The Best Family Friendly Recipes

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Our favourite family-friendly recipes

Sit down with the family for a delicious meal everyone will enjoy. Kids and grown-ups alike will love these beef and lamb recipe ideas including comforting pasta bakes, hearty roasts, homemade pizzas, and speedy stir-fries.

The best spaghetti & meatballs

It isn’t called the best spaghetti & meatballs for no reason. This recipe is consistently one of our most popular on the website. It’s quick and easy to make and the whole family will love it to.

Cheeseburgers with secret sauce

Our secret sauce is easy and guaranteed to be popular, it makes this cheeseburger that extra bit tasty and satisfying!

The best beef & lentil cottage pie

A twist on your classic cottage pie, we use a naturally sweet kumara topping and have added lentils, carrots & spinach to deliver a nutrient-packed mince mixture. We love this delicious go-to recipe, perfect to make ahead of time and frozen then used within three months for an easy go-to meal.

Hearty beef & orange stew

It's called Hearty Beef Stew for a reason. Packed with powerful flavours of orange and cinnamon to bring out the beautiful taste of the slow-cooked beef, we can't go past this one-pot wonder. Ease of cooking is at the core of this dish as the oven or slow cooker does all the hard work. Serve on-top rice, pasta or mashed potato with a serving of seasonal greens. Freeze leftovers or enjoy for lunch the following day.

Beef Lasange

We believe some things in life are worth taking a little time over, and lasagne is definitely one of them. It's one of the world’s most beloved meals, and for good reason; it’s tasty, rich, comforting soul food. This recipe makes a huge lasagne, so it’s great for a crowd – or make two smaller ones and freeze one.

Mexican-style mince

Our Mexican-Style Mince is super versatile and can be paired with rice, tacos, or wedges to name a few. For this recipe, we’ve paired it with corn chips, sour cream, and avocado.

Tasty mince with creamy mozzarella & basil parcels

Warm up a winters’ evening with these tasty mince parcels, the beautiful mix of mozzarella and basil is hard to turn down.

Kiwi lamb burger

This kiwi classic is a must! Get everyone to assemble their own, it's sure to be messy but extremely tasty.

Polpettone

As delicious as they are quick and easy to prepare, polpettone are large meatballs, similar to meatloaf, and are from Italy. Perfect for a cold winter evening!

On top of spaghetti

Mince is a favourite in Kiwi kitchens and we think this recipe will be your new go-to. Get the kids involved to help roll the meatballs and you’ll have dinner served in no time - but don't expect leftovers.

Family lamb stir-fry

With all the goodness of iron, carbohydrates, and minerals perfect for muscle recovery, this dish is perfect to serve up post-exercise. Quick, easy, delicious. Suitable for toddlers.

Beef steak wraps

Easy to prepare, this recipe is perfect to get the whole family involved. Form an assembly line and get little hands in your family to get creative and help put together the ingredients.

Beef schnitzel

Melt in your mouth beef, complemented by a delicious, tangy crunch - this beef schnitzel is the perfect mid-week meal, and even better with help from little hands in the kitchen.

Seared steak with spaghetti

We will happily eat pasta all year round but there is something extra tasty about summer pasta. The fresh tomatoes and herbs complement the seared steak beautifully.

Moroccan meatball feast

This meal is packed full of delicious Moroccan flavors and is sure to satisfy a hungry household.

Lamb and aioli pizza

This lamb pizza is easy to make and easier to eat - a great alternative to takeaways! Perfect for a dinner or lunch for two, or when entertaining - quantities could easily be increased to feed more people. Rump is the perfect cut of meat for this recipe – it doesn’t have too much fat on it so it’s easy to eat.

Nourishing Mexican beef bowl

A delicious and healthy deconstructed Mexican beef bowl, this recipe is sure to tick all the boxes. The mince packs the perfect flavour with just the right amount of spice. We love adding the coriander stalks to the mince for an extra depth of flavour. With a colourful mix of summer veges, don’t hold back on adding any that need to be used up from your fridge.

Sizzling Chinese-style surf & turf

Take a hot and spicy twist on the classic surf 'n' turf with this Chinese-inspired interpretation. The oysters only need to be warmed through so that they can soak up a soupcon of the flavour and not become tough bullets. Beware Chinese chilli sauce - it's fire-hot and for those who don't care for its tongue-blistering heat, replace it with sweet chilli sauce or a mix of half and half.

Mince fried rice

This beef fried rice is a one-pot meal that is both affordable and delicious. This recipe is super versatile, so if you don’t have some of the vegetables use what you have leftover in the fridge.

Magic mince

Versatile, quick, and delicious, mince is a Kiwi favourite. Easy to whip up for a variety of different meals, this is a recipe to always keep on hand.

Pulled beef nachos

You can't go past pull-apart beef, served with nachos, sour cream and coriander. Make sure to pass the lime wedges.

Ultimate Kiwi pie

You can't go wrong with a good kiwi favourite, the meat is slowly cooked to produce a pull-apart beef filling, encased in light flaky pastry.

Pasta Pie

A classic combination is remade into a creamy, family-pleasing pasta pie. This makes it perfect to slice for a light lunch, pop into a lunchbox, or take on a picnic. This version is made with leftover lamb.

Teriyaki beef bowl

Using our slow-cooked, melt in your mouth teriyaki beef and combining it with fresh veges such as carrot ribbons, avocado, and corn then combining with sushi rice, you have yourself the ultimate deconstructed sushi bowl.

Skewered Rogan Josh

These lamb Rogan Josh skewers are sure to satisfy all taste buds. Served with a delicious lemon and mint yoghurt sauce, naan bread, and raw veges.

Lamb pizza with fresh herbs

This recipe makes a little bit of lamb mince go a long way. The pizza bases are easy to make, or use ready-made bases or pita breads if you prefer. These can be made as individual pizzas but you could easily make one or two larger ones.

Greek lamb sausage rolls

Perfect for shared lunch or parties, these sausage rolls are no ordinary finger food. Tasty goodies are added to the lamb mince for the great Greek-style filling. Serve straight out of oven. They’ll be gobbled up very quickly.

Shepherd's pie

A classic with a Kiwi twist. The addition of kumara makes a change from the well-known potato topping - and we love the taste of lamb and kumara together. We bet the little ones in your family will love this meal just as much as you.

Lamb & barley soup

Packed full of veges and with tender lamb, this soup is convenient and versatile. Leave it to simmer on the stovetop and enjoy, or freeze to bring out when you don’t have time to cook.

Moussaka

This classic Greek dish is ideal any time of the year, and when prepared 1-2 days in advance, can be refrigerated until ready to bake.

Beef & Potato-Top Bake

Think of this dish as a delicious twist on a shepherd’s or cottage pot pie, using lovely chunks of beef (rather than mince), which are so tender they fall apart on your fork. Using cost-effective ingredients, it’s lovely and simple to make and tastes sensational.

Family Pasta Bake

One for the family for those Sunday nights, when all you really want is to chill out with a lazy meal in front of the television and a glass of wine, before the week roars into life the next day. Leftovers are great for heating up to make an easy family meal or office lunch the next day. Suitable for toddlers.

Posted by Shawn Moodie

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