I Need Some Help With Everyday Dinners......

Hi there, i really need some ideas for meals that i could make during the week. i'm so bored and have run out of ideas. can anyone point me in the direction of a great book or website or anything that suggests some simple everyday type meals? my cooking skills are not great and i have trouble 'thinking' of what to make each night. i was a vegetarian up until 3 years ago so feel completely lost at a butchers. i tend to cook vegetarian meals over meat ones as this is what i've always done- and we often actually like them better, but i don't mind cooking the odd meat meal for the sake of the kids/dh. we don't eat pork or fish and only eat free range chicken/eggs. i have no idea how to cook a lamb roast :redface: and have only really mastered the art of roast chicken in the last couple of years. can anyone help me out with some suggestions of easy recipes you make on a weekly basis?
some ideas of things i make at the moment are:
beef lasagne
vegie lasagne
spag bog
pumpkin risotto
chicken kiev
stir fry vegies & rice
home made pizza
falafal (sp?) wraps
we love pastas and risottos- vegetarian ones preferably
can anyone help?

i really like the ninemsn receipe finder site, i get heaps from there.
i meal plan because i find it easier and i dont tend to cook the same stuff, i also often put on FB what meals ive cooked, they should be in my profile somewhere if you can be bothered lookin lol!!
ETA pm me your email addy and i'll send you heaps of links :D

you're a champ. pming you now :)

My week of dinners im not the most health conscious but maybe you could steal a few lol
enchiladas- really yummy (similar to wraps but baked in the over with tomato sauce and cheese)
Rissoles/mash/gravy
Kebabs and potato bake (buy meat and marinate and any vegies you like to add)
Roast (any meat usually beef I buy about 1.5kgs cook for 2hrs add veggies halfway)
Tuna morney ( I just make cheese sauce add 1large tuna can and asparagus serve on cooked puff pastry sheets)
Homemade pizza (one of our favs too)
pasta bake (buy pre-made mix add cooked pasta and any veggies served with garlic bread)
BBQ ( any meat tastes good bbqed add eggs and a salad easy)

We have a meal plan for every day of the month, so I have 31 different meals. Tonight is a bacon, spinach and tomato pasta dish - has fetta in it too.

We have vego meals 2-3 times a week, then 2 meat ones, and then usually a fish type one (either fish, tuna or salmon) and then we have an easy option of like, baked beans or something.

I listed all my meals out in groups like, meat, pasta dishes, fish dishes, vego dishes - and then made a meal plan making sure I had one or two from each list every week - if that makes sense :)

let me know if you want our list of meals :)

Frittata's are super easy to make
Love making soups with veges I need to use up
Tacos or burritos are a hit
Home made pizzas (I have a cool pizza oven thingy)
Chicken schnitzel with home Made potato wedges and veg
Mini quiche (Sara lee) with vege or salad
Baked potatos with various fillings
Bangers and mash

My slow cooker also gets a workout during winter and oh so easy to chuck some meat,vege and stock in and leave for the day

I always make huge batches of spag Bol or stews so I can freeze and have later on when I couldn't be bothered

Erica x

Ricotta and spinach triangles, mixz a egg with ricotta cheese and the spinach , spoon it into puff pastry 1 sheet cut into 4 and fold over into a triangle...bake until golden brown yum with salad and the kids love them..
Quick impossible quiche 3 eggs 1 can of evaporated milk, low fat version or regular milk I just think that evap adds a creaminess, 1cup self raising flour...beat that together, it is very runny don't worry, then add 1 cup cheese + anything you wnat to that mix..we go onion spinach tomato and bacon..I usually fry that off beforehnad the recipe does say to add 3 tablespoons of butter to fry it but it works well without it..mix those ingrediants in and pour into a cake tin or muffin tin..it puffs up well is delicous and forms its own base plus little to wash up..pumpkin onion spinach??? a friend makes hers with tuna corn onion.. hope that helps.

thanks so much!

suggestions i'm loving are-
enchilladas- mzwan do you use one of those mexican packs from the supermarket?
kebabs and potato bake- i could do this with chicken yeah?
which pasta bake can you suggest- any particular brand/flavour that is good?

mrs nerd burger- i would love some of your vego meals if it's not too much trouble? :)

black rose- loving the baked potato suggestion- do you wrap in foil and put in oven?

blackduckies- i'm going to attempt the ricotta and cheese traingles. thanks!

I love the Taste website (it's an Aussie site so put a .au on the end ;)), it has a whole section for quick, easy meals. Just what I'm after LOL! I'm about to try make a tuna and macaroni bake I found on the website that looks yummy :)

The best bit about that site is that people who have tried the recipe rate it and leave comments so you can kind of tell if it's going to be good or not.

You can either microwave them first to soften them, then spray with oil and put them in the oven for 20-30mins to crisp up the skin or you can ***** them with a fork, spray with oil and wrap in foil and bake for an hour or so!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk so please forgive my spelling mistakes!!

Yeh I do buy them mexican packs from the supermarket for the enchiladas, Chicken skewers are great and as for the pasta bake i get one thats creamy tomato and basil usually not to sure of the brand

Our vego meals are:
Zucchini quiche (served with vegies)
Ricotta, lentil and pumpkin filo parcels (served with salad)
vegetarian spag bol
Omelette and salad
Udon noodle stir fry
Lentil cottage pie (served with vegies, it is sooooo yum)
Fried rice
lentil rissoles and salad
vegetarian chilli and rice
vegie burgers and salad
moroccan cous cous patties and vegies (one of our favs!)
tomato and basil pasta bake
nachos - vegetarian style ;)

every time i read "easy to throw meat, veg, stock into slow cooker and get a great meal" - i wonder, what do they mean? Cos when I try this, i end up with something not so great at all.

names of meals, often tell you the type of veg and type of meat, but don't say the flavours (the herbs and spices that give the flavour).

meat is so expensive, i cook with meat rarely (so am not practised), so it's an investment for me to actually cook with meat - so i get nervous about messing it up. I bought a bolar blade roast for nearly $9 this week (first time in maybe six months, felt like a big splurge), i've love to do this in the slow cooker, with veg and stock, just unsure on the details of how to do it.

maybe i'll google "bolar blade roast in slow cooker" and see what comes up.

meal planning and using the slow cooker are always mentioned, on budgetting sites like Simply Savings, so i am keen to do them, feel like i am missing a piece of the jigsaw - if everyone says they are easy, but i am not quite "getting" it, feeling thick.

i have a fridge full of fresh veg, full pantry, wanting to cook healthy, cheaply, unsure what to do with the ingredients. So, OP, thank you for posting this thread, i hope to learn from it too.

Gigi - Have you joined the Facebook group "Stay at Home Mum - The Secret to Living on One Wage"? It has some great ideas for making inexpensive meals/snacks and other great money saving ideas :D

We're big fans of 'Breakfast for dinner' every now and then - who says bacon and eggs are only for the morning!

If you're not very apt with the slow cooker from scratch, there are some great meal bases you can use in the spices aisle at the supermarket - I had to tactfully introduce my parents to these when I was still living at home because they were definitely not blessed with the gift of slow cooker mastery! Or there are some fantastic classic French recipes which you can do in a slow cooker too that really are just add a bunch of stuff and leave it on low for 8 hours - Bouef Bourgiunon is one of them. I do have a cooking blog with some recipes up on there but I haven't blogged in a while - I should update it and put a link up for people!

A lot of the time it just has to do with knowing what flavours go well with others, which is a lot of the time dependant on the country of origin of a meal. For instance, if DH says he's in the mood for Greek, I know right away I'm getting out the oregano, thyme, rosemary, and lemon. For Thai, I know I'm putting coriander and cumin in there somewhere, along with a fresh chili or two. It also comes with knowing what flavours go with what meat you may be cooking - the one most people know is lamb and rosemary.

The Women's Weekly cook books are amazing for learning what goes with what and once you know that you'll never look back, I have the sauces one and even DH managed to make an amazing Chicken Veloute sauce last night out of it! Mum always had them when I was a kid, you can get them for everything from Chinese to casseroles and biscuits!

Ginger - I've got a recipe for a really yummy pasta sauce that can be made vegetarian really easily on my blog, I'll pop a link in my signature so you can have a look at the other recipes on there, I've been meaning to get back to blogging but with baby brain I just keep forgetting! Theres lots of things like roasts up there too which are always easy and you get lunch meat for a few days too.

Thank you so much everyone! I have meals planned for the whole of this week and lots of leads to explore further now. I am wrapped!

Can't wait to check put your blog, will have a good look tomorrow. Thanks again!

Gigi,
Bolar blade roasts make good casseroles in the slow cooker.

A couple of options -

Dice into cubes. Lightly toss in flour. Brown in frying pan with a little olive oil and garlic (just to seal off not cook). Put into slow cooker with chopped onion, tin of chopped tomatoes, two cups of stock, dash of red wine (optional), mixed herbs to taste, chopped bacon, sliced carrot, celery whatever you have. Add mushrooms later so they don't over cook. I also add paprika. Cook for six hours or so, stirring occasionally. If you need to thicken at end use gravox powder or cornflour mixed into a paste with cold water. Season to taste. Nice on mash or noodles or rice.

Porcupines are another great one. Get mince, mix with chopped onion and a cup or so of uncooked rice and season (add garlic if you want). Form into small meatballs. Take tin of tomato soup, mix with 3/4 can of water or a bit more if you want. Place meatballs in casserole dish and cover with soup. Bake with lid for approx 45 mins. Serve with mash. Kids love these!!!!!

My slow cooker stew is carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes all chopped, aboutv1kg diced casserole beef, 1 can chopped tomatoes, dreied mixed herbs, minced garlic, couple of bay leaves, salt and pepper. Stir and leave to cook. I add some for flour at the end to thicken the sauce

Gigi - I learnt the biggest trick to slow cooker meals is get cuts of meat that are good for casseroles, which are normally the cheaper cuts, and brown them before adding to slow cooker. Add root vegetables and a can or two of diced tomotoes. Add different herbs and spices depending on your taste and leave to cook. If you have stock add that. It's a good idea to make your own stock using vegie scraps and bones, then freeze in batches. Tastes nicer than the powder stuff but also takes up freezer space. A tip I got off Rouge was to keep adding vegie scraps to a freezer bag and keep frozen. When you have enough, make stock.

Tonight's dinner was a meal Mum made for our freezer- oyster blade beef casserole made in the slow cooker. Sooo yummy with mash. It included onions, carrots and probably tomato.

A cheap, healthy filler for casseroles are lentils. Buy dried lentils, soak overnight and add to a casserole. Other nutritious fillers include barley, brown rice, quinoa etc.

so, sounds like, very little liquid needed for the slow cooker.

when you talk about adding stock, would that mean a small amount, like one cup?

it's the amount of liquid, and the spices/herbs part that puzzles me the most, so it's good to see how other people do that. I have fresh garlic, fresh ginger and a reasonable supply of dried herbs/spices.

about the veg, if a slow cooker might be on for say, five hours, would you cut up the veg chunky, or small?

sorry i have so many questions, prolly obvious to everyone else.

aldi souvlaki kits... yummmmmmm! and quick & easy!

I cut up the vegies quite chunky. You need enough liquid to cover the other ingredients. Just adding water can mean there's not enough flavour which is where the tomotoes, stock or wine comes in. I've tried doing a non-tomato base a few times but havent had much luck flavour wise. If you're just doing vegies, add the hard ones together first. I dont actually put green vegies in unless I'm making soup as thet just get too mushy.

Put the biggest/ densest items at the base of the slow cooker and the lighter things at the top. Try not to stir too many times. You lose heat each time you take the lide off.

Google some recipes. Standard items we always try to have are tins of diced tomatoes, bacon, carrots and potatos. Add lentils or meat.

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Gigi - Have you joined the Facebook group "Stay at Home Mum - The Secret to Living on One Wage"? It has some great ideas for making inexpensive meals/snacks and other great money saving ideas :D

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no, but i will now, thanks for telling me about it.

i have joined the FB "$120 grocery challenge" one (it was on tv). and i'm subscribed to "simply savings" website, with the vault of tips. I bought the "$21 challenge" book connected to the simply savings site, haven't understood it enough to meal plan (to meal plan is my goal).

thanks Tashybabe, Nothing to lose, i'm going to print out your tips, they sound do-able to me. Thanks for sharing your tips with me, i really appreciate it.

i think i have messed up prior, as i've done things like add a can of soup, add too much stock, - too much liquid basically.
The slow cooker sachets - i get put off by them, because they expect you to buy quite a bit of meat, to make up their recipes.

No problems Gigi.

I posted quickly from my ipad on the train. I have quite a few yummy and nutritious budget recipes if you want me to send them to you.

gigi i dont often buy the slow cooker packets but if i do i usually only use half the packet as i find them too salty, save the rest for another time