Our Top 5 Family Meals

top 5 easy family mealsNow I’ll readily confess to not being the greatest cook, though I’ve got considerably better since becoming a mum. I don’t have much knowledge about food and food preparation, and with two small children, I don’t have a lot of time to devote to it either. So I look about for easy meals that I can make that feed all four of us. That’s not that easy, as the husband doesn’t eat fish, and is not too keen on many vegetables, and with Little Man, I need to make sure it’s something I’m happy to also feed to an almost one year old (both from a nutritional point of view, and the ease of him actually eating it as he feeds himself). He’s also allergic to eggs, so I need to steer clear of them. As luck would have it, Boo and I eat most things, so the girls don’t limit us in this house! Here are a few meals that seem to go down well with all the family, and are very easy for me to make:

face mealA Face

Stay with me on this one! Few meals are more popular with Boo than ‘a face’! Now, as in the photo, ‘a face’ meal always includes mash for the face and beans for the hair (and Little Man loves beans mixed into his mashed potato) and then facial features vary from using fish fingers, meatballs, sausages, vegi-sausages, whatever I have available really. Now, the husband and I eat the same meal, though I don’t actually make a face with ours. I’m dull like that..;-)!

Cheese & Ham Pasta

We like lots of different pasta meals here, and they always tend to be nice and simple. Spaghetti bolognaise and macaroni bake come close behind this one, but I think the cheese and ham just takes the lead. Put some pasta on to boil – we tend to go for penne or farfalle with this one, and then get going on the sauce. It’s just a knob of butter and a carton of double cream in a pan, add torn up pieces of 2-3 slices of ham (I sometimes go for chicken instead) and then add a cup of parmesan cheese. There’s your sauce made, so just add it to the pasta and you’re done.

puff pastry pizzasPuff Pastry Pizza

I got this recipe from the lovely thismummy and it’s become a firm favourite here. Boo loves helping me make it, too, and it only takes 5 minutes to prepare. We tend to have it with wedges or waffles so it’s very easy and delicious! Here’s the link to the recipe.

Braising Steak & Vegetables

Any meat and veg type meal goes down pretty well here. We tend to have mash, peas, carrots, sweet corn and Yorkshire puddings with our choice of meat, and if I’ve time, we’ll have roast potatoes and roasted parsnips, too. Braising steak goes down well as it’s so simple to prepare earlier and just leave in the oven, and the fact that it’s so tender makes it appeal to Little Man. He does have lots of teeth and can eat most things, but he’s not keen on tougher meat, whereas I know he’ll eat every morsel of this!

chicken pot pie cupcakesChicken Pot Pies

I found these on Pinterest and they are loved here! Really simple for me to prepare, too. You line 6 muffin tins with jus-roll puff pastry, then mix together cooked chicken pieces with peas, carrots, cheese and cold tin of chicken soup and share the mixture out amongst the 6 cases and there you have your pies. They’re yummy! Baked potatoes go well with these, as you can mix up some of the pie with them.

So, this has got me wondering, what are your family favourites? As I’m always on the lookout for new (easy!) meals to try, I’d like to create a linky with this post, and I’m going to start tagging other bloggers, who’ll hopefully go on to do the same, and that way we should get lots of easy (that word’s quite key for me!) family meals inspiration here. I do have a food board over on Pinterest, so I’ll be adding all links and tags over there, too. You don’t need to wait to be tagged, though, do feel free to link up any meal-related posts here, or add your suggestions to the comments section. Thanks in advance for your delicious recipes 🙂

To get the ball rolling, I will tag the following, and ask them to share their Top 5 Family Meals with us, and tag 3 other bloggers:

ThisMummy

TiasMum12

The Oliver’s Madhouse

And the linky is now open for any and all fab family meal ideas, so please do join in 🙂



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22 thoughts on “Our Top 5 Family Meals”

  1. These recipe ideas look fab. I’m always looking for healthy, inexpensive food for us as a family of five, and it’s really difficult sometimes to get the balance right. This blog-sharing post is a really great idea – I’m sure I’ll find some great inspirational dishes!

    1. You sound just like me, hence the blog link up! It’s great to hear tried & tested simple ideas from others, so hopefully we’ll get plenty here. Thanks for reading – we’ll keep our eyes on it!

  2. What fantastically simple ideas! Now, I love cooking but half the time just cannot be bothered so end up with junk food which is doubly terrible when thinking how my husband is a chef! I will definitely be using some of these ideas, thank you. Popping over from #pocolo

  3. Verily Victoria Vocalises

    I am loving those Puff Pastry Pizzas – what a great idea 🙂 I always used to do faces in Grace’s food. It hurt me the day she said that they were too ‘babyish’ for her now! Thanks for linking to PoCoLo last week – hope to see you again tomorrow 🙂 x

  4. Some great ideas here, that will definitely appeal to the kiddies…am particularly loving the beans and mash face! Thanks so much for linking up to the Parenting Pin it Party this week as well 😀

  5. I love the look of your little pot pies. Have you tried naan bread pizza, if you buy the garlic and coriander ones you only need to add tomato purée, cheese and a few tomatoes on the top. Taste amazing and are even better the next day, my husband takes them to lunch with him.

  6. Pingback: My Top 5 Parenting Life Hacks - Making Family Mealtimes Easier | The Reading Residence

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