Hit me with your easy but not beige dinners

[Oncewassmith]

Sorry if this isn't a true AIBU but I've been diagnosed with breast cancer and I'm facing a double mastectomy (plus reconstruction) - so I need some go to super quick dinner ideas for the family (me and DH, DS6 and DD4).... so what do you go for when you need a quick, low fuss dinner?

Shepherd/cottage pie
Fry mince & frozen onion add stock pod and a little water. Put in microwaveable dish. Top with ready made mash & microwave for about 4 mins. Cook some frozen peas separately if you like.

Quick spag Bol
Put spaghetti on to boil then simmer for 12 mins

Soften asda/sainsbury ‘stew mix’ (frozen diced celery/carrot/onion) in frying pan in tablespoon olive oil with garlic clove. Add mince and brown. Add passata & 2 tablespoons tom purée. Season. Bring to boil and simmer until spaghetti is ready. Combine and add grated cheese if desired.

Very fishy pie
This takes hassle free 40 mins.
Heat oven to 180 c. Butter Pyrex dish add raw prawns, cod, smoked fish. Top with shop bought potato gratin (1 carton per 2 people). Put in up to temperature oven. Is ready in 40 mins.

Lots of good ideas on here, the best one being for you NOT to be doing the cooking!!! Very best wishes for your treatment OP.

Tray bakes. These are the absolute go-to in my house.

But if i had a cancer diagnosis, there is no way my DH would be having me cook anything.

5 ingredients !

Extra virgin olive oil
Fresh crushed garlic (more the better)
Sea salt & cracked black pepper

Cook out & toss in fresh pasta.

Serve with grated Parmesan & a large white wine.

Takes 5 minutes.
All the best with your treatment

It depends what your family will eat but a really quick one for me (single mum and I don't eat the same as the kids) is pre-cooked salmon and new potatoes or root veg mash (the kind you microwave). Pan fry some veg in butter and garlic. The salmon doesn't really have to be pre-cooked though really, it's very simple to prepare.

Falafel in pitta bread with salad and a minty yoghurt sauce.
Meatballs and spaghetti is always pretty quick if you don't make the meatballs.
Toad in the hole.
Pizza.
Soup, fresh bread and sausages.
Gyros.

Look up one pot recipes too on BBC Good Food.

Wishing you well

Sorry for what you're going through, I hope you have a tonne of IRL support.

Tonight we had chicken, new potato and veg tray bake.

Chicken breast with a bit of tomato purée rubbed over then in a tray with little new potatoes, a carrot, onion, pepper and tomatoes chopped up. Salt, pepper and olive oil over the lot & in the oven on 180 for 30min = balanced dinner with only 1 pan to wash up 👍👍👍

This BBC recipe is also delicious, very easy (5 mins to make, apart from the potatoes) and could be made with instant mash if your DH was desperate. Good on its own (baked beans count as one of your 5 a day), or with sweetcorn / broccoli etc., as well.

Bad luck. I’d have thought a few freezer meals and an online shop for your husband would suffice. It’s likely friends and family will deliver more meals than you can eat.

When I had surgery, I did a two week plan but we didn’t need it. Whilst I was in hospital they muddled through with food the children loved but not exactly homemade goodness. They survive on beige for a few days. Pizza, pasta sauces, gnocchi, cheese on toast, all full tummies well enough. Visiting made timings of meals go out the window a bit and an acceptance of takeaway reduces stress a bit.

Easy is stir fries, fajitas, tray bakes but that might not work as well as intended. Ready meals and salad are probably better in short term.

I’m really sorry about your diagnosis, OP- I hope the mastectomy goes well and that you’re in remission soon.

Is your DH doing much cooking? You really need to be resting!

Otherwise:

1. jacket potatoes with cheese and ham and salad,
2. fish cakes with broccoli or salad,
3. quiche with beans or salad or green beans,
4. poached salmon- put uncooked salmon fillets in to a pan of cold water, turn on to medium heat on the hob and cover with a lid. Turn off the pan when it comes to boiling point, serve with new potatoes and broccoli.
5. kedgeree- poach smoked haddock as above, boil rice in a separate pan. Fry a chopped onion then stir a good couple of teaspoons of curry powder in to onion when soft. Mix the cooked, drained rice and the poached, drained haddock to the onion and curry powder. Hard boil an egg per person and add these to the rice and fish at the end. Garnish with coriander and a squeeze of lemon.
6. spaghetti carbonara - boil spaghetti, fry off a packet of pancetta, adding in a grated Clive of garlic when pancetta nearly cooked. Take off heat. Whisk 3 eggs in a jug with lots of ground black pepper and loads of freshly grated Parmesan. When pasta is cooked drain it, but reserve a cup of cooking water. Add the pancetta to the pasta. Quickly stir the egg mixture in too, stirring all the time. Serve with more black pepper and Parmesan on top.
7. shop bought fresh soups and crusty bread with cheese and fruit for a second course if needed.
8. poached eggs on toast
9. gammon- put a supermarket gammon in a pan of cold water after a good rinse. Bring to a simmer with a lid on and cook according to the packet suggestions re timing. Meanwhile, bring new potatoes to the boil in another pan (no need to peel), and chop a white cabbage and simmer it in another pan. Drain the lot when cooked and serve with tinned pineapple.

Hope some of these are helpful. Kedgeree gets really quick when you’ve done it a few times. All the best, OP.

I often serve up ready-made chicken Kiev's in a large bread roll + slice of cheese + lettuce. Super quick, easy and very moreish.

I was diagnosed with early BC last year, so wishing you all the best x

*clove of garlic

Wow loads of wonderful ideas. I have chest freezer in storage as it doesn't fit in the new house - but might squeeze it in the playroom for a while.
As to why my DH wont be cooking - he does cook when he can (wonderful curries) he works very long days, so for him to cook once home - the kids would never eat! (Weekend I know he'll step.up if not working)

I'm sorry you've joined the breast cancer club, OP. Best of luck with your treatment. It's tough, but it is doable.

As far as cooking goes, obviously your DH should do most of this. I would echo what others have suggested - e.g. bung stuff in a roasting tin - I do sausage (meat or veggie) tray bakes with onion, peppers, potato wedges, tin of tomatoes, garlic, chilli if you like. Takes 2 mins prep. Stir-fry - bag of stir-fry veg plus noodles. Pasta - with peas, pesto and parmesan. Pasta e cechi - I make a store cupboard version, fry garlic, add half a tube of Tom purée, lots of black pepper, then add pasta, tin of rinsed chickpeas, boiling water and a Knorr veggie stockpot (or bouillon)cook and have with parmesan. Baked potatoes or wedges with easy fillings or sides.
Roast veggies with couscous, crumble feta over the top, add rocket leaves and harissa.

Stock up the freezer with casseroles, chilli, lasagnas, some ready meals, oven chips, veggie burgers etc.

Takeaways.

Large chicken to roast with roast potatoes and veg.
The left over chicken can be used for creamy garlic chicken pasta.
Quiche and salad.
Lasagna and salad.
Jacket potatoes.
Fresh loaf and cold cuts, spreads and salad.
Gammon, egg and chips.
Give yourselves a break and chippy tea once a week.
All the best with your surgery and treatment

@Spaceprincess

Cherry tomatoes cut in half, salt olive olive in the oven for half an hour. Cook some spaghetti and stir the tomatoes through with some cubed feta , basil and pepper.

This is one of my favourites. Not tried it with feta though bet it's very good!

The roasting tin books are brilliant and so easy. Big faves here include the squash, aubergine and halloumi bake with bulgar wheat, the tomato and mozzarella gnocchi, the olive tapenade fish and the Ra's el hanout mushrooms.

Slow cooker recipes might also be useful. O try and prep freezer bags ready with chilli/Bolognese/curry mix etc. Meat, veg, hergs all on and freeze. Defrost overnight and bung in, just adding passata/tinned tomatoes

Definitely a good idea for your DH to prioritise some batch cooking for a few weekends - one day a weekend for a couple of weekends could = LOADS of meals easy to reheat!

And not sure how old your kids are but if old enough, what a great opportunity for them to learn not just teamwork but also a life skill they will carry with them forever - cooking!

Thinking of you in this tough time. Don't be afraid to ask them to put in this extra effort - you need their help and that's what family is for.

Your husband can surely take off a day each weekend for a few weeks at least to do this for the family? It could be fun as a family project to all pull together and help - you can help with planning but he is / they are capable of doing the doing

@BrilliantBetty

Pre bagged stir fry. Bung it in the wok, with some thin noodles. Soy sauce or whatever you prefer (lots of sashes of sauces to try). Done in 10mins. Could add meat

This and stir tinned salmon in. Otherwise just the same. We fry a little frozen ginger in the olive oil to begin. Those bags reduce quite a bit so make sure they are the big bags. Best of luck with the operation we do wish you well.

When we went away to self catering cottage we had some frozen meals from cookfood.net delivered to the cottage. They were actually really nice and might be handy to keep in the freezer when nobody feels like cooking.
Best of luck with your treatment OP

So sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

I was diagnosed in 2018, had chemo and then a single mastectomy.

I appreciate you want to sort your family out, however, let them look after you!

I'm sure there will be plenty of people that want to help so let them cook and clean!

For easy meals a slow cooker is great, I used to pop a bolognaise in before chemo then someone would feed the kids before I got home.

Kids also like a picky fridge tea - bread cheese ham veg etc

Takeaway can also be your friend!

Hope your treatment goes well.

Greek style roast chicken on the BBC Good Food website - preparation takes 10 minutes? Basically slice potatoes, stick chicken thighs, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, some herb (?) on top with 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp red wine vinegar in the oven tray. Stick in the oven until it’s cooked! See the recipe for actual stages and timings!

Frozen chicken pie with new potatoes and veg such as green beans, babycorn, pre prepped brocoli you can just throw in the steamer. Could also do salmon, cook in foil parcels (v easy) and serve with the potatoes and veg.

Jacket potatoes with chilli/beans/tuna sweetcorn you could even buy sandwich mixes to go on the jackets to make it easier.

While they're not 'quick' I've used a few of the 'season and shake' bags by Colemans and most just want a few bits of chopped veg and then the 'meat' bung in the bag and cook. We like a cajun chicken rice one but they v simple and definitely low faff.

Really recommend the Quick Roasting Tin, all dishes that are cooked in one tin in the oven, take 10 mins or less to prep and cook in less than half an hour www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117507/the-quick-roasting-tin/9781529110067.html

Linguine with crab or prawns, garlic, creme fraiche or marscapone, chilli, cherry tomatoes and lemon.

Cook linguine. Toss through some roasted garlic or garlic purée, crab or prawns, lemon juice, chilli flakes and either marscapone or creme fraiche. Olive oil too if you think it needs it.

Dinner in less than 15 minutes.

Grilled halloumi, chopped up tomatoes/ bagged salad, houmous, pitta bread.

Stir fry with straight to wok noodles- frozen prawns are good, you can Chuck them in out of the packet.

And getting your husband to batch cook on weekends.