What dinners can you get on the table in 45 mins…

[costerica]

…while looking after 3 children and not having been home before to prep?

So far I’ve got…

Sausage mash and veg
Fish fingers mash and beans
Jacket potatoes
Pasta pesto and peas
Chicken in breadcrumbs and wedges
Beans on toast
Toast pizza
Chickpea/prawn curry
Quesadillas
Filled pasta
Macaroni cheese
Pasta bake
Toasties

Omelettes with all the different fillings available. Chips or salad if you need to add more. Or even crusty buttered bread.

Most things!

Pasta, most sauces will be less than 45 mins
Fresh filled pasta and salad
Gnocchi
Meatballs
Chilli
S bol
Stir fry
Thai curry
Grilled chicken and salad
Hm tortilla pizza
Jacket potatoes
Freezer food

I don't think I ever spend more than 45minutes on dinner unless it's a roast that needs longer cooking! That said, I batch cook and freeze things like pasta sauce or curry, or a slow cooker is good for things like that if you have time to put it on in a morning.
Chicken & broccoli pesto pasta as an alternative to your peas
Stir fry
Roast veg tray bake with chicken or sausages (takes about 45min but once it's in the oven you can leave it)
Fajitas
Chicken & mushroom risotto
Ramen bowl
Oven fish & chips with peas
Fishcakes and salad
Salmon, new potatoes & veg
Pizza
Burgers
Smoked mackerel kedgeree (it's a gusto recipe that uses the microwave rice)
smoked salmon & scrambled eggs on toast / bagel with spinach & tomatoes
Homemade soup - if you loads of veggies in and blend it thick it's really filling with crusty bread and hummus or soft cheese

I like shoving things in the oven.

• roast veg (inc sliced potatoes) baked with sausages on top.
• ditto (maybe aubergines/peppers/tomatoes) with feta or hallomi
• ditto with chicken thighs.
• ditto with salmon fillets put in a bit after the veg.
• lentils (cooked in stock or the ready-to-go pouches though they are pricey), fry up some onion, leek, carrot, stir through with creme fraiche, pop some salmon fillets on top and bake for 20 mins.

Also, anything with white sauce/cheese sauce, because you can make a child stir it. I swear my entire child-related weight gain was to do with DD learning to make white sauce. Actually, on second thoughts, maybe avoid this recommendation ...

Spag bol in 45 mins?!

Stir fry. Use frozen stir fry veg and it takes like 5 minutes.

Oh you know what's nice. Cook some pasta and add in sweet chilli sauce and cream and a handful of frozen peas. You could add (pre cooked?) chicken if you like. Chilli chicken pasta

@costerica

Spag bol in 45 mins?!

In the instant pot/pressure cooker, yes, otherwise no. With the instant pot most things can be done in 45 minutes.

Chicken and lemon sauce with rice and broccoli. Oven bake the chicken goujons / nuggets, the sauce is really quick and easy.

Even without the pressure cooker. I make spag bol with my students in 45 mins. Not authentic Italian, obviously! But plenty of time to brown mince, add veg, tinned toms and stock and cook down.
Chicken and rice - one pot type.
Stir fry (any kind)
Fajitas
Pasta and anything
Oven chips!

My daughters favourite-chicken cooked with white wine, mustard, tarragon and stock finished with cream. With sweet potato mash and steamed broccoli. All done within 30-40 minutes. Steak and chips with roast mushroom and tomatoes. Stir fry. Any fish with vegetables.Risotto, vegetarian paella from ottolrnghi is fantastic-tastes as if you’ve made a lot of effort instead of chopping and frying veg, adding Sherry stock, rice and spices and leaving to cook for 20 minutes.

Fish baked in oven with a slice of lemon and some herbs/seasoning (or fine without this). I use hake or salmon. Boiled baby potatoes and some broccoli or peas. Takes 25 mins max.

We never eat anything that takes longer than that anyway!

I made dinner in less than ten minutes last night.

Sliced up a steak...stir fried it with a bag of stirfry veg, added soy sauce and a spoon of honey. Served with a sachet of microwave rice.

@costerica

Spag bol in 45 mins?!

Yep, when I get in from work I can have spag bol ready in about half an hour. Spaghetti takes 10-15 minutes to boil. While that's doing, I fry the mince (I use the stuff that cooks from frozen), onion, whatever else I'm adding in for about 5-7 minutes then season it, chuck in a tin of tomatoes and some frozen veg (peas, sweetcorn, stuff like that) and simmer for about 10 minutes. I know the purists on here will say you need to slow cook bolognese for hours, but it tastes good to me made on the hob in under half an hour!

Chicken fajitas
Mac'n'cheese with bacon and veggies in it

Roasted chicken joints (thighs or drumsticks - not part-boned breasts as they need 45 cooking time) and diced roasted potatoes, frozen veg (steamed or boiled) or wilted spinach

Diced chicken or whole prawns fried, (toss in veggies if you have the energy to chop), toss in jar sauce, serve with rice or pasta as suits sauce

Grilled chop, boiled potatoes, steamed veg

By "not having been gome to prep beforehand", do you mean you
a) all get in together from work/school having left that morning, or
b) arriving into somewhere you don't normally live and need to get food made in a hurry for people with you or that you're visiting?

Cos if it's (a), you can make sauces the night before after dinner, and leave ready in a pot to reheat while cooking rice/pasta/potatoes.

Clean and chop veggies and potatoes, either storing in a pot/tub soaking in water, or in an airtight plastic tub/ziploc bag, depending on the veg (spuds need soaking, onions/garlic/peppers/mushrooms/courgettes/parsnips need airtight, carrots/sprouts etc prefer water but manage either, while brocolli/cauliflower prefer airtight but manage either etc).

Take sauces out of freezer to defrost, as per 1st suggestion

Organise a traybake option in the morning (or prep night before and just toss into baking tray in morning) and set up the oven on the timer to be cooked and just turning off a few minutes before you need it - this also works for stews that you throw in a casserole in the oven and ignore, don't brown the meat, just toss with veggies and either stock/seasonings or a packet of sauce in casserole dish, give a good stir, put on lid, ignore except for setting oven to turn itself on and off again and head out for your day.

Also, good either for oven on timer, or throw in as soon as you get home - cottage pie, shepherd's pie, lasanga, chicken and mushroom (or leeks) in creamy sauce pie (with potato or pastry top), smoked fish and brocolli pie (potato top) etc. Useful to do a very large pot of mash 1 night for dinner, and when cleaning up make the "sauce" part of suitable dinners and chuck together in an ovenproof dish for the following day. Or make cauliflower cheese as a veg 1 night, but a large pot of sauce to easily layer up a lasagna (especially if you have made a large batch of bolognaise sauce another night...) for the following day. And almost all of those also freeze well.

If (b), then it's more about bringing things with you that are easy to cook.

@costerica

Spag bol in 45 mins?!

Aye, i reckon browning mince, cooking down tomato puree etc can be done in 15minutes easily which leaves you 30min simmering time there's barely any prep and chopping to be done. Yes, it's nicer done slower and for longer but if you're short of time or not got a slow cooker then it's perfectly fine if you're not an Italian purist!!

Vegetarian nachos
Fried rice if you cook the rice the day before
Tacos
Marinaded chicken grilled served with salad
BBC good food sweet potato and spinach Dahl

"Yep, when I get in from work I can have spag bol ready in about half an hour. Spaghetti takes 10-15 minutes to boil. While that's doing, I fry the mince (I use the stuff that cooks from frozen), onion, whatever else I'm adding in for about 5-7 minutes then season it, chuck in a tin of tomatoes and some frozen veg (peas, sweetcorn, stuff like that) and simmer for about 10 minutes. I know the purists on here will say you need to slow cook bolognese for hours, but it tastes good to me made on the hob in under half an hour!"

.

My contribution is ham, egg, chips and peas.

Any kind of stir fry, especially if you use a bag of stir fry veg but it's also possible to do it when you chop several veg from fresh.

Spaghetti carbonara.

Pasta with fresh pesto and roasted cherry tomatoes.

I make big batches of cottage pie, lasagne, chilli con carne, bolognese sauce etc on a weekend and freeze. Means I just put something in the oven or microwave and cook some rice, pasta or frozen veg.

Sticky Chicken with rice. Add some broccoli to the chicken for the final 5 mins.

One pan chicken thighs with (sweet) potato wedges and veg. Go with frozen homemade stock or wine. If you use a stock cube it's too salty, imo.

Pasta and sauce - tomato based ones, with a handful of prawns, or pre cooked chicken stored in.
Pasta with cream cheese based sauce.

Chicken drumsticks or thighs switched for your sausage or breaded chicken meals.

Oven cooked fish - we do salmon with butter and lemon, or honey and garlic. Seal in foil and 20 mins in the oven.

Kedgree but probably pushes 40 mins.

Fajitas
Enchiladas
Tacos
Stir fry
Chicken wrapped in bacon (with bbq sauce and grated cheese on top)

Omelette, baked eggs, scrambled eggs on toast

I make the bolognese sauce at the weekend for use in the week tho!

Spag bol in 25 mins here.

I make my passata fresh and bottle it though - so it's really quick & easy.

Brown mince, garlic & onions. 5 mins. Season and add large handfull of fressh oregano. Deglaze pan with red wine. Add passata, 1 tsp of Worcester sauce, black pepper and 2 tbsp of tomato puree. Cook over heat for 5 minutes.

Pur spaghetti into pot of boiling water with heaps of olive oil & salt - cook for 8-10 mins. At the same time simmer the bolognaise sauce.

Add freshly shaved parmesan, ev olive oil to the bottom of each bowl. Serve with another generous grating of parmesan and black pepper.

25 mins Max.

I thought that said 15mins at first, so these are quicker than you asked for!

• Baked pesto salmon, rice and steamed green veg

• Cheat’s biryani; slather curry paste (korma for kids?) on top of fish fillets, bake, then chop and stir into rice with steamed vegetables. Flavoured microwave rice is good for extra speed

• fish finger tacos, pop in wraps with mashed avocado, pickled cabbage from a jar (or whatever jarred stuff your kids will eat, slice beetroot etc), and I mix a quick taco sauce with yoghurt and sriracha; ketchup, Mayo or tartar sauce if your kids are little/don’t like spice! Will often serve with a chopped fruit salsa on the side (mango or pineapple with peppers, red onion, salt, chilli and lime juice)

• and an almost hands-off recipe is the BBC baked risotto. Just start off the aromatics and then into the oven for half an hour, so still within your time limit!

Spag bol in 45 mins?!

Yes, pretty normal that, as others above have gone into in more details.
Ditto any variety of curry / stir fry etc.

Or I sometimes make a cottage pie or lasagne the night before then only have to put it in the oven to finish off

Or - best invention ever for working parents - the slow cooker
Chilli, curries, spag bol, casseroles. Or a "roast" but left in the slow cooker rather than the oven - only then have to do the potatoes / veg when you get in.

Some nights we'd have something out the freezer you can slam on an oven tray - pieces of fish, kievs, char grilled chicken, or salmon portions that take a couple of minutes in the microwave. Then chips / wedges / rice / cous cous / potatoes and veg of choice.

Anything from hello fresh vegetarian range so far. Don't use the site just the recipes.