Quick and healthy dinner ideas.

[FluffyUnionSocks]

I started a thread the other day about tacos being classed as junk food and then had my mind blown by a poster stating celery was junk food. On that thread I shared the recipe and lots of people seemed grateful for a new idea to try so I wondered if anyone had any quick and healthy dinner ideas they wouldn’t mind sharing please? My dc literally eat anything but like most people I also seem to rotate the same meals so some new ideas will be gratefully received.

Favourite meal category for quick n easy in our house is either pasta in general, or Things In Bread, so fishfinger wraps/sandwiches, meatball subs or Sloppy Joes, bahn-mi type Asian flavoured chicken & veg/green salad in part-baked baguettes, or egg, bacon & mushroom baps, that sort of thing. Meatballs/chilli/bean chilli to be made with leftovers cooked a different night. Add some corn on the cob on the side to most of those and it’s perfect.

Obviously you have to not regard bread and carbs as the devil’s work to say it’s healthy, but as I don’t have that problem it works for us!

I don't know about healthy but my quick meal is dan dan mian noodles (if I have pork mince in the fridge that is, the rest of the ingredients I always have either fresh or frozen). Fry 250g pork mince, put aside once cooked. Saute some grated ginger, chopped garlic & chopped spring onion (I grate fresh ginger then freeze it - garlic and spring onion can be frozen too so I take say a spoon each of garlic & ginger and 2 of spring onion). Once fragrant add a couple of spoons of peanut butter, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a mugful of stock (from a stock cube, or just plain hot water if I can't be bothered with stock), 2 teaspoons of chilli bean paste or chilli powder if you don't have chilli bean paste stir until well combined. Add more or less water/stock depending on how thick you want the sauce. Whilst the sauce is cooking boil some noodles (I use udon noodles, but egg noodles would probably be fine). Once noodles are cooked & sauce hot, drain noodles divide into bowls and pour over the sauce and cooked pork mince. Takes about 15 minutes. If you had some pak choi you could pop it on top of the noodles whilst cooking to add some veg.

A quick tandoori chicken style curry/chicken donner. To be served on top of naan with a salad and sauce.
To a frying pan add one by one on high heat:

• sliced onions, frozen garlic/ginger cubes
• chopped tomato
• spices: tandoori chicken masala, salt, crushed coriander, whatever you want really even the masala on its own is fine
• add chicken
• yoghurt
• done! Takes me 20 mins

Creamy salmon, garlic pasta
To a flat frying pan with oil add:

• garlic and spring onion
• red chilli flakes
• frozen spinach
• cream, salt, pepper, lemon
• add in salmon and cover for a few mins
• break up salmon and serve with pasta

We do a homemade flatbread taco thing - mince dry fried with cajun spices.
and the 2 ingredient flatbreads from here Two-ingredient flatbreads - Co-op (coop.co.uk)

but we also love for speed - omelettes with salad and coleslaw, homemade popcorn chicken Popcorn Chicken {with Parmesan Breadcrumbs} (tamingtwins.com)

Tuna or mackerel pasta bake
Chicken traybake w red pepper and almonds
Salmon with roasted new pots and ratatouille
Thai curries