Meal ideas please

danih

I am in a slump, board with usual meal plans, all I want to eat is takeaway, and I'm disappointed with 95% of takeaways I've ever ordered. The takeaways has been creeping up to twice a week some weeks (most weeks recently).

I can do a really good spaghetti bolonese, (sp?) and have a great stash of that in the freezer.

Just me and my hubby to feed, no special requirements. Both work full time, so aim for quick and easy most days.

All ideas please

AnnieO1234

A good start might be your favourite takeaway meals? Part of the pleasure of cooking can come from perfecting the dish.

Another good place to start might be the cuisine if wherever you like to go on holiday. Think back to a good holiday and what you ate there.

It might be worth investing in a recipe book or two from a favourite chef, or at least borrowing them from the library. I find amazon invaluable for second hand recipe books that are often in perfect condition.

Another place to look is pinterest for random ideas.

Assuming thriftiness is important, have you looked at jack monroes books, either the original or the latest one? They have a decent selection of different cuisine types.

Finally, consider the seasons and go and buy a random vegetable from the market that's in season now. Build a brand new meal around it. The same goes for any ingredient you've always been intrigued by but never used. Morrisons is a good place for randomness such as harlequin squash or kohlrabi.
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SailorSam

If you're into Takaways check out that recipie book on Amazon where the fella has made his own meals that taste like all the most common takaways.

*~Zephyr~*

SailorSam wrote: »

If you're into Takaways check out that recipie book on Amazon where the fella has made his own meals that taste like all the most common takaways.

I bought that book! I haven't actually gotten around to trying anything from it yet, but the recipes are good and easy to follow.

With me and the OH working too I'm also a fan of quick and easy meals. Every couple of months I cook a huge batch of bolognese sauce and a huge batch of curry sauce. Portion them up in the foil containers like the takeaways use and stick them in the freezer. Just need to remember to take one out before work in the morning to let it defrost :rotfl:

Also, I've just recently re-discovered pork chops. Dead easy to cook, ready in 20 minutes or so and great with savoury rice or salad or a bit of mash and veg. Noms!

lushlifesaver

Do you have a slow cooker? I recently got a new one (sear & stew - so easy!) So now I prepare meals the night before/the morning and pop it on low to chuckle away all day whilst I'm out at work (bf is no chef!) I'm just learning about using it for non soup/stew meals but on my to try list are: pulled pork (for winter sandwiches), pot roast (beef roast in the SC not the oven!), chicken stuffed with cheese and spinach wrapped in bacon, baked potatoes. This way I just need to quickly cook the sides/accompanients and serve.


I also do things like chicken tonight/similar jars in there, chiles etc as well to give a variety. Other days I'll do some baked fish (fillets wrapped individually in foil with a dot of butter) and rice which takes 20 mins (guess it depends on how quick you want them to be.


Have also seen people using roasting bags in order to cook their veg in the slow cooker along with the mains so its all ready at once

PasturesNew

Get some ready made pastry and lob some ingredients at that. You can put anything in a pasty, from cheese/onion/potato, through to anything that fits in a pie, or a regular pasty. I'd not get fancy with cutting it out, I'd look at the size/shape of the sheet of pastry and then work out the best way to cut it up in straight lines so I could just lay the filling on half of it and fold the other half over. It might be that a sheet might make two pies/pasties, or 3-4 ... depending how big you fancy making it.

A Cornish pasty is just raw (skirt) of beef, cut small, layered with seasoning, potatoes and swede. Nothing more really .... no prep, just cutting the raw stuff, laying it down, bringing the pastry over the top, sealing the edge and baking it.

It's about feeding yourself easily .... there are no extra points for presentation, which is why I'd say don't try to cut it into fancy shapes/rounds.

Butterfly_Brain

Get yourself a copy of Takeaway secret and Takeaway secret 2, both brilliant books if you like take aways.
I got both of my copies in The Works.

Tonight I have made Three beef casseroles using diced steak that was on special in aldi £2.49 for a 400g pack.

I cook them in the oven for four hours so I prefer to cook three at once because it saves on electrickery

One is for dinner tonight and two will go into the freezer, so all I need do is to warm them up .
Casseroles taste much better when they are reheated anyway.

This time of year my freezer is full of all sorts of home made bolognaise mince, savoury mince, chilli, stews and casseroles of every persuasion.

I have always batch cooked, especially when I was working, I had a cookathon on a Saturday and I prepared all of the veggies and froze them so all the meals for the week were taken out in the morning and the first one in put them on to reheat and got the veggies on.

Tasty home cooked meals every time with less hastle than it takes to put a tin of soup on the hob

danih

Love the ideas!


Have bought the takeaway books on amazon, and will be looking for Jack's new book - got her first for my birthday.


MMmmmmm stew, pasty and finally using that slow cooker we got last xmas

good_advice

slow cookers are quick and simple. vegetable casserole with dumplings, beef casserole. chilli, pork chops and sliced veg & potatoes in either beef or tomato sauce.
I am a fan of slow cooker all in one meals.

How about cooking on Sunday a meal that you can also have on Monday. We sometimes have the same meal for x2 days.

Buy 3 meats for £10 in Tesco.
Today I bought = diced chicken for a curry. Diced beef = may make a beef suit pudding in the slow cooker or a beef casserole.
Minced beef for cottage pie or spaghetti.
The x3 meats will each serve x4 dinners.
You could eat the same for 2 days or freeze half for next week.

Then there is a "with chips dinner" pizza, pie or fish.

Happy cooking.

JIL

I think when you work full time its about planning ahead. This week on monday I put the slow cooker on in the morning with lambshanks. When I got home I did a big pan of mash. Then I made a cottage pie with half a pack of mince and veggies. Then made myself a quorn one.
With the rest of the mince I made some meatballs. I made a roasted vege lasagne and some mini quiches and some potato dauphinois. I froze some of the mash that will be fishcakes on Friday.
So husband had lamb and dauphinois and veg on Monday. Daughter had chicken Kiev and I had some vege sausages the oven was on it was easy. The mini quiches will go to work for lunch. A portion of lamb stew went in the freezer for next week.
Tues the cottage pies went in the oven and we had some cabbage. Really easy and no more than five mins in kitchen chopping cabbage.
Tomorrow all I will in need to do is make a bowl of salad and reheat the vege lasagne and meatballs in sauce and boil some pasta. I may make some garlic bread.
Its quick easy and better than a takeaway.

Recipes are easy but I think its thinking about what you want to eat and then making it work for you.
My best advice is menu plan. Cook double and freeze half. Its so much easier when you don't have to do it all from scratch every night especially if you are tired.