What is your overlooked low effort, high-ish impact weekly meals

[Polir]

Do you have any meals you make that are next to no effort but go down a treat and make it look like you have your shit together with your family.

So for me it’s a roast chicken. I’ll either do it with salad and bread, Nando’s style using frozen wedges, rice (occasionally in a bag when I’m truly lazy) coleslaw, baby potatoes in a bag etc. You name it really. Kids always really happy when I begin to carve up. Maybe involves 10 mins of work, if that. Literally the same level of effort as some beige frozen food meals we have when desperate.

What is your version of this that you think is overlooked?

Well that's helpful!

It's just me and DH now . Harissa salmon traybake - toss a can of butter beans and a punnet of cherry toms in a spoonful of olive oil, put on tray with 2 salmon or trout fillets, cover those with a mix of Greek yogurt and harissa. 20 mins or so in the oven. Serve with green veg. Can put other veg on the tray but those are the essentials.

DHs at the moment is French onion beans which is basically a load of caramelised onions, tinned beans and a little stock, baked with Gruyère on top (could add breadcrumbs but we don't buy bread nowadays).

Pasta of any kind, we like spaghetti, or rice, with tuna (from tin), quickly sautéed courgettes (can also add onions...I used to like but gone off them) or red and or green peppers, with a bit of tomato sauce which could be homemade and stored/frozen or store bought. Add some chilli pepper or similar if you want some kick.

Pasta carbonara with a green salad afterwards.

Either balsamic tuna steaks with salad and cous cous
Or linguine its crab, garlic, chilli and cherry tomatoes, plenty of fresh herbs.

Both can be on the table in 15 minutes and pack great flavour. Basically use great produce and allow them to speak for themselves.

I work nights so use the slow cooker a lot, I make a mango chicken curry that cooks beautifully in it, we all enjoy it, takes about 10 mins to sling everything in the pot and then I go to bed! It’s cooked when I get up and DH and the kids are home. It’s from the Bored of Lunch Slow cooker book.

Peanut butter noodles for us

Oh yeah
I missed that bit out.
stewing or braising beef

its a very forgiving recipe so you can be a bit slap dash with quantities on the ingredients

Macaroni cheese

Chorizo and bean stew or a veggie bean chilli...really quick versions on the hob.

Lentil bolognese (with pre-cooked lentils from a packet or tin)

Pasta Napoli and roast veg. Ten mins to chop & shove veg in oven, 5 mins to put on pasta/sauce that you then just leave for 10 mins to cook. Super simple, reasonably healthy and kids love it.

The other ones they love are more work but for adult ones traybake things are minimal effort but really nice. I love the green roasting tin for ideas. Some are more involved but plenty only require 15-20 mins of effort

Roasting Tin 'Chow Mein'

Chopped meat or alternative into a large roasting tin. Mix with a supermarket sachet of stir-fry sauce. Add a ¼ cup or so of boiling water from the kettle and cook at 180ºc for 10-15 minutes depending on the type of meat. Stir through a pack of prepared stir-fry vegetables and a pack of so-called 'fresh' noodles. Add a splash more water and a good shaking of soy sauce. Another 10 minutes in the oven sprinkle with a little toasted sesame oil and serve straight from the tin.

This sounds delicious! I will be cooking it this week since it's still slow cooker weather!

Extra nice Cottage Pie

1/2 lb mince
1 grated carrot
Finely chopped onion
1/2 chopped red or green pepper
Tomato puree

Mix all together ,cover with sliced cooked potato ,bake 20 minutes

Can vary the mixture by adding chick peas or kidney beans.

Makes mince go a lot further adding all the bits and feeds more people .

Spooky coincidence! The crab linguine is what’s on my meal plan for tonight.
I get dressed crabs from the fish van man & freeze them. Spaghetti though as Aldi don’t do linguine…

mine is a massive pile of chicken wings with half marinaded in salt and pepper seasoning from BandM and the other half bbq (just chuck whatever on them) shove in the oven for 30-40 minutes (I know its not 'quick') but you can get on with other things. Serve with rice from the rice cooker and whatever veg or salad I've got. Super cheap!

Salmon, rice, tenderstem broccoli with sriracha mayonnaise,
Steak panini with fried onions, peppers and mustard with those shaky bag fries and salad leaves.
Caesar salad with chicken,
Spanakopita with lemony rice and salad.

My teens treat these as Michelin star worthy.

Place marking for ideas!

Cheese omelette, boiled new potatoes with butter and parsley, frozen green beans. On the table in less than 15 minutes and everyone likes it.

These all sound delicious. Can’t imagine why anyone would think YABU?! Confused

Ditto chicken, roast in the tray one, boil new potatoes and toss in olive oil, sour cream, gherkins, spring onions and salt, salad leaves.

Stir fry, is a doddle - did leftover roast port, a sliced pepper, half a bag tender stem broccoli, an onion chopped, sesame oil and seeds, a little chilli oil, frozen ginger cube, frozen garlic cube, soy sauce and honey .... got lots of praise but took literally 5 minutes.

Cheat fish supper: microwave prepped new potatoes with herbs, pan fry seabass or sole, samphire and a few prawns, add a jar/sachet hollandaise sauce. Lots of prayer for a less than 10 minute cook time, ideal for a dinner for 2

Roasted veg pasta. Roast peppers, red onion, courgette, etc. in a pan for 25-30 minutes and cook pasta. Mix pesto in with the pasta and add the veg on top. Delicious and so easy. Can even buy the ready prepped trays of veg when feeling really lazy.

Most of our meals fall into the ‘on the table in 20 mins, half an hour tops’ category to be honest. Or else we use the slow cooker - I like the bored of lunch book mentioned above.

One of the easiest, and the one that makes DD cheer and declare ‘this is my favourite dinner’ is a lemon prawn orzo. I usually use the tiny little star pasta instead of orzo for extra DD appeal, or it’s lovely with spaghetti. Cook the pasta, throw frozen peas in for last 5 mins or so. Meanwhile heat mix of garlic oil and butter in a pan, or you can do minced garlic, I sometimes put a bit of chilli in but have to go lightly for DD’s sake. Add juice of 1-2 lemons depending on preference, and bit of zest too if you fancy, take off heat, add parsley if you have it - I usually don’t but it’s better with. combine with pasta and a bit more butter.

Other one is the feta and tomato pasta thing, which I do different variations of adding different veg/ flavourings etc. Or use Boursin as a change from feta. I bloody love that, DD less keen though.

These all take too long to cook. To be truly lazy it needs to be ready in 5 mins!

Dinner last night, Rana Tortelloni, in cream with fresh spinach. 2 mins for the tortelloni, 2 mins for the spinach. Stir in cream, black pepper and spinach. Top with parmesan. Total elapsed time 5 mins.

Or..... Waitrose Mango chicken strips, fry them off, pop on top of salad.

Gnochi with chorizo, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella

Noodle soup - fresh ramen broth from Tesco, chop up the veg and add to it with the noodles. Simmer til cooked. Sprinkle over roasted almonds and fresh coriander. Squeeze of lime and a drizzle of roasted sesame oil. Yum.

It's pretty much always tray bakes for me. A favourite is a Diana Henry one: Sausages, peppers, halved new pots, onions. Roast off a bit, then towards the end add halved cherry toms and a good covering of Parmesan. Same concept but with a tray of chicken thighs and wings from the supermarket is also good, though I don't add the cheese to that.

From Oven To Table by Diana Henry is my bible, basically.

When I do a traybake I pretty much also have a second tray of veg in the oven which I find really useful for lunches, blitzing into a pasta sauce, or just stirring into some pasta with a dod of soft cheese and some pasta water. Or i roast aubergines for super quick pasta Norma the next day.