I need some inspiration for easy and quick midweek meals. My regulars are getting a bit old and boring and I have no idea what else to try. It needs to be quick and easy as I'm not a great cook and ds2 is generally hanging off my legs while I'm trying to get dinner sorted. If I can make it ahead during sleep time that's even better! Hit me with ideas!
ask your DH to suggest something if he is being so fussy! Or get a simple recipie book, there are some great ones around, and get him to put post its on things he likes the look of. Slow cooker meals are also good as it is harder to over/under cook food in it.
Im lucky DH spent the first 20 years of his life eating the burnt offerings of my MIL so he will literally eat anything, which is good because if he threw something I had cooked int he bin more than once he would be a very hungry man!
Pan fried steak with steamed brocoli and carrot
Chicken and vegetable thai red curry
Lamb steaks panfried and served with greek salad
Chicken marinated in soy, served with wombok salad
Spag bol
Lamb and vege fried rice
Chicken and vege stirfry
Schnitzel and salad / veges
Chicken parmy, mash and corn
Fish and salad
Leftover lasagne, chips and salad
Lentil curry
Quickest and unhealthiest option is bacon and egg toasted sandwiches... A usual Thursday or Friday night dish!
Pork chops and salad
Steak and salad
Family pie and vege
Roast and vege
Chicken legs and fried rice
Chicken schnitzel and vege/salad
Salmon pasta
Sausages on bread
Lasagna
Toasted sandwiches
roast chook from deli and oven vege
Pork and prawn wontons
I'm not very adventurous, but these are our usual!
Udon and wonton noodle soup - with lots of asian vege
Crustless quiche and vege
Beef and red wine casserole in the slow cooker
Potato and bacon bit pancakes - sooo yummy
Pizza - homemade or frozen depending on energy levels
Spag bol
Our favourites easy meals are mentioned above also.
They include
Spag bol
Butter chicken
Apricot chicken
Beef strog
Sausages, onion and gravy with vegies
A BBQ from the deli with hot chips and Pasta
A chicken and vegie pie (costs $3) with vegies
DH loves creamy chicken bacon Pasta.
Kids love shepherds pie
Hamburgers (only when hot but)
Roasts are hot in this house also. I can prepare them at around 2-3pm and then nothing needs doing really until serving up time. Love Pork with all the trimmings or a Roast lamb (not cheap but easy)
Occassionally chicken burgers (burger with salad and mayo)
Spare ribs with greek salad and hot chips
Lamb cuttlets (not cheap either) with vegies
Pasta with mince or chicken in it. We get the Pasta sauce in the Jar its another cheap and easy one.
I've recently started to peel the vegies at approx 3pm so there isn't as much cleaning and preparing to do in my busy time of bathing, DH coming home and getting dinner ready.
Rice (one of the microwave packs with flavouring) Chicken Skewers and salad
Tacos
Roast
Stirfry (I cut everything up when the kids are quiet)
Spag bol (can make the bolgnaise sauce earlier in the day then put pasta on later)
Chicken curry (in the slow cooker). Sometimes I cut everything up the night before then put it on int he morning
Beef Curry in the oven
Chilli Con Carne (cook the chill up earleir in the day then make some rice to serve)
Lasagne (I make in bulk and freeze a couple before they go in the oven, then just thaw and cook in the oven when having a bad day)
Corned beef in the slow cooker, steamed veg and a microwave pasta packet
Chicken burritos - chicken diced, taco seasoning, jar salsa, tin chick peas and tin kidney beans cook chicken, stir the rest through then put in tortillas and top with cheese, roll and bake in oven for 5 minutes, easy reheat ok - just a bit soggy. Filling can be made in advance but only takes about 5-10 minutes anyway. These are the kids favourites
If Im really tired baked beans and toast or scrambled eggs
Pork Chops with veggies or salad
Chicken soup (easily made ahead of time)
Spaghetti bolognese - any leftover bolognese sauce then turned into lasagne
Grilled haloumi cheese and salad (easy and super quick)
Grilled fish with salad or rice and veggies
Thanks for all the suggestions, they all sound so yummy!
Violet star: yes we do have a slowcooker but i mainly just use it for spag sauce or roast. Id love to use it a bit more.
I tend to like stove top meals over oven meals as with two little people on the move i worry that one of them will touch the oven while im chasing the other. Iv been hassling dh for gates on the kitchen for ages!
We tend to do have:
Chilli Con Carne a fair bit
Spag but im sick of the packet mix that we use so want to learn how to make it from scratch
Burgers
Home made pizza (our pizza maker is the bomb!)
Spinach and feta pie
Meat and veg/salad
maple chicken (donna hay recipe, sooooo yummy if you like sweet things)
tacos
burritos
Today is playgroup day so i have a pot of chilli on the stove all made so when i get home i can just make the rice (snap sararose) as i always have two grumpy hungry children on wed arvo's.
I love to make risotto but need dh at home to keep ds's busy as they tend to mill around while im cooking and risotto is so labour intensive.
Mid week cooking is hard work with two little people around so the easier the better!
donna hay has a couple of nice risotto recipes in her chicken cookbook that you do in the oven - i do the one with chicken & pumpkin quite often & it's easy (although uses the oven that you're trying to avoid!)
i also do:
chicken parmas - pretty easy, just a schnitzel with a tomato sauce (if i'm in a hurry just some tinned or chopped tomatoes with herbs), then some cheese on top & i often just grill at the end
chicken satay with rice
sausages with either baked vegies or salad
steak with salad & oven chips/baked potato - or if i can't be bothered, i make it a steak sandwich
grilled chicken in turkish bread with sweet chilli, cheese & salad
slow cooker curries
meatloaf
Here's some of what we have done this week (DH loves cooking, so I leave it to him, yay!)
* rump steak with gravy, garlic butter asparagus and potato mash
* butter chicken tenders with capsicum & carrot on a bed of rice
* spaghetti with mince meat, crushed tomatoes & veges
* BBQ gourmet sausages with tomato, onions & beetroot in bread rolls
Edit: just read your last post aw that isnt very nice of your DH! I definitely agree with the PP that you should ask him what he would like. And also about there being some great books out there for simple meal ideas. You could also go into the "taste" website (www.taste.com.au) as they have soo many awesome recipes and most are reviewed by real people so you know if it's good or not! Good luck hun, that must be awful to feel the way you do!
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Last edited by *Danni*; January 12th, 2012 at 07:55 PM.
DP is not home for dinner one week out of two so I tend to keep those dinners REALLY simple as it's just me and the girls.
I've found it easiest to do meat and two or three veg. So the meat tends to be something like chicken tenders, rissoles (I make some really good chicken and veg ones from scratch but otherwise I buy them from the butcher), snags.
Potatoes I either do mashed or wedges (great for finger food for DD2)
Veggies could be something as simple as frozen peas, microwaved broccoli or beans, cauliflower cheese or stirfried snowpeas or beans/carrots cooked in a little sesame oil and with some roasted flaked almonds.
Other regulars here:
blue cheese pasta sauce
pumpkin soup (recently discovered you can make it more substantial by adding gnocchi)
chicken cacciatore done in the slow cooker
chilli (I add some veggies like zucchini, mushrooms, corn plus sultanas to mine)
bought roast chicken with bought asian noodle salad and tossed together
curries
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Midweek meals. Expand my menu!
aw that isnt very nice of your DH! I definitely agree with the PP that you should ask him what he would like. And also about there being some great books out there for simple meal ideas. You could also go into the "taste" website (www.taste.com.au) as they have soo many awesome recipes and most are reviewed by real people so you know if it's good or not! Good luck hun, that must be awful to feel the way you do!
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