I'd like your absolute laziest meal ideas please

[DivingBoardInGuernsey]

I have an incredibly tough week coming up, where unfortunately huge work deadlines are going to collide with looking after my elderly mum, as well as having DD at home for half-term.

I'm trying to think of ANY shortcuts to get me through it. I'm doing my Tesco order later and would love your very best lazy meal ideas please. Things that you maybe wouldn't eat long term, but will get us through this patch. (I would just order ready meals for a few days, but I have to keep one eye on the salt levels due to blood pressure). Thanks in anticipation!

Following for ideas!

Can you batch cook now op? Or get a roasting joint stick it in the slow cooker and use it for leftovers for a few days afterwards?

You can also batch cook baked oats for breakfast if you are going to be run off your feet.

Bung baked potatoes in the oven for 90 minutes, serve with cheese and beans.
Pizza with bagged salad
Omelette with frozen peas thrown in or scrambled eggs on toast
Fresh filled pasta with chopped raw tomatoes and peppers and a bit of olive oil

My go to is tuna pasta bake. Homepride do a lovely sauce. Apart from the tuna, I also mix in a tin of sweetcorn and crumble cheese over the top. Very lazy dinner as it just behaves itself in the oven. No pre-cooking required.

Do you mean lazy as in cook in 20mins with minimal effort, or is there a bit of scope for slow cooking?

Jacket potato, cheese and beans
Pre chopped stir fry
Scrambled eggs of toast
Ready meals

Mccains Frozen microwave jacket potatoes; birds eye frozen microwave vegetables. Buy a cooked chicken to go with it.

Pizza, obviously.

Can you batch cook something now and freeze portions? Not a Mumsnet chicken but a chilli, which would do for several nights and you can ring the changes by doing it with: rice, baked potatoes, tortilla chips (you can get low salt ones) and top with avocado and soured cream.

Oven food: fish finger sandwich and chips. If you out shredded lettuce and homemade tartare in the sandwich you’ve essentially had your five-a-day.

Spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, lemon, chilli, Parmesan.

Nigel Slater’s 30-minute meals. (ALTHOUGH one of them is “slice a nectarine into a glass of white wine”. The lovable old fraud.)

Jacket potatoes in the slow cooker in the morning. Pasta salad or pasta with pesto, add peas or sweetcorn and tuna or mackerel to make it a bit more interesting and a bagged salad. Salmon is super quick to cook, baby potatoes take no time and steam fresh veg in the microwave

Chopped /cubed potatoes sprinkled with seasoning (i use cumin, chilli, salt, whole unpeeled garlic cloves lemon, dried herbs etc) and tossed in oil. Baked till golden brown. If you chop small enough/low heat, you dont even need to turn them. When done, discard garlic, add chopped fresh onion/peppers/celery/chickpeas/fresh herbs/whole egg (then it needs another minute or two)
Really fab on a cold evening instead of chips and baked beans. And can be reheated to get crispy again.

Frozen pizza with salad
Frozen fish with frozen chips & peas
Spaghetti, fresh pasta sauce & garlic bread
Filled pasta with olive oil & parmesan
Scrambled egg/beans/sardines on toast
Sausage/potato/veg tray bake

Stuff on toast.
Scrambled eggs, with spinach
Beans...
Sardines?

Ready made mash, smoked haddock, poached egg.
And not, as my phone would have it, annoyed haddocks and preached eggs

The McCains microwaveable jacket potatoes are nice, they come in packs of 4 in the freezer. They come out nice (5 mins in microwave) and are fluffy with the criss cross on the top so already open for fillings. They are made with a touch of oil and salt but not overly salty.

Birds Eye steam fresh individual veg packs are also nice and convenient. You can add them to anything, plonk them on the side of a less than healthy ready meal if you have to to keep vitamin levels up. Microwaveable in a couple of minutes as well and very palatable (sliced carrot and broccoli etc)

Here are mine ...

Pasta - with a drizzle of olive oil/pesto/grated cheese (as per choice). With sardines or tuna mixed in or on the side. Carrot & cucumber slices.
You could mix the cucumber chunks with the tuna and mayonnaise too if you like.

Eggy wraps - crack an egg into the pan, top with a wrap , flip when the egg is cooked and toast the other side lightly. Fill with onion/carrot/cucumber and roll up.

Fried rice -cook the rice in the day/morning and put in the fridge. Fry some onions (get the chopped ones), peas, seasoning (herbs/salt ). Maybe add cooked prawns or cooked chicken. heat through. Add the rice, mix well and heat through. Serve with... carrot and cucumber slices.

Old el paso chicken fahitas or enchiladas

After this I resort to frozen beige food (with carrots and cucumber of course!!) Watching with interest for new ideas as I am in such a rut!

The little tins of sardines/mackerel in tomato sauce (cold) with toast. So good for you and old people seem to like this as a meal or snack (based on my knowledge of two old people)

Also, if you're up for prepping meals look up "drop bag" slow cooker /"crock pot" meals like chilli/spag bol, you make two of each, stick it all in zip lock bags the night before (freeze the spare for another day), in the morning you slam it in the slow cooker on low.

gnocchi with butter and cheese
pesto and cream cheese pasta with peas
oven pizza and bagged salad
scrambled eggs, baked beans and toast
ready made mash, chicken diapers and green beans

When I'm really tired and the DC have already eaten at DMs I have nice instant noodles (from the world foods aisle) or a hot drink and toast and jam.

Shoving a quiche in the oven. This is what we had tonight.

Tonight we had crispy chicken fillets that I cooked in the air fryer.
I put them in wraps with chilli jam and cheese and popped in the panini press. So good!

You could have it with pre prepared salad bits

This is what I had yesterday:
Bag of stir fry veg
Pack of tofu
Straight to wok noodles
Chilli and garlic sauce (lee kum kee) and soy (low salt if you want)
Handful of cashews and a shake of mixed sesame seeds on top

I love you all. I had forgotten / not thought of loads of these. Reading through them more slowly now.

Answering the "how lazy" question - VERY In between dashing in and out to sort out my mum, and keeping DD busy, and getting my work done, the likelihood of getting the slow cooker sorted in time is nil. Good shout on the batching though, I can probably face doing 1 big dish ahead!

Fresh pasta and sauce (I buy the fresh tubs of sauce rather than jars cause to me they feel healthier)

Stir fry made with frozen stir fry veg and egg noodles. I make a sauce with hoisin, soy and honey.

Tuna pasta.

Baked potatoes with beans and cheese.

That stuffed pasta and sauce you get in the fresh aisle.

Frozen fish, chips and peas.

Shop bought pie and mash with veg

A takeaway

Shop bought meatballs, pasta and a jar of sauce

Jacket spuds

Tin of soup and a sandwich