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 :)

I make this firecracker beef alot, works with any meat. Really quick and delicious.

It's just me, so I have no suggestions, although it's a great thread and I'll be trying smash tacos.

However, @reallyagainplease , what's lump meat?

Thank you all so much!! Wonderful ideas I am pasting into a list for the next time I do my food shop. I already make pastas, tray bakes etc but not these ones... So will be great for variation. And there are other meals I don't make at all now - like smash tacos.

Happy to use chopped frozen veg :)

I don't have an airfryer but I do have a dusty slow cooker somewhere...

I feel I should offer a recipe too - highly recommend this super easy feta pasta - https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a35421563/baked-feta-pasta-tiktok/ - 10 mins prep! :)

Tray bakes are my go to when I have very little time to prep. The Roasting Tin cookbooks are great. For a more basic one I make this quite often, the sum of which is nicer than its parts: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastedsausageand39127

I also make stir fries when in a hurry, I find minced pork works well and is much cheaper than beef at the moment. This one: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/stir-fried-udon-with-pork

and this one: https://www.recipetineats.com/stir-fried-green-beans-with-pork/#wprm-recipe-container-26438 are firm favourites in our house.

And if you and your children can manage a bit of spice, I make this once every fortnight or so and serve it with (pre bought) naan: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/confit-tandoori-chickpeas

I don’t really understand people who are saying bolognese as a quick meal - a decent bolognese takes at least 3 hours or there is no depth of favour as the sofritto hasn’t been cooked slowly enough to start and the tomatoes haven’t had time to breakdown. I do however make a vat of it once a month or so and stick it in the freezer for quick after school/work bolognese dinners.

(I am even more baffled by the pp who said lasagne. Absolutely no way to make both sauces, layer, cook and rest in less than 3 or 4 hours. And I am a good - and pretty efficient cook!)

Yes lasagne is definitely beyond me these days 😂

@cupwithyellowflowers don’t know if anyone posted this but it is so easy and absolutely delicious. I’ve done loads of Nagi’s recipes!

www.recipetineats.com/one-pan-portuguese-chicken-and-potato-bake/

Yes I love this idea!! I am going to do it :)

😂 I mean, I love a lasagne, who doesn’t? But quick?!

Meat /beans in a seasoned spicy tomato based sauce. Served with rice/ cheese/ dips etc

I know you said (sorry) and I have no issue with you chuckling over a - to you - funny spelling mistake. However I am dyslexic and spell check doesn't pick up owen/oven and it feels shitty every time people feels the need to tag you to laugh at you over something you have no control over. Please consider that before you next time feel the need to tag someone. To me that's not funny.

Chicken soup - carrots, potatoes and onions in a pan, add flour and butter for thickening, add stock, salt, pepper and chicken (I used breast or thighs depending on other meals), when it's done add peas, sweetcorn and cheese. Mostly frozen veg or tinned. Bring to the boil, leave 30 mins until done.

Sausage casserole - onions, garlic, paprika and beans (cannelini / butter beans etc etc), add passata, frozen peppers, a stock cube, a bit of water, add sausages. Bring to the boil, turn it down and leave 20 mins until done.

I cook bacon lardons add creme fresh and gorgonzola cheese and a tiny splash of cream . Simmer on very lowest heat and add a handful of frozen peas. Wait 3 minutes then pour over tagliatelle. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook and serve. Great when you are in a hurry. I serve this every week and teens love it. Sometimes I'll add a chicken breast already cooked and just chop it up and through it in. It's lovely and creamy.

Lots of tray bakes:
-chicken thighs, new potatoes, any veg, garlic
-sweet potato, veg, corn on the cob (I use frozen), chipotle paste, halloumi for last 5 mins
-chicken legs, honey, soy, hoisin, add in baby corn and mange tout and serve with noodles or rice

Salt and pepper chicken and rice/noodles https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/salt-pepper-chicken
Chicken or halloumi fajitas (freshly made guacamole really elevates them)

I often do a roast chicken at the weekend and then use leftovers for chow mein/fried rice/fajitas.

Sometimes I make a chicken, leek and bacon pie with leftover roast chicken and shop bought pastry.

Pasta dishes go down well:
carbonara
pasta with bacon and veg and soft cheese- Boursin works well- through it (often done as a pasta bake) or the same but with blue cheese not soft cheese.
pasta and meatballs (shop bought) with a tomato sauce

Thai green/red curry with chicken, prawns or just veg.

My kids can make a lot of these, not that they choose to 🙄🤣

I should have added that chicken thighs on the bone are so versatile:
Lemon, garlic and Mediterranean herbs as marinade
a decent chunk of feta and some thyme leaves under the skin
piri piri sauce marinaded
bbq sauce marinaded
chipotle Mexican style seasoning
with tomatoes, peppers, onions and some paprika for a Spanish style (and some olives and/or diced chorizo if you want)
buffalo style spicy
….

And one other that I do in small batches (so enough for 1 dinner and maybe 1-2 extra servings, not 3 dinners-worth at once) is chicken and mushrooms in a white wine and cream sauce, with some sliced onion and sliced garlic in the frying off part..freezes well, and is good over pasta or rice or vol au vents and I have thoroughly enjoyed it with leftover mash reheated also.

How can fajitas, lasagne etc not be seen as meals?!

YY!

Lasagna is a huge faff imo...make the meat sauce then the bechamel. Layer it all up and bake...so much effort. Definitely not for a weeknight when you've been working all day

-Halloumi wraps with mango chutney
-spicy bean burgers
-merchant gourmet do a tasty packet of 3 bean chilli which we have with jacket potatoes & cheese
-pasta arrabiatta
-sausage & mash with onion gravy
-homemade chicken tikka with salad, naan & raita
-fish finger wraps with salad

Marking my place, there's some great ideas on here.

My contribution tastes like a big mac and is a recipe courtesy of tik tok- I think it's called something like sloppy Joe bake on there.

Finely diced onion (1 big) and pack of mince fried off in a pan with a clove of garlic, tsp paprika, tsp onion granules. Add a carton of passata, a good squirt (2tbsp?) American mustard and about the same of BBQ sauce and decent ketchup. Simmer til cooked through, add salt & pepper to taste.

We have it as a bake with diced potatoes air fried in a bit of oil, tsp paprika and tsp garlic powder and cheese on top but it's really versatile- pasta, rice, jacket potatoes all go well. Imagine it'd be nice with nachos for a snack for teens too. Ideally I'd bulk it out with carrots, mushrooms and lentils and slow cook but I haven't actually tried that yet! Pickles optional 😋

We like burritos - wraps, microwaveable Mexican rice pouch, microwaveable chilli beans pouch (merchant gourmet and Heinz do nice ones) grated cheese, tomato salsa, guacamole, sour cream, wrap it up and fry in a dry pan.
also really like a sausage tray bake made with the Aldi frozen parmienter potatoes, we use a mix of the garlic and herb and Spanish style ones, chuck it on a baking tray with chopped up sausages done in about 30 mins

https://annajones.co.uk/recipes/kale-tomato-and-lemon-zest-one-pot-spaghetti- you can use other pasta shapes, use tinned tomatoes instead of fresh, add some ham or salami, use a different leafy green veg - it's infinitely variable.

You can make a really rich tomato sauce in the slow cooker - a couple of cheap tins of tomatoes, a lump of butter, couple of bay leaves, a sliced onion - cook for at least 3 hours then liquidise (after removing bay leaves!). (I adapted this from the Marcella Hazan Italian cook book which uses fresh tomatoes).

Pataks curry pastes NOT the sauces. Mix half a jar with a tin of tomatoes or some yogurt -marinade mince/chicken overnight - fry an onion and brown the meat, then slow cook. Tastes even better reheated so make plenty and freeze some. Can substitute chickpeas/lentils for meat.

Sorry I meant any lump of meat be it pork or beef. I couldn’t think of the word joint! My menopausal brain struck again!

We make this but use boursin instead and often add 1 or 2 pieces of salmon!

Admittedly I have smaller children but…

Hot dogs with rolls and oven chips, serve with salad and my kids love sauerkraut/ pickles with them too. Nice and customisable.

A sort of baked frittata, specifically this one but I chuck any veg we’ve got in too (frozen peas good) https://thefoodcharlatan.com/cheesy-bacon-and-egg-casserole-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-26801
Serve with your carb of choice, very little prep required.

We love the Kohinoor curry sauces, decent ingredients if that bothers you and genuinely delicious. Great fakeaway option.

Big tray of roasted peppers, courgette, cherry toms, red onion, throw some halloumi on the top at the end. Serve with couscous and chilli sauce if you like it spicy. Delicious.

Aah, makes perfect sense. (Postmenopausal here). Google suggested crab meat which sounded unlikely. 😋