You are knackered, in a hurry, and you need a decent meal. What do you make?

[thereistheball]

I have premature twins in hospital for the long haul and a daughter at school whose child care arrangements keep falling apart. I need to be in 3 places at once and none of them is in a supermarket or in front of the cooker. But I like good food and need to eat properly to keep my strength up (I am pumping milk for two and fighting off the inevitable back-to-school lurgy). For te last two days we've been living off variations of egg, ham, mushrooms and cheese on toast. What do you make when you're in a hurry but on your last legs? I don't mean ready meals (you can't get decent ones in France where I live) or stuff out of a packet/jar - I want proper food ideas to keep body and soul together please, preferably with leftover ideas for lunch for me that I can take into hospital (no fridge) so I don't have to live on baguettes. One last detail - I may be diabetic so I am trying to avoid sugar or anything too carby eg pasta or the aforementioned baguettes. Things like couscous etc are fine as an accompaniment but not as the main component of the meal. I try to stick with wholemeal carbs where possible.

Help me plan my meals please - thanks very much!

Carbonara. Quantities for 2 people - 250g of pasta, 75g philidelphia, 75g grated Parmesan, 1 pack pancetta, 2 eggs, 50ml olive oil.

Mix the oil, Parmesan, eggs and philidelphia into a bowl until its a smooth texture. Fry off your pancetta whilst the pasta is boiling. Add pancetta to sauce. When pasta is boiled, take some of the water out of the pasta to add to the sauce to make it smooth and velvety. Drain pasta, put it back in the pan, add the sauce, stir until the sauce starts to look slightly scrambled eggy.

10 mins tops and delicious.

Chop an onion (or take pre chopped onion out of freezer) put in frying pan with oil and packet of lardons. Grate in some garlic if you can be arsed. Add whole chicken breasts and sprinkle liberally with herbs de provence. Fry over medium heat for about 15m or until chicken is cooked through (you can slice the breasts open if you want it to go quicker).

While it's cooking, get frozen petits pois or haricots verts from freezer and boil.

Done!

Actually, my quickest meal, and my DSS (7)'s favourite, is salmon sashimi. Buy naice salmon fillets (super u has six in a pack for about 12 euros I think), remove skin, slice thinly. Serve with a squeeze of lemon, black pepper, a bowl of soy sauce for dipping and either rice and/or green salad. Mmm.

I've just come back to this to find lots of nice ideas. Thanks very much! Roast pork fillet is exactly what I want to eat at this time of year.