Genuinely easy family meals you have on rotation?

[cupwithyellowflowers]

I'm a single mum to two teens, don't love cooking but can do it and love food! I am making the same meals week in week out and getting very bored.

What meals do you make for your family that are really truly easy (like 30 mins prep easy, no special equipment?) and not too pricey? Things that take ages in an oven are fine but not loads of chopping and multiple steps etc as I have a busy WFH job. The teens are not fussy and have good appetites.

Also be great to hear of any meals your teens make, so I can hopefully outsource some of the cooking :)

Chilli, bolognaise, meatballs, curry. All easy peasy x

Chilli, tray baked of various kinds (we do Mediterranean veg with chicken - you can get the veg already chopped up in big supermarkets). Nigella’s Express is a good source of easy meals that are quick. Her chicken curry in a hurry is great. I’m also really into soup currently but may not be substantial enough for teens! That does tend to require a bit of chopping but so healthy.

I really like the recipes on gousto. You don’t have to be a subscriber to see the recipes. What I like about them is the method is for the main and sides all in one recipe, usually they have not many ingredients and are simple to make

https://www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/recipes?page=3

Agree with chilli and curry. Also salmon fillets with broccoli and couscous or spaghetti carbonara.

Roast chicken/ lump meat dinner.
Roast dinner remains (potatoes and veg) in a dish with the gravy and ready roll puff pastry on top = easy chicken/meat pie. All veg can be cooked in the oven also so you don’t have a million pans on the go!
chicken quarters/sausages roasted on a tray of veg add a bit of paprika.
Orzo but not made like risotto style, I fry meat/veg off, boil up orzo, throw orzo in pan with meat/veg add 1/2 tub cream cheese bit of pasta water and Parmesan.
Bolognaise- sometimes lasagne if I’ve made lots.
Although I hate cooking and these involve frying in a pan, smash pork tacos. Season pork mince, take small fajita wrap squish meat onto one side, fry in pan both sides, have lettuce and peppers to add afterwards.
chicken stuffed with cheese wrapped in bacon (streaky) thrown in oven with jacket potatoes or wedges.
Stirfry meat with veg and rice (microwave if you can’t make it well or don’t have rice cooker). Simplest sauce for stirfry - soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic (lazy kind if you want) and a little cider vinegar if you have it.
Always have frozen peas in for when you have completely forgotten to cook veg because you hate cooking do much!

Chicken friend rice is so quick and tasty.

Smash tacos! Get some mince chicken is fine and cheap, add any herbs, spices, garlic etc you like, mix together well, mini tortilla wraps, spoon 50g of the flavoured mince onto each tortilla spread across the whole thing with a fork, cook meat down in a pan with a little olive oil for a few minutes then flip for 2 minutes, keep warm on a tray in the oven as you cook the others. Serve with salad and sauce of your choosing eg sometimes I do greek flavours and make greek salad and tzatziki, sometimes I go Mexican and serve with sour cream/guacamole and salsa (I make salsa and guacamole but you could use jarred), you pick up the smash tacos add sauce and salad fold and eat, dinner in 15 minutes. DS is 7 and helps to make them I'm certain teens could

Bolognaise, pasta bakes, sausage n mash, pizza n chips, burgers

Meat of your choice with jacket potatoes and Greek salad
Sausages, mash, veg and (onion) gravy
Home made beef burgers, air fried chips and salad/veg
(King) prawns, peas, optional touch of chilli, tin of chopped tomatoes mixed in with pasta
Meat of your choice, peppers, onions in a sweet and sour sauce and rice
Meat of your choice mixed in egg fried rice
Chicken souvlaki, Greek salad and rice/chips/etc
Chicken fajitas, wraps, salad and grated cheese. If you use a kit, you get the salsa sauce too

I do a beef and mushroom stroganoff type recipe (more mushrooms to bulk it out, plus chuck a load of spinach in). I then tend to eat it with tagliatelle, but would go with rice, or mash, or just chunky bread. Takes about 10 mins prep, sauteeing, then I just leave it in the oven for a few hours (have done it in the slow cooker too). I add a big dollop of creme fraiche and the spinach towards the end. I am also a huge fan of mushrooms on toast, which for me is just fried mushrooms and garlic with creme fraiche, parsley and lemon juice at the end... doesn't take long at all.

I find BBC Good Food website really helpful. You can filter for quick & easy or healthy or cheap & it gives nutritional info for each recipe. The instructions are usually straightforward to follow. A quick scan of reviews tells you how tasty most people find it & whether there's anything that needs adapting in the recipe. Several of these are my go tos.

Put chicken breasts in an oven dish...pour over a good quality tomato pasta sauce....cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes or so. Then remove foil and top with mozzarella and back in oven to melt for five minutes. I boil spaghetti and mix it into the sauce and serve with the chicken on top

When people say chilli, what exactly do they mean? Clueless :(

This is the best thread of its kind that I’ve seen! Thank you!

Minced/ground beef. Fried with tomatoes both tinned and fresh. Paprika, Chilli powder, fresh chillis , you can add some dark chocolate and red wine if you fancy. At the end add a tin of kidney beans simmer for 30/40 minutes and serve over rice . You can add all kinds of extras to the ‘con carne’ (with beef). Experiment with herbs and spices added veg if you like them. We like thinly sliced carrot also preserved peppers. The skys the limit.

Traybakes are so easy, 5 minutes chopping and into the oven eg bone in chicken thighs, new potatoes cut in half (or whole if very small) couple of peppers cut chunky, onion petals, courgette chunks, whole garlic cloves unpeeled, half a butternut squash cubed no need to peel, toss all in a little oil season and sprinkle with Cajun seasoning then roast for 45 minutes. Drizzle with a little honey (cheap squirty stuff) and lay tenderstem broccoli on top and return to oven for 5 - 7 minutes then serve.

use remaining butter squash, remaining pepper (they usually come in 3’s), 2 onions, a pack of baby spinach, can chopped tomatoes, can chickpeas and half a jar of curry paste to make a curry, if feeling generous budget wise add a small pack of diced lamb, literally 300g plus all the veg and using a lamb stock cube rather than veg stock cube makes an amazing decadent curry for 4-6, add a second can of chickpeas if making for 6. If making veg only I use a veg stock cube and a 50g creamed coconut sachet for the liquid.

final suggestion is super easy. Thaw a bag of frozen Mediterranean vegetables in advance. Make up 250g of couscous add zest and juice of a lemon and a tsp dried oregano to the hot water before it all soaks in plus season well. Once fully soaked mix in the veg, including the liquid and put into an oven dish, lay salmon fillets on top or a side of salmon, see what you can get/afford (other fish works too) lay slices of lemon on the fish and cover tray with foil, bake 15/20 minutes depending on thickness of fish until cooked. I actually do this trout regularly because I live near a trout farm and the owner fishes one out for me at no extra charge because I don’t own a rod but I do fillet it myself which I’m aware isn’t for everyone!

none of these are bargain meals but all are substantial and will come in at under £30 for all 3 plus should have leftovers. The fish dish works really well cold the next day for lunch too

Lately I have been making. Qubed potatoes on the Sunday. Tossed in oils and herbs/spices then the day after toss in Owen with either sausages or chips/chicken on top. Sometimes broccoli in too easy to do when prepped.

Slow cooker, potatoes in wedges, onion, carrots and celery in equal measure, meat cubed no need to fry off. Garlic, pepper and stock cubes. Herbs thyme rosemary etc. on slow all day and don’t add water absolutely a winner every time

Frozen chopped veg may be your saviour!

https://www.themagicalslowcooker.com/slow-cooker-chicken-tetrazzini/

This one has been popular with my young adult DS's. Put chicken on at midday - takes 5 mins and then all you need to do is quickly break up chicken, stir in a packet of cream cheese (I use Stamford St 89p), add pasta and then sprinkle on mozzarella and parmesan if you want to. So there are a few steps but they're very easy. Use frozen onion. Btw if you get a slow cooker, get one with a metal interior because this ceramic ones are so heavy and difficult to clean.

The other one is Kerry Whelpdale's fake carbonara which just involves dry frying some chorizo, stirring in cream cheese, adding pasta and grating a bit of parmesan on top. She's also got a sausage and bean casserole but I can't make that because one of my sons won't eat the beans.

I also like to cook salmon in the air fryer (can be cooked from frozen) and I use microwave rice and add a bit of hoisin sauce. But that's expensive for 3 people.

It's just me so I don't know how well this works as a family meal (I'm guessing it'll do pretty well) but I have been enjoying stuffed mushrooms as an incredibly easy and quick thing to put together. There's a bit of chopping involved so could use a food processor instead.

• Great big Portobello type mushrooms, washed (I do this a bit in advance so they're dry when I start to prep them). I generally have 2 as a meal, 1 for a snack.
• Big bowl into which to put all the ingredients
• Baking tray(s)

Destalk the mushrooms, chop the stalk not the mushroom, add to the bowl. Hold the mushroom in one hand gills-up over the bowl and use a spoon to gently de-gill (from the rim inwards) to make some room for the stuffing. Add whatever else you like to the bowl. I use mozzarella cheese (the slightly yellow melting kind that comes in a sold pack chopped small, e.g. Discover, not the whiter salad type), shredded slices of cooked ham, chopped black olives, some shredded coriander, chopped garlic, breadcrumbs (crispy or softer Panko style) and a bit of olive oil to help hold it all together. Chopped sundried tomatoes perhaps.

Then use your hands or a bigger spoon to fill the mushroom and pack the mix down a bit and keep adding until it's domed and just about to drop bits all over the baking tray.

Oven at 180˚ / Gas Mark 4 for 12-15 mins. I don't have a fan oven so tend to set a timer for 8 mins and rotate.

Eat the ones you're going to eat, cool the rest for the fridge or freezer ❄️❄️❄️. Serve with whatever veg you like. The uncooked mix also freezes well. I let stuff defrost first and then either cook from scratch as above, or reheat cooked ones in the oven for 5 mins or so to get them hot. Everything in this recipe is safe to eat raw so heating is for pleasantness rather than safety.

Jo

Pasta with peas and pesto, loads of cheese. I use frozen petits pois straight in the pasta water.
A chicken or beef casserole. 5 mins frying/ browning meat and chopping veg, chuck in a casserole dish with a stockpot and water, cook, eat. I put new potatoes in the casserole so no need for any other faffing.

Oh lord. I feel so stupid. I get gousto every week on auto pilot. Of course I can just do the recipes myself!!

I happened to mention this on another thread yesterday. Jamie’s Madras Meatballs. Takes about 5 minutes to prepare, and an hour in the oven. My dc and my husband always show a satisfying amount of greed when I make it.

Lamb mince (500g) - you can substitute beef mince, but I prefer the lamb.
I tin of green lentils
4 tbs of madras paste (I use any curry paste that happens to be lurking in the back of the fridge, though)

Mix together, and make into large meatballs (Jamie says this makes 4, but I always make 8 - I think the slightly smaller meatballs are easier).

Put in a baking dish (add a couple of pricked chillis if you have them), then shove it in the oven for 20 mins.

Take out, add a mug of basmati rice, 2 mugs of water, and lots of frozen spinach. Cover with foil, and put back into oven for 40 minutes, stirring a couple of times if you can be bothered.

Serve with Greek yoghurt and mango chutney. Naans/poppadoms optional.

Toad in the hole, with bistro gravy and a side of veg - it surprised me how easy and foolproof it is, when I first made it (in my 40s!). And it’s so cheap.