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 ❤️

Fish tacos - salmon steaks and maybe some prawns fried in a sachet of fajita spice, served in wraps with salad and chunks of tinned pineapple.

This sounds gorgeous. I’d feel guilty if I didn’t have salad or vege with it though!

Tray bakes with chicken breasts, veg and chopped or baby potatoes and different flavourings or sauces are really easy as you can prep it at any time in the day or the day before and just bung it in the oven.

Or roast a chicken, and a tray each of potatoes and carrots/parsnip, can be prepped early in the day too.

next day use the leftover chicken to make chicken fried rice.

Fish fillets with some seasoning/lemon in the oven, boil baby potatoes and cook some peas or broccoli.

The wrap is your carb

These are great recipes, but my go-to for really fraught days is M&S ready meals, if you can afford to throw a bit of money at the problem. A fantastic selection of healthy options, not as expensive as you might think. Indian, Chinese, Italian, pies, stews, quiches, fish cakes, salads, whatever you fancy. Shed your guilt when life is tough and just get whatever you can as easily as you can. Aldi isn't bad for ready meals, especially from the freezer, and your local fish 'n chip shop can also help out.

Slow cookers are your friends!

Easiest thing is chilli, double up on everything to give you a few extra dinners for the freezer. Cheat with frozen chopped onions and spice packet mixes.

Jamie's chorizo carbonara minus fancy salad and plus cheese.

Quick cook pasta with chorizo, tomatoes, peas, bit of pesto and some goats cheese.

Chicken thigh fillets (boneless) in a baking dish, heat on the stove half jar honey, half jar whole grain mustard, 2 table spoons of crème fraiche. When hot and mixed together, throw over the aforementioned chicken thighs. Cook in the oven about 180 uncovered about 30-40 mins Turn once. Serve with rice & veg.

Place marking, some great ideas here! I think the battle here starts in the supermarket. When I'm pushed for time I buy things ready prepared- packs of stir fry veg, fresh pasta, veg that doesn't take long to cook (or those mixed frozen packs you just need to microwave). A rough meal plan helps not wasting stuff that goes off.

Then it depends on what cooking equipment you have- slow cooker, air fryer, microwave etc.

And also, which part of the day is a real time squeeze. Some days, I have half an hour after the school run to put a casserole in the slow cooker for the day. Other days we're out the door and not back til tea time and it's a pack of ramen with a bit of frozen veg and a few prawns thrown in.

When things are really busy I go for simplicity- jacket potatoes, omelettes, noodles/stir fry, fish with microwave potatoes etc. When I have more time I do put the effort in to stock the freezer with portions of Bolognese, curry, chilli, stew. Only have to microwave some rice or boil up pasta then.

Egg fried rice is a winner in my house. Either cold rice (which needs a bit more planning) or empty the microwave packets.

I chuck in frozen mushrooms, peas, peppers, onions - whatever I have in. Ham or bacon, or left over roast chicken.

1 egg per person and add soy sauce. My kids love it and it’s pretty balanced!

Also don’t forget the humble jacket potato!

Chicken pieces, chunks of onion and other veg including potatoes, sachet of Maggi (or other) garlic and herb flavouring, put it all in an oven bag and cook it until it is done. Just use whatever veg your child will eat. I usually put in carrots onions and potatoes, sometimes peppers, but you could put in mushrooms, courgettes, baby sweetcorn, whatever they will eat.

we haven't had it for a while but it's reminded me how nice (and easy) it is so maybe we will have that tonight instead of the chicken and broccoli pasta we were going to have (cut chicken into thin strips, try with a little finely chopped onion and some garlic. Cut broccoli into little florets, blanche. Stir a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup into the chicken, add broccoli florets, cook for a few minutes, serve with taglietelle (or your pasta of choice. I expect you could add other veg, mushrooms maybe?). You can glug in some wine or cider if it needs thinning down, or stock, water or milk if it needs to be non-alcoholic.)

Cod with breadcrumbs, pat the cod dry with kitchen roll, mix some breadcrumbs and olive oil together with herbs if you have any, and press onto the cod for 25 minutes in oven at 180

Pesto chicken pasta.
Slice chicken, lazy garlic, fry in oil and butter, with mushrooms if you fancy. Boil pasta add green pesto when cooked. Stir in cooked chicken, place in baking dish, add grated mozzerella to top and brown under grill.

Chicken thigh fillets (boneless) in a baking dish, heat on the stove half jar honey, half jar whole grain mustard, 2 table spoons of crème fraiche.

^
Is this for a regular pack of chicken thighs i
e. around 8 thighs?

Very Easy Moroccan stew
In a large pot on the stove add

Tin of tomatoes
Tin of mixed beans ( drain them first )
Frozen pees, sweetcorn and spinach
tsp of cinnamon
curry powder to taste approx 2tsp
enough veg stock to cover the ingredients

Put the lid on and leave to simmer for 20 / 30 mins
serve with rice or bread

@Mrmontgomeryburns thankyou for this thread I’m getting so many good ideas
I hope you don’t mind me asking the MNs if they have the odd veggie/ vegan super easy meal idea to add to the thread it would be most welcome.
No intent to sabotage OP 🙏

A packet of fresh egg noodles
Halloumi
A packet of frozen char grilled vegetables

Put some oil in a pan. Put in some cubed halloumi and fry until brown. Add some frozen vegetables and mix in the halloumi. Cook vegetables. Stir in noodles and cook until hot.

I have a soup maker.
Just chuck in any veg lying around (even the old bendy stuff!), tin of tomatoes, jar of sauce (coz....seasonings) and blitz.
Then you can add a couple of tins of beans or lentils, frozen veggies, etc.
Extra fancy points for roasting extra cubed veggies or tofu and chucking that in.
Bread and butter optional....

I can make 6 portions so it saves me cooking for the week mostly.
Currently having curried sweet potato soup with roasted smoked tofu.
Very healthy and tons of fibre.😃

I genuinely checked to make sure this post wasn't by me having some sort of a breakdown as I made pasta with jarred pesto and peas and sweetcorn for me and DH today, having no time to cook because of my older child with ASD (and a limited diet!) and a new baby...

Anyway my other fave meals are:

Cheese and mushroom omelette, served with cucumber and cherry tomatoes

A big pack of stir fry with a can of chick peas stirred in, served with packet rice and an optional fried egg

Fried halloumi (takes five mins) with boiled broccoli and cauliflower

Beans and cheese on toast with a couple of portions of fruit for afters

Tinned mackerel served with some quick veg

Tuna mayo wrap or jacket potato and quick veg

Pitta bread pizza and quick veg

Pizza wrap (get a wrap, top with tomato puree and grated cheese, top with another wrap and squash it down, bung in the microwave for about a minute).

My other top tip is batch cooking - I make some slightly more complicated recipes (curry, chilli, Bolognese, arrabbiatta) at the weekend when DH is around, but huge batches of them, stick them in the freezer and eat one portion a week.

And I also use a rotating meal plan so I never have to think what's for dinner, it's always one of these options which takes the mental load out of it for me in terms of planning and shopping as I always buy the same shop! Not very exciting but routine helps me keep on top of the chaos.

Good luck, and sending you lots of solidarity!!

Thanks SO much for all these recipes. You've no idea how much they've helped me!! Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. I so appreciate it.

Yes! See also: prawn tacos (frozen scampi) and chicken tacos (chicken nuggets).

Do you cook the cabbage or have it raw @TomatoPumpkin ?

Raw for me, a bit like coleslaw for the crunch

Today’s tea;

fry onion and garlic
add diced courgette
salt, pepper, chilli flakes
garlic and herb cream cheese

cook pasta

eat

Following!