I often get people asking me what William will eat and what we have for dinner, I also love seeing what other families eat and getting new ideas, and being reassured that my food is relatively normal. At three, I seem to have a child that will honestly, eat almost anything. Don’t hate me, we have problems in other areas! I’m not sure if he will get fussier later, but for now, I’m definitely embracing that. I very rarely cook anything different for him than for the adults. Here are the family meals that I cook in rotation for everyone, including the three year old. I hope they give you some inspiration and I’d love to hear what your family eats as I’m always looking for new recipes to try that don’t require me being tied to the kitchen for hours.
The things I look for in a good family meal are:
- Easy and relatively quick (under an hour, but the easier and quicker the better)
- Can be eaten by the whole family (ie. not too spicy or exotic!)
- Good nutrition (healthy, low fat, good balance, with some vegetables in it)
- Bonus points if it can be cooked in bulk and frozen as I do love a bit of a batch cooking to make life super easy.
If you’d like any of these recipes or more details, just let me know in the comments as I’d be happy to share.
Breakfast
- Cereal with whole milk. Currently wheat hoops, but sometimes rice crispies or corn flakes. I try to go for a healthy cereal not coated in sugar.
- Toast with jam.
- Ham slices.
- Blueberries, apple, tangerine.
Lunch
- Beans and sausage (half a tin) on toast (one piece usually).
- Ham and cheese sandwich, usually disassembled and eaten in segments.
- Pepperoni, salami, ham, cheese and fruit plate.
- Omelette, usually with ham and some veggies mixed into it.
- Pasta with a tomato passata sauce.
- Soup – he likes chunky soup best, with bread and butter.
- Leftovers from any of the dinners I cook!
Dinner
- Lasagne with Chips and Peas or Corn on the Cob
- Shepherd’s Pie with Broccoli, Green Beans or Peas
- Spaghetti Bolognese
- Chilli con carne with Rice and Sour Cream
- Chilli Nachos with Salsa, Sour Cream and Guacamole
- Chicken Tikka with Rice and Naan Bread
- Chicken Korma with Rice and Poppadoms
- Build Your Own Chicken Fajitas with Stir Fry Vegetables
- Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) with Root Vegetables
- BBQ Chicken Breast with Chips and Peas
- Battered Fish (usually cod), Chips, Mushy Peas, Tartare sauce and Lemon (yes, he loves lemon!)
- Pizza (He loves pepperoni but will eat any topping)
- Sausage, Beans, Fried egg and Chips.
- Gammon, Pineapple, Fried egg and Chips.
- Barbecue – Burgers, Sausages, Kebabs, Coleslaw, Corn on the Cob.
- Puff Pastry Topped Pie – Meat or Minced beef with layers of potato, onion and gravy.
- Roast Chicken Dinner, with Roast Potatoes, Parsnips, Broccoli, Peas, Stuffing, Sausage Meat, Yorkshire Puddings and Gravy.
That’s the bulk of my standard kitchen repertoire! Chips are always oven chips done in the air fryer, which is my number one kitchen purchase since he was born. They are so much better than done in the oven and I use it for a ton of other things too. I have this air fryer and it’s under £50 on Amazon.
There are a few things he simply won’t eat and they are:
- Pork Chops / Pork tenderloin (he loves gammon but just chews these and then spits them out)
- Cauliflower (gets spat out immediately)
- Mash Potato
- Jacket Potato (something about the texture with these two apparently so for potato we mostly eat chips).
Dessert
- Fruit Bowl (usually containing strawberries).
- Ice Lolly (usually a rocket lolly or something cheap and cheerful).
- Ice Cream (only occasionally).
- Yoghurt.
So that’s my family cooking really – on the majority of days you can find us eating something from this list, but every now and again I like to cook something new, and occasionally it becomes a regular. Do you cook anything off this list? What are your top family meals?
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