Simple Meals You’ve Made Lately That You Love

[SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows]

I love pasta & could eat it every day. Last week I was going to an outdoor theatre performance & made a simple salad with cooled cooked penne, tuna in sunflower oil, sweetcorn, chunks of apple, mayo & loads of black pepper. Absolutely delicious!

@missingpate
Thanks for your link. Via that I found a 'Christmas dinner traybake' recipe which is ingeniously simple for any Sunday / Xmas dinner on a budget :)

Avocado tomato and bacon salad. Fry bacon till crispy, put lettuce in a bowl and add sliced avocado, chopped crispy bacon and sliced or halved tomatoes (if small). Pour on some well mixed French dressing ad chopped parsley. Really nice!

Loads of these ideas sound amazing, unfortunately my youngest is really fussy and my eldest doesn't eat dairy. I end up doing separate meals.

However,my eldest saw a pasta idea on TikTok that we tried. All you have to do is marinade some chicken in Nandos Marinade (heat of your choice), fry some peppers, fry the chicken, cook the pasta and mix it all together.

I also love (both dairy so my DS doesn't eat these) the TikTok feta and tomato recipe. Basically cherry tomatoes roasted in olive oil with a bit of garlic, surrounding a block of feta cheese. Bake for 30 mins, cook some pasta and mix it all together.

Another one, toast some pine nuts (I fry them), chop up some soft cheese stuffed peppers, stir through some cooked pasta and heat through.

Tonight I made pasta. Chopped garlic, onion, and courgette. Added a tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, mixed herbs and chilli flakes. Chucked in half a bag of quorn chunks and served with spaghetti and a bit of grated cheddar.
Yum 😋

Simple but delicious sauce for pork. 100ml chicken stock, splash of balsamic, slosh of white port (or wine), teaspoon of dijon and a tablespoon of jam of your choice (plum or pumpkin is my favourite but also works with raspberry). Heat to briefly boil, whisk in a nob of butter and ta-da!!

I've worked from home for decades so the simple lunch is something of a specialist subject chez Chien.

Current favourite is the tiktok quesadilla - make a single egg omelette in a non-stick frying pan, just as it's setting drop a wrap on it then flip it. Fill one half with cheese (I use the pre-sliced Mexicana stuff cos I'm lunch lazy), ham, few jalapeño peppers, half it over and fry until the cheese melts.

Or I do pre-made falafel in a ciabatta roll with pickled cucumber, spicy mayo, and them M & S red sliced pickled onions that I'm always telling people to buy on M & S threads.

Or a well-toasted bagel with butter, almond butter and thin slices of tart apple.

Or marmite on toast.

Or avo toast topped with a boiled egg - so much less hassle than poached - and hot sauce.

Scramble eggs, chop some smoked salmon through and have on white buttered toast.

Cook up spaghetti and stir butter and parmesan cheese through and add black pepper. Also stir some chopped olives through if you have them.