AIBU To ask for your simplest, yet fast prep, healthy meals?

[RubyCav]

Please can people share their simplest recipes for those nights where I can't be bothered to cook. Preferably with prep time of 10mins or less (unattended cooking time can be much longer), yet still reasonably healthy.

Brush salmon with soy or chilli sauce. Put salmon and cherry tomatoes under grill for about 12 mins. Steam or wilt in a pan some green veg meanwhile. Serve with brown microwave rice if you want carbs.

Stir fry pre packed stir fry veg plus a handful of cashews per person. Boil some (or microwave a pouch of) rice. Make a sauce of peanut butter, soy and sweet chilli, thin it with hot water. You can use king prawns instead of cashews.

Cook pasta.
Near end chuck in a load of kale and cherry tomatoes (or straight away if using fresh pasta). Drain, add olive oil, lemon juice and zest, parmesan, salt and pepper.

Cook pasta. Drain and put back in pan.
Add chopped ripe tomatoes, avocado, mozzarella, basil, salt, pepper, and a dash of oil.

Broccoli and stilton soup. There's a good recipe on (shh) mumsnet.

Chop a load of veg, drizzle with oil and roast in oven. Rinse and cook quinoa on hob. Mix together with some feta, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning.

We also love gazpacho.

Due to my disability, cooking is hard. I have lots of frozen veg to make things easier. I don't love meat either.

Fish, rice and veggies is a popular choice in our house:

Sea bass or sea bream - cooked in a frying pan with a dash of oil - takes about 8 minutes.
Microwave a mixture of frozen veggies and mix in with Cous Cous or rice. Wholewheat Cous Cous is very nice as I'm not a fan of "brown" carbs.

Omelettes go down well too. I add veggies and maybe ham or bacon in there. I grill it at the end which gives it a nice finish.

I batch cook a few soups every 2 or 3 weeks and freeze. Veggie soup plus pasta and ham mixed in is quite filling, occasionally add cheese.

Quesadillas - can be anything really with cheese. We use tomatoes, spring onion, sweetcorn to get some veg in. Can put beans in them (black beans are good, but can use any)

Tortilla
Cheese
Beans/veg
Cheese
Tortilla

Construct like that, either 2 tortillas or add filling to one half and fold over. Cook in a dry frying pan with plate or something pressing down, and flip after a few minutes. Alternatively you can cook in a panini maker and you don't have to flip.

Ready in a few minutes, less than 10 minutes to prep and cook, just cut into triangles and it can be served on its own or with salad or sweet potato fries etc

Risotto - look on BBCGoodFood site for an excellent oven-baked risotto - healthy, relish, no faff and you can use any ingredients you want

Lentil soup - very versatile as can have just lentils/tin tomatoes/onions and stock, or can add garlic, chilli or curry to spice it up.

Stir fries - any ingredients you fancy, half pint of stock, couple of tbs each of sugar, vinegar and honey (or to taste), soy sauce and boiled rice.

Pasta with pesto (my favourite) or with an onion, garlic, italian/mixed herbs and tinned tomato sauce

I mentioned BBC GF at the beginning - it's a good place to go for simple healthy recipes (or any recipes for that matter- there have been very few that we've tried that we haven't enjoyed).

Grill a piece of fish and some tomatoes. Serve with potatoes or rice, and green beans (frozen are fine). Season to taste.

I would strongly recommend the 'Lean in 15' books. Did this one last night:

Small (150g) tub of plain yoghurt. Recipe says 2 tsp garam masala and 1 tsp paprika, salt & pepper. I used curry powder and paprika, salt & pepper. Mix yoghurt & spices. Add meat. Recipe says lamb cutlets, I used lamb steaks but you could use chicken or whatever you like. You can now leave to marinate for a bit or cook straight away. Grill for 5 minutes each side for the lamb, bit longer if it's chicken.

Make a massive salad to go with it. I used lettuce, baby spinach, cherry tomatoes and cucumber. Recipe just dresses it with lemon juice but I added a bit of olive oil as well.

That's it. It was delicious. I made sure I ladled all the yoghurt on top of the meat and scraped it out of the grill pan to serve because I like a decent amount of sauce on my food.

It's deliberately low carb but if you want more carb you could add rice, potatoes, nan bread, whatever you fancy.

Placemarking, this looks like it's going to be a great thread

Yes to the Lean in 15 books. I got book one for £6 in Sainsbury's and the second book is £5 with the Book Store at the moment. Although to be fair if you look on the Body Coach website and Instagram you can find a lot of the recipes for free.

Fry onion, peppers, celery etc til soft with some garlic and herbs. Add a carton of passata, a tin of sardines (mashed up) and half a tub of philly cheese. Pour over pasta. Can add olives.

My DH makes prawn and pea pasta. A Jamie Oliver recipe. Really simple and lovely. While pasta shells are cooking you fry slices of garlic and prawns (frozen cooked ones - you don't do them for long) with peas, tom puree and chilli. Then you add a bit of pasta water, parmesan and drain the pasta and mix it all together with S&P. Really tasty and quite healthy too.

I also love kale pesto but you need a food processor for that.

Cook some penne or rigatoni. Whilst doing that toast some pine nuts, grate a load of Parmesan and lightly cook a good amount of broccoli. Mix it all together with a dollop of creme fraiche.

The other one that takes the same amount of time as the pasta takes to cook is homemade pesto, I make mine with 50/50 basil and spinach.

Yum yum, keep them coming please

Slice potatoes...Chuck in a baking tray with chicken thighs, whole cherry tomatoes and onions and peppers cut into chunks. Drizzle with oil and roast for about 45 minutes to an hour. Nice with a green salad.

Fry chopped chicken breasts and any veg you fancy (peppers, onions, sweet potato, baby corn)...add a shop bought green thai curry paste and a can of coconut milk, simmer until chicken/veg is cooked through..serve with microwave rice.

Anther one for stir fry, just had that, masses of stir fried veg and edamame beans with chicken, noodles and soy sauce. Five minutes max.

Similar to cinnamon girl's recipe and also a Jamie's. Put pasta penne on to boil, stir fry raw prawns and broccoli and mushrooms, mix into pasta and stir through Creme Fraiche and top with Parmesan. If you use fresh pasta total time ten minutes.

Absolutely flipping yum.

Spicy Asian soup.

Buy a soup base from a Chinese or Thai grocers. Boil up, chuck in a pack of stir fry veg (mange tout, baby corn etc), super noodles and frozen prawns and cook til noodles are soft and prawns are pink.

Chicken tray bake

Put thighs and chopped red onions, courgettes, tomatoes and peppers in a baking tray. Add a squirt of olive oil, some garlic cloves and some lemon zest. Bake at 180 for about 45 mins

Stir fry asparagus, pak choi and baby broccoli with ginger, garlic and chilli then add a splash of oyster sauce. Fry a salmon fillet and microwave some rice.

Before work, put some chicken thighs, soy sauce, honey, ginger, chilli and splash of line or orange juice in an plastic bag. Marinate in the fridge all day. Tip into a baking tray and bake at 180 for about 45 mins. Meanwhile cook some rice; right at the end throw in some frozen peas

These are all great, I'm bookmarking this thread. Will come back when I have something worthwhile to add!

I'm a bit fan of fajitas- when you have time prep the peppers, onions and mushroom (and meat if using) and freeze. We usually have a couple bags of prepped veg and chicken in freezer- the. If it'll be a busy day I just take stuff out in the morning.

The fact the veg has been frozen means they cool quicker as the cell walls have already burst a bit meaning the peppers start out softer (we like our fajita veg quite soft, no crunch).

Quesedillas with chopped avocado and cheddar cheese (ready grated)

Scrambled egg and spinach on toast

Bag of prepared salad with whatever you like - grilled halloumi, feta and pitta bread

Cook pasta and add grilled asparagus, fresh garden peas and parmesan

Grilled asparagus with soft boiled egg, parmesan and ciabatta bread

Fresh tagliatelle/spaghetti with shop pesto, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts, parmesan and rocket

Don't do meat sorry but none of those take longer than 10 mins from entering the kitchen.

Cesar salad,
Soup
Tuna cakes
any fish baked served with couscous and steamed veg or med veg.

Pesto pasta
Scrambled egg on wholemeal toast.
Home made pitta pizzas
Omelette with cheese and veggies

Sausage, beans and mash.

Salmotrutta you missed out onion gravy. Proper homemade onion gravy. Mmmmmmm