10 Family Friendly Meal Idea

These are some of our favourite meals! If you’re in need of a little inspiration, hopefully these will help! If you want any of the recipes let us know in the comments below.

Chicken Fajitas

This is definitely a family favourite of ours. It’s a meal that our older 2 like to help cook too. Chop up some peppers and onions. Chop up chicken in to thin strips, or chunks…..or just use the pre cooked frozen chicken – up to you! Fry it all in the pan, with a little oil and add the seasoning – either your own or shop bought. We often have them with Mexican rice, cucumber, shredded lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream and guacamole all in a wrap. Occasionally we will add some crumbled up tortilla chips too!

Spaghetti Meatballs

We have a couple of pasta lovers in our family and one of the faves is pasta with meatballs. We don’t always have the spaghetti pasta though, as our Freckled Faces find it easier to eat other types of pasta. We almost always use beef meatballs and tomato based sauce – with peppers, courgette, onions….any other veg you can hide in the sauce! Can’t go wrong with a bit of garlic bread on the side too.

Italian Chicken

This meal was actually introduced to be by one of my cousins when I was ….in my early 20’s, I think!? Anyway all we do is place chicken breasts in a big dish add a tomato based sauce (similar to the meatballs sauce), cover with kitchen foil and pop it in the oven on 180°C for about 40mins (but always check the chicken, as it has an hour fifteen once!). Sometimes I’ll add breadcrumbs and grated cheese to the top and stick it under the grill for a few minutes. Serve it with mash potatoes and peas and enjoy!

Chilli Wraps

We usually make our Chilli in the slow cooker – that way I can prepare it in the morning and we can go and enjoy the day and come back and enjoy a nice cooked meal straight away!  I usually do a bit of rice too (although, for some reason I am absolutely useless when it comes to cooking rice!? I never get it right!), and grate some cheese. We always have a bit or sour cream and chives with it too. Yum! Just be careful not to over fill the wrap….it could get pretty messy!

Cottage Pie

In our cottage pie we use browned of beef mince, carrots, peas, sweetcorn and onions. We mix it all together along with gravy and some herbs. We put that in a big dish, then top it with mash potato and cook in the oven on 180°C  for about 25 minutes. We sometimes have Yorkshire puddings with them too!

Cheesy Broccoli Pasta

We boil some pasta, make a nice, creamy cheese sauce and chop up the broccoli pretty small. Once the pasta is done we put them all together in a big dish and mix it all up – the kids love that bit!  We then cook it in the oven on 180°C for around 15 – 20 minutes.

Jacket Potato Bar

A nice simple, quick and easy dinner! I give the potatoes a quick wash, prod them a couple times with a fork, wrap them up in foil (with a little oil…yeah- I just rhymed) and then cook them at 170-180°C fir 2-3 hours, depending on the size of the potatoes. Then there will be a variety of fillings – baked beans, cheese, tuna, chilli, etc. Then everyone helps themselves!

Stir Fry and Prawn Crackers

We put pieces of chicken, long stem broccoli, rice noodles, baby corn, mange tout and strips of peppers all in the wok. We add some sweet chilli sauce to it too. We always have prawn crackers with it it (bought from a shop).

Chicken Chow Mein

This is a meal I get a little lazy with. I use the pre cooked and cut frozen chicken. I make the chow mein sauce in a bowl and allow the chicken to defrost in the sauce. I usually use egg noodles, grate up a carrot or 2, chop up some cabbage and spring onions and throw it all in the wok with a little sesame seed oil and the chicken and sauce and job done, tick! It goes really well with a Chinese curry sauce and our love prawn crackers, so we have them with it too!

Hot Dogs

We use proper sausages as we aren’t really big fans of the hot dogs you get in a tin. We either grill them or put them in the oven – depending on whether we’re doing wedges with them or not. We use crusty rolls, usually the half backed ones and then we finish cooking them in the oven for about 10 mins. We have a variety of sauces – BBQ, American Mustard, Sweet Chilli Mayo, Mayo, Sweet Chilli Sauce, etc. We always have Corn-on-Cobs too….and Dave and the kids will put butter on theirs, but I prefer them without butter! How about you- how do you like yours??

Don’t forget – if you would like to know any of the recipes to any of these meals let us know in the comments below! ⬇️