What meals do you repeat each week?

[ilovepete]

I am thinking of trying a more simplified menu around here instead of always having to think of what to make and plan, right now that is the hardest part for me.

So, I am wondering, what meals do you eat each week without fail? What does your family always request? Just trying to get ideas that I may not have considered.

So far, I asked my family, and they said:
Hawaiian Chicken
Spaghetti (well, for two of them, the other two don't like it and prefer cream sauces)
Tacos

I want to know what your family loves so much they could eat it every week!

 

[tasha99]

We don't really now, since it's just me and my son. Wayyy back in the day when we were a family of five though, we had Mexican food of some sort, spaghetti, fried rice and stir fry, and pinto beans with corn bread every single week. It did save money to cook that way.

 

[cornflake]

Agree with the Mexican - either or both (on different days), quesadillas (they're so flexible, can stick anything in a quesadilla, and it's 15 minutes and can make a variety, cut 'em all up and everyone gets to try some of all), and a bean and rice and spinach dish.

Pasta - usually either a spring pasta with broccoli, asparagus, artichoke hearts, peas, in lemon and garlic, or red sauce with smoked mozzarella and broccoli and stuff.

Also, if you don't do this, I'd work on the basic stuff that you all like that use the same things, so you can know you've stocked up on stuff that's versatile for you, so that planning is more - X or Y, and you pull out the ingredients for that, rather than 'huh, what to do...'

Like, for instance, the quesadillas above. Sometimes, I also make a baked enchilada thing. I can use the same tortillas, same refried beans, same cheese, same salsa, for both. I can use different things in and for either too, but if I have that stuff, I could make either. I can also make sandwich wraps out of the tortillas (I generally keep nice spinach and whole wheat tortillas hanging around).

If your family likes .... potatoes... you have a bunch of potatoes you can do loaded baked potatoes for dinner, or slice 'em and make a gratin, or etc.

If you like, say, chicken fajitas and you also like ceasar salads and you also like I dunno, fettucini alfredo with chicken as staples, then you'd grill a boatload of chicken breasts and slice some and freeze so you have that for any of the above, so it's that X or Y, where you also keep pasta, lettuce, peppers, tortillas, etc., as staples and just have to pick a dish and assemble.

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

A lady I worked with years ago bought the same groceries and cooked the same meals every single week. And this was from the time they were first married, with no kids! I know that's not what you're suggesting, but it brought her to mind.

When the rest of us were musing about what we might have for supper, she could rattle off what she was having, no trouble!

But to answer your question, my family could eat pizza at least once a week. We make it at home with purchased pizza dough, although sometimes I will make the dough from scratch.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

We started making tacos with ground turkey instead of ground beef, and it is the #1 requested dinner in our house.
Also, we do chicken parmesan...with chicken breast patties that I bake. Then, top with a spoonful of marinara and some grated mozz cheese. Bake for another couple of minutes. For the kids, I make pasta to go with it, but for me, I make steamed broccoli and put the red sauce over it with some grated parm cheese...YUM!!
Also, meatloaf is often requested here.

 

[reginaastralis]

I meal plan a month at a time, and have about 4 months planned out at a time. I just rotate it ... though I'm changing it up a bit for our current system.

We eat at home every.single.meal (sorry, I'm kinda tired about it) so I rotate about 45 meal ideas per month. I don't know if this is normal, but I wrote down five chicken, five beef, five pork, five asian and five mexican dishers (and so on) and then worked them into the calendar so I try not to have three beef dishes in a row. It sounds really weird typing it out, but it works. I plan a month grocery trip, but end up going every week because we go through so much milk.

I love pinterest for ideas of what we're going to eat.

 

[ilovepete]

OP here, but reginaastralis reminded me of something! I used to have a 6 week rotation going. So I had 6 weeks of different meals and then repeated. I had a second one for the winter months that I would switch out when it got cold. It worked great for a while, maybe I should go back to that? I don't know if that is really simplifying though and then stuff is requested that isn't in the plan and it always gets thrown off! I was hoping to just know what we'd be making and be able to keep most of it except the fresh ingredients on hand. Just for a while until things calmed down a bit or I get out of my idea/cooking rut!

 

[foltzy]

Tacos
Spaghetti
Pizza.
A whatever you want night (This is the night that I don't cook a big meal and they can have cereal, eggs, or whatever they want as long as it's a good food and not like ice cream or potato chips).
Then we usually have some kind of chicken each week but I prepare it different ways. Sometimes chicken parm, sometime chicken with Italian dressing, Lemon Pepper Chicken.
Sunday's is our big family meal, roast, lasagna home made mac and cheese with ham pieces, Things like that.

 

[jaminmd]

I do a pot roast every week. I slow cook it all day and it is absolutely delicious when I get home. One of the easiest things to make for a working mom & grad student. I then throw in a bag of birds eye steamed vegetables & I'm done.

I hate cooking, btw, so I'm always looking for easy to make stuff.

 

[Eliza32]

Chilli and bolognaise seem to figure a lot in our house!!! Also carpet picnics (bread, cheese, cooked meats like salami, pork pies*, sausage rolls** and scotch eggs***, olives etc) when I can't be bothered to cook.

*a minced pork filling in a hot water crust pastry with savoury jelly added (looks a bit like an apple crisp from CHH!!
** a log of sausage meat (pork, breadcrumbs, seasoning) wrapped in a roll of pastry, either flaky or shortcrust.
*** a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and deep fried like at Rose and Crown.

 

[ShortStuff]

When I had teens at home, who of course always invited extra people over to eat, we would once a week have noodles, shells, elbows, whatever shape you like. Boil the water, while waiting for it to boil, chop up 1/2 to 1 lb of polska kielbasa or other type sausage, one small onion, diced and one green pepper, diced.

In a skillet, cook the onion and bell pepper in some olive oil. When almost done to your liking, add the sausage and cook until it is lightly browned.

Drain the cooked noodles, add them back to the pot and add the sausage and vegies. Mix and serve. You can get as creative as you like, with other ingredients. This was always a big hit with fruit salad and french bread. My teens friends would ask what day I was making it and if they could come over to eat.

We also once a week did a taco night and breakfast for dinner, as we always had very busy mornings. Every other week or so we had meatloaf, bbq'd chicken (even in winter as we had a gas grill), baked chicken, homemade mac n cheese.

 

[janey99]

Like Reg, I try to rotate through several weeks. Every week I have

A pasta (chicken and broc w pesto, sausage and kale w rigatoni, lasagna, lasagna rollups, linguine w bolognese, or putanesca)

A breakfast for dinner (french toast, pancakes, eggs benedict, crepes, always with a giant fruit salad and sausage or bacon)

Meat, french bread, salad and a veg (meat can equal steak, rib roast, pork tenderloin, veal or lamb chops)

A chicken, veg and starch (includes asian stir fries, grilled chicken, all cuts, roasted whole chicken, kabobs. Starch can include naan bread, potato, polenta. Veg can be anything, we love vegetables)

Hotdogs, Hamburgers, macaroni & cheese and baked beans (DS4s pick!)

A casual sandwich (grilled cheese, reubens, BLT w avacado)

A fish, starch and veg (striped bass or tuna caught by DH, shrimp, lobster)

We also have homemade pizza regularly. In winter, I roll out my winter foods into the rotation - chili, stew, shepherds pie, meatloaf, a whole roster of soups.

I love meal planning - I could talk about this all day!

Funny how so many people have tacos regularly. They used to be in the rotation until one day the family sat me down and and said, we hate tacos, don't ever make them again!

Jane

 

[patsal]

Not the same exact recipe each week per se, but something like this:
Pasta with some sort of sauce--marinara, cream, or as a salad in summer
Mexican--could be tacos, burritos, taco salad, loaded nachos, fajitas, etc
Chicken twice per week--diane, with broccoli dijon, pistachio crusted, pine nut crusted with tomato sauce and cheese, etc
Pork once per week--could be chops, ribs, pulled with BBQ, etc
Beef once per week, usually grilled steaks but could be meatloaf, burgers, etc
Fish once per week--salmon, mahi mahi, flounder, swordfish, haddock, etc

Easy to shop, easy to prepare and no worries about eating the same thing everyday.

 

[Zhoen]

Chilli and bolognaise seem to figure a lot in our house!!! Also carpet picnics (bread, cheese, cooked meats like salami, pork pies*, sausage rolls** and scotch eggs***, olives etc) when I can't be bothered to cook.

*a minced pork filling in a hot water crust pastry with savoury jelly added (looks a bit like an apple crisp from CHH!!
** a log of sausage meat (pork, breadcrumbs, seasoning) wrapped in a roll of pastry, either flaky or shortcrust.
*** a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and deep fried like at Rose and Crown.

I am about to cry at my desk because of you. I haven't had a good pork pie in 28 years. That is not an exaggeration. I've learned to make sausage rolls and my cornish pasties are a thing of beauty... but pork pies continue to elude me.

I see you're in Yorkshire... I lived there when I was young and still dream of the cheese catherine wheels they that they still serve at lunch in the schools. Any idea how they're made?

 

[reginaastralis]

OP here, but reginaastralis reminded me of something! I used to have a 6 week rotation going. So I had 6 weeks of different meals and then repeated. I had a second one for the winter months that I would switch out when it got cold. It worked great for a while, maybe I should go back to that? I don't know if that is really simplifying though and then stuff is requested that isn't in the plan and it always gets thrown off! I was hoping to just know what we'd be making and be able to keep most of it except the fresh ingredients on hand. Just for a while until things calmed down a bit or I get out of my idea/cooking rut!

I don't know if it's "simpler" but it works for us. My boyfriend and I are both in school full time, he's working two jobs and we have our daughter who is in a ton of activities. I saw this on pinterest, but I have all of the menus, recipes and grocery lists in one binder. My boyfriend would eat anything you put in front of him, and my daughter doesn't really make requests, thank goodness. I'm trying to get our menu book finished at least through the end of fall semester, it just gets so nuts around here that sometimes I barely have time to even cook dinner.

 

[mombrontrent]

My husband would kill me I I cooked the same things on a weekly basis He grew up with a single father who only cooked the same few meals week after week year after year and he still talks about how boring it wasIf I make something more then once a month or so he will say "Didn't we just have this?" I really don't meal plan but I do tend to keep a stalked pantry and I do enjoy cooking so it's not to hard to come up with a variety of meals. Even favourites or staples are never made the same way twice, no recipes for me, I just cook and hope it turns out good which 95% or more of the time it does.

 

[LJSquishy]

I don't repeat meals each week, especially not on specific days, but we do have salad as a main dish once per week at a minimum (always with sliced grilled chicken, usually with feta cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts, and poppyseed dressing).

I don't cook a lot of pasta dishes, but I know a lot of people have pasta at least once per week, same with tacos.

 

[Mama2SweetGirls]

We eat breakfast every Sunday night here. I bake bacon in the oven while hashbrowns cook on the Foreman grill. While those are cooking, I throw together a fruit salad. And just as the hashbrowns and bacon are finishing I scramble the eggs. Easy and pretty cheap too! (And we never actually eat these kinds of breakfast foods in the morning, so we really enjoy it).

 

[si-am]

I don't repeat meals because I would be too bored with it. But I repeat "genres" I guess. Every week we'll have a seafood meal, a pasta, a chicken, etc.

 

[worm761]

We don't really repeat meals but we sort of do. We get in "ruts" where we eat one thing several weeks in a row. Pizza, tacos, homemade Chinese food, etc. I make a menu every two weeks. We stick to it for the most part. To stop the whole repeating, I have no clue what to put on the menu, I made a list of foods that we all like. Then I started trying some new meals. If we like it then it goes on the list. If not, it goes in the trash. I am a recipe hoarder though. I have recipes that I printed so long ago the paper is yellowing that we have never tried. Having that list on the computer really helps when making the menu. I also love Pinterest for new ideas. And SkinnyTaste.com. Love her!