Although I adore Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals, I need faster meals during the week - any ideas?

[crapbarry]

I've tried 4 of his meals, and, when DH kept DS out of the kitchen, they did take 30 minutes, more or less, to cook. And about an hour, once DS was abed, to wash up after. However, I need fast meals I can make with a toddler hanging onto my leg and whining, and which don't utilise every single utensil in the kitchen. I've got one staple which takes 15 minutes start to finish, which we all wolf down, but can't have it every week or after about 3 weeks, DH will go 'oh no, not this again' and we'll have an inevitable strop (which normally involves the phrase 'well if you don't like it, why don't you do the fucking cooking for a change?' and lots of in his direction until he pours me a glass of wine)

anyway...

my 15 minute meal is thai pork with rice and veg, uses 2-3 pans and a chopping board/knife, and which I'll happily post the recipe to if anyone wants it :)

but does anyone else have easy peasy recipes which are suitable for mid-week?

This week we are having:

Marmite spaghetti
Meatballs and pasta
Beef in red wine ( takes 15 mins to prep, then 2 hours left alone in oven, eat warmed through the next day )
Cod wrapped in pancetta with greens and potatoes
Omelettes

I am also going to do some yoghurt and berry crunch and make another tea loaf. None of these take longer than 30 minutes.

Most things revolve around mince - which is easily made in batch 1kg form and froze into individual pots.

Cottage pie, sheppards pies, mousakka, bolognaise etc.

You dont need to make these seperate from your own, you have to batch cook for all the family and make pies ones (I use the chocolate GU pots). I do lots of micro reheating but this works.

The children mostly eat around 5-6 but the eldest someones later with us.

Last night I made a chicken and bean stew - so easy but a bit of prep and slow cooking.

Omelettes are great for using up bits of meat left in the fridge. Fish pies are a fav too. Taste the differnce fish fingers are divine served with baby spuds and green veg.

Use the slow cooker (with socket timer)or slow cook in your oven. Usually fast cook receipes are expensive as you need the best cuts of meat and lots of fresh herbs etc. I personally think its impossible to eat quick everynight.

Lots of it is about spending half an hour at the weekend to plan the meals, make a shopping list and buy what you need. I dont think there is any other way around but its all in forward planning. If you do at least one pot at the weekend its makes life so much easier.

I usually keep them happy with bread sticks and cream cheese when they are on the turn.

Pasta pesto grated cheese any veg you fancy 15 minutes

Salmon and prawns with creme fraiche and peas. - chuck hot smoked salmon bits (or do one of those frozen fillets that microwave in the bag in a couple of minutes) and prawns in a pan, stir round, chuck a tub of creme fraiche in, warm through, snip chives in (you can freeze them whole) and add peas. Serve with rice noodles which take 2mins in a bowl of boiling water.

Sausages and baked pots just need shoving in the oven, or mixed veg wedges - sweet pot, parsnip, carrots, pots wedged, tossed in rapeseed oil, shoved in oven go with a baked chicken breast nicely.

with small dcs you don't need to go faster you need to go easier. Fast meals jamie style that need your full attention even for 30 mins are a no no. Things that can be made task by task over the course of a late afternoon are great- Activity for toddler and no stress for you

ooh, the individual pots to be frozen is a good idea. now I just need to eat some Gu desserts to get some pots ;) DS is only 15 months, and on days I don't have conference calls after work, I can generally cook and keep him happy with a bowl of nibbles, but I've recently been getting more and more to do after work, which leads to later dinners and a whiney baby!

he does get a main meal at lunch at nursery, so I can sometimes get away with a snack dinner for him, but then I feel guilty. He had a crumpet with some sticks of cheese and some beetroot last night, but I like him to have a hot dinner as often as possible - and eat the same as us.

thanks for the ideas, will give some of them a go!

well, I think it all depends on what you like to eat, and how much you are willing to spend. As bacon says, it's hard to do quick cooking unless you use expensive cuts. But if you're willing to do that, then lots of options.

We had lamb chops, new potatoes, butternut and courgettes with fried mushrooms last night. From walking through the door to eating, including changing out of work clothes, was less than 30 minutes. But lamb chops are expensive.

Other quick meals for us are pasta based - bacon and onion fried at its most simple, or roasted tomato (takes longer but is so easy you can be doing something else while the tomatoes are in the oven).

Also, we do things like smoked mackerel fillets warmed gently in the oven and served with salad and potatoes (or even couscous if we can't be bothered to cook potatoes). Very quick and easy.

Bean and sausage "stew" can be done super quickly and we cheat and use frankfurters for even more convenience - fry onion and garlic, add chopped sausage (if frankfurter, doesn't need any frying beyond a second, but otherwise fry sausage chunks until lightly cooked) add combo of baked and regular beans of your choice, some chopped fresh tomato, stock. Stir and taste - a spoon of balsamic vinegar can work well at this point. Simmer for 10 minutes while you cook basmati rice or 20 minutes while you cook brown rice. If you have some fresh parsley lying around, chop and add too. Serve with some cheese. (you can use chorizo instead of sausage too).

Also, slighly longer to cook, but very easy - wrap small chicken fillets in parma ham and place in roasting/baking tray with tomatoes, butternut/sweet potatoe and perhaps some onion chunks. Sprinkle with favourite herbs/chilli and some olive oil. Bake for about 30 - 45 minutes.

I do a lot of dinners that take a long time to cook but are v easy to prepare.
Eg, some boneless chicken thighs, mixed veg and a casserole sauce in a casserole dish - takes 10 mins to bung it all in then you just leave in the oven for a couple of hours and dinner is ready!
Also baked pots in the oven,
sausage and tomato casserole type thing
spag bol
Fish pie is quick and easy if you steam and mash the pots in advance, then it only takes about half an hour

Is your thai pork spicy?
If not, can I have the recipe please??

We've had a nice chicken curry last night. Brown 4 skinless chicken thighs in a casserole, take them out, fry a chopped onion with 2 bay leaves for 5 mins. Mix 250ml Greek yoghurt with 2 tbsp curry paste, a handful of sultanas, bunch of chopped coriander. Pour over the chicken and put in oven (160 fan) for half an hour. Tonight we've got sausages, with 2 tins mixed beans, tarragon and creme fraiche, with veg stock added to make more "soupy", with some nice bread. Often make a "Shepherds" Pie but with green lentils and tin of tomatoes instead of mince/stock. I usually make twice as much filling and freeze some. You can make the filling then go and play with your DS, and do the mash later. 40 mins in oven.

Jamie's Ministry of Food book has a section of 20 min meals which really do take 20 mins - a lovely spicy tom pasta, and a fish couscous are our family favourites. Not sure if any of them are on the JO website.

Other than that like others I try to make double quantities of things like spag bol, curries and chilli and freeze them for the days I work when I have about ten mins between getting in and DD demanding tea!

thai pork (shamelessly stolen from a sainsburys magazine)

you need:
500g minced pork
tube of lemongrass puree
fresh ginger
an onion
thai jasmine rice (50g per person)
some veg.

get pan of water on to boil for the rice, and weigh out your rice

chop an onion (or spring onions) and fry on low heat in oil.

prepare your veg whilst the onions soften - we normally have baby corn, which just needs to be boiled for 6 minutes.

bung rice into boiling water.

break the mince up into the frying pan with the onion and turn heat up slightly, mix until mince is browning a little bit.

Add 2 tablespoons of lemongrass, and grate a thumb of fresh ginger in (plus usual salt and pepper). mix. the mince should cook faster than the rice, so once it's done, you can lay the table/nag someone into doing it, then drain the rice and veg and serve :)

You can add a bit of coconut milk and lime juice to give it more of a sauce, but we find it leads to explosive nappies from DS the following day!

Will look up the ministry of food recipes, thanks.

What about Linguini with Pancetta, Garlic and Rocket - takes less that 20 minutes. A firm favourite.

Or... how old are your kids? Mine (4.5 and 2.5) love to cook with me - takes a bit of pre-planning (you can chop mushrooms, you can do courgettes) but they really love it and also feels v supermummy . Can't guarantee they'll always eat it, but they like 'taste-testing'.

Our foods we like to cook together
fishcakes
shepherds pie
lamb chickpea hash (from a book called just one pot)
chilli
bolognese
prawn stirfry

etc, so nothing wild!

I'm setting up a website to provide quick weekday recipes, it's not up and running yet, but PM me your email address if you'd like to hear about it & get some recipes when I'm launched.

Tuna steak with salad (dressed with balsoamic and oil) and crusty bread rolls. Tuna takes approx 2 min to cook. Salad about 2 minutes to prepare. Meal takes 5 minutes to complete :)

adair - he's 15 months, so can't really involve him in cooking yet, but I'm letting him taste test all the raw veg, and see what I'm doing as much as possible - can't wait until I can get him working beside me!!

I managed to prepare a lasagne and enough cheese sauce for macaroni and cauliflower cheese for tomorrow last night, so that's 2 or 3 nights sorted this week! It's so hard to be organised though!

I'll PM you seabright, thanks :)

Swedish meatballs, and quorn chunks are real defaults here too - both can be frozen, and just need heating through.

DS is very fond of making squashy sauce atm - dh bought me a kenwood minichopper for christmas, and so the sauce consists of blitzing onion and garlic, tip that into pan and sweat while chucking carrot, courgette, red pepper and either passata or tinned toms into the chopper and whizzing. Chuck into pan, and add a splash of soy sauce and oregano, then ketchup. Leave to reduce a bit. Really fast to make, and even your ds will be able to tear a pepper up into big chunks to help. You can add tinned pulses/quorn/meatballs for protein

Ha ha! I've tried loads of Jamies 30 minute meals, but they've all taken me about an hour! Then the kitchen is a complete bomb site and it takes about another half an hour to clear up all the mess!

Here's a quick low fat recipe for you: Serves 2:

Cook enough spaghetti for you both.

Whilst that is cooking fry in a little olive oil a courgette chopped into little cubes until just starting to brown. When spaghetti is about half cooked add a ladle ful of the cooking water to the pan that the courgette is in. Then add a whole tub of Boursin Light and mash that around a bit so it dissolves and makes a sauce. Add a little more of the spaghetti cooking water if it is too thick. At the end add some chopped ham or chopped smoked salmon then pour over the spaghetti. Yum!

Obviously if there's more than 2 of you, get another tub of Boursin!

spagetti carbonara.

rissotto - ok takes a bit of stiring but you could do that whilst sorting dishwasher,

egg fried rice (using rice from previous day - know you aren't supposed to due to food poisoning but we've never had it).

bacon/eggs/beans/toms/msuhrooms is not that unhealthy and quick

most fish can be grilled/fried quickly.

stew - made previous day and heated up - improves flavour

more ideas please

Reheating rice is fine as long as you cool it quickly - spread it out on a baking tray (which helps it dry off too), then once cool (just about time to eat dinner) put in sandwich bag portions, flatten and freeze. You can defrost and heat it in the microwave in a couple of minutes.

Savoury rice - chopped onions, sweat off, add chopped bacon or pancetta, then add long grain rice, boiling water, stock cube, bit of marmite, worcestershire sauce. When nearly cooked add in frozen mixed veg. I also add left over cooked sausage at the end.

You can make cheese sauce variations by using frozen spinach or broccoli.

Oh, and if you cook extra baked potatoes, they make excellent very quick oven chips/saute potatoes or mash the next day.

But if you've all had a hot lunch, you really don't need a cooked tea - how about soup and rolls a couple of days a week ?

I always forget about carbonara, must try that again some time soon!

rice from previous day issue - it's due to Bacillus cereus, but isn't supposed to be a problem if you cool the rice rapidly, after heating it to above 100 degrees C! I find that microwaving risotto into oblivion the following day is a good way to reheat it confidently :o

Oh, that is the hardest age for trying to cook do anything IMO.