To steal your fave easy dinner recipe (if you tell me please)

[Chocoholism]

Need ideas for dinners for me and DP as we kind of stuck in a rut eating same dinners every week. We have a young baby so simple ideas is best for me!

Ready made polenta, chopped into bite chunks. Jiggle it in a roasting tin with parmesan to coat. Put in a skin-on chicken breast each, dot about some cherry tomatoes, drizzle with oil. Roast for half an hour or so. Done. Best dinner ever.

Whizz up breadcrumbs, add pesto (any type) olive oil, some grated Parmesan and if you have some knocking about, crush up some walnuts. Layer on any white fish - cod or pollock. 30 minutes in the oven, until fish cooked.
You can use frozen breadcrumbs, so providing you have pesto in stock, it's a quick easy dinner. I serve with mash and veg.

I make what we call lazy man roasties. Dice potatoes, with skin on, microwave in 2 x 5 minute blasts, giving them a shake. Chuck in the oven, NO OIL but you can season with whatever you like, for about 30 mins depending on how big you've diced the potatoes. No peeling and no par boiling!!

Good thread, it's making me hungry!

Some of these don't sound so easy, especially if you are short on time after work.

Our quickest dish here is pasta, add frozen sweetcorn and or peas into same water at tend. Strain and mix in pesto from a jar. Then serve with grated cheese on top. Number one favourite and only one pot to wash :-)

My quick pasta puttanesca (sounds like the same ingredients as jamie Oliver's):

Can of anchovies (in oil) into med heat pan, add clove garlic, pinch chilli flakes, cook for couple of mins (when anchovies have broken up) before adding two cans chopped toms, jar pitted black olives and jar drained capers. Cook for approx 15 mins (put pasta on at some point). This sauce serves 6, so decant sone off for another day before stirring cooked pasta & Parmesan into it.

Brilliant thread. Nothing to add but shamelessly place marking.

Actually, if you have a slow cooker, google Epic Pork. Amazing.

Thai green curry

I fry chopped chicken breast/thigh with a diced sweet potato...then add a jar of Thai green curry paste and a can of coconut milk...simmer gently till the chicken is cooked through and the sweet potato is soft.

I eat this by itself but my dh has it with rice.

Lovely ideas here marywest why size joint or pork to feed two adults - I can cook double ?

My easiest is Cajun pork chops. I love the magic bags - often pick them up in the pound shops or lakeland If not.

Add four pork chops and sprinkle lots of Cajun spice, bang in the bag and into the oven. Frozen peas and mash. Easy and juicy. Recently bought jerk season to try this with chicken.

Braising steak fry meat and onions in pan, add lots of celery, carrot and parsnip or whatever you have. I chucked in a bag of fresh spinach today. Add season and thicken with gravy. Cook on the hob or in the oven or slow cooker.

I often batch cook a lot of bolognese and then decide last minute to make tacos with wedges and salad, add kidney beans and chilli and make chilli con carne etc etc

Fajitas

Steak and chips

Pasta with pesto

Place marking!

The pulled pork sound aaaamaaaazzziiiing

Diet coke chicken (sounds rank tastes brilliant)

Fry some chopped chicken breasts with garlic (i use a tea spoon of the jarred stuff) and an onion
Add some diet coke - I do it by eye so not sure how much but maybe slightly less than a can - a couple of table spoons of tomato purée and a couple of drops lea and perrins
Let it simmer for about ten minutes until the sauce is sticky and coating the chicken and serve with rice

Trust me, it's good!

This is one of our favourites.

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/poultry-and-game/chicken/chicken-paprika.html

We just put a little less paprika in when making if for the children.

And DH made this the other night - It was quite possibly the tastiest pasta dish I have ever had. I woke up wanting it for breakfast...

www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/rigatoni-with-peas-and-porcini-mushrooms-in-a-creamy-asparagus-sauce

Boursin chicken

Fry up chicken with mushrooms, peppers, whatever veg you have.
Stick some white wine in and boil a bit
Throw in a block of Boursin cheese and let it melt

Serve with pasta

Slow cooker lamb dishes would be appreciated if any of you have any good ones...

I would also recommend doing things like stews and spag Bol in slow cooker in big batches
Just shove the stuff in the slow cooker when you get a spare ten min or so. Then leave it for seven hours or so. Have some for tea that night and stick the rest in the freezer for another time.

Chicken noodle soup.

Make 1 litre of stock with a chicken stock cube, put in a sauce pan quarter one large chicken breast and add to the pan. Add a splash of soy sauce and a crushed garlic clove.

While the chicken poaches chop 4 spring onions, a handful of button mushrooms and finely slice a red chilli (seeds in or out according to preference)
Once the chicken is poached shred with 2 forks and put back in the stock with the spring onions, mushrooms, chilli, 6-8 tender stem broccoli florets and some straight to wok fine rice noodles. Add 1/2 tbsp of honey.
Simmer for 4-6 minutes.
Serve with a drizzle of sesame oil on top and plenty of black pepper.

Takes about 20 minutes beginning to end.
Makes enough for the next day too

For 4. Tuna and parsley pasta
Boil 400g spirals
Put tin of anchovies, pinch of chili flakes and 2 chopped garlic cloves in frying pan and fry slowly to a paste. Add 2 tins tuna and heat.
Combine with cooked pasta, slug of olive oil and fistful of chopped flat leaf parsley. Much nicer than it sounds!

Great ideas ladies, in screenshot heaven thanks!

The pulled pork is amazing, shall be having it tomorrow! Size wise, whatever you want to buy! I've got a joint that says serves 3-4 people or tomorrow, there's DH and I and DC1 (who's only 4) and just weaning DC2 (who'll just play with a bit, then I'll find bits of pork all over the high chair for the next week), there's going to be enough for dinner and then normally that size joint will leave enough for us all to have pulled pork sarnies one day next week.

I'm a big fan of making double for left overs too.

Forgot to mention, make sure you put a lid on the pan in the oven - keep the juices in!

Another suggestion, lamb stew:

fry off chopped lamb with quartered onion and large chunks of carrots. Add a glass of red wine, a pint of stock, a generous slug of worcestershire sauce, tablespoon of cornflour, half a teaspoon of cumin and same of smoked paprika (more if you aren't serving for little ones), half a tablespoon of tomato puree and a squeege of garlic puree. Reduce down a little bit on the hob then stick the lot in the oven on a low heat for the bulk of the day. (can you see the theme with my cooking?!? I usually get a lull in DCs needing my attention straight after breakfast or after lunch when DC2 has a nap, this is when I get stuff in the oven - we eat a lot of stew and slow cooked food). Serve with a good dollop of mash.

I make this chicken casserole with herby dumplings a lot - I make it with chicken thighs, which are a cheaper cut to buy a pack of, but it tastes fabulous. A very cheap dinner - again, I tend to make it around lunchtime for a 5pm dinner for DCs, just leaving hte dumpings made, but not in the pot until closer to the end.

Meatballs

Breadcrumbs
Minced pork
Chopped onions
Basil
Parmesan cheese

Blend, roll and put them in the oven!

Not bought meatballs in years and they are so addictive

If I don't want to slum it with a ready meal those bags of tortoliini (spinach and ricotta etc) and a tub of the marscapone sauce is great. You can add your own veg (sweetcorn, peas, whatever) to the pot and the pasta literally cooks in 2 minutes, then you just toss it through the sauce, easy peasy. Its neither super healthy nor bad as fuck. And its pretty cheap.

Marinate chicken thighs in a mix of soy, garlic, chilli and honey. Roast for 40 mins. Serve with rice and some steamed greens (pak choi, Chinese broccoli, green beans)

Poach some chicken breast in stock. Slice over a salad and serve with couscous, plus some yoghurt mixed with lemon juice, garlic and some ground cumin and coriander

Fry up some pork mince with onion, garlic and chilli. Add finely sliced cabbage and soy sauce, then some super noodles

Whizz up mint, chilli and lemon juice with some olive oil. Rub over chicken thighs and grill. Serve with buttery beans and couscous

Pork stroganoff is quick - fry pork strips and onions, add mushrooms. Add cream, paprika and Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Serve over rice or tagliatelle.

We make the Chicken Paprika recipe Borsetshire suggested but add rice and extra liquid (about twice the volume of the rice) just before simmering, which makes it a great one pot dish.

Spaghetti carbonara is great too.

Nigel Slater's Real Fast food has some brilliant quick recipes, great to dip into for inspiration.

Stir a packet of smoked salmon trimmings, a few tablespoons of milk (or cream if you have some) and some chopped spring onions to (drained!) hot pasta - tastes much better than it should and only one pan. Sometimes I add frozen peas to the pasta a couple of minutes before draining.