To start a TAAT - what meals can you cook in 15 minutes?

[Boffing]

Just that really!

Almost nothing because just doing the chopping for most things takes at least 5 mins. We get dinner on the table in 15 mins a couple of times a week (when DS is picked up from the childminder's at 5.30 - we eat at 6) but those days we have a 'homemade freezer meal' - normally something like veggie Bolognese that just needs some pasta cooking to go with it. If we didn't batch cook for those days then I don't think I could have much on the table in 15 mins (and I know DH couldn't because he's a much slower cook than me!)

Also I think some of the things people are listing, such as shashuka, would be edible if cooked in 15 mins but a bit disappointing as you couldn't cook the onions or sauce for long enough for the flavours to develop

I'm a fan of oven things for minimal prep - yes they take longer to cook than 15 minutes but you can be having a sit down / play while it cooks, no attention from you. So with that said some ideas include:

• frozen salmon en croute (Aldi and Lidl both do) with frozen peas and/or corn, spinach, broccoli in microwave with knob of butter
• new potatoes on hob, fish or chicken in oven, cut up peppers red onion and courgette into big chunks, toss in olive oil and spices and in oven with meat
• pre-roasted cold chicken with naice crusty bread, salad, coleslaw etc.

Eggs - poached, fried, scrambled, boiled
Lots of things on toast eg
Avocado lime chilli
Sardines
Baked beans
Fresh Pasta with jar sauce
Quesadillas with cheese and ham or tinned black beans and cheese
Toasted sandwiches
Pre cooked anything (eg curry etc), just time taken to warm up and cook eg rice and veg

Oh and sausages and hamburgers cook totally fine in the oven by the way! That's a bit of a game changer.

Not much that the children will eat, if any prep is required

Tikka chicken wraps (Waitrose do a ready to cook tikka chicken which takes 12 mins in a frying pan)
Southern fried chicken wraps (more like 20 mins after waiting for the oven to warm up)
Fish finger sandwiches / wraps (do you see the theme yet?)
Cheese / cheese & ham toasties
Quesadillas (cheese / ham, shredded chicken / cheese, etc)
Bacon Sandwiches
Scrambled eggs on toast / with bacon
Oven baked egg & bacon muffins (plus toast and beans for the eldest)

Served with cherry toms / cucumber plus salad leaves for the eldest, when appropriate and I can hold the ravenous hordes off long enough.

Quite a few of the meals I do for the DC take around 20 - 25 mins, oven chips take about 22 mins to cook (the brand I tend to buy).

Lots! As long as you minimize work like chopping. Not sure many of mine are especially kid friendly tho.

Aside from the obvious "on toast" options I often do the following in under 15 mins:

Stir fry - all packet and pre-chopped with the noodles you microwave or microwave rice

Fresh pasta/gnocchi/tortellini with either a simple tomato sauce I can do in

Spagehtti Carbonara

Smoked salmon pasta

Salmon in terriyaki sauce with rice and brocolli (20 mins and use shop bought terriyaki)

Jacket potatoes (put them in oven before you go to work on timer and they are ready when you walk in) with salad, cheese, etc

Omlette and salad

Tonight I’m making halloumi salad. Takes me about ten minutes to prepare.

I couldn't do anything involving the oven as it wouldn''t warm up. Plus I don't think you can bring water to the boil and cook potatoes in time. Pasta and jar pesto. fried Halloumi and salad, bought stir fried veg and microwave rice or fresh noodles.

Plus of course most things in a barm cake- fish finger, fried egg, supernoodles (my own very very dirty secret)

I have a book that is now out of print called "Ten Minutes to Table" (recipes took me about 30 mins rather than 10 until I'd had a lot of practice and some of it is frankly a bit more ambitious than you'd want to be cooking for kids). One of our favourites was pea and mint soup:

Boil stock, add frozen peas, after five mins, whizz it up, lobbing some mint and cream cheese in at the same time.

We do that with cheese on toast.

Also from that, spring pasta:

Put on tagliatelle to cook, with a veg peeler scrape a courgette into strips over the tagliatelle pan, add some frozen peas, put some cream cheese, herbs, lemon in a bowl, tip the contents of the drained saucepan into the bowl and mix.

I do variants of Jamie Oliver's cheats pizza in about 20, and put on stuff like frozen leeks and sweetcorn (hidden under the cheese, mwahaha).

Frozen onions are the way forward for cooking quickly.

Full English (but I have to split the sausages to get it into 15 mins)
Carbonara
Veg soup and bread/sandwiches
Huevos rancheros
Pomodoro
Macaroni cheese if not baked
Most egg based dishes
Vongole with tinned clams or mussels.

Eggs on toast

Omelettes
Egg on toast (scrambled/poached, can add mushrooms, avocado, whatever you want to jazz it up a bit)
Could probably do a cheesy pasta sauce with peas and ham mixed in if I pushed it
Salmon in foil parcel in the oven with veg

In reality, I batch cook soups/fish pie/pasta sauce etc and then just do it in the microwave if I need a quick meal. Or do "bits and bobs" for tea.

I can do a dangerously good nachos in 15 minutes.

I can also do excellent fried rice (based on the proper way of using cold cooked rice)

Pork steak with spring greens or similar green veg.

Stir fry

Steak and blanched veggies

Cous cous with fried bacon, onion and mushrooms

Scrambled eggs and beans on toast

Stir fry

Any grilled meat eg chops or steak, jacket spud and veg or slaad

Get some quick cook dried pasta (Tesco have several varieties). It only takes 5 minutes max to boil. My favourite is to stir pesto through along with either some chopped walnuts or some crisp bacon lardons that I fry while the pasta is cooking.

Spaghetti carbonara
Pesto pasta
Omelette
Stir fry

Pasta carbonara
Scrambled egg on toast
Salmon pasta (salmon in the microwave)

Omelette
Stir fry
Chicken in mushroom and mustard
Satay chicken
Carbonara
Cheats carbonara with creme fraiche
Pesto pasta
Beans on toast/cheese on toast
Scrambled eggs

Pizza wraps.

Wraps, tomato purée/pizza sauce, sprinkle cheese, and add any other ingredients (peppers onions etc). Fold in half then pop under grill for 5 mins or if you have a George foreman or similar, pop in there.

I can bang out a stir fry in 15 mins if I chop fast! But that relies on me having some pre-made sauce in the freezer. I suppose you could also just buy a jar of sauce if you wanted to.

Tbh I normally spend longer than 15 mins cooking. I like nice food and I don't have the money to buy pre-made stuff.

Plus I don't think you can bring water to the boil and cook potatoes in time.

Totally can!

Boil a kettle of water.
Meantime put a small amount of cold water in the bottom of a pan and get the gas on high.
Pour boiling water into the pan.

Honestly not much. Omelette, eggs and bacon, gnocchi or pasta and beans on toast. Beans on toast is hardly cooking though.

I did a chickpea and chorizo dish last night. That was quick but more like 25 minutes after chopping.
I'm doing braised eggs with veg and feta tonight. Lovely one pot but still probably still probably about half an hour.
Smoked haddock risotto from BBC Good Food is also very quick.

I consider half an hour from prep to serving to be very quick