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.

This instant pud recipe is why I have the NN I do, was obsessed last summer:

Punnet of frozen berries (raspberries work well), pot of Greek yoghurt (full, half or no fat, depending on your diet!), and a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar.

Blitz frozen fruit in food processor, when all grainy add the yoghurt, and whizz around until the yoghurt freezes. Add sugar to taste. Voila! Instant frozen yoghurt. Will work with cream too, but yog is healthier and means I can eat the lot in one sitting.

A pudding one:

Plum and Marzipan Puffs.

Roll out a slab of ready made puff pastry, and score with a knife into squares about 2 or 3 inches across. Get a block of marzipan and cut it up into bite sized blobs and place one in the centre of each square. Cut some plums in half and place a half on each square, and sprinkle with a little demarara sugar and bake for about 25 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden and the marzipan is oozy and melted and the plums are caramelized. Dust with icing sugar (if you are being posh) and serve with custard, or cream, or creme fraiche with vanilla essence, or cinnamon and a little bit of icing sugar mixed in.

Ooh they sound lovely, Fellatio.

Everyone who tries this , asks for the recipe

Chickpea Dahl Loaf
1 tin chickpea dahl
1 pk batchelors mild curry savoury rice
4 eggs

Make up rice as directed.
Add chick pea dahl and the beaten eggs.
Mix well and pour into a lined loaf tin.
Cook for about 25 mins at 180'c, gas 5

breadandwine that cake in a mug recipe sounds like genius. I have to let the DC loose on that one tomorrow. The idea of going from need cake to eating cake in 7 mins will seriously impress them. I can't believe it works.

Plum and sloe gin sorbet:

Halve and stone some purple plums (without peeling them), and freeze.
10 mins before eating take them out of the freezer.
1 min before eating blitz in the food processor with a glug of sloe gin. Add some caster sugar / lemon juice to taste, if necessary.

We have this on Christmas Eve.

This thread is amazing.
My easy dinner is Teriyaki Salmon.
Pyrex dish, salmon fillets. Cover with half a bottle of Teriyaki sauce (I like Waitroses own brand best an I've tried heaps!!)
Cook for 15 mins and serve with stir fried noodles and bok choi - super healthy and soooo easy.

Satay stir fry. Couple of spoonfuls crunchy peanut butter, couple of glugs of sweet chilli sauce and a splash of soy to make the sauce. Fry veg - done.

Everyone LOVES my lentil soup too amazingly . Celery, leeks, carrots, lentils, tinned toms, some herbs, stock and seasoning. Use plenty of oil to fry the veg in.

Pearl barley risotto - don't bother adding it bit by bit and stirring ad infinitum, just dump a load of stock in the pan once you've fried some onion/leek/garlic/mushrooms slowly in butter, add the pearl barley and let it do its thing. Add feta at the end. YUM.

Quick and filthy Reese's Peanut Butter Cup inspired "pudding":

Put a big dollop of Nutella and peanut butter in one corner of a flour tortilla (I know they're round, but you get what I mean I hope)
Fold in half and then half again and squidge down a bit
Chuck in microwave for a few seconds
Eat

girliefriend - That salmon sounds lovely. I normally do pesto salmon but hadn't thought of adding breadcrumbs -dd1 would love!

Do you serve with plain boiled rice?

Easiest posh pudding ever.

1 bag frozen mixed berries
1 big bar white chocolate
Cream

Melt chocolate into cream. Put frozen berries on plate. Pour hot chocolate and cream mix over the top. Eat.

2nd easiest posh pudding.

1 roll of pastry
1 jar of golden syrup
1 pint of milk

Spread syrup onto pastry. Roll up. Put into a dish. Pour over milk. Bake in oven at 170 for half an hour or so.

Easiest trifle ever..... think it's a Delia recipe

4 choc chip muffins
1 pot posh custard
1 tub marscapone
1 medium pot double cream
1 jar of cherry compote or a jar of those no sugar french jam things.

Squodge muffins into bottom of trifle bowl, put cherry compote/jam thing on top. Mix custard and mascarpone together, spread on top of muffins and jam. Whip cream, put on top of custard mix. Crumble a flake over the top.

a little nigella favourite of mine.

Bag of mixed peppers, roughly chopped into chunks. A few sweet potatoes roughly chopped into chunks. Red potato roughly chopped into chucks, no bigger than about an inch/inch and half. Chop two cloves of garlic in half. Quater a red onion. Throw it all in a roasting dish a drizzld with olive oil and rub it in everything. Add chicken if you want. Cook for about 20-25min slice some halloumi cheese and place on top of the mix for the last 5min at highest temp. Serve. Beautiful.

Baked omelette

Chop onion, peppers, sausage or ham, dried herbs, anything else that lurking in the fridge in a lightly oiled silicone cake pan, add 3-4 beaten eggs sprinkle some grated cheese; stick in oven at 180 for 35-45 minutes. Turn out on to plate serve with salad/ boiled new spuds/ whatever.

Posh version use baby toms spring onion feta cheese arrange artistically in pan pour egg over carefully.

Always looks good, and OH loves it with salad the next day, I don't know what it's like as he gets up earlier and steals it all. .

Easiest veggie side dish for Xmas. Bag of frozen chopped cabbage. Put in pan with butter salt pepper and bag of frozen chopped leeks. Add chopped sprouts and bag of washed spring greens. Three chunks of frozen garlic added. Sauté until all frozen veg soft. Pour into shallow dish. Pour over cream or creme fraiche and cover in cheese. Best veggie bake ever. I've slipped many of my kids 'hated' veg in this and they've not noticed.

Best dinner party standard dessert - white choc cheesecake. Bash some digestives/ Oreos/ hobnobs etc and add to melted butter. Press into base of dish. Mix whipped cream with melted white choc. Pour over biccies base and refrigerate. Eat when set. For extra oomph place raspberries on base then add cream so you see berries when you slice it up.

Fruit tart : ready made sweet pastry case. Pour whipped cream over. Throw over fresh berries or tinned fruit or frozen berries. Bizarrely this tastes better with savoury tart case too.

Ps veggie bake needs to be oven baked for about 25 mins

Bakingnovice that veg bake sounds right up my street - I am definitely going to try that. Anything with cabbage/spinach, cheese and cream and I'm there like a shot. Good low carb fodder as well.

Fish parcels

Fish fillet of some sort on a piece of foil, about A4 size.
Add mini sweetcorn, thinly sliced carrot, green beans, mange tout - whatever takes your fancy really.

Add 3 tablespoons of liquid - I use 1 each of lemon juice, soy sauce and water.

Add parsley if you have any.

Wrap up foil into a parcel.

Cook for 15 mins ish, 180o ish.

My mum's chocolate mousse - her signature dish of 1970s dinner parties, particularly effective on guests who don't have children.

Make Angel Delight with cream rather than milk.
Top with crumbled Flake.

Parmesan and rocket ravioli.
Boil the ravioli for 3 mins, gently fry some cherry tomatoes cut in half while the pastas boiling. When the pastas ready stir in the tomato`s and parmesan and cover with rocket. Yum. It only takes 5 mins.

Meatballs in tomato sauce.

Make some meatballs.
Fry the meatballs in a pan.
Chop and fry 1 onion and 1 clove of garlic
Add a tin of tomato`s and tomato puree
Add the meatballs and 1/2 tspn of turmeric
Add a beef stock cube and stir
Cook on low for 1 hour and serve with spaghetti.

I've recently rekindled passion for packet biriani.

If you go into any of the asian grocers there are brands like 'shan' or 'laziza' that do a premixed packet of biriyani spices. They are basically just mixed spices, not like those jars which taste horrible and are not real food.

You fry a finely diced onion, add your lamb, then the spice mix with some chopped tomatoes and plain yoghurt, and boil till the lamb is cooked; seperately boil some pre soaked rice till half cooked and then drain well. Layer the rice and meat with an added layer of chopped mint and corinader, cook with lid on low heat till the rice is tender. Then mix it all up when done. Beautiful.

An easy pudding which goes down well - Slags Trifle. Break up pack of double choc muffins, place in bowl. Add scoops of chocolate ice cream then pour Baileys all over it. Top with whipped cream and chopped up Flake. I have had people fight over the last dollop of this.

Easy-peasy cheesecake:

Grease and line a springform tin, or don't bother and use 6-8 of those ramekins you have knocking about the place I'm right aren't I?!

Bash up 10-12 digestive biscuits in a plastic bag.

Melt about 50g of butter (don't weigh it, use the markings on the butter pack)

Add biscuits to butter. Stir. Squash mix into bottom of tin/ramekins.

Add juice of 2 lemons to mascapone (700-750g). Waitrose do a 700g pot so no weighing! Taste, and add more lemon juice or icing sugar to taste.

Spoon mix into tin/ramekins on top of biscuit mix. Chill until set.

For added impressiveness put some curls of fine lemon zest on top using a zester or very sharp knife.

You can swap the lemon juice for 100g melted chocolate or swirl in raspberry/blackcurrant/strawberry sauce or top with fruit pie mix out of a tin.

Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's lemon posset as published in The Guardian in May 2009:

Lemon posset
One of the simplest and most delicious of all English puddings. It's remarkable that something that takes only minutes to make tastes so luxurious. Serve it as it is, with small shortbread biscuits as we do here, or with a few raspberries later in the summer. Serves six.

600ml double cream
150g caster sugar or vanilla sugar
Juice of 3 medium-sized lemons

Pour the cream into a large saucepan and add the sugar. Warm gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a boil and boil for exactly three minutes, without stirring. Remove from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice. Strain into a jug, then pour into six ramekins or small glasses. Cool, cover, and refrigerate for four hours before serving.

--

I have made this. It is ridiculously easy and it's a good standby when you have people for lunch/dinner and you want to offer a choice of dessert.

I've just seen Hugh says to strain it. I never have. It's been fine.