What is your quickest and easiest family meal?

[Toowittoowoo]

One day a week DH needs to feed both DDs (1 year old and 4 year old) and himself within 30mins of coming through the door.

Although he is as good as me at both cooking and looking after the kids he is not very used to doing both at the same time with hardly any time and i can just imagine that the whole thing will become very stressful for everyone!

Unfortunately he needs to cook the 'main' meal of the day so I'd like it to involve some protein and be reasonably healthy. DH and DD1 are always very hungry so it needs to be quite substantial. All three are very slim (unlike me!) so it can be as calorific as they like!

I am already batch cooking for other days of the week and I'm just trying to avoid spending ALL weekend cooking food for the week.

All I can think of is fish fingers sandwiches with tomatoes and cucumber and tinned sweetcorn. Surely there is more quick family food out there?

(I have no room in the freezer for oven chips and DD1 will not eat omlete - annoyingly!!!)

What does everyone else do for quick quick meals?

I do pasta,peas and pesto with cheese sprinkled on top.

Fish fingers beans and peas is my staple quick dinner. Lots of protein, plenty of carbs in the breadcrumbs and beans so no need for chips.

Otherwise pasta and tomato sauce/pesto with plenty of cheese.

Salmon that you can buy in those oven-ready bags with a herb butter in it. Boil some new potatoes and mange touts while its in the oven.

In fact I usually buy the pouch of microwavable potatoes, so even easier, you don't even need to boil a kettle!

Today we are having spaghetti bolognaise which with take 15 minutes - I put the sauce part in the slow cooker this morning though. Which is kind of cheating.

He can make homemade pesto in the time it takes the pasta to cook, and serve it with a tomato salad.

Or cook pasta, adding peas in the last five minutes, drain, add a little bit of butter, bit of cream (enough to make it nice and silky), chopped ham, seasoning and parmesan. My children LOVE this. Serve with a green salad and/or steamed broccoli and/or green beans.

Or teriyaki burgers - takes five minutes to make the burger mix, then you do them in the oven (15-20 mins). Super easy and delicious. Serve with veg and/or salad. If you want to do it without the teriyaki sauce, I'd serve them with some mashed potato and peas (for ease) or other green veg/salad.

Mini meatloaves and oven potatoes - takes about half an hour, most of it is the cooking time, really easy, delicious.

Or spaghetti with a simple tomato/basil sauce.

Stir fry.

Chicken, veg and noodles is good.

Cook spaghetti and peas and drain
Microwave salmon fillets
Flake salmon and a little lemon zest
Add to spaghetti with great big dollop cream cheese and black pepper

Pasta and pesto with added ham/salmon
Prawn stir fry with lemon, ginger and garlic
Oven baked risotto

Haven't tried this but looks nice and has good reviews - cheese crusted pork - and is quick.

Pasta, tub of creme fraiche with tuna and grated cheese. It'll keep for you too when you get home....if there's any left. Mine prefer pasta tubes.

Oh, don't forget the 7 portions of veg!!

Actually, Martha Stewart has lots of ideas for quick and easy meals:

15 minutes or less

Dinner tonight - quick recipes

Pasta egg and cheese. While pasta is cooking mix eggs and grated cheese. Half way through pasta cooking throw some frozen peas in. Wjen pasta is cooked drain it, then plop it back in the pan with the eggy cheese mix and cook while stirring for couple min. Eat.

Wholemeal pasta with pesto from a jar, a squeeze of lemon or lime if you have it, black pepper and a little grated cheese. Add some veg, avocado, olives, hardboiled eggs or olives, if you like.

Popping into the chippy.

Seriously.buy pizza base, top, and cook.

I would make up batches of pasta sauce and freeze them, and serve with lots of grated cheese. I make a sauce including onion, courgette, carrots, mushroom, peppers, celery and tomatoes.

or, and my DH would love this, beans on toast, an excellent meal. He has salad with his, sometimes cheese as well, and DD might have random veg-that-she-likes on the side.

But nothing wrong with beans on toast once a week!

I second stirfry or pasta.

Unless you have a slow cooker, in which case you can have all sorts of things ready and waiting for them when they get in.

Also omelette and veg/salad.

Falafels,coleslaw and pitta bread.

Throw chicken thighs, chopped peppers/courgettes/onions/aubergines/tomatoes into a roasting tin, new potatoes or chopped chunks of butternut or sweet potatoes for carbs if desired, slosh in some olive oil and herbs of your choice (thyme & oregano), squeeze of lemon, dash of balsamic if you like it, season, toss, bake at 190ish for 30-40 mins, eat. Bloody lovely.

Turkey escalopes - pan fried with lemon, garlic and olive oil. Takes 5 mins to cook. We eat them with mash made with sweet potatoes and broccoli or left over rice or some pasta.

Super healthy and quick!

I love hard boiled eggs in pasta with pesto

Cauliflower cheese is very quick

Roasted veg with cheese

Fish fingers

Microwave-baked potatoes with cheese, beans, tuna and salad.

Pack of cherry toms into an oven dish, add herbs, olive oil and a good slosh of balsamic vinegar.

Then lie a pack of sausages on the top and pop the dish into the oven (take the sausages out of the pack first ). The sausages just need turning once, and the tomatoes all melt down into a yummy sauce. Dead simple, no stirring and poking needed. Serve with veggies.

Or sauté some chopped chicken breast, add a dollop of pesto, grated parmesan, and serve with pasta (for DCs) or salad (for grownups).

These are two things my DH can manage, and he is hopeless in the kitchen. I'm at the thought of him tackling a stir-fry.

Omelette and either crusty bread or oven chips, salad or frozen veg.

Jacket potato with cheese, beans, ham etc

Sausage meatballs - chop up sausages, fry until cooked, add some tomato pasta sauce and cook for another 20 mins till thick and coated, serve with pasta. Or same sausages, then add creme fraiche / grain mustard and serve with pasta and steamed veg or salad.

Homemade fish fingers - chop up some fish fillet, quickly coat in mayo then breadcrumbs (I keep a bag in the freezer), oven bake for 15 mins, serve with whatever. Can do the same with chicken breasts.

Quick curry, fry up some chicken or prawns and a bit of curry past from a jar (I use Pataks), add some more tomato pasta sauce (I make in bulk and freeze), cook for 10 mins or so, serve with rice, naan, salad.

Keep frozen chopped herbs, garlic, ginger etc (I get them from Waitrose) to perk up meals quickly. I also freeze bulk chopped onions.