laziest meals...that look like you made an effort

[ghoulelocks]

can we pool ideas, those meals that get brownie points but are very little effort.

My contribution:

lamb casserole:
diced meat
frozen veg (tesco do nice and chunky mix)
few spices

throw in big pot, oven 90min. looks lovely, don't even get a knife dirty and takes about 2 min prep.

Lasagne. I can make this in my sleep add a handful of bagged mixed salad and some garlic bread too.

Roast chicken ,roast spuds,roast veg.Two trays so not much washing up

boeuf bourgignon done in the slow cooker served with steamed greens and dauphinoise potatoes.

About 30 mins preparation and hands on cooking altogether, but is dead impressive.

Custard. Everyone knows it started life in a tin but do they AWWWW at my soufflees.... OOOOOHHH at my timbales...... no..... they just go gaga over the bloody custard.

Salmon in foil parcels, chuck on frozen garlic, ginger, chilli and soy sauce.

Wrap up then bung in oven for 20 minutes alongside cherry tomatoes and asparagus spears . Prick a jacket potato and microwave.

Moules mariniere.
Saucepan, some white wine, cheats garlic, some chopped shallots if one can be arsed, and mussels. Whack up heat, chuck in cream, the juice of a lemon and the grated rind of said lemon.
Rip up a baguette.
Remove moules from heat, dish, sprinkling of parsley (again, only if one can be arsed) and serve.
Bit fed up I'm not having this for dinner now.

This is lush. It needs a bit of marinading, and then you just slam it in the oven to cook.

Chicken Marbella

I've converted the american cup measurements into metric, so round up or down the grams!

Spanish chorizo! Even though I'm veggie myself, a favourite with DH.

Can of chopped tomatoes
Paprika
Sliced green pepper
Diced chilli
Chorizo
Potatoes peeled, cubed and par boiled.

Fry the chorizo cut up then mix in other ingredients. Lovely! Even more cheaty is chorizo with a jar of chicken tonight Spanish chicken sauce (£1 in asda)

Served with rice!

Those knorr stock pots are my new fave ingredient too! Make everything from piesto soup taste better!

Pies to soup. I don't know what piesto soup is...

LeggaDAISYcal - Could I have your boeuf bourgignon recipe please?

My lazy meal is chilli in the slow cooker - bung it in and switch it on

actually as is most things I do in the slow cooker

Posh tart

Get packet of puff pastry. Draw lines round an inch inside the edge to make a frame. Paint middle with pesto/tomato paste/tomato sauce/olive tapanade. Strew, Nigella styleeeee, with chopped veg/meat eg spinach, peppers, courgette, olives, sliced tomato, sweetcorn, ham, chicken, chorizo, sausage, salami or four eggs broken on top. Shred cheap mozza balls or crumble goats cheese on top. Bake for about half an hour in the oven.
Done....

"Thai" stirfry, for the short of time and cannot be arsed (and who work in close proximity to M&S*)

1 x pack M&S "Thai Style Stirfry"
1/2 can of coconut milk
rice
salmon fillets
Soy sauce

Switch kettle on, put grill on. Put salmon fillets under grill, having chucked some soy sauce on them. Put rice on to cook. Open first compartment of stirfry (garlic, ginger and chilli), stirfry. Add top layer second compartment (big vegetables), stir fry for about 2 minutes, add bottom layer second compartment (leafy stuff) and stirfry for about a minute (til the leaves are wilted). Chuck on coconut milk and some soy sauce.

Here's the bit where it gets fancy:
Put rice on plate in pile
Put vegetable mixture on top, having sprinkled in bits of third compartment (fresh coriander)
Carefully place cooked salmon on top.
Do some squiggly patterns on the plate using soy sauce.

Tah dah!

*Other pre-prepared stirfry mixes work as well, or you can just choose and chop your own vegetables

A tin of ratatouille on the blender makes a fabulous pasta sauce or left whole and added instead of a tin of tomatoes.

Spanish roast chicken - just parboil some potatoes with a lemon, then stick the lemon in the chicken with some parsley stalks, scatter over chorizo and roast the entire lot for 90 mins. Serve with salad.

Homemade quiche. Mine's just cooling :)

Make (or buy) shortcrust pastry. Mine is 200g plain flour, 100g butter, pinch of salt, pulse in food processor. Add enough water to bind.

Line flan case with pastry.

Bake blind for 10 mins with baking beans/paper in, then another 5 mins without.

Remove from oven.

Fry 2 chopped leeks, a pack of chestnut mushrooms and 4 chopped rashers of bacon for 10 mins or so.

Grate some cheese (cheddar/gruyere/mixture of both). About 2 or 3 decent handfuls.

Beat together 3 eggs, a 300ml tub of double cream, salt and pepper and some thyme if you have it.

Sprinkle half of the cheese on the pastry base. Spoon on the leek/bacon/mushroom mix. Pour over the egg/cream mixture. Top with the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 200C for 20 - 25 mins until set and golden on top.

Leave to stand for a bit. Nicest served warm, not hot. Leftovers for packed lunch!

Ooh, good thread. I do something with salmon in foil with garlic, ginger, soy sauce and honey; similar to what sugarice describes. But she is posher than me with her asparagus spears

Can I just say, I can never really understand how lasagna appears in these kinds of lists, as I find it a GIGANTIC faff. Two pans, lots of mixing and stirring, followed by layering and then baking. And mine always landslides when I serve it :(

(As in- it falls apart, not that it's an overwhelming victory)

Yy lasagne is a faff. It's easy to make, but definitely a PITA.

Mix breadcrumbs with chopped sundried tomatoes out of a jar and/or red pesto and/or green pesto. Mound on top of salmon fillets to make a crust. Bake 15 mins or so in a medium-hot oven.

While baking, make salad with lettuce, cuke, salad onions, avocado, feta, pine nuts, or a panzanella.

I have never had luck with quiche. It either doesn't set, or it's soggy, or it runs out the bottom, or my quantities are totally off, or it looks like it's split when I cut it. It doesn't help that I've tried and failed so many times that now I have the Fear when I start again, which probably doesn't help.

I think I need a quiche intervention

Chicken curry:

Put the following in a slow cooker and switch it on for six hours:

Frozen spinach
a chopped onion
Frozen peppers
One or two tins of Pataks curry sauce (madras is good)
Frozen chicken breasts (I use Smart Price- never had any probs)
a carton of passata.

Six hours later serve with rice.

Lasagne is much easier if you use creme fraiche instead of home made cheese.

Home made soup always impresses. I put lentils, any veg ( about 4 kinds) and a chicken stock cube in a saucepan and boil away until its all soft. Then I use a stick blender to smooth it. Everyone thinks "ooh home made soup", but all I have done is boil stuff and use a blender.

We often have home made soup with bread, cheese and a dessert as our evening meal. I also use it as pasta sauce to get veg into the DCs.

Fill a Pyrex dish with as much spinach as you can cram in, lay asparagus spears on top of that and then chicken breasts on top of the asparagus. Put a dollop of pesto on each chicken breast and then slices of mozzarella over that. Put some cherry tomatoes around the chicken. Whack in the oven for about half an hour and ta dah! My fall back easy dinner option!

:o quiche intervention