Help- In a food rut!

We are in a serious food rut in this house. We have become uninventive with dinners, and I am getting so sick of meat, veg and potatoes. Spag bol etc. So I need some inspiration and some suggestions of different and interesting things that you make for dinner. I love cooking, and enjoy the challenge of making new things.
We eat just about everything, so would love some help in jazzing up our weekly menu a bit.

tonight i had beef stroganoff
my hubby loves making chicken with sweetchilli cream sauce

I am in rather the same rut!

But, with a little help from my (BB) friends, I am re inspired to start using my slow cooker again. I'm thinking I will choose one dish from each thread # in the SC recipe index thread, every few days. See how many I can do in a week, and just keep going through the index until (hopefully) I've made most of them (and create a regular rotation of meals).

I enjoy making casseroles and things like that. Maybe try making some sauces to start with to have with the meat and veg (mushroom or onion gravies, white sauces for the veges then put into oven dish and sprinkle with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and put under the grill). Pasta bakes (cook pasta, steam some veg, brown chicken pieces, stir through white sauce, top with cheese and breadcrumbs, grill/oven). Can't think of anything else, sorry.

I know how you feel...hate getting stuck in the same pattern of meals but it's hard to get out of! I find it helps to go back through old threads, such as the What's for dinner thread, and get some ideas from there. I also go through my stash of recipes I have collected and pick out something I've never cooked before, and also the "new recipes" section on Taste is good.

You could also try cooking your normal meals in a different way, for meat, grill, bbq, turn into a stir-fry, or coat with breadcrumbs and cook in the oven, make sauces to go with them, or cook your vegies a different way- steam, make a vegie bake in the oven, make a white sauce to go with them. Try lots of different combinations of vegies too, even meat & three veg can be made better if you swap a couple of vegies for something a bit different.

What about having a few themed nights? e.g. you might say Saturday night is mexican night- have tacos, get the kids to help cook and decorate the table and play some games after dinner (like a mini pinata, the mexican hat dance etc.) and then you don't even have to worry about entertaining them until bedtime! Lol

mmm i have to say we have a rotation of about 10 meals, i try get something different each time i do groceries but its hard cause DP has very sensitive guts and cant have anything very spicy or tomato-y.
i swear by jar sauces and packet mixes, like those continental sachets fr making meatloaf, rissoles, tuna morney, stroganoff etc. ...maybe go stand in that section of the supermarket and grab any that take your fancy? then u can just add whatever salads/vegies you want. HTH

this time of year is perfect for experimenting with the slow cooker if you have one - you can try lots of things

if you are usually meat and veg or meat and salad people, you could look at doing something like a steak sandwich for something different (we make a killer steak sanga!)

ummmmm, as suggested, vary the way you do your veg - we do a bulk vegie bake and freeze it - every veg we can think of, lightly fried in a garlic butter, white sauce, then freeze and defrost to chuck in the oven to bake up.

stirfry is a good idea
roast
shepherds pie/cottage pie

it's great to experiment - i've been doing it a fair bit lately to try and get different food in our diet - packing everything with heaps of vegies so that it can be frozen (mostly slow cooker stuff) and have nutritious meals all served together

serve vegies as bubble and squeak for something different...

damn - mind blank!

ooh, if you make a spag bol, have you thought to do a lasagne or other kind of pasta bake? we make a vegie laden spag bol (or chicken bol - replace mince with chicken cubes), put it in an oven dish, top with cheesy white sauce, bake it up.... mmmmm

i had this problem the other night when i got chicken breast out for dinner.

after cooking it in my george foreman grill i added pizza sauce, pineapple pieces, ham, cheese and put into the oven until cheese was melted. Served it with steamed greens and a small portion of pasta bake(was leftover from the night b4). Was very nice and a change from just plain breast and something ill do again.

there is nothing worse then being stuck in a foor rut