To ask your fastest ever dinners (15 mins and less)

[Littleonesgettingbigger]

I have started batch cooking but would like to alternate these with fast meals on other nights so I don't use up 7 batched cooked meals a week! So far I have jacket potato done in microwave with beans, stir fry.......

What else is super fast to cook (15 mins or less)?

Scrambled egg, beans or tomatoes and toast. 5 minutes with a microwave.

Omelette?

Omelette and salad and/or microwave baked potato.

Bacon, Stilton, broccoli pasta:
Grill bacon till crispy. Boil pasta, after 3 mins add broccoli to same pan and continue cooking for 7 mins. Drain pasta reserving 1tbsp of water in the pan. Return pasta and broccoli to pan, add Creme fraiche and crumbled Stilton and mix to form a sauce. Sprinkle with chopped crispy bacon.

Cheese and green veg pasta...

-Cook pasta
-Steam broccoli
-Last 5 mins add frozen spinach and peas to the cooking pasta
-Once cooked, drain pasta and veg and add the cooked broccoli
-Stir in mascarpone cheese and add grated cheddar/gruyere cheese

Gnocchi with pesto and some veg (e.g. tinned sweetcorn or broccoli). Gnocchi takes 2 mins to cook plus boiling the kettle time.

Garlic bread and tomato soup with chili flakes and strong cheddar chunks. Gorgeous, warming, quick and very cheap!

Boil pasta
Grate courgette
Grate cheese
DRain pasta
Whilst still hit, stir in ciyrgetye and cheese. Add pesto, olive oil, olives, black pepper, fresh herbs etc to taste.

steak, rocket & baguette
omelette & salad
quesadillas
spaghetti alla carbonara
chicken noodle soup

Ooh, and Nigella's Lemon Linguine from How to Eat

salmon and prawns with creme fraiche - I use frozen prawns and hot smoked salmon bits from Sainsbos. Dump prawns in pan, stir round, add creme fraiche, chuck salmon bits in (you can use a nuked salmon fillet in a micro bag thing instead, which takes 2 min from frozen), add peas, and if you have any chives lurking around - I freeze them - snip them in. Done.

Serve with rice noodles, fresh pasta, or rice if you have it frozen - I cook a shed load of brown rice, cool quickly on a baking tray, then freeze in portions

Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with salad or frozen peas

Mushroom stroganoff with fresh pasta and frozen broad beans or fresh broccoli

Real kippers with brown bread and butter and watercress and lemon

what on earth kind of bolognaise can be made in 10 mins? No thanks!

quick dinners here are any form of eggs (fried, poached, scrambled, boiled) with grilled bacon, beans and brown bread toast

Mushroom and cheese Omelette with salad

risotto (takes 20 mins of high level focus so not one for multi tasking) though Bill Granger has a lovey oven baked recipe for chicken and asparagus risotto

Roast some med style veg (red onion, peppers, courgette, cherry tomatoes) drizzled with olive oil and herbs, in a very hot oven for about 15 mins, meanwhile cook some pasta, when everything is cooked add some pesto and cream or creme fraiche to the veg and stir in the pasta serve with grated parmesan

Salmon parcels in the oven (salmon with soy sauce, chilli, grated gignger, spring onion, coriander) bake for about 15 mins, steam some new potatoes and sugar snaps

Bill Granger s creamy mushroom and proscuitto pasta - one of our favs!

My kids make a great fast meal. If you can marinade salmon (cut it into 2x2" chunks) in honey, soy sauce and sesame oil in the morning, It takes less than 10 mins.....

Sticky salmon noodle bowl: Boil 2 cups of water, add half a veg stock cube and a pack of brown rice noodles. Throw salmon in a hot pan, pour any marinade from the salmon into the noodle pan, when noodles nearly cooked (3 mins), add bok choi. 2 mins later serve noodles and bok choi with its cooking broth, place salmon (which is by now sticky and caremelised) on top. If I have sesame seeds, I'll sprinkle some over.

Lots of variations on meat/fish and two veg: pan fry lamb chops, pork chops, escalopes, steaks, chicken. Or a fillet/steak of any fish. Eat with salad/green beans/new potatoes/courgettes etc. Very quick as long as you time it right (eg put the new potatoes on first as they take longest to cook and do everything else while they cook).

Cous cous and halloumi: Chop and fry together tomatoes, garlic and red pepper. Cook cous cous by pouring over boiling water and covering for 5 min. Stir together. Slice and fry halloumi.

Tricolore salad - chopped mozzarella, avocado, tomatoes, basil.

Substantial salad - cook new potatoes and lardons and mix with salad leaves. Also add avocado, cheese and/or nuts if you fancy them

Duck breast salad - cook duck breast, slice up, serve with salad leaves and bread. Extravagant but delicious. Same for steak.

To add to all the pasta ideas:

Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce - melt blue cheese and cream together, add spinach till it wilts, cook gnocchi (2 min) and stir together

Fresh pasta with mushroom and cream sauce: fry mushrooms with bit of garlic, add cream and parsley, stir into cooked fresh pasta.

When I make rice, I often make extra and freeze. Either use it with a frozen chilli, or as the main part of the meal- fried rice with frozen veg (or any fresh bits leftover from the batch cook) with scrambled egg chucked in for protein.

Breaded chicken pieces, with wraps, salad, coleslaw, sweetcorn.

Eggs - scrambled, poached, dippy, omelette
Pasta - with creme fraiche, dill, pepper and smoked salmon or with tomato and cheese
Beans on toast
Toasted sandwiches
Pan fried salmon with rice and soy, sugar snaps etc
Stir fried pork with veg and noodles

To save space in freezer, I will cook chilli or curry or whatever with just veg, freeze a big single portion then put a tin of beans/ peas in when relating on the cooker, to make it enough for 2.

If you use Quorn mince, you can easily do spag Bol and veg.

I do chipolatas/frankfurters and pasta and cheese and sweet corn for mega fast meal.

DS likes a cold tea buffet as well which involves no cooking so mega quick.

tonight mine took 6 mins

whole wheat pasta in boiling water - 6 mins
pasta sauce in microwave - 2 mins
bag of veg in the microwave - 3.5 mins

add together, sprinkle cheese - job done

I've had a long day and no time to cook!

Spaghetti carbonara.

Omelette and ... salad.

Stir fry made with prawns, shop bought stir fry veg and sauce.

You can't make many nutritious hot meals in 15 minutes tbh.

Cheat's macaroni cheese

Boil pasta
Drain
Add a splash of milk, a big dollop of cream cheese (you can skip this, just add a wee bit more milk and cheese), grate some cheese in and stir.
Put it on a low heat, add an egg yolk and stir for a couple of minutes.
Serve

Et voila! Piss-easy pasta that looks and tastes like proper macaroni cheese. Fools even the pickiest children and takes the time it takes to boil pasta plus 3-5 mins depending how slowly you grate cheese.

P
M
S
L

at spaghetti bolognese in 10 minutes!

What on earth am I reading?