Quickest meals to get on the plate

[namechangedforthecraic]

I'm looking for the holy grail of family meals - plates of food (not necessarily recipes just combinations of things that go together) that are next to instant to make, fairly wholesome, kids will eat, can be scaled up to feed a horde! Looking for things that cook themselves in the oven or slow cooker with no need for chopping or prepping or standing over a pan. Or ready made things that throw together in a pleasing way!

Current meal plan since start of term still leaves me feeling like I'm spending too long in the kitchen - too many other demands in our busy house - and I feel run ragged by the time meal time is over!

Ready made falafel, hummus, flatbreads and salad.

Roast chicken thrown in the oven, couscous with whatever you have around thrown in - the chicken needs no attention and the couscous takes about 5 minutes to prepare.

Jacket potatoes. Tuna mayo, beans, cheese, leftover chilli or curry...so many options.

Always cook a double portion of things like stew, pie filling, bolognaise, curry so one goes in the freezer for a lazy/busy day.

Tuna pasta - tuna, spring onions, mayo, pasta. Add frozen peas or sweetcorn if you like.

Bagged salad as the easy veg to go with most meals.

Falafel or haloumi with packet couscous (any type but I like lemon and coriander) and I steam some veg or just some peas and mix it through the couscous. If I have any in and I fancy it il then drizzle a little bit of sweet chilli sauce over it all.

It sounds boring but actually it's really nice.

Throw a pie in the oven with microwave new potatoes and frozen veg, Spag bowl in the slower cooker, Curry in slower cooker. Chilli in slow cooker, Pulled pork in slow cooker with pitta bread and salad, Jacket potatoes, tuna, beans or chilli. Fry up, Home made lasagna is quick with salad, Pasta bake with meatballs and garlic bread. Home made wrap pizzas, the children can get involved and they cook quickly. Omelette, spiced chicken breast with wedges and frozen veg or salad. I’m all for quick and easy. DH is the better cook in our house.

If you can have a chopping prep session there are loads of dump and go meals for the slow cooker

Or this you just stick it all in the bag and put it in the oven then either eat it on its own or serve it over something.

www.maggi.co.uk/products/maggi-juicy-sweet-chilli-halloumi-recipe-mix-44g/

We use only one block of halloumi but then put loads of frozen peas, sliced green beans and other veg so it's a bit healthier but also cheaper to make.

Serve it over couscous or something else like rice or even potatoes and Dp adds a pork chop or something but I just have it and the couscous

Ok so have thought about my “Chuck on a plate” meals.
-hot smoked salmon fillets & a tin of mixed beans. Sometimes bulked out with microwave baby potatoes. The hot smoked fillets have a slight taste of hotdogs about them so go down surprisingly well with kids if you remove skin. I eat them cold.

Chicken fillet wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cheese with whatever veg you fancy

Pasta with stir in sauce and Frankfurters (sounds weird tastes lovely and takes 10 minutes

Quesadillas - two tortilla wraps, beans in chilli sauce and cheese. Fry for about 5 minutes.

Chicken pesto pasta - shredded chicken (pre cooked) pesto, springs onions, red pesto, a bit of stock and creme fraiche. Takes ten minutes.

Meat & roasted veg (pre packaged).

oh yes pasta bake, we mix in frozen peppers / sweetcorn, any chopped leftover meat / ham etc - jar of water, cover and bake - yum

Most of our meals are like this at the moment as we have a newborn and have exhausted all the batch cooking I did pre-birth and some stuff that neighbours kindly brought round for us. So now we’re mostly back to things on toast.

Other things:

• Packet of stir fry and shop bought sauce, egg noodles. I just have the veggies, DH sticks some cooked chicken or a few prawns in in for himself
• Fry some spring onions, frozen chopped peppers, frozen peas, whatever veg you have (I use sesame oil if I have it but any oil is fine). Bit of garlic and chilli - the lazy jarred stuff is fine. You could throw in ham, chicken, prawns etc. Packets of micro rice in the pan and an egg, soy sauce.
• Buy ready prepped roasting veg, you can also get them frozen. Whack them in the oven with some balsamic vinegar over them and any flavourings you can be bothered with - garlic, herbs etc. Add cherry tomatoes for last 5-10 mins. Stir through cooked pasta, crumble some feta cheese in.
• Roasted veg as above stirred through pasta with jar of sauce (Lloyd grossman tomato and chilli is a favourite here).
• Fry frozen chopped onion, garlic chilli and ginger (I buy the frozen cartons of those too), tin of chickpeas, jar of curry sauce. Micro rice or shop bought paratha or naan.
• Shop bought falafel, flatbreads, hummus, salad
• Higgidy quiches are pricey but gorgeous, I love the caramalised onion one with oven chips and a token salad
• Melty middle fishcakes, shopbought mash (or frozen), frozen peas
• Fishfinger sandwiches, I like them on white bread but DH makes them on a wrap with iceberg lettuce and mayo and that’s weirdly nice too

This is super quick and easy, can be adapted to whatever veg you have and is really tasty. I use the garlic and herb Philadelphia for extra flavour. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/quick_broccoli_pasta_07412

If I need to be lazier then that I cook the pasta, throw some frozen peas or spinach in for the last few minutes, then drain (keep a bit of the cooking water in there though) and stir a tub of Philadelphia through. Loads of black pepper.

There’s always just cooked pasta with a load of bitter and black pepper too!

I don’t eat meat anymore but fondly remember/ miss the Aunt Bessie chicken, leek and bacon pies. I once cried because the shop had run out (pmt + hangover). Great with frozen roasties and a bit of veg.

This is so good thank you. I've recently discovered frozen mash - absolutely genius. I thought it would taste horrible but it's fine isn't it! Forgot gnocchi though!
I love to cook from scratch normally but my inclination to do so has been sapped from me as the number of dependents in this house needing me to do something at any one time has risen over the past few months. Great ideas here.

Bacon lardons thrown into a cold pan and fried to cooked. Boil kettle. Add chopped mushrooms or baby mushrooms to pan if veg are required. Boil pasta - fresh pasta is super fast. Add a jar of pesto rossa sauce to pan to heat through. Drain pasta, toss into pan and stir through the bacon and sauce. On table in roughly 6-8 minutes if fresh pasta, 12 minutes if dried pasta.

That’s my utterly fastest go-to.

If you have an oven that you can set to turn itself on, one pan roasts are great- meat, veg and even potatoes in 1 tray, or meat and veg together and baby potatoes roasting in another for 45-60 minutes.

Chorizo potatoes
Slice up half a Lidl chorizo, Chuck in oven proof dish with 1 pack of Lidl lardons. Add baby potatoes - chop if necessary to make them relatively even in size. Toss together with a jar of tomato and chilli sauce. Bake for about an hour until potatoes are cooked through. Very useful to set up the night before and have cooking on timer for shortly after you get in at night.

@namechangedforthecraic

This is so good thank you. I've recently discovered frozen mash - absolutely genius. I thought it would taste horrible but it's fine isn't it! Forgot gnocchi though! I love to cook from scratch normally but my inclination to do so has been sapped from me as the number of dependents in this house needing me to do something at any one time has risen over the past few months. Great ideas here.

Just so you know frozen veg is not only cheaper and pre chopped but it’s health benefits either normally match or far exceed their fresh counterparts (as long as you don’t boil the hell out of them and lose the vitamins!) that is because as soon as you cut veg it begins to immediately degrade and lose its vitamins and minerals just like any plant so cut flowers would be a good example of being able to see the same process but freezing halts that and locks it in the state it was I. When it was frozen.

Long post basically saying use frozen veg, don’t feel guilty because it’s actually healthier for the dependents!

Cooking sauce is your friend.
Tin of red wine sauce, bag of cubed beef, frozen onion. Slow cooker. End of day you can either cook noodles or micro rice or defrost mash.

Spanish chicken sauce also delicious but I'm not keen on slow cooked chicken so would pop that one in the oven at the end of the day rather than cooking all day. Delicious with rice.

Great thread!

Sausages in the oven served with veg stew (pack of pre-cut casserole veg cooked in veg stock) and some bread. 20 mins.

Couscous in hot water. Chopped carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn (different veg in different bowls for my fussy lot). Stir in the couscous and some mint sauce and lemon juice, fresh herbs if you have them. Blob of houmous on top and toasted pitta on the side. 10 mins.

Anything in the slow cooker is great. Chuck it in. Leave it. Eat it.

We do mixed bean quesadillas. Ping beans (we get the ones in chilli sauce) in microwave and give a quick mash, chop avocado. Put beans, avo and cheese in a tortilla, Fold over and fry in 2 mins, 2 in pan at time. Takes less than 10 mins to make 6, frying pan is easy to wash after!

Omlette
Fresh pasta
Jacket spuds in oven on a timer /all day on a low heat
Fish fingers and potato waffles all done in a toaster
Microwave rice and chilli/curry that you have previously made

@BikeRunSki

Omlette Fresh pasta Jacket spuds in oven on a timer /all day on a low heat Fish fingers and potato waffles all done in a toaster Microwave rice and chilli/curry that you have previously made

Fishfingers in toaster who knew?!

Taking the lid off slow cooker for last 30 mins to an hour can help it thicken up.
Agree with a pp about dolmio creamy Tom pasta sauce. We add chopped matesons pork sausage or chorizo. Delicious!

I often chop and roast a selection of veg (maybe cauliflower, potato/sweet potato and tomatoes). Bung in the oven with oil and spices and do some more work for about an hour, then serve with either bulgur wheat (prepare while you're prepping the veg, then leave to soak/absorb while the veg cooks). We have it with fresh herbs, sometimes yoghurt, some kind of chilli sauce and anything like feta/olives/little pickled peppers that I can find in the fridge.

You could use pre-chopped veg if you're pushed for time, or batch-chop and freeze your own at the weekend or whenever you have the chance.

So useful to know about frozen mash going straight onto cottage pies etc!

Baby plum tomatoes cut in half and roasted in the oven for 20 mins.

Boil some Spaghetti pasta and when boil mix it with bousin or Philadelphia cheese.

Pan fry some thin slices of chorizo.

Plate the spaghetti, add the tomatoes on top and the chorizo.

Sometimes I add chicken also

@NW2SW, you need to put them in a toaster bag.

Tray bakes. No faffing, protein, carb and veg all on one tray. Add some tomatoes for juice.

There's loads of recipes on line for inspiration.

Fussy eaters can just eat the bits they like. Green veg in microwave.