Your absolute quickest, least faffy tea recipes

[saxendaqs]

We have an extremely busy week coming up, unusual for us! We're both working 12 hour days and I'm just doing the Tesco order.

Any ideas for very quick, no faff, little prep dinners? Happy to buy prepared stuff. Already got a couple of oven pizzas on the order!

Many thanks

Pasta bake of any kind

Tortellini with pesto
Eggs on toast (perhaps with some beans if you're into that)
Quesadillas (use pre-made salsa and cooked chicken, takes 5 mins tops)

If you don't need the cooking time to be quick but just minimal prep:

Chuck an Asian marinade (sweet chilli, teriyaki or similar) on some salmon fillets and oven bake with some tenderstem broccoli, serve with rice and leftover marinade for sauce
Fishcakes (from a packet) always go down well, bit of microwave veg on the side
Chicken fajitas are very quick, particularly if you buy the chicken already chopped into strips

Stir-fry chicken or fish, with vegetables, and shop-bought sauce
Omelettes
bacon, egg and beans
sausage and mash (shop-bought mash)
beans and eggs on toast

Eggs are brilliant - cook quickly and are filling and nutritious. I like omelettes, scrambled eggs with grated cheese, and poached eggs with baked beans on toast as Oh God I Can’t Face Cooking meals.

I’m doing - frozen prawns, jar of curry sauce and microwaved rice tonight = king prawn tikka masala 😋

Pasta and pesto

Brand and /or egg on toast

Cheese toastie

Pre made Soup,bread and butter.

Hot smoked fish (eat from the pack) with bag of salad, tomatoes, new potatoes steamed while you put the other stuff on plates.

Microwaveable rice. Stir in a shedload of tinned or frozen vegetables and some ham or leftover chicken anything else you can think of. Splash of soy sauce. 7 minute dinner.

Air fried potato wedges and a bag of richmonds meat free sausages chucked in with them for us today. Salad bits on the side.

Gnocchi with cheesy garlic leek and mushroom. 10 minutes.

Boil kettle.
Slice and start to fry the leeks, mushrooms and garlic at the same time.
When the kettle is boiled, put water on in a separate pan and add gnocchi - takes 3 mins to cook.
Turn down the heat on the veg pan and add a generous dollop of cream cheese, grating of parmesan, black pepper and lemon juice. Stir.
Put serving plates into microwave for 60 secs to warm.
Once the gnocchi start floating, drain and add to the veg pan. Stir and serve.

Fishy pasta is the go to for myself and DS. Budget version is tinned sardines (the ones that are already in tom sauce) stirred into pasta and peas/corn. Grated cheese on top. Sometimes it might be tinned salmon, or smoked mackerel. Then I usually do a cheese sauce with it which might be just stirring in some soft cheese, or making a proper cheese sauce if I have time. If there’s cream in the fridge then a sauce made by boiling some cream and stirring in grated cheese is delicious (but not especially healthy!)

The sardines version wins points for being super cheap, super quick/easy and pretty healthy, esp if I have wholemeal pasta in.

Ham egg and frozen chips, the food of gods.

Birds Eye Inspirations Spanish Paella With Chicken & Prawns 350g, I always have a packet of this and a bag of frozen prawns in the freezer. Cook on the stovetop, and you just add water, but I usually also add extra prawns and paella rice and just leave to cook, done in 10 mins.

Frozen prawns cooked gently with a load of garlic in olive then added to cooked linguine, gorgeous.

Chicken burger and a side salad is a favourite for my DC - frozen chicken burgers don’t take long to cook and I put a squirt of mayo and some lettuce in the bun with them.

Stir fry - use frozen or fresh stir fry mix, straight-to-wok noodles and a stir fry sauce. If you cut chicken breast up thinly it cooks very quickly.

Macaroni cheese
Burgers

Tonight I'm having hot quiche with baby new potatoes and cole slaw. Sometimes we have it with beans or processed peas or salad.

Burritos - wraps, cooked chicken slices, mexican microwave rice, cucumber, cheese, sour cream and guac. Assemble at table.

Salmon and cherry tomatoes wrapped in tinfoil. Whack in oven for 15 mins. Steam green vegetables and have with either New Potatoes or a French loaf.

omelettes with whatever proteins and vegetables are in the fridge, with either oven chips or bread.

scrambled eggs on toast (with or without beans)

Jamie Olives sachets of black beans with microwave rice (can also be stir fried if you don’t have a micro)

Microwave rice, good jarred tuna, spring onions finely chopped, handful of capers, rocket and soy sauce. Mix and eat.

Burritos - wraps, cooked chicken slices, mexican microwave rice, cucumber, cheese, sour cream and guac. Assemble at table.

We're having falafel and salad wraps for dinner tonight for exactly that reason!

Chicken ramen -

A pack of noodles to boil, chicken stock for the soup, a tin of sweetcorn, handful of spinach (or Pak Choi if you're feeling fancy) per bowl, grill/fry flattened chicken breasts and add a few sliced chillis if you like a kick. Takes 15 minutes max. The kids love it. It's also pretty healthy. Low fat, plenty of protein, super tasty.

Ready chopped stir fry veg, microwave rice or quick soak noodles, and cooked chicken, prawns or tofu.

Rotisserie chicken, oven fries and side veg/salad.

This sounds delicious!!

Tortellini (the fresh/fridge kind) and a pre made sauce, can add extra veg or cheese too