Please hit me with your insanely easy recipes

[Mrmontgomeryburns]

I'm a competent cook and usually enjoy it but I have an ASD older child and a young baby who doesn't sleep and I'm on the edge of what feels like a breakdown tbh. Please give me your very very easy dinner recipes that also have some semblance of nutritional value (this is for DH and me - baby isn't on solids yet and my older DC has an extremely limited diet). I'm talking things like pasta and jarred pesto with added frozen peas and sweetcorn stirred in. Things that use minimal pans and don't require too much chopping or prep. We don't have any particular dietary requirements.

Thank you ❤️

Fry mince and onion, cook pasta and then mix together with a jar of condensed tomato soup. I put it in a dish in oven then with grated cheese on top for about 10 mins and call it 'pasta bake'.

Or fry up chicken, mushrooms, peppers (anything lurking in fridge), mix with tin of condensed chicken soup and a large serving spoon of mayo and again - shove in oven with cheese/packet of crumbled crisps on top for chicken pasta bake.

Quesadillas. Wrap warmed in pan, chuck on tin of mixed beans in chilli sauce, chunks of avo, grated cheese. Wrap on top, flip to fry both sides. Slice and serve.

We just have enough of this to fill us but could do with potato wedges to add a carb.

Spanish omelette is also a good, simple thing to make. Also baked potato with tuna mayo/sweetcorn? Something like that.

Fish tacos.

Fish fingers, bit of salad (I like cabbage and tomatoes), cheese, a squirt of sauce, wraps and done.

A carton of passata, some frozen chopped onion, some frozen chopped peppers, some sausages (nicely flavoured ones) chopped in to slices - the only chopping you have to do, a teaspoon (or more to taste) of Pul biber, cook together in a pan and save with pasta.

Serve not save,

Add to hot cooked pasta:
One drained tin tuna in oil
One tin condensed celery soup
One tin drained veg (peas/green beans/etc)
Mix, add a bit of milk it it's too thick.
Serve

Chop up some chorizo and fry in a little oil, add a drained tin of butter beans, stir a bit, add a tin of chopped tomatoes. 10 to 15 mins simmer, then add some pesto. Serve with some nice bread. Dead easy, quick, filling and reasonably nutritious. Could have a portion if broccoli with it.

Pack of Merchant Gourmet ready cooked lentils, tin/jar of posh tuna in olive oil, a jar or two of grilled peppers or olives or artichoke hearts in dressing, some good quality feta chunks. Mix in a large bowl, season, add more good olive oil and lemon juice if needed. Stir and eat. Takes about 5 mins, you can keep all the ingredients on standby.
Another good one is a pack of hot smoked salmon (needs no cooking), served with steamed new potatoes and something green (do both in microwave).

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chicken-in-a-pot-with-lemon-and-orzo

This does require a small amount of chopping but the end result is very Proper Dinner, cooks in one pan with minimal intervention from you. Also very child friendly.

Slice up chicken breasts, toss with teriyaki sauce and olive oil and bake in the oven
Warm some flatbreads or pittas in the toaster
Wrap chicken and loads of salad in the flatbread.

Fry salmon fillets in a bit of olive oil and cajun spices.
Add a handful of frozen peas.
Add single cream (also works with elmlea)
Add fresh cooked pasta - penne works best.

So, so easy. Really tasty and uses 2 pans.

Oven cook shredded chicken from the freezer section, have with warm wraps and ready made salad. Surprisingly tasty and not terrible nutrition if you eat loads of the salad

Pan fried gnocchi is the fastest thing I cook. I do it with quiche and salad. Ready in 5 minutes.

But egg and beans on toast is fast too.

Omelette are super quick.

One pot quick fish stew:

Fry chopped frozen onions in oil with Mediterranean herbs
Add passata
Add tin of cannellini beans
Add tin chopped black olives
Cook for 15 mins
Add 2 fillets of frozen basa or cod
Put the lid on and simmer till the fish is cooked

Serve with crumbled feta and fresh basil on top if you can be bothered

Serve with crusty bread or focaccia

Get a slow cooker big enough to put a chicken in.

So just unwrap your chicken and put it straight into the slow cooker. No liquid, seasoning, nothing. Put on the lid. Leave it on low around 8 hours or high 5 hours.
Once its ready pour the juices from it into a saucepan and add chicken bisto best granules and some milk. Stir. Thats a lovely gravy.

Then get frozen mash and microwave veg. Blast in microwave. Serve with the lovely juicy chicken and the tasty gravy.

Jobs a good un.

Im talking a whole chicken as above

This is the easiest recipe I’ve ever made

thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/baked-gnocchi-with-crispy-ham-hock-and-peas/ thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/baked-gnocchi-with-crispy-ham-hock-and-peas/]]]]

And as it cooks in the oven, you don’t have to stand over it like you would do a pan on the hob. You can get on with something else, like sitting down or having a shower, or supervising your DS or whatever. Don’t forego the lemon juice and parsley as that makes a massive difference to it.

I buy the spinach gnocchi, or use half spinach and half potato, just so that it looks more interesting on the plate.

I really like her Kerala prawns recipe too, with spinach and peppers and onion and coconut milk.

Fry Some veg, I usually use leeks, onions, mushroom, spinach (sometimes all the above sometimes just whatever I have) with some garlic, add some garlic & herb cream cheese, a splash of chicken stock, a good pinch of salt & pepper and simmer it while you cook some pasta. I sometimes add some fresh chilli if I have it or dried chilli flakes. The sauce will cook in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

Have a look on the taming twins website.

What’s with all the condensed soup? Spaghetti Carbonara ans Spaghetti wit fresh tomatoes, basil and olives both done in the time it takes to cook the spaghetti.

Buy prepped vegetables.

Open packet of sausages and empty into roasting pan. Then empty packets of sliced mushrooms, sliced onions, cherry tomatoes, parmentier/ready to roast potatoes into the same pan. Drizzle with oil, add salt and pepper, put in oven Gas mark 6 for 30-40 minutes. If you remember to, give it a shake around every now and then. Remove from oven when it's the right amount of brown and crispy for your taste.

Packet of casserole steak chunks/shin of beef chunks into slow cooker or casserole dish, tin of chopped tomatoes, packet of sliced carrots or prepped baby carrots, packet of sliced mushrooms, packet of sliced onion, packet of casserole seasoning or chilli con carne seasoning. Turn on slow cooker/place in low oven. Leave for 6-8 hours. I usually do this after getting in from school drop off, takes 2 minutes to plonk everything in a pot and turn it on. I try to remember to stir it every now and again but being honest I have forgotten a time or two and it's been fine.

Co-op and Tesco both do stir fry kits: noodles, juliennned vegetables, and a sauce. Just add your own protein and fry the whole thing in five minutes. You can make your own sauce by just adding soy, ginger and honey if you want to.

Microwave rice mixed with tuna

Add cucumber and avocado

Siracha and mayo ontop and seaweed on the side to make sushi bowls!

Aldi salmon fillets (sweet chilli ones are nice). Packet goes straight in microwave, as it is, for a couple of minutes. Open + plonk on plate. We like it with a couple of frozen hash browns, 10mins in air fryer and some salad or beans.