Struggling for inspiration....

newlywed

Ok I have not been meal planning at all for weeks It's all gone to pot.

But at the moment I'm finding it hard to make any decisions about food at all.

So does anyone have any interesting ideas for these (other than toad in the hole or sausage casserole):

3 packs of low fat sausages (in freezer)
Chicken thighs and drumsticks (in the freezer)
Unsmoked bacon
Smoked salmon
Chicken breasts

I have the usual stuff in - onions, tinned tomatoes, pasata, herbs, gravy, garlic paste, wholegrain mustard, lentils, barley etc and don't mind buying extra veg. I have a slow cooker.

And if anyone has any suggestions of other things to cook I do check the meal plan threads but still struggling for inspiration.

OH isn't keen on trout, bored of salmon fillets, not keen on pork chops etc so we seem to eat chicken, sausages and mince at the moment

Pink.

Hi newlywed,

These threads may give you some inspiration for the things you already have:

Sausages recipes please!

Chicken Thighs

What can I do with chicken breast fillets...

Recipes for smoked salmon

What to do with bacon

What to do with bacon offcuts

Other ideas I can think of right now....Pasta sauces, pasta bakes, pies, baked potatoes, salads, quiche, things with rice like stroganoff, curries etc.

This thread might give you some more ideas:

OS Summer Cooking

Also have a look through the The Complete Cooking Collection to see if you can get some ideas there.

Pink

jo1972

You could wrap the chicken in the bacon with some cheese or a mushroom type thing?

newlywed

Thanks pink. Lots of ideas there.

I forgot about chicken pizza melts that I used to do with flattened chicken breasts, pesto, cheese and cherry tomatoes.

Going to try stuffing skinned boned chicken thighs, wrapping in bacon and cooking (kind of a combination of ideas from that thread).

And oven baked sausages with balsamic tomatoes, as well as the sausage pie with cooked sausages, onions, tinned tomatoes and then mash on top.

Still reading the other threads...

Boodle

Lately I have done white fish with a spinach crust on top - you could do this with your salmon fillets perhaps to break monotony and tempt your OH I just blitz breadcrumbs, handful of spinach (or herbs if you preferred), a drop of bottled lemon juice and olive oil. I also like salmon in a korma or maybe in a sweet chilli stir fry would be nice. Actually I bet a sweet chilli crust would be nice on the salmon - dropping a little sweet chilli sauce into the crumbs when blitzing. You could try baking them with a honey, mustard and soy marinade and have with rice and greens.

You could do the drumsticks just as they are and serve with wedges and coleslaw. Or roast them with a honey mustard marinade. I realise you had plans for the chicken thighs but had to suggest Nigella's St Tropez Chicken recipe which popped to mind. It is yum! If you don't have the Feast book, it is also here http://www.recipezaar.com/Saint-Tropez-Chicken-105766 (the Nigella website doesn't seem to have it on and am afraid all my books are packed in boxes!)

newlywed

Thanks boodle - that st tropez sounds good - chicken thighs being cheaper I'm always looking for something else to do with them

And the salmon sounds good - I think we just got bored with salmon fillets - they were on offer in Sainsbugs for a while and so I just bought some each time I went

frivolous_fay

We make this
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3479/mexican-chilli-chicken

Made it last night in fact, and often we put drumsticks in, because I can't seem to get just chicken thighs (free range) from Mr T.

Slight variation last night - instead of the chorizo (which I hadn't got around to finding) we used a couple of packets of pancetta cubes and 2 tsp sweet paprika.

Boodle

Boodle wrote: »

You could do the drumsticks just as they are and serve with wedges and coleslaw. Or roast them with a honey mustard marinade. I realise you had plans for the chicken thighs but had to suggest Nigella's St Tropez Chicken recipe which popped to mind. It is yum! If you don't have the Feast book, it is also here http://www.recipezaar.com/Saint-Tropez-Chicken-105766 (the Nigella website doesn't seem to have it on and am afraid all my books are packed in boxes!)

Have just re-read the recipe on that link and not sure it is accurate, as I am convinced it only needed to cook for about 40 minutes on about 200C. Am sorry I can't check my books as they are being stored in someone else's loft at the mo! Maybe if someone else has the book, they could very kindly check and verify for you...? I could be wrong, as I so often am but as I would usually only cook thighs for about 40 mins on 200C I would be more inclined to do that anyway... Sorry to cause confusion!

Louba

An easy one for the chicken breast or chicken pieces if you've got spices in the cupboard: - mix equal parts of ground coriander, cumin and paprika, about half the amount of chill powder, black pepper and white pepper and a the same of dried thyme. mix it up and rub on the chicken before cooking either under the grill or in a frying pan. I make the mixture up in a batch and put it in a spice jar - it's one of my favorite quick teas! you can serve it with mash, couc cous or rice.

I use up left over sausages in pasta dishes with a basic tomoto sauce, onions, carrots, tinned tomotoes, maybe some chilli and sometimes some red wine! Not the most exciting but it makes the sausages seem less like sausages! Oh made this for tea last night (of added my sause to the pasta, sausage and bacon!) he made so much I've just finished a huge portion for lunch....and he had one to take with him too! It was quite yummy though.

newlywed

HI Boodle - looks like the Times printed the nigella recipe with the same cooking time:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article501551.ece


Anyways, thanks for all the ideas - and Pink for the other threads.... feel a little bit more inspired And decided OH is going to eat pork chops this month too