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.

Libraries I gave up veganism while pregnant. I was just constantly constantly hungry and couldn't manage! I was eating meat for ages before falling ill.

I am finding a paleo style diet very helpful. I am also finding traditional Chinese medicine helpful and that system says that for my condition I should avoid dairy, sugary-wheaty food and raw food (Inc salads). So I eat a lot of soups and cooked dinners and omelettes.

Thank you for joint advice!

Ok. I just asked because I know my uncle struggled for a long time and found e.g. chicken much easier than lamb.

So, low dairy and not too much wheat. Hmmm.

shutupandshop I have been burned so many times by getting a MASSIVE bottle of soy sauce ot a TINY tub of Haagen Daz. I find it quite funny now when I cock up the sizes.

I cook a gammon joint in the slow cooker. Sometimes whack a bit of honey on the outside of the joint. Cook it for about 6-8 hours on low. It's lovely warm with a bag of chips from the chippy or lovely cold over the following days.

I make paninis with part baked baguettes. cut them across the middle whilst still uncooked . Fill with cheese and ham or bacon/tuna/Brie and cranberry/whatever and put in a George Foreman grill for about 4-5 minutes. Serve with a bag of salad.

Baby baked potatoes are fab and go with all sorts of stuff. Empty a bag of new potatoes into a dish. Microwave for about 10 minutes. Then chuck them on a big tray(I use my lasagne dish). Drizzle with salt and olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 40 odd minutes. Serve with bought grated cheese on top.

Great ideas in this thread!

We had 2 minute Walls sausages & 5 minute McCain shoestring fries for tea tonight

Not the worlds healthiest I know but quick and easy and OK for a one-off now and again when you need something in a hurry (eg if you're having a bad day & need DH or DC to pop the tea on instead)

Another firm favourite here is pork tenderloin. One piece will cost about £4 and feed all of use with a jacket potato and vegetables. Take the pork put on a piece of foil take one teaspoon of lazy garlic, one teaspoon of lazy chilli and one teaspoon of lazy ginger. Mix it all up and cover the joint, wrap in foil and roast. It cooks very quickly and is really tasty.

Pre-grated cheese! Of course!

This is the thread for me too, I have suspected fibro and have finally admitted to myself that it's better to plan simple things rather than kid myself that I'm going to do something complicated and end up ordering takeaway. I'm better early in the day so have been making things that can be prepped in advance.

I've got some jerk chicken in the slow cooker which will be enough for at least two meals. Yesterday we had sausages done in the oven with a roasted bag of pre-cubed carrot and swede with a handful of frozen onion. We've also been having a lot of roasted pepper, onion and courgette (cut in big chunks so not too much effort) with pesto served with either chicken breasts or halloumi which has just been drizzled with olive oil prior to roasting. We try not to eat much in the way of carbs but any of these could be done with roasted baby new potatoes - just cut the big ones in half, drizzle with oil and bung in the oven for half an hour.

I also do a lot of crustless quiches (the crust is the faffy bit). The following recipes feed three adults with bagged salad or veg. They're good cold as well as hot and the mix will be fine for a few hours in the fridge.

Spinach and ricotta quiche:
250g of frozen spinach defrosted and drained
tub of ricotta
6-7 eggs
~150g of grated cheese
pinch of nutmeg
big pinch of ground pepper
4-5 sundried tomatoes cut into as small pieces as you can be bothered

Just mix it all up with a hand mixer and bake for 30 minutes at 180

Ham quiche
100-150g cubed ham
150g grated cheese
6-7 eggs, beaten
~100ml of cream
pinch of nutmeg
big pinch of ground pepper

Mix it all up and bake for 25 minutes at 180

Chorizo, red onion and pepper quiche (a bit more faff but you can make double of the chorizo, red onion and pepper mix and freeze it for next time)
~100g of chorizo (I buy it pre-cubed, not much more expensive than whole)
Smallish red onion cut up small (frozen white onion will probably do)
red/orange/yellow pepper cut up small (frozen will probably do)
dash of worcester sauce
pinch of smoked paprika
~100ml cream
~150g grated cheese
6-7 eggs

Fry the chorizo, onion and pepper until the chorizo has a bit of colour (about 4 minutes) then mix up with the other ingredients and bake for 25 minutes at 180

*cajun

iklboo I have many meals like that. We freakin love pukka pies and oven fries. The kids can put them in the oven and then chop some cucumber .

I also do lots of jacket wedges... Just potatoes cut into wedges and covered in oil and canon spice mix or mixed herbs. Yum.

Tray bakes are good and have minimal washing up too. Favourites here are sausages with new potatoes - you could add some ready chopped veg in there too. Also salmon, but cook the potatoes for 40 mins before adding the salmon. shoving in a pack of cherry tomatoes at that point would give you a sort of squidgy sauce too. Chicken thighs, new potatoes, maybe with chorizo too.

New post don't need peeled or even chopped. It's just a case of bunging them in first then adding other bits as they get closer to cooked.

I have a prescribed low-fibre diet! I never meet others who have. I also have various issues being investigated so I feel you.

Frozen mash is indeed your friend. Aunt Bessie's is really nice. Frozen butternut squash with or without sweet potato in the mix is also a good carb option. I find with a really good stirfry I don't actually need rice or noodles with it, and I'm definitely not a low-carber. What about polenta? You can get the ready-made stuff - does anyone know if you can freeze polenta?

Best friend has ME and got a combined slow cooker/pressure cooker/rice cooker from QVC (Cooks Essentials range) for something like £50? Loves it. She actually uses the pressure cooker the most, it can cook beans from dried really quickly which you can then freeze in individual portions, and food doesn't go mushy like in a slow cooker.

Also, changing up seasonings can help make things tastier - eg switch Cajun for jerk or Chinese 5 spice. Also Aromat makes everything delicious.

Do you like sausages? We like sausage casserole and most of the faff bits can be eliminated.

Sausages, diced carrot (think you can buy it pre diced? Or at least pre diced with swede), onion (you only need to cut it into about 8) peppers (frozen will be fine), tin of beans (any sort), tin of tomato, stock cube, water, paprika, squeeze of garlic from a tube. Simmer for ages.

It has the veg in it, so you don't particularly need to do separate if you don't want to (I tend to, but I don't have your restrictions). Can have with bread for those who eat wheat.

Can also go in the oven if you are super hungry and do jacket potato with it.

Also chorizo, butter beans, frozen diced onions, paprika, tin of tomatoes, some water, squeeze of garlic. Just stick in a pan and simmer.

Also, if you have a point in the day where your energy levels are higher, either of these can be pre-assembled and then just put on to cook. Or can go in the slow cooker.

These are all brilliant, thank you so much.

Hopeful my DH is on the low fibre diet. So he and the kids will happily have mac and cheese while I have sweet potatoes and left over chili or the like. It does all get a bit complicated but such is life.

Loads and loads of veg is lovely when roasted, splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, 20 minutes or so in the oven, works well with asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes, tomatoes (I know, they're a fruit). If the oven's on anyway for your meat dish it's really easy to just bung the veg in to oven cook too. A bag of broccoli and cauliflower florets means zero chopping, just bung it on a baking tray, stays nice and crunchy, definitely not mushy.

Hopeful I keep thinking mt husband has a bezoar. Exotic!

Tonight we have had wholewheat pasta with tub of garlic philladelphia, rind and juice of lemon, pack of smoked salmon trimmings, frozen peas and green beans.

Also, ready grated cheese makes everything quicker and feel easier, those frozen cubes of garlic and ginger or the tubes are great to add to pasta or stir fry.
instant mash potato hasn't got nasty additives and is something alongside cous cous etc when you need quick carbs.

Pintrest has loads of people showing how to prep weeks worths of frozen dinners when you're having a good day ....search clean eating if you want healthy stuff.

My daughter is veggie and lives on pre cooked rice in sachets-lots of nice flavours. You can also get lots quinoa and rice mixes. Sainsburies are 50p a sachet which is pretty good vaue-just microwave or heat up in a pan with a bit of water

Just thinking about when we had the kitchen done (and I think there are a couple of threads in food about cooking through a Kitchen renovation which may be helpful too) the weekly treat was a preecooked chicken from the supermarket rotisserie with ready made mash. And very nice it was too!

Think I might try roasting more veg - especially an easy tray of new potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil sounds very appealing - they've had a few mentions!

Cook pasta & drain, throw in ham, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of cannelini beans & some ready-grated cheese, season and stir. Delicious!

Also pasta and rice can be jazzed up with those spice mills you can buy like this one

Put on kettle and grill
Fill saucepan with pasta and boiled kettle water and put bacon in grill.
Meanwhile grate cheese and chop up some chives.

Once pasta is cooked (9 mins?) drain and then stir in chopped up crispy bacon and cheese and herbs.

Yum.