Healthy comforting convenience meals.

[catfunk]

I like to think I'm a good cook. Make most things from scratch and on a Sunday I prep healthy work lunches for during the week and a good meal for Monday and Tuesday such as veggie curry or pasta dish.

However due to various stresses (no dc) I'm EXHAUSTED after work by a Thursday evening, sometimes Wednesday. So last night we ordered (nice) pizza & tonight was eggs beans and potato waffles from the freezer 🥴 And when I'm feeling shattered and emotional, I'm not craving an easy to throw together salad but I can't keep eating like this!

What's a nice middle ground ? Something ready -ish made, convenience but comforting and not total junk. Requiring no prep or cooking. Ready to serve or Chuck in the oven. Needs to be veggie. I'd love some recommendations - thanks in advance !

You can do jacket potatoes in the slow cooker too

• Soup and a toastie
• Tray bake - could either prep in advance or use bag of frozen Mediterranean veg for ease, add halloumi / sweet potato wedges, and seasoning like paprika / garlic etc

- Batch cook and freeze veg chilli when you’ve got some space

• rice with frozen veg like broccoli / peas / soy sauce, add egg if you want
• crustless quiche - thawed frozen veg, add whisked eggs, cheese, bake for 30 mins. Nice cold too so could always make one night for tea the next
• falafel salad and pita bread

Birds eye vegetable fingers are lovely as an alternative to a fish finger sandwich, and the sweet pepper Dolmio stir in pasta sauce is something I always have in for nights when I can't be bothered.

I boil some pasta, add some frozen veg (usually a handful of peas, or broccoli ) and season. Drain it and mix in a bit of butter and couple of tablespoons of soft cheese.

I’ll sometimes mix in some spinach or chopped mushrooms (if I cba to fry them) instead of frozen veg.

Following for some more ideas, as other than the above I end up on sandwiches/pizza pockets/pasties when I’m feeling too shattered to cook properly.

Omelette
Sausages and mash (sausages Chuck in oven, mash either frozen or from extra baked potatoes made earlier)
Baked Greek salad
Oven stir fry (stir fry in a baking tray)
Oven risotto (ditto)
Roast veg with lentils and goats cheese
Sweet potato soup (roast them, strip off skin and dump in blender, add ginger and lime)

I’d second the cook meals - buy yourself a microwave, they are cheap

Oven on to 200, sling baby new potatoes in a baking tray drizzl with olive oil and whatever seasoning you fancy and bake gor 15 mins. Meanwhile chop up an onion, peppers, tomatoes, courgette or whatever veg you have or dig Med veg from the freezer. Add to spuds and bake for another 15 min. Top with cheese of choice.

Baked beans and scrambled egg on toast yum yum!

Waitrose does very good curries - you can either get a dinner for two for £10 (cheaper than takeaway) or buy individual curries. If you like hot ones, the chicken madras is lovely. The aubergine side veg is great too.

I also do gnocchi with heated up good quality chopped tinned tomatoes, with a dollop of pesto stirred in and a pinch of mild chilli. You can add sliced mozzarella dn put it under the grill for a bit too if you want. That with salad or peas takes 5 mins to prep.

Filled pastas - ravioli or tortellini with fried sage leaves, grated grana padano and salad is good.

salmon steaks drizzled in sweet chilli sauce, soy and lime with a bit of grated ginger, baked in the oven for 20 mins. meanwhile, bring water to the boil, rinse and cut up broccoli, cook egg noodles and steam broccoli on top of the noodles.

Straight to work or quick cook noodles in some miso soup (use the little squeeze pouches) topped with chopped spring onions and cubes of tofu. If feeling extra, fry a couple of frozen gyoza. Like wagamama, but when you CBA.

@Vthirtyone

You can do jacket potatoes in the slow cooker too

I always thought you couldn’t use a slow cooker without having liquid in it! I’ll try them now I know you can!

Variations on these noodle dishes:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/zesty-veggie-noodles

www.delicious.com.au/recipes/spicy-sichuan-noodles/tgenD9Jo

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/singapore-noodles

I think quite a few PPs have missed the veggie bit in the OP... I like the stuffed peppers and stuffed mushrooms from the prepared veg section at Tesco. I'm the only veggie in my family so I tend to have both with some boiled veg, but if there are two of you you could have one each and add an easy carb. I also like the Gosh quinoa and sweetcorn balls with tomato sauce and pasta/rice.

If you don't mind chopping an onion:

Fry sliced onion until soft. Add some fajita spice mix (or cumin, oregano, paprika and chili flakes). Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of baked beans and a tin of kidney beans. You can add mushrooms and sliced pepper - frozen is fine - if you want). Cook for about 15 mins, longer if you want it more stew than soup.

If you're really hungry, throw in some pasta and add a bit of boiling water. Cook until the pasta is done.

You can add cooked sausages if you want, or just grated cheese on top,

Gigantes plaki www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/gigantes-plaki-greek-baked-beans/

Lentil dhal www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spinach-sweet-potato-lentil-dhal

And something I do is chop and peel Mediterranean veg before work: garlic, tomatoes, fennel, red onions, black olives, red peppers, courgettes, aubergine - toss in olive oil or green or red pesto and and put in small covered oven dish in fridge.
As soon as I get home, even before taking off coat, bung in oven for 40 mins,
Meanwhile, cook small pan of cous cous , rice, or pasta and serve together.

Once a week we have a Charlie Bigham ready meal.
All supermarkets sell them though they are slightly more pricey than most own brand meals but good value.

I would say jacket potatoes.

Slow cooker is your friend. Lentil daal or soup or maybe some veggie chilli and add gnocchi which takes 5 mins to cook.

Microwaveable broccoli and ready to eat salmon. Takes 3 minutes to make. I also mix grated cheese in with the broccoli. Bit of pitta bread for carbs

Cauliflower cheese for me, with chips too if I feel the need for added veg . Not massively healthy I don't suppose, but damn tasty.

I get it either from M&S, Sainsbury's or Waitrose, they're always lovely. If you're in Sainsbos anyway, they do the best oven chips ever, can't remember the name of their top of the range stuff but it's those. Check the back of the bag though to make sure you get the right ones, because these ones are definitely veggie, other ones aren't. Bonus points because they take 35 minutes to cook, same time as the cauliflower cheese, so you can just put them in the oven and leave them until they're ready, no faffing about required.

Enormous baked mushrooms.

Help me with veggie meals says the OP. try some chicken or fish, say MN.

M&S do little things like fishcakes, but with cheese and onion. We like them with a salad made of diced cucumber, beetroot, red or spring onion, lemon juice and flatleaf parsley.

Sainsbo's do frozen nut cutlets. Shove some new potatoes in the oven to roast whilst the cutlets cook. Eat with frozen vege and mint sauce. Most supermarkets also do little packets of new potatoes in butter ready for sticking in the oven, if you cba to wash potatoes.

Tortellini with melted butter and a salad.

@CarrieMoonbeams

Cauliflower cheese for me, with chips too if I feel the need for added veg . Not massively healthy I don't suppose, but damn tasty.

I get it either from M&S, Sainsbury's or Waitrose, they're always lovely. If you're in Sainsbos anyway, they do the best oven chips ever, can't remember the name of their top of the range stuff but it's those. Check the back of the bag though to make sure you get the right ones, because these ones are definitely veggie, other ones aren't. Bonus points because they take 35 minutes to cook, same time as the cauliflower cheese, so you can just put them in the oven and leave them until they're ready, no faffing about required.

Please can you link to these chips? Most oven chips are disgusting but DP likes them so it would be good to find some nice ones.

I’d aim to have leftovers one of the nights and one of the following on the other-
Scrambled eggs with a bagged salad
Burritos with a kidney bean mix. You can always prep that earlier in the week and reheat
Jacket potatoes
The Kitchn easy black bean burgers - you can make the Patties a couple of nights ahead (or freeze) then they take a few minutes each side in a hot pan and serve with whole meal buns, salad and avocado.

What’s wrong with eggs beans and potato waffles?
Aldi have some nice veggie freezer stuff such as cheese and leek puff pastry lattices.
I like the brand “Higgedy” which does veggie quiches, pies, tarts etc- particularly recommend the cauliflower cheese quiche and the ricotta and petit pois one.
Fresh soups in the tubs in the chilled section (as opposed to tinned) with nice crusty bread or a toastie.
Quesadilla- two tortilla wraps filled with cheese and whatever veggies you like- avocado, peppers, mushrooms, and fried flat on both sides.
Marks and Spencer’s ready meals such as vegetable pasta bake, spinach and ricotta ravioli.
One of those trays of Mediterranean veg that most supermarkets do (has peppers, courgettes, onion and cherry toms)- in the oven then can add some passata and have with pasta or just with crusty bread or even on its own.
Falafel, hummus and pitta with crudités like carrot sticks and cucumber
Nothing wrong with a veggie finger sandwich (in place of fish fingers) in a nice soft white roll with a slice of cheese and squirt of mayo.
Or veggie fingers in a wrap with some lettuce etc.
As PPs have suggested- eggs, jacket potatoes, stir fry with prepared veg and noodles, pasta and stir in sauce (or batch cook your own sauce) all good.

A really nice fresh soup (from the chiller cabinet in the supermarket if I haven't got one in the freezer that I've made myself) with some part-baked ciabatta rolls that only need popping in the oven for 10 mins.

Hearty bean dish

A big jar of brown beans
2 onions
Garlic
400 gr haricots
400 gr minced meat (I use beef)
2 green onions
A big can of yellow peaches in syrup
Sambal oelek (optional if you like spicy)

Cook the haricots and peel and cut the onions. Fry the onions in oil with the garlic and the minced meat. Then add the brown beans. Let it stew for a bit and then add the haricots. Cut the yellow peaches in small pieces and add them at the last minute. Add some sambal if you like.

Serve with rice, potatoes, bread, taco shells or tortillas.