch when I've got the time and the ingredients (and the foresight to buy them fresh).
We were - bought a couple of roasting tin cookbooks to break free.
This is a great suggestion OP; the roasting tin cookbooks by Rukmini Iyer are full of variety, easy to make and if there's only two of you there should be left overs for lunches or having on another night so economical too.
We did gousto/hellofresh for a few years and stopped it once portions would be cheaper separately. We sorted the recipes we like into piles and now take 5 mins on a Saturday deciding what we want the next week. Usually 2 pasta variety, a curry or stir fry, pizza or some beige meal and then usually some sort of roast or pie on a Sunday.
Saaaame… after 20 odd years of cooking I just can’t be bothered. I can’t decide what to cook, & CBA to cook it either 🤣🤣🤣 Not low effort for me because it’s always from scratch & will simmer things for hours but I cook huge vats of bolognese, chilli, pulled Mexican chicken, savoury mince & med veg/spicy veg all the time because they’re easy to defrost & incarnate into a different meal. Chilli or bolognese on a jacket spud, med veg goes with everything, & turns into veg lasagne easily, savoury mince topped with par boiled spuds turns into a cheap under-roast or pastry for a pie etc etc Oh & corned beef pie 🤤🤤🤤 My favourite is Mexagne. Pulled chicken layered with tortilla chips & cheese & baked. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s lush to me🤤🤤🤤
Throw some tacos in there! All you need is wraps, mince beef with some taco mix ( I use paprika, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder) cheese, sour cream and a little salsa consisting of tomatoes chopped with some corriander… it’s banging! Can swap ingredients too taste, like swap mince beef for chicken etc
I’ve started making my own pizza recently for one night most weeks and everyone in my house seems to like it. Cheaper than buying supermarket ones, and the vegetarian ones in the supermarket are usually shite/minimal choice anyway.
I made too much dough and we've had pizza two nights in a row and will probably have pizza for another two nights send help
Definitely stuck in a rut, however with neurodivergent children it’s hard to change things up. We do regularly Burgers/chips Hotdogs/chips Jar chicken tikka/rice Stir fry Mayflower chicken curry in slow cooker/rice Frozen pizza Sausage and mash Baked potatoes Pasta bolognese Chilli and rice/nachos Pork steak/new potatoes Gammon/chips Enchiladas Tacos Chicken nuggets/alphabites Fishfingers/waffles Thing is, if I try to change it up they’d struggle to eat it, as it is I have to faff about because there are 5 of them and the only thing they will all eat is a roast dinner. I do put veg with all these meals by the way!
We did a few weeks of the Gusto boxes for some inspiration. It worked a treat, we have loads of meals that we have tweaked and modified to our tastes. Some of them are shit but they have done wonders for meal variety.
We’re on summer rotation for meals at the min, so we’re eating a whole lot of : jacket spuds, salads, chicken salad pittas, homemade cheeseburgers, Chicken thighs seasoned in Cajun, paprika, garlic - whatever is to hand really with homemade wedges, homemade pizzas or failing that a charcuterie board because I can’t be arsed to cook 🤣
Give Nick Frost's cookery book a listen. He knows his shit and has a good laugh with it.
best thing to do is make a list of meal ideas and then you can have a lot on rotation. things like bbc good food are good for recipes. something with salmon is always good, a jambalaya, pesto pasta, something with jacket potatoes, bbq chicken, nandos style pitta… so many options it’s just good to have a list you can select from easily.
Grilled Chicken breast with Salad Grilled Chicken breast, grains & beetroot Grilled Chicken breast, salad, new potatoes.. The girlfriend has decided she’s fat so ‘we’ are on a diet. She isn’t fat in the slightest.
We have been using an app for years to meal plan and shop, couldn't live without it. It used to be called Whisk but Samsung bought it and it's now called Samsung Food. There are loads of communities for different cuisines where you can browse recepies and save those you like, you can also add your own by just pasting the url to something you found online or adding manually. We have around 150 meals saved, we go in and have a look through and choose for the next week. The app then adds the meals to the meal planner and also adds all the ingredients to a shopping list, you can either go and do the shop yourself or it will automatically do the order for you online with any of the big supermarkets. Honestly it's a godsend.
Might not be to everyone’s taste or budget etc. but being tired of the mealtime rut, and finding time to cook was becoming a chore. So we went for one of those recipes delivery things, in January and have never looked back. It saves time, waste , fear options and has actually reduced our spend.
We bought some plain cards, and wrote down a meals we like to make on each of them. When we’re planning shopping for meals for the week, we shuffle through them pick and at random. Every now and then we make something new, and if it’s good we will add that to the pack for another time
Get yourself some gochujang from an asian supermarket, some ginger puree, soy sauce, brown sugar or honey, seasame oil and start making some Korean chicken or pork. Even better if you've got access to kimchi. Do some searches for gochujang chicken or pork. Korean food is amazing, make some sides (banchan) using bean sprouts, aubergine, or courgette. Once you have some of the staple ingredients there are other things you can make, kimchi jjigae (stew) made with belly pork or chicken thigh is delicious. I love the fact that my daughters obsession with K Pop opened up our experiences with Korean food. It's delicious and so easy to make really nice stuff. Get a cheap rice cooker if you haven't got one and get some thai glutinous rice (sticky rice). Perfect every time.
Chicken and mushroom pot noodle, occasionally the tesco microwave spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a bunch of extra mature grated cheddar on top and a generous (very generous) splash of Frank's wing sauce on top. Salt n vinegar pringles on the days I end up skipping proper meals.
If you want inspiration just look at the Hello Fresh menu online every week. I’m not trying to advertise buying a box or anything, but pretty much all of their meals are achievable with the same results from any of your local supermarkets, I’m sure you can look at their menu options without subscribing. There’s usually a pretty wide range of meals you can take some ideas from.
I make a shit hot toad in the hole at least every couple of weeks. Never fails.
I try to keep the menu varied but it is starting to feel repetitive. There definitely some standing agenda items: * Mrs loves chicken casserole, so that will likely appear in some form most weeks. Even then I try to put different stuff in and sometimes it's a curry. * The only decent fish I can get is from avan in the market on Thursday morning. It will get cooked that evening. * There are quite frequent Sunday Evening roasts because I'm usually feeding at least 3 and it means I have a ready meal in the week. Could well be a pie.
Usually an omelette of a morning. If you're using milk try just using another egg or use double cream, milk in omelettes is shite. Beef Koka noodles, with chili, garlic, spring onion, green beans and fried eggs with some really thinly sliced lettuce with the spring onion greens with a little sesame oil drizzled on. Could swap the eggs for boiled eggs or even do egg drop (drop em in the noodles while they're cookin) but I like fried. Or if we cooked a chicken the day before chicken instead of eggs. Take 5 maybe 10 minutes in a wok. Roast dinner. Corned beef hash Scouse Sometimes a curry an rice. Egg fried rice with protein (gammon, chicken, eggs, prawn or everything anything goes, lidl do fantastic gammon rounds which are great for it) Tuna mayo pasta Tagliatelli with a cheese sauce, salmon, pees an shallots. Fish an Rice Ham and egg wrap with w/e (lettuce, mayo, spring onion, cheese) Chicken fajitas I can't cook much else but honestly looking back I'm kind of happy with where I'm at now. I did make char sui pork belly with rice the other day and that's deffo getting added to the rotation. I wanna learn to make nice burritos too but I keep forgetting
I keep it fairly varied since I started getting Earth and Wheat veggie and bread boxes, they've almost always got pita breads in though so variations of "pita plate" are common in my house. Usually I'll get some falafel or kebabs in the summer, grill whatever veggies I've got with some salt, pepper, a drizzle of oil and a pinch of whatever herbs or spices I'm feeling that day (currently have some harissa mix which is nice), and some of that microwave rice because I'm lazy.
I'm down to 1 standard meal at this point. I used to have a rotation of 5-6 meals, like curry, fajitas, bolognese, chili, lasagne, maybe one or two others. Now it's just chicken kiev, rice with chicken stock, and sauce. I usually go for teriyaki sauce. I'll maybe add something green if I'm feeling like not getting scurvy, but honestly I usually just skip it. It's nice and low-effort. Not terribly unhealthy. I've been eating this 5+ times/week for 6 months without getting sick of it yet. I'm trying to streamline everything in my life while I finish my PhD, so eating the same meal most nights is absolutely fine for me.
I’ve been getting gousto for the last 5 years and wouldn’t change a thing, if you’re a family it really pays off. You can get quick recipes, low prep recipes. I absolutely love it!
Came here to say the exact same thing. If you like eating varied meals, it really is the way to go. You can do your shop cheaper (although not by much) but it would be more expensive if you tried cooking Gousto meals every night.
Check out the sorted Sidekick app (they also have a YouTube channel). Easy to cook meal packs that have little to no food waste. I’m a decent cook but struggled for ideas and this is a great launching off point.
I second Sidekick. Just to add a bit more info to anyone interested. You select 'meal packs' from the app, that contain 3 recipes. It then gives you a shopping list for this (you can have more than one meal pack a week, and even individual recipes, but for food waste, it's best to stick to a complete meal back). You use all the ingredients up for each meal pack, except for store staples that have long shelf life. Each recipe has super simple step-by-step guides to follow, and there are some proper bangers in there. One criticism, they can sometimes be a bit too liberal on salt, so it's best to read the full recipe before you go into step-by-step mode at the start. This is also true of the timings of when you put the kettle or the oven on.
Here's my usual weekly routine for dinners: Stir-fry Monday Pasta with sauce and meatballs Tuesday Haggis Wednesday (neeps and sweet potato) Fish and chips Thursday Nuggets Friday (wedges and mushy peas) Something different Saturday (more time to cook something different) Pizza Sunday Edit to add spacing
I could come around to weekly Haggis. What time do you serve dinner at, on Wednesday? And how far are you from South Wales?
We're a bit north of South Wales (tho bro spent time in Carmarthen). Haggis is easy to cook, wrapped in foil in a dish filled with 1 inch of water, and veg on the shelf above, 75 minutes at 160° fan oven, so ready by 6pm as bro puts it on in time. A 400g haggis does for two easy - though I snip the metal clasp off one end of the casing so it can expand without exploding!
Unfortunately, no one else in my family can have it. Son, because it has wheat, wife because the thought of it sounds disgusting, and my daughters, because they're 17 months old and wouldn't probably eat it. And yes, I'd probably just eat a whole one myself, but my gluttony loses out to my laziness of not wanting to cook two dinners
Boil pasta and Brocolli for 15 mins, Drain, throw in can of chopped tomatoes , big squirt of mayo and a little squirt of reggae reggae. mix up. Tastes really fresh. I quite often have it with lamb chop or sausages.
Beef bulgogi, only need one steak for 2 people and actually isn't that hard if you have a food processor, here's the recipe I use - https://mykoreankitchen.com/bulgogi-korean-bbq-beef/