Got carried away typing – this is long…

I try to vary my meals and sometimes I find myself racking my brain of what to cook, especially as I have a 2 year old and he doesn’t always want to eat stuff apart from cake!!!

I have been intending to meal plan for the longest time but I haven’t got around to it yet. Me and my husband eat most things and we like spicy tasty food too. All of my meals are from scratch, don’t do packet stuff but just as an idea these some of the things we eat:

Sunday – always a roast usually chicken with lots of vegetables and probably rice and peas (I’m from the Caribbean) or a pulse as a side dish like lentils or kidney beans or roast potatoes.

Monday – leftovers from Sunday, might do a stir fry with vegetables and the leftover meat

Quiche – I usually make a vegetable quiche every other week and serve it with more vegetables…lol..usually roatsted something like butternut squash which is filling and tasty.

Rice Pilaf – basically soften onions and garlic, and seasoning salt, pepper, herbs whatever you want in oil and then add rice to this mixture add a little bit of water or stock and whatever veg or meat pieces you want to add leave it to cook and you have a tasty meal.

Shepherds Pie – I made this yesterday – the usual mince meat with mash potato on top.

Homemade burgers – I got a burger press from Lakeland plastics, works really well and couldn’t be easier. Add meat mince or veg of your choice, so far I’ve done beefburgers, turkey burgers and fishcakes using it. Squash it out of the press and you’ve got perfect shaped burgers which can be grilled to cut down on calories.

Meatballs – just season and shape mince into balls and cook in tomato sauce*on the hob or you can lightly fry.

*Tomato sauce - Lightly soften chopped onions, garlic and herbs in oil, add 2 tins of tomatoes , a little bit of sugar to taste and tomato puree if you want and leave it to simmer for about 45 mins or until it thickens. I then leave it to cool whizz it up in my blender and usually freeze it in batches for use later. Can be used for loads of stuff – meatballs, pasta, on vegetables whatever.

Homemade chips – cut up some potatoes, toss in olive oil (not too much) and add salt. Spread out on a baking sheet in the oven and cook till golden brown – you can do this with other veg too.

One last thing this is not really a meal but a snack:

Kale Chips (ready salted crisps by any other name)
Buy a bag of curly kale, wash and toss in olive oil and salt – place in the oven until crispy – about 20 mins I think (sorry I never take a note of timings I just tend to look and see if things are done). They taste just like ready salted crisps!
PS.
I second the slow cooker - cooker always comes in handy during the week I set it on a timer while I’m at work.

As Tantee said, homemade burgers are great. I don't have a press, but if you use an egg to bind the meat and other ingredients (e.g. last night we had pork, apple and sage burgers), roll the portions and then fry in a little oil, you can cook a mean burgger that way.

At this time of year, I'm a big fan of stews. Brown meat and onions, add meat and cook the outside. Add veggies, cook a bit more, add liquid, boil then simmer for 45 min or so while you help the kids with homework or what-have-you. Serve with steamed veg and/ or a carb (bread is good for mopping up gravy!)

Got carried away typing – this is long…

I try to vary my meals and sometimes I find myself racking my brain of what to cook, especially as I have a 2 year old and he doesn’t always want to eat stuff apart from cake!!!

I have been intending to meal plan for the longest time but I haven’t got around to it yet. Me and my husband eat most things and we like spicy tasty food too. All of my meals are from scratch, don’t do packet stuff but just as an idea these some of the things we eat:

Sunday – always a roast usually chicken with lots of vegetables and probably rice and peas (I’m from the Caribbean) or a pulse as a side dish like lentils or kidney beans or roast potatoes.

Monday – leftovers from Sunday, might do a stir fry with vegetables and the leftover meat

Quiche – I usually make a vegetable quiche every other week and serve it with more vegetables…lol..usually roatsted something like butternut squash which is filling and tasty.

Rice Pilaf – basically soften onions and garlic, and seasoning salt, pepper, herbs whatever you want in oil and then add rice to this mixture add a little bit of water or stock and whatever veg or meat pieces you want to add leave it to cook and you have a tasty meal.

Shepherds Pie – I made this yesterday – the usual mince meat with mash potato on top.

Homemade burgers – I got a burger press from Lakeland plastics, works really well and couldn’t be easier. Add meat mince or veg of your choice, so far I’ve done beefburgers, turkey burgers and fishcakes using it. Squash it out of the press and you’ve got perfect shaped burgers which can be grilled to cut down on calories.

Meatballs – just season and shape mince into balls and cook in tomato sauce*on the hob or you can lightly fry.

*Tomato sauce - Lightly soften chopped onions, garlic and herbs in oil, add 2 tins of tomatoes , a little bit of sugar to taste and tomato puree if you want and leave it to simmer for about 45 mins or until it thickens. I then leave it to cool whizz it up in my blender and usually freeze it in batches for use later. Can be used for loads of stuff – meatballs, pasta, on vegetables whatever.

Homemade chips – cut up some potatoes, toss in olive oil (not too much) and add salt. Spread out on a baking sheet in the oven and cook till golden brown – you can do this with other veg too.

One last thing this is not really a meal but a snack:

Kale Chips (ready salted crisps by any other name)
Buy a bag of curly kale, wash and toss in olive oil and salt – place in the oven until crispy – about 20 mins I think (sorry I never take a note of timings I just tend to look and see if things are done). They taste just like ready salted crisps!
PS.
I second the slow cooker - cooker always comes in handy during the week I set it on a timer while I’m at work.

I do all these and also recommend slo cooker in which I batchcook, curries, casseroles with loads of veg and make stock from chicken carcass then use for soup.
Also do lots of stir fries but concoct own seasoning sauces check out Ken Hom and we like liver done in peppers onions and little tomato puree and stock in frypan very fast serve on pasta or rice. I call this liver italienne
Also fisherman's pie with low cal white sauce mixed fish, hardboiled eggs sliced potato topping and no cheese:-)
Kedgeree is good too.

I have bought both of the hairy dieters cookbooks and have made loads of easy family meals from it, they're filing and easy