Cooking with dietary restrictions.

There_Goes_Trouble

My family are having a 'bring a course' meal on Sunday. I'm doing the main course and I don't know what to do!

Here's the criteria:

Needs to go with veggies as my sister is doing those, so no rice/pasta as she'll do potatoes.
One person doesn't like chicken and requires low fat and dairy free.
One person is vegetarian.
2 people are children aged ten and three. Not fussy, but typical children in their likes/dislikes.
Needs to be transportable either before or after cooking.
Not too fiddly as it's for 12 people and I'll need to drive over at about 11.30am. I will have time on Sat night for prep if it can be done in advance though.
I'm not a very confident cook although quite capable really...

I don't mind doing a veggie version of something separately but would like it to be a version of the same thing, e.g. I could do toad in the hole and do a separate one using veggie sausages and no dairy for those two people. But toad in the hole doesn't feel quite posh enough for Mothers Day Sunday dinner.... I don't want the 'special' meals to be completely different.

I'm not feeling very confident as I've never cooked for my family before other than a cake or similar. All my family produce fantastic meals at the drop of a hat. If I have a friend round I usually do a chilli or pasta bake etc, so not used to doing a 'proper' meal for 12 although I regularly cook for myself.

Any ideas/recipes?

pinkclouds

Sausage and bean casserole. Cook the sausages separately (in the oven) and cook the tinned beans (any assorted varieties you like) with some tinned tomatoes and some herbs and seasoning in a large Le Cruset type casserole dish (i.e. one that has a lid, for easy transportation). When you serve it, stick the sausages in for the omnivores. You could also bake some pretty biscuits/rolls to go with it. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter for the (American) biscuits or shape the bread rolls into plaits. What do you think?

There_Goes_Trouble

That sounds lovely but I'm not sure my nephews will like the beans. They're not particularly fussy, but a lot of kids don't like beans if I remember right from when I was a kid! I certainly didn't!

Will add small children to my list of criteria!

Recipe saved for myself though!

JournalGirl

Salmon steak, in tinfoil. A couple of rings of onion in the bottom, salmon on top, squeeze of lemon juice, few herbs on top. Make it into a Cornish pastie shaped tinfoil parcel, bake for 20 minutes.

An alternative is to use chopped ginger and soy sauce, but that's better served with rice or noodles

pinkclouds

There_Goes_Trouble wrote: »

Will add small children to my list of criteria!

My toddler is quite picky about food, so I understand. If you want the kids to eat the same meal maybe you could list the types of things they normally eat? Otherwise, I'm going to end up suggesting pizza... lol

There_Goes_Trouble

LOL I'd happily make pizza from scratch if I thought it suitable for the occasion, it's the one thing I am pretty good at!

The boys eat all meats and familiar veg, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, parsnips.... but I wouldn't bother with swede, celeriac, aubergine, you know, the less common veg. However since the veg is being done separately they can just have what they like of that anyway.

We like a meal to have gravy or sauce, we're not keen on 'dry' meals.

I'm starting to think I'll just get a joint, tell my sis to roast the veg and have a roast dinner, but I think I'd feel disappointed in myself as I really want to make something if you know what I mean.

daska

Two suggestions, both ones that get trotted out regularly at family gatherings:

Chestnut, Mushroom and Shallot pie. It's easy, it lush enough for a celebration, it's been known to fool meat-eaters and (at least our) kids eat it.

Another one that's on regular standby as both a main and a stuffing (and is regularly requested by my son who 'hates' nut roast - I even posted him some for his birthday last year LOL) is White Nut Roast. Serve it with some chicken legs if the meat eaters insist (if they don't like chicken they've still got the nut roast This one is dead easy and freezes well, I always make two so that I've got one to pull out at the drop of a hat. - oops, sorry, just remembered you needed dairy free and this is cheesy

Peanuckle

how about pies, steak for the carnivores, lot fat veggie pie for the limited diets and a small kid pie for the little ones (you could put anything from sausages to chicken pieces and tell them it's nuggets in that one with a face on top?)

There_Goes_Trouble

I did think about pies but although I can use soya margarine to make pastry I don't think it would class as low fat.

Dunroamin

Why not do something like a nut roast that everybody can eat?

There_Goes_Trouble

My Dad would not eat a nut roast. There are very few things my Dad would refuse to eat, but that is one of them.

When it comes to veggie food the men in my family are of the "where's the meat?" variety!!