5 quick non pasta based meals

[anothernotherone]

Totally lost my meal planning energy, such that it ever was, atm. One kid won't eat pasta at all even if he's really hungry - texture issues.

Can anyone fire 5 quick pasta based meals at me - I have to do the week's shopping this morning as I'm working Tuesday to Sunday and need to stop myself just buying beige freezer food out of total apathy!

Omelette s and salad
Fajitas
Bean chilli
Cheese and tomato rice with wraps or pittas
Scrambled egg rice

Fish fingers / chicken/ meatballs / anything else in wraps with salad or roasted veg

Chicken and roasted veg traybake with couscous. Couscous is super quick.

I roast or slow cook joints of meat at the weekend and portion out and fridge or freeze for adding to quick meals in the week

Stir fry (get as much of it ready chopped as you budget allows)

Burgers with choice of toppings

Quiche (bought in my case) new potatoes, salad/veg. Could also do frittata.

I made a very quick ratatouille last night. Probably not the most authentic recipe but it was quick, healthy and tasty.

Chop 1 onion in large pieces. Fry gently in olive oil.
Add large cubes of aubergine and courgette and fat slices of garlic. Fry gently for a while.
Add tin of chopped tomatoes, season with salt and herbes de provence or whatever. I would have added peppers too but I didn't have any. You can also put in a tbsp of balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, use fresh tomatoes, whatever you have in.
Put lid on and cook for about 20-30 mins until everything is soft.

We had it with chipolata sausages and it was all delicious. I'm looking forward to finishing it off tonight with a baked salmon fillet.

Rice and something in a sauce? Cous cous is even quicker. Throw chicken, potatoes and Meditteranean veg into a baking tray and cook for an hour. Fajitas, enchiladas etc are quick. Paella or risotto

Tabbouleh
Chick pea burgers in buns with salad
Fish finger sandwiches
Chick pea curry
Fish cakes using tinned salmon or tuna with veg.

Gnocchi traybake - into a large bowl, tip a bag of fresh gnocchi, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, a red onion (cut into wedges) and a red pepper cut into chunks. Drizzle over a couple of tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, then mix well until it's all coated in the oil.

Tip onto an oven tray, bake at around 180c for half an hour, or until it's golden and crispy. Serve over a bag of prepared salad, with some grated cheese (parmesan or cheddar) on the top.

Blatantly place marking for all your brilliant ideas!

I would need a big slow cooker I think, with a family of 5 none of whom are tiny tots... I think I'll revisit that idea in winter.

Obviously every family has things 2+ family members won't eat (don't they? I suppose we wouldn't if we didn't have dc3 dc1 eats everything except, oddly, veggiburgers, but dc2 is a little bit picky and dc3 though sits a lot of very ordinary meals out, he just doesn't eat if he finds the texture of a food unpleasant) so obviously not everything works for everyone, but there are loads of good options to pick out on this thread! I hope it's helpful for someone else too, perhaps.

I've shopped now and we're definitely having the chicken thighs and roasted veg, wraps with chilli (or ham and cucumber for child who won't eat mince because of the texture), sausages and new potatoes, pancakes with bacon and mushrooms, and the thread reminded me we haven't had jacket potatoes in months so we'll have those too. DD makes a mean quiche (ready made pastry but the rest herself) which even dc3 likes so that's on the list too. Those and one freezer meal will do the job for this week!

Child 3 won't eat rice either - except that he has recently started eating rice pudding, very gradually his range is increasing - so I'll have to try offering rice more again I think. I used to make risotto a lot - might be a good gateway rice as it's closer to rice pudding in texture than boiled rice. He's recently started eating scrambled eggs too, and quiche, having previously had a problem with all eggs, so egg fried rice is probably also worth a try!

Glad I started the thread

Put a jar of pasta sauce in a frying pan with a lid, add some chilli flakes, bring to the boil, makes holes and break an egg in each one. Put lid on, simmer until eggs are cooked (3-4 minutes). Serve with new potatoes and broccoli (this bit takes about 20 minutes).

Blatant place mark. I've decided to keep things simple over the summer holidays I'm going to have a standard 5 day menu for during the week - so one night fish, one night filled wraps etc.

But ready rolled puff pastry and top with things you know the kids will eat. You can do something almost pizza style (tomato sauce, cheese and toppings) or you could do something completely different. DS2 used to like it with caramelised onion, tomato and goats cheese (then he was diagnosed with coeliac disease and also decided that he doesn’t eat onions).

Will they eat giant cous cous? You can roast veg and mix that through.

Chicken grilled (or fried) in teriyaki sauce (made from soy sauce, sugar and mirin, garlic and ginger - although it is fine without the mirin if you don’t have any) is very quick and goes down well with all the fussy children in my life. You can serve it with lettuce wraps rather than rice. Or in Chinese style pancakes if you wanted to.

Re the slow cooker I have a Crockpot - 6.5l and that feeds 3 adults, a pre-teen who eats like an adult if allowed and a very fussy 7 yr old.

Just thought of another one.
Boil some frozen mixed veg, add some instant noodles, add some shredded chicken/prawns/omelette, whatever you fancy. I flavour it with soy sauce, and a bit of ginger, garlic and chilli flakes but you can use more authentic chinese flavours if you wish.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastedsausageeand39127

This is one of our favourites. It's a Mary Berry recipe. You can replace the wine with chicken or veg stock. It's a one-pan, chuck it in the oven recipe, my favourite kind.

Hot wraps or paninis - chuck a load of stuff on a roasting tray (chicken, fish whatever and a load of veg), add seasoning (just buy a packet or pre-made marinade sauce if you don't have time), when done, stir up, whack into a wrap or panini, sprinkle some cheese, add salad if you want!

This one is always a hit and very easy and quick - boil new potatoes while cooking the chicken

summerinwrinter

If quick is the criteria, you’d probably be better off with a pressure cooker than a slow cooker. It’s amazing what you can make in 30 mins in a pressure cooker.

Spanish omelette, stir fry, bolognaise, sausage and mash and veg, pork belly with new potatoes and green beans

Crispy fried egg over golden veg rice. Takes less than ten minutes using frozen rice. I usually add a good spalsh of Worcestershire sauce.

www.budgetbytes.com/

I can also usually find quick and tasty meals on here. Nice for me because its scalable on the site so I don't have to do recipe maths!

I batch cook veggie chilli (tinned tomatoes, frozen sweetcorn, kidney beans, black beans, red peppers, onions, celery, garlic, carrots, cumin, smoked paprika and chipotle powder) and freeze

I'll defrost a few servings and serve with baked sweet potatoes (cut in half, they cook in 25 mins) and maybe guacamole or tortilla chips

Super filling, fun and nourishing come summer or winter

Also look into getting an Instant Pot.

It's a pressure cooker so can make one pot meals in minutes. Has a keep warm setting too, I use mine for porridge, soups, pasta sauces, stews, chilli, etc

Googling instant pot recipes will show you a goldmine of quick delicious food!

Qwertyguerty those instapots are 50€ off as a prime day deal - I just read some reviews and they work as slow cookers or pressure cookers! My fussiest child does love soup! Ideally wouldn't shell out 80€ on a kitchen appliance today as I've been spending rather too freely this month and wasn't aiming to by anything else til next month, and I hadn't even thought about buying a slow cooker or pressure cooker when I woke up this morning... should think about it and decide next month but then the price will be 50€ more!

Hmmm

*buy not by