A collaboration between Finlee and Me and Fountain
I don’t know about you, but between working full time, school pick up/drop off and after school extra curricular activities, I struggle to find easy dinner recipes that will satisfy everyone’s needs. In addition to being time poor, I like many Australian families have around five dinner recipes on rotation and to be honest I need to add some variety to our meals because I’m sick of the same old thing.
So you can imagine how excited I was when Fountain reached out and wanted to collaborate together with their Australian variety sauce range. This was a prime opportunity for me to finally sit down and create 5 new easy dinner recipes that I could turn into meals for Finlee, Chloe, hubby and I.
With 2 small kids (Finlee 7 and Chloe 4) my primary objective was to create easy dinner recipes. I don’t have time to be chopping, dicing, blending etc.
I need quick.
I need easy.
And I need awesome family dinner meals that everyone will love; especially Finlee who is such a fussy eater.
Since Fountain offers a variety of sauces that can be used as a recipe base, a finishing sauce, marinade or dipping sauce I knew my options were endless and I started my creations.
Easy Dinner Recipes
I sat down with the family and talked with everyone about what they wanted to eat over the next 7 days. I’ve always found that when I include the kids in meal planning or even helping cook the meals they feel like they’ve been included and because of this, they’ll at least try what I make. In addition, if I include a couple of meals they love, it’s easier to talk about the new meals as everything for the entire week won’t be new; thus I had spaghetti and hamburgers on our list for this week.
After much discussion between our family, we decided on lamb, chicken wraps, ribs, chicken wings and steak as our new items. As the school year is in full swing, I wanted to make things easier on myself so I decided that all our new meals would be cooked on the BBQ to reduce the mess in the kitchen.
Family Meal Recipe #1 – Satay chicken wraps with fruit side serving
This is a super easy and super delicious meal.
Step 1: Place chicken and Fountain Satay Sauce in a sandwich bag and let marinade for the day.
Step 2: Place chicken on BBQ (or in the oven or cook on stove) to cook.
Step 3: While chicken is cooking cut up your fruit and veg and place on platter.
Step 4: Call everyone to the dinner table and dig in.
***Please note – as I was introducing new foods to Finlee and Chloe, a trick I’ve implemented over the years is to place the food on a tray for them to pick what they want to try; this works a treat. ***
Family Meal Recipe #2 – Steak, baked potatoes, cucumber with a side serving of watermelon after dinner
I love steak and I love a good baked potato, so this meal hit the spot for me.
Step 1: Place steak and Fountain Steak Sauce in a sandwich bag and let marinade for the day.
Step 2: Place steak on BBQ (or in the oven or cook on stove) to cook.
Step 3: While steak is cooking, poke holes in your potato and then place in the microwave to cook for 3 minutes and then then flip and cook for another 3 minutes. In addition, simply cut up your fruit and veg and place on platter.
Step 4: Bring everyone to the dinner table and enjoy your meal together.
Family Meal Recipe #3 – Ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw, with a side serving of watermelon and mango after dinner
Sweet chili is my all time favorite sauce and when you pop it on ribs; it’s to die for.
Step 1: Place ribs and Fountain Sweet Chili Sauce in a sandwich bag and let marinade for the day.
Step 2: Place ribs on BBQ (or in the oven or cook on stove) to cook.
Step 3: While ribs are cooking, place corn on the cob in a pot of boiling water to cook, cut up your fruit, open up the store bought salads and place on platter. Again, I’m trying to keep meal times as stress free and simple as possible so when in doubt buy some store-bought salads to make your life easier.
Step 4: Call everyone in from outside and enjoy some family time together while you enjoy a beautiful meal.
Family Meal Recipe #4 – Lambs with french fries and salad, with a side serving of apples and blueberries after dinner
Lamb with mint sauce = nom, nom, nom.
Step 1: Place lamb on BBQ (or in the oven or cook on stove) to cook.
Step 2: While the lamb is cooking, cook french fries in the oven, make your salad, cut up your chosen fruit and place on platter.
Step 3: Let everyone know it’s dinner time and to come and enjoy the lamb. We used the Fountain Thick Mint Sauce as a finishing sauce vs a marinade (it’s the best!).
Family Meal Recipe #5 – Chicken wings, salad, veggie sticks and a side serving fresh fruit after dinner
Everyone know that soy and honey are the perfect combination when eating chicken wings.
Step 1: Place chicken wings and Fountain Soy Honey Sauce in a bowl and let marinade for the day.
Step 2: Place chicken wings on BBQ (or in the oven or cook on stove) to cook.
Step 3: While chicken wings are cooking, make your salad, cut up your veggies, fruit and place on platter.
Step 4: Call everyone in from outside and enjoy some family time together while you enjoy a beautiful meal.
Make Your Meal Times Quick and Stress Free with Fountain
As you can see from the meals I created above, using Fountain sauces made my meal planning and cooking simple, stress free and at the same time delivered incredible flavour to our meals – without the need for countless ingredients and hours of cooking!
I loved that even Finlee, the pickiest eater in the entire world took liking to all the family dinner recipes that I created.
Chloe my 4 year old, loving the ribs.
Fountain is a trusted and loved Australian brand and you’re able to purchase their selection of sauces from Woolworths, Coles and other selected independent grocers. Just look for their new coloured labels that now display key details such as whether a sauce is gluten free, has no artificial flavours, and even provides fun hints and tips on their labels as to how you can use their beautiful sauces.
To keep up to date with all the amazing flavours being created at Fountain, pop over and follow them on their Facebook Page – Fountain.
What new recipes would you like to introduce to your family? Let me know below as I’m always looking for new recipe ideas.
Have an awesome day,
Angela
About the Author
Angela is an author, entrepreneur, blogger, business coach, mental health clinician and most importantly a mother. She explores various topics related to parenting/children on her blog and also in her four books: 30 Days, 30 Ways for Mothers to Take Care of Themselves, 30 Days, 30 Ways for Connecting with Your Child , Healthy Snack Ideas for Kids and 30 Days of Christmas Cheer – A Month of Holiday Traditions and Memory Making.
