Family meal recipes and ideas

Turkey Burgers

Really cheap and easy to make, turkey burgers are a healthier alternative to beef burgers (though we love those too). I use frozen chopped onions for extra speed and less tears. I also make up extra patties to put into the freezer. Turkey Burgers recipe.

Pork, Chorizo and Cannellini Bean Stew

This is a great winter warmer. It’s really cheap and easy to make, but requires a couple hours of cooking. Here’s the recipe:  http://www.theparentsocial.com/family-favourites-pork-chorizo-and-cannellini-bean-stew/

Light Chicken Korma

This Korma recipe uses fat-free Greek yogurt instead of cream for a healthier family meal option. It’s quick and very easy to prepare and doesn’t require much cooking time. We omit the sugar and it still tastes great. Here’s the recipe: Korma. If you’re after a really authentic Indian treat then I can highly recommend the pre-prepared freezer meals of Mandira’s Kitchen.

Pizzette 

These mini puff pastry pizzas make a great snack/canapé or light lunch and is something that the kids can get involved with cooking. 

http://www.theparentsocial.com/pizzette-recipe-cooking-children/

Quick Chicken Stew

A great one pot meal that’s easy to do and as the name suggests doesn’t take an age to cook. For a family meal for five, I add two extra chicken breasts and an extra carrot. We do tend to have quite big portions though! Here’s the recipe.

Oven Baked Salmon

This is ludicrously easy and makes two meals if it’s just for the children (I’ll explain later).

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175c (fan oven)
2. Use four boneless salmon steaks and put two steaks onto two pieces of foil
3. Score the steaks, squeeze some lemon juice over them, stick knobs of butter in the scored bits and add one chopped shallot over the top
4. Season and then parcel up and put in the oven for 25-30 mins (just check to see if cooked through)

I always make too much, so the next day I flake the cold leftovers and mix into couscous along with broccoli or peas (whichever I haven’t used the day before).

Winter Vegetable Soup

This is a really nice, smooth but thick winter warmer. Check out my recipe here: Winter Vegetable Soup

Cheat’s Jacket Potatoes

A quick way to get tasty crispy-skinned potatoes.

• Prick the potatoes several times with a fork
• Microwave at 900W for three minutes, turn the potatoes and microwave for a further three minutes
• Brush with oil and season
• Put in an oven pre-heated to 230c (fan) for 25 minutes

Taco Rice and Bean Boats

These are super easy to make and the children absolutely love them. They’re more a quick mid-week dinner for the children than a big family meal. Here’s the recipe: Taco rice boats

Spaghetti Carbonara (serves 4)

This is a perennial favourite and really easy to do. I use the recipe from the bible of Italian cooking: The Silver Spoon cookbook (there’s also a Children’s Silver Spoon). There is NO cream in carbonara by the way

• 25g butter
• 100g cubed pancetta
• 3 whole peeled garlic cloves (recipe says one clove but even three isn’t very strong)
• One pack of spaghetti
• 2 large eggs (beaten)
• 40g Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
• 40g Pecorino (freshly grated)
• Salt and pepper

Method 

1. Melt the butter in a pan, add pancetta and garlic cloves and cook until garlic turns brown. Discard the garlic
2. Meanwhile cook the spaghetti for a minute less than packet instructions say in a large pan of salted boiling water
3. Drain the pasta, add to the pancetta and mix to coat
4. Remove pan from heat and pour in the eggs – my children prefer the egg to be better cooked so I usually leave on the heat for a few seconds longer
5. Add half the Parmesan and half the Pecorino and season to taste with pepper. Mix well, add the remaining cheese and mix again. Serve

Chilli Con Carne (serves 4)

A classic family meal favourite.

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 400g lean beef mince
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 400g chopped tomatoes (tinned)
• 1 tsp chilli powder (to taste)
• ½ tsp cumin, ground
• black pepper (to taste)
• 400g kidney beans (or cannallini beans)

Method

Chicken Saltimbocca

This should actually be made with veal escalopes, but they aren’t always that easy to get hold of so I use chicken breasts instead and it’s still really tasty.

Chicken Saltimbocca

• Five chicken breasts
• Pack of prosciutto slices/Parma ham
• Fresh sage leaves
• 50g butter
• 100ml of dry white wine
• Salt
• Cocktail stick

1. Flatten the chicken so that it’s the thickness of an escalope (no need to do this if you’re actually using veal escalopes)
2. Place half-one slice of prosciutto on each escalope followed by one large sage leaf (or two small) secured in place with the cocktail stick
3. Melt butter in a frying pan and cook meat on both sides over a high heat until golden brown
4. Season with salt, pour in the wine and cook until the wine’s evaporated
5. Remove cocktail sticks and serve

Sausage and Bean Casserole

I use cannellini beans and 12 sausages instead of the eight it says in the recipe. If there’s any left over I serve it on top of rice the next day.

Salmon and Gruyere Quiche

Although this is fine in winter, it’s a great thing to make in summer when you can serve it cold with a salad.

http://www.theparentsocial.com/salmon-gruyere-quiche 

 Lamb Koftas

Just five ingredients in this family meal. I serve with pita breads, cheese, cucumber and tomatoes for the girls and my husband and I have them with a feta salad (that he makes with radishes, cucumber, onion), pitas and tzatziki.

Here’s the recipe.

Pan-Fried Lemon and Garlic Sea Bream

A new edition! My husband and I like sea bream but hadn’t tried it with the girls. However, when it was on offer in Sainsbury’s I had to give it a go. This was a surprise hit!

The below served four. It was meant to be five but the kids ate so much it didn’t! I serve with peas or broccoli (top tip: always have a stock of frozen veggies in the freezer).

• 6 boneless sea bream fillets (skin on)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves (minced)
• Juice of 1 and a half  lemons 
• Black pepper 

1. Place the fillets in a bowl and rub salt (to taste) on both sides
2. In another bowl mix the olive oil, garlic and lemon juice well. Pour this over the fillets and rub in well
3. Grind the black pepper over the fillets, cover and set aside to marinade for about two hours
4. Add a little oil into a non-stick frying pan and place on a medium high heat. When hot, put the sea bream in skin-side down and cook for 2-3 mins (until the skin is crispy).
5. Turn the fish over and cook for a couple more minutes until completely cooked

Serve with peas or samphire (we had that) and small roasted potatoes or  wholegrain rice for a healthier alternative.

* Please comment below with your family meal favourites.

The post Family Meal Inspiration for 2019 appeared first on The Parent Social.

Recipes to try

We’d only ever had the sunshine vegetable rice but Tilda sent me over their vegetable & wholegrain, cheese and tomato and mild & sweet curry rice along with some recipe cards. Here are the two we tried…

Taco rice boats

Ours are slightly modified!

Ingredients

• 1 pouch Tilda Kids Cheese & Tomato Rice
• 1 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
• One pack (160g) chopped flavoured chicken (BBQ flavour is suggested)
• 1 small tin BBQ baked beans (200g)
• 1 pack Taco Trays
• Salt and pepper
• Grated cheese

For the method click here

I couldn’t find the crunchy taco trays so we used the stand up soft tortillas from Old El Paso. These worked very well as boats as they are roomy, and crisp up a bit after being microwaved for just 30 seconds. I used normal baked beans as opposed to BBQ ones. They are very fun to eat and were a big hit. My eldest is the fussiest of the three and she absolutely LOVED these! I think the BBQ chicken added a bit too much smokiness to the overall flavour, so I now use plain chopped chicken. Taco boats have become a firm favourite: Family Meal Inspiration.

Turkey and sweet curry rice pasties (a bit like samosas)

Ingredients

• 1 pouch Tilda Kids mild & sweet curry rice
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 200g turkey mince
• 2 tbsps. apple sauce
• 1 tsp. Marmite
• 2tbsps. spicy tomato chutney
• 25g grated carrot
• 1 pack puff pastry
• Salt and pepper
• 1 beaten egg for the glaze
• Flour (for rolling out the pastry)

For the method click here.

I omitted the apple sauce and replaced the spicy tomato chutney with some ketchup. They were easy to make (even with my helpers) and looked good when done. They were well received by two out of three children. My husband and I really liked them as they were full of flavour. I would certainly make them for adults also. I particularly liked the fact that they used turkey mince as it’s a healthy alternative.

The post Rice Dishes for Children appeared first on The Parent Social.

The to-do list

• • Get photos printed – actually print out the photos that are on memory cards and then put them into frames and actually put them up around the house. I also want to update the girls’ albums – something I haven’t done for about two years!
  • Do the small niggly home improvements – Not renovating rooms or anything, but stuff that’s easy to do and would actually make a difference: replace all the lightbulbs that aren’t working around the house (there are many), change old sockets and finally get round to filling in the holes in the walls left behind when we replaced curtains with shutters
  • Get bedding that actually fits the bed – I mistakenly bought a super kingsize mattress for our queensize bed. It was an old bed so we got a new one to accommodate the huge mattress, but didn’t replace the bedding. For months my head’s been falling down the gulf between the pillows and the bedsheets have continually pinged off making it really uncomfortable. For someone that has very broken sleep anyway, it’s bordering on the masochistic. My first to-do list tick. The only thing I’ve hit the sales for. Massive bargains to be had in the world of bedding 
  • Draft a will – Matt and I keep saying we have to both do one. We never quite get round to it. It’s really important when children are involved, so 2016 is going to be the year

• Car maintenance – Get the re-occurring car window problem fixed whilst the parts and labour are still under warranty – second week of January got this to-do ticked off
• Sell more stuff at Mum2Mum Markets and online – I need to declutter and sell anything that isn’t suitable for charity shops. Always nice to make some extra cash in the process; I’ve been quite successful in the past. I wrote about it here
• Expand my recipe repertoire – I’d like to set aside an evening or two with the cookery books to get some family meal inspiration. The meal planner needs updating!
  

  

• Get an additional book shelf – The girls have always had loads of books, but following birthdays and Christmas they have a lot more and they’re stating to clutter. Sofia has a big book case and Maria and Gabriella already have two of the lovely Star Book Ledges from the Great Little Trading Company (GLTC) and they’re great.They are also rather pricey. I need to get at least another one and I am currently stalking the GLTC website in the hope that they are put into the sale
• Make a dental appointment – my dental practice doesn’t ever send reminders. The upshot is, rather embarrassingly, it’s been rather a while since my last visit

The post The 2016 To-do List appeared first on The Parent Social.

If we haven’t had any green veg that day I do some green beans with it, otherwise it’s just crusty bread to dunk. We also love to have the leftovers the next day served with rice.

The children love helping out in the kitchen, but this requires some quite difficult cutting so you may want to just get the older ones involved.

Pork, Chorizo and Cannellini Bean Stew

Ingredients (serves 5) 

• 850g pork shoulder steaks/pork shoulder
• 400g tin cannellini beans
• 250g of cooking chorizo (chorizo ring or several packs of the ready chopped)
• 2  x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 large red onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 teaspoons paprika

Method

1. Slice the pork into strips and fry off in a casserole dish (which has a lid) until brown all over. Remove from the pan and drain off the fat
2. Cut the chorizo into small chunks (or use the ready cubed) and add to the pan, brown off for two minutes then add the chopped onions, four teaspoons of paprika and the chopped garlic. Fry for a further two minutes until the onion has softened
3. Add the pork back to the pan along with ½ a pint of water and the tinned tomatoes. Season to taste
4. Simmer for one hour on a low heat with the lid on. Then remove the lid, add the cannellini beans and simmer for a further 30 minutes

Check out some other great family meals here

You might also like:

Bake alongs with friends on Zoom 

Easy Taralli Recipe (savoury) 

Fuss-free Food for Children – Salmon

The post Pork, Chorizo and Cannellini Bean Stew appeared first on The Parent Social.