Quick evening meals that aren’t pasta or jacket potato!

[Cloud44]

Struggling to find quick evening meals that aren’t pasta based or jacket potatoes, anyone got any suggestions?

Quick meals here tend to be burgers, or wrap based - quesadillas, halloumi and salad or falafel and hummus.

salmon/cod steamed with veggies & rice?

Soup

Stir Fry

Breaded chicken or turkey escalopes. Spoon chopped tinned tomatoes on top plus grated cheese and anything else you like, oven cook and presto, chicken/turkey pizza.

Omelette - can be jazzed up to tortilla/frittata level by chucking in any veg.
This is a hack I use - microwave pack of wholegrain rice with tub of soup poured over as sauce add something like broccoli and maybe grated cheese.
Burgers - meat or veg - with peas and fried onions and sweet potatoes roasted (microwave first for speed).

Burger salad bowl is a fave here! Just an easy chopped salad (I used a chopping machine that means in about 3 minutes I can have a giant bowl of chopped salad), cook a burger with cheese on top and then just put it on the salad with sauce. I've learnt how to make Big Mac sauce at home, it's delicious and takes 15 mins or less to prep and cook.

Agree with PP on quesadillas - again mega quick to make. Love home cooked kebabs too, chicken in seasoning (we buy pre seasoned from the butchers) - cooked in about 20 mins in the oven, on a pitta with salad and perhaps some onion rings!

Fish and rice is another go to, fish can air fry in the time the rice is cooking, whack on some broccoli or similar and it's all done so quickly.

Beans on toast!
Or push the boat out and have cheese on toast 😁

Noodles with loads of veg

Omelette
Frittata
Wraps with chicken and hummus
Beans on toast
Fish fingers in wraps
Sushi
Caesar salad from kit possibly with pre cooked chicken or bacon added
Itsu gyoza
"Breakast for dinner" (scrambled eggs and mushrooms on a bagel)

Can you tell I am time poor and like chicken?!

Soup cheese and bread

Omelette
Pizza

Get an air fryer.

Cheese on toast. Surprisingly filling.

Chicken fajitas

Black bean fajitas

Steak and salad

Beans and eggs on toast

Quick dinners here include omelette, stir fry, fajitas/enchiladas, grilled salmon with microwave rice and veg.

Spaghetti alla vongole is quick. We always keep a couple of jars of class in the cupboard for when we need something quick.
Kung po prawns is surprisingly quick and easy.
This evening I cooked mussels in cider with chillis, ginger and lemongrass which took 15 minutes but mussels aren't exactly a store cupboard ingredient.

Beige freezer food and veg.

Rice cooker that doubles as slow cooker is a big help to me..

Leftovers, bit trite but make extra when you have more time, or double upon roasted veg.

also traybakes are great as you can put in oven and do something else while they cook.

My go to is always fried rice. Packet of ready rice, chop whatever veg is in the fridge (or chuck in some frozen mixed veg), some bacon, an egg, soy sauce, seseme oil, maybe some hoisin sauce. Takes less than 10 mins and everyone will eat it.

Nandos chicken wraps, use frozen peppers and onions, precooked chicken strips, cheese and nandos spice/ perinaise/chilli jam and heat in the George foreman grill. Serve with fries or scald or whatever is in the house!

Risotto, Baked potatoes with salads, tuna bake, salads with meats or fish like Macedoine

Fajitas

I know you said not pasta but we eat quite a lot of different pasta-y dishes so it doesn't feel like we are eating the same things all the time. E.g. speedy pasta/spaghetti Bolognese one night and then maybe tortellini in a tomato and veg sauce another night.

Gnocchi also good alternative to pasta.

Grilled veg e.g. bell peppers, courgette, red onion etc with grilled/fried halloumi and couscous with some dressing.

Jar sauce curry and rice/naan.

Frozen potato waffles in the toaster with something on top e.g. fried eggs/cheese and beans/peanut butter and banana.

Poached eggs (in microwave) and avocado on toast.

If you have leftover rice, egg and veg fried rice.

Keema mattar and rice or naan bread.

What we call tortilla pizzas which is tortilla wrap with refried beans on, then another wrap on top, topped with more refried beans, black beans, and finely chopped spring onion and tomato, pop in oven.

Toasties

Egg fried rice, use a pouch of cooked rice. I used leftover bits like ham or cooked chicken, veg like spring onions, red pepper, sweetcorn, broccoli. Scramble a couple of eggs then stir through. Done. Add some soy sauce or chilli sauce at the table.

Sausage traybake with potatoes (chop in bitesize pieces to cook quicker), cherry tomatoes, peppers, courgette, red onion.

I do rissoto in the pressure cooker. Just bung it in and it's done in 20 minutes.

@countrygirl99 do you have a recipe for the kung po prawns? 💐

We use the Olive magazine one