Very low effort meals needed

[IsaBisaBuildsaBoat]

I have ME/CFS and have just realised I need to be more strategic about time spent in the kitchen. I need to reduce effort as much as possible, basically. Shame, as I enjoy cooking (sometimes) and have resisted making this change for too long. I use a perching stool so I can sit while I chop but still, the lower effort the better.

I need to change my shopping habits to include more preprepared frozen veg, frozen steam rice, more family size ready meals, and incorporate more dishes that are like 'dump the jar on the chicken beasts and walk away for forty minutes'.

So, please share your low effort tips. I would really really appreciate it.

I don't work. Usually make a soup at the beginning of the week (today was frozen onion, frozen butternut squash chunks, chicken stock and paprika) and eat that for lunch for about three days, or sometimes manage an omelette.

Kids are DEFINITELY on school dinners. Packed lunches was the first thing to go!

I love those suggestions, thanks.

Reckon I need a chest freezer. And somewhere to put it.

One of my favourite low-effort dishes...
Chop leeks, onions and mushrooms, and cover the bottom of a casserole dish.
Then layer pork chops over the veg and season with herbs of your choice (I use sage or parsley usually)

Then layer thinly sliced potatoes over the top. You can use a mandolin to slice them, and keep the skins on. Pour chicken stock over it all, and put in a hot oven for 30 mins
It is foolproof, quick and delicious.

The husband doesn't really like the slightly 'mushy' texture everything gets in a slow cooker

Maybe he could drag himself into the kitchen and cook himself? Just a thought.

Pack of boneless chicken thighs, brush with oil, season with a good shake of chinese 5 spice powder (coat them and leave to "marinate" for a couple of hours). Bung in oven and serve with microwave veggie rice with perhaps extra veggies like brocolli and baby sweetcorn - so easy and quick, not much prep at all.

I have a joint condition that causes me chronic pain but also enjoy good food so I know this conundrum well! My 'oh god everything hurts and I cannot face it' weeks usually go like this:

Baked salmon fillets (salt, pepper, lemon, dill, 20 minutes in the oven), steamed veg and new potatoes (the steamer insert in my rice cooker fits enough veg and potatoes for me and DP and it's only us, new potatoes don't need peeling, throw in with some broccoli or carrots).
Tuna and cucumber wraps (wraps with tinned tuna, cucumber strips, and whatever other salad is lurking in the fridge)
Spicy chicken, steamed veg, potato wedges (oven bake frozen wedges, rub some cajun spices on a few chicken breasts, throw some veg in steamer)
Ready meal lasagne
Spicy chicken and bean stew (buy ready chopped fresh or frozen chicken, throw into big pot or slow cooker with three different kinds of tinned beans, some frozen chopped peppers and onions, whatever other veg you can be arsed with and a carton of passata. Add chilli spice mix to taste, stick on low heat, leave alone for a few hours - good to batch cook too so you've got two more days where you just need to heat some up)
Sausage baguettes (part bake baguettes in oven, sausages on the grill, add a ready made side salad if you feel it's not healthy or balanced enough)
Pizza

As you can see some of that still involves some prep but it heavily relies on things you can buy pre prepared, tinned, frozen, or otherwise minimum effort. On really bad weeks though that all goes out the window and I just get an online grocery delivery full of ready meals. Some of them are really quite nice now and you can tart a lot of stuff up with bagged salad on the side.

SuburbanRhonda my husband is a fucking saint, actually. So step off. You have brought me to tears. He cooks all weekend, breakfast in bed for me both days, is out of the house 12 hours a day working to support us, and does his bloody best with a disabled wife and two kids, one with SN. You do not know my family or what we have to deal with so back the fuck off with your snarky comments.

What about slowcooked in the oven joints of meat that you only have to put in in the day and forget about about.

Then when it's dinner time all you have to do it slice it and put it on the table with a bagged salad and microwaved new potatoes. Then you have nice meat to have nice sandwiches with chutneys and stuff for days in the week.

If you make a really big stew it might be an effort for the first day but it would mean you wouldn't have to cook the next day and have enough to freeze for another day.

Pan fry strips of chicken breast with your favourite herbs/spices. Serve in wraps with salad and couscous.

Naoko those sound perfect. I can't seem to find frozen chopped peppers, though?

Passata is something I must make sure to get in as it is so much more child-friendly than tinned tomatoes.

And I do like the sound of sparechange's layered dish and Janey's five spice chicken.

I've bought them in both Tesco and Sainsbury's so they're definitely out there! So useful. I only buy fresh ones if I want to eat them raw (for crunchiness) now.

1. Take one pack of meatballs (they can cook from frozen) and place in large flat oven proof dish
2. chuck on half a bag of frozen mediterranean vegetables (aubergine, courgettes, cherry toms, peppers, onions)
3. pour over a jar of bolognese sauce
4. cube half a pack of feta and sprinkle over.

Bake

eat with crusty bread and butter

Pasta with smoked salmon, cream, peas and a beaten egg

Soup: Chop loads of veg. Tin of tomatoes. Garlic/herbs/soy sauce. Handful lentils. Pint chicken stock. Boil twenty mins, blend.

Veg ideas: leek and potato. Sweet potato and red onion. Red pepper and swede. Carrot and potato. Broccoli and cauliflower. Spinach and leek.

Mac n cheese. Cook pasta in milk (one cup pasta, two cups milk). Stir in cheese when pasta cooked. Add teaspoon mustard, salt, pepper. Uses only 1 pan too. Could add chopped broccoli/spinach/cauli.

I really like my soupmaker:
www.amazon.co.uk/Morphy-Richards-501011-Saute-Maker/dp/B00LC09V4I

I remember when I considered buying it lots of my mum friends saying they thought it would be a pointless waste of a gadget but I use it a lot because it's easy and it cuts down on washing up etc.

I tend to make my soups as stews and it works beautifully - carrot and lentil soup, or I chuck some leftover chicken, broccoli, cut up spuds, onions and corn in. You can blend it too, or set it to blend for you.

Crusty bread and bob's your uncle.

Pregnancy chopped and frozen peppers, onions and stir fry stuff is brilliant in spag bol/ shepherds pie etc.

Chicken breasts in oven dish. Spoon pesto over them, sliced tomatoes on top with cheese on top of that (I prefer mozzarella but cheddar also works) bake for 35 mins - yum!

Isa I have ME/Cfs too. Really struggling atm. I've only managed to eat a snack bar today despite being hungry because I can't make anything. DH has been doing most of the dinners but hoping this thread will help me.

A quick and very nice meal is chicken breasts, spread pesto on them, then sliced tomatoes and top with grated mozzarella. Bake at about 190 for 30 minutes. Roasted sliced peppers and quinoa go well with it and the peppers can go in the oven at the same time as the chicken. No good for dairy intolerance but thought someone might find it useful.

Frozen broccoli is just as good as fresh. Ready chopped, £1 a bag, 6 mins in the micro.

Isa, i dont have any meals to add, they seem pretty well covered :)

I just want to add that i understand the dh situation - when my dh was still working, we werent entitled to school meals. I posted about it, saying i think full care pip should be a criteria for it and people actually complained that my dh wasnt doing sandwiches for everyone befor going off to his 12 hr shift manual job!! (As well as being solely responsible for my care due to th fuck ups of AS) Honestly, his redundancy a few months latr was thbest thing of the last few years

for you and a for another brilliant dh

Tesco do frozen chopped peppers.

Wagglebees

My DH finds it hard to tell how unwell I am, so he doesn't know whether to leave me a meal or check whether I've eaten sometimes. Very hard. Can you maybe get a stash of snacks by your bed? Oooh, mini fridge full of cheese and bits, maybe!

Feel like a twat now that I can see literally everywhere except Ocado does frozen peppers.

Oh, one thing though - i use my bread machine a lot. I feel better giving the kids a toast based meal if its 'proper' bread (i bung loads of seeds in it too) rather than shop-bread

Another very easy one the DC like is:

Salmon fillet, place in tin foil and cover in sweet chilli sauce (straight out of the bottle). Make a parcel from the tin foil and whack in the oven.

Serve with rice with frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn throw in two minutes before the end.

Super easy.