Family Lunch Ideas: One Dish the Whole House Will Eat

For most families, the hard part of lunch isn't the cooking. It's the question every morning: "What are we eating today?" Then finding one answer that works for the kids, the adults and Teta.

This is a simple way to plan a week of family lunches, with one dish a day that everyone eats.

Plan the week, not the day

Sit down once, on Saturday or Sunday, and choose five lunches. It takes ten minutes and saves you the same question every morning. Write the list on the fridge so nobody asks again.

Mix it up

A good week has a bit of everything. One stew with rice, like fasolia, bamieh or molokhia. One stuffed dish, like warak enab or kousa mahshi. One chicken dish. One lighter day, with mujadara or a big salad. And one dish the kids choose, which makes the other four easier.

Dishes most kids and adults both like

Some dishes work at almost every family table: kafta with potatoes from the oven, moghrabieh with chicken, pasta with meatballs, kibbeh bil saniyeh, and rice with chicken and nuts. Keep strong flavours on the side, like hot sauce or pickles, so everyone adds what they want.

Cook once, eat twice

Stews like fasolia and bamieh taste even better the next day. Cook a bigger pot and keep half for tomorrow. Make the rice fresh each time, though. Rice doesn't keep as well.

Keep a plan B in the freezer

Some days just go wrong. A sick child, a late meeting, no time at all. A few bags of sambousek or a kibbeh tray in the freezer will save those days. Our guide on how to cook frozen Lebanese food shows what's worth keeping.

When you don't want to cook at all

If you're feeding three or more people and you'd rather not cook every day, our family meal plan does it for you. Chef Mahaba cooks one dish for the whole household, and you choose it each day from the weekly menu. It costs less per person than separate plans, and we deliver in Beirut, Metn and Keserwan.

Chef MahabaFounder, Mahabati Catering

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