Fast & Easy: Three delicious family dinner ideas

For the past six months I’ve had my Ma living with us. I know for someone people that might be a bit of a nightmare, but it was kinda really lovely. I had to give up my office to make space for her bedroom, but that was really the only big change that happened. She was building a house, and while it built she resided with us.

But now the house is built and she’s moved out and into her new abode. Ah, I miss her already. Hubby is a shift-worker, and there’s a lot of nights that it’s just me and the girls. I liked having Ma around so one of us could be cooking dinner, while the other could bath the kidlets or stop the 400th meltdown of the afternoon.

Now, it’s back to normal life. I know there a loads of mothers that happily, and successfully deal with night times on their own every single day. I take my hat off to you.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been collecting quick and easy recipes or dinner ideas that I can cook over and over and over and over and over again without thinking. It should be a law anyhow, that all meals should be cooked within a short period of time, require as little washing up as possible and be completely stress-free {or atleast almost completely stress-free}.

Today, thanks to the gang at Coles, I’m bringing you 3 recipes that I think fit that bill. They’re meals that I’ve made many times before, that everyone likes and they don’t make me have a meltdown mid-cooking {because it’s happened}. I think I can even do these on nights I’m rocking {read: surviving} the cooking gig without an extra pair of hands around. They’ve also got that protein hit {I’ve used beef and chicken in the recipes below}, and all of Coles fresh meat is 100% Australian, and the beef has no added hormones and the chicken is RSPCA approved.

Gozleme

This one is always going to be a hit with my family. I grab gozlemes from the markets every Saturday morning for breakfast, but at $11 a pop, this is a much cheaper alternative. Plus, they’re so good for dinner.

DOUGH

400g Greek Plain Yoghurt
500g Self-Raising Flour
4 Tbsp Olive Oil

MINCE

500g Coles 5 Star Lean Beef Mince

2 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tbsp Tomato Paste

CHEESE FILLING

A good handful of Coles Baby Spinach
250g Feta Cheese {from the deli}
1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese

TO MAKE:

♥ Place all the dough ingredients into a ball. Mix until combined. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until completely combined. Divide dough into 8 equals parts.
♥ Cook mince in a small fry pan until all cooked through. Add cumin and tomato paste and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
♥ In a small bowl combine the spinach, feta and mozzarella.

TO ASSEMBLE:

♥ Roll out dough until it’s a circle just slightly bigger than your hand. Place 1/4 cup mince over your dough and top with some spinach and cheese mixture. Fold the dough over and seal at the edges.
♥ Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil into a fry pan {a skillet is great for doing more than one at a time}, and place the gozleme onto the pan. Cook for 3 minutes each side, or until golden brown. Serve with lemon.

SWEET POTATO AND ROSEMARY CHICKEN

This is so good. Hubby and I used to make this before kids, but love it still now. The recipe is for 4 people, but we honestly can serve our little family of four with just 2 breasts. Just adapt to what your family needs. The girls aren’t spinach fans {I can hide it in gozlemes and they love it, but not fresh like served here, so instead I’ll serve theirs with broccoli or avocado}.

INGREDIENTS

500g Sweet Potato, peeled and sliced into thin discs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp Olive Oil, extra {for cooking the chicken}
4 Coles RSPCA Approved Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup Chicken Stock
1 tsp chopped Rosemary {fresh from the fruit & vege section}
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
70g Coles Baby Spinach Leaves

Method

♥ Get your oven ready, by preheating it to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Please the sweet potato on the tray, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Place in the over to cook 20 minutes, or until golden.
♥ Place oil in fry pan over high heat, and cook the chicken for 4 minutes on each side. Place on a baking tray and place in the oven to cook for 10 minutes.
♥ In the fry pan that the chicken was cooking in, put the mustard, rosemary, lemon and stock and reduce for 3 minutes.
♥ Once everything is cooked, assemble the food on your plates. First the sweet potato, then the spinach, then the chicken and drizzle over the sauce.

ONE POT CHINESE CHICKEN

You can grab the recipe for this one here.

It’s so easy. I printed out the recipe and gave it to Hubby the other night {when I was off being all athletic doing Deep Water Running} and he made it with ease.

So there you have it. Three quick and easy, and affordable meals that the kids will eat and you will enjoy too.