Can you give me your quickest healthy recipes please?

[shootfromthehip]

I'm about to go back to work and will be the first home every night to feed everyone. Can you please help me with healthy dinner options as I don't want to end up spending all weekend cooking so that I can defrost stuff midweek. I also don't want to spend more than 20-30 mins cooking. Please help... TIA

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I'd buy a copy of Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater. That's where all my really quick ideas come from.

If I were you and wanted to cook everything fresh every night I think I would rely on a rotating cast of:

• various types of thinnish steaks or boneless chicken parts (thighs are best as they cook quickly) cooked in a frying pan and finished off with a quick pan sauce, eg. pork steaks with apples, lamb steaks or boned chicken thighs with garlic and herbs, beef minute steaks with a dollop of mustard or bernaise sauce
• same as above but with fish - salmon fillets with yoghurt and herb pan sauce, white fish with cherry tomatoes and garlic, mackerel fillets with chili and breadcrumbs

Serve any the above with couscous (tip into bowl, pour over same volume of boiling water/stock, cover and ready within 6-7 mins), rice, or even crusty bread, and a salad and that's dinner.

If pasta isn't too unhealthy in your eyes, stick on some pasta (wholewheat always good), chop greens (kale, spring greens, cabbage, spinach) and add to the pasta pot towards the end of the pasta cooking time, roughly drain so it's still a bit wet, tip back into pasta pot over low heat and add some cheese that melts nicely - best are blue cheeses but also any hard cheese, smoked cheese or even boursin or similar. It will melt all over the pasta and greens and be gorgeous.

Xiaoxiong thank you so much- some fantastic ideas here!

Do you do a roast at the weekend? If you do a dinner the leftovers can be used to make quick dinners in my experience.

So on Sunday I'll do a roast chicken with potatoes and veg. Monday a stirfry or chicken fajitas, Tuesday chicken & mushroom risotto or maybe a chicken paella which all take less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook.

Can you time your oven to cook jacket potatoes ready for your return? Then you only need to make a filling for them.

One evening a week battered fish and chips are fine- just chuck them at the oven when you get in.

Toad in the hole? Aunt Bessie's 4 min yorkshires are fab, sausages are cooked in less that half an hour and you just need to steam some veg.

Thanks for the ideas folks- love cooking, love food but can't imagine how I'm to feed us to the standard that I have in the past with virtually no time!

Salmon with pesto, Parmesan, and tomato, stack up and bung in the oven for 20 mins at 170. Scrummy with a side salad.

I have just bought a small Annabel Karmel family cookbook. It only cost about four pounds.

I have used it all week. Some of the recipes do have a bit of cream but I have enjoyed eating everything and have cleared up clean plates so I guess that is a good sign.

And the meal planning is saving me a fortune!

Also, I am aiming, each week to have two fish nights, two nights where I freeze at least enough for another family meal, and a soup and a pudding night. I made Annabel's red thai chicken soup last night and have frozen four portions.

I figure this way I will have at least a couple of nights a week where I feed my family for 'free'.

Consider a ricemaker? I don't have one but if you can get easy rice, suddenly dinner looks a lot more possible.

Scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast

Egg curry is something I crave from time to time - I have a very 70s recipe I love from an old Cordon Bleu Eggs book which is just oil, well cooked onions, tomatoes and curry powder, and by tripling the curry powder amounts, tis great. Wilt in some spinach to the sauce. A couple of eggs per person,sliced in half to serve.

I use annabel karmels book as well, it's really good. Other things I do:

Omelette (spinach, red pepper, broccoli, mushrooms and cheese) and chips
Pasta with pesto and Philadelphia sauce with greens and chicken
Salmon cooked with lemon juice and Thyme wrapped in foil in the oven with brown rice and greens
Minute steaks in ciabatta with rocket and tomato

I also batch cook tomato pasta sauce once a month, I use an annabel Karmel recipe that has loads of veg in.

I then use it for - spaghetti and meatballs, spaghetti bolagnaise, fusili with bacon and mushrooms. I also use it for a rice dish with chicken, red and yellow pepper, onion, Spanish style rice (shop brought) I spice the sauce up with paprika etc.

Chicken, chorizo,, callaloni bean, tomato and pepper stew with crusty bread is amazing I always make enought to last for 2 days.

Nutritious and delicious I'd love the recipe for that stew??

I love Annabel Karmel's book too her enchiladas are amazing though can take a little more than 20 minutes. We batch cook them at the weekend and freeze for busy days.

Fish (haddock, cod, salmon) topped with pesto and breadcrumbs baked and served with salad and wedges.

Chicken marinaded in honey, soy sauce, garlic ginger and ketchup grilled with red peppers and served with noodles or rice (rice makers are your friend!).

Pesto pasta with chorizo and cauliflower or brocolli and chicken.

Tortilla base pizzas, quesadillas or fajitas.

Baked tortilla baskets filled with salad and cold meat/cheese

Beef stir fry with rice or noodles.

Ditto to the chicken, chorizo and cannelloni stew? Sounds really good. I'm always on the lookout for easy, nutritious but also inexpensive meal ideas.

Jamies 15 minute meals is a great source of inspiration.

15 mins is pushing it, but easily done in under half an hour.

Ingredients:
Onion
Courgette
Tom purée
Tinned toms
Button mushrooms
Red pepper
Yellow pepper
Chorizo
Chicken diced
Garlic flatbread/crusty baguette
Butter beans/callaloni beans
chicken stock (optional)
Garlic purée
Mixed herbs
Paprika

I use a heavy bottomed casserole pan for this.

Fry the onion in the garlic purée and olive oil, add the diced chicken and mixed herbs and fry until chicken is sealed. Add paprika and stir

Add the tomato purée, peppers, mushrooms courgettes and chorizo and stir over a low heat for 5-7 minutes

Add the tinned tomatoes and beans and simmer for 10 minutes

If you want more liquid add chicken stock (either a quater or half a pint) and simmer for 5 minutes.

If I add stock I treat it as a kind of soup, and serve with crusty bread.

If no stock I serve with garlic flatbread and green salad.

thank you