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.

microwave risotto (BBC website):

•250g risotto rice
•1 onion, finely chopped
•50g butter
•250ml vegetable stock
•500ml carton passata
•500g punnet cherry tomatoes
•100g ball mozzarella, drained and cut into large chunks
•grated parmesan (or vegetarian alternative) and shredded basil, to serve

Tip the rice, onion and half the butter into a large microwave-proof bowl. Cover and cook in the microwave on High for 3 mins.

Stir in the stock and passata, then continue to cook, uncovered, for 10 mins. Give it a good stir and mix in the tomatoes and mozzarella.

Microwave on High for a further 8 mins until the rice is cooked and the tomatoes have softened.

Leave the risotto to relax for a few mins, then stir in the remaining butter, parmesan and basil. Season to taste and serve straight from the bowl.

Fake nandos is a lazy fav here...
Chicken thighs rubbed with peri peri rub in the oven for about 30 minutes gas mark 6.
Sweet potatoes baked whole in the oven are just like mash, just bung them in the oven for an hour. Or do oven chips.
Value garlic bread is nice and can be shoved in the oven.
Boiled frozen peas mashed with a fork with a bit of torn mint and chili flakes are like macho peas.
Boil corn.
Slice haloumi and grill.

We do whichever bits we fancy. Mainly the oven does all the work!

This thread is wonderful!
I'm disabled/ chronically ill and a huge part of my life that's changed is my ability to cook. I loved to cook, have a shelf full of cookery books gathering dust in the kitchen. It's rough. This last month has been worse than most as I await pretty serious surgery.
I've found the most useful thing ever is my George Foreman grill. Steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops, fish, all cook from frozen! Once they are thawed throw on some spices/fajita mix/lemon juice whatever, packet cous cous or Batchelors rice (I 'pimp'these by adding in mushrooms, peas, chillis, chopped peppers, chorizo etc) bag of salad and you're done.

Another one is noodle soup, SO quick. Thin egg noodles in veg stock cube water, spring onions, a sliced cabbage leaf and bag of frozen king prawns. Bring the water back to the boil, add soy sauce and its done! Can also be done with finely sliced chicken but that takes longer. Serve with prawn crackers.

Aldis already cooked frikadellen meatballs work well heated in tomato sauce with spaghetti.

We use a lot of the cook in the bag type things. The cajun chicken colemans one is lovely. Add more vegetables than they say to feel virtuous. Ha.

My husband takes lunch to work, sandwiches, tuna pasta etc, he makes me whatever he's having and leaves in the fridge for my lunch.

I also find things like babybel, rice cakes, bananas, Greek yoghurts are handy to have in when I am really poorly like now. So I can just manage a trip downstairs to the fridge and grab a handful of energy and bring it back to bed to keep me going!

This is possibly the best thread I've read on Mumsnet. I love all the Classics and ones that are funny, but this is incredibly useful.

I've been copying and pasting into a Word doc (think someone else said they did this too) as I've been reading.

Thank you everyone!

Shall I ask if this can be moved to the recipe section? It would be a shame to lose all these ideas because it's in chat.

Sausage plait. It is very easy to make but looks quite fancy plaited up. Here's a recipe sausage plait

Great ideas. Will definitely have to try some out.

Not especially healthy but so easy & tasty... put a chopped onion, sausages, sausage casserole packet mix, a can of baked beans and Mexican stock cube (if you fancy it) in a casserole dish, stir then stick in oven for an hour. That's it. Serve over oven chips.

I made a lovely mediterranean tart out of some left over roast lamb.

Sheet of puff pastry, score around the edges, cover in pesto, bung on a load of frozen chargrilled mediterranean veg, chop the left over lamb into chunks and add, chop and sprinkle feta, couple of grinds of black pepper, bung in the oven and it cooks in no time.

Very quick and easy and DH thought it was from the shop.

Another is moroccan chicken.

Two handfuls of frozen cubes of butternut squash, two handfuls of frozen peppers, a can of chickpeas, a pack of cherry tomatoes and a pack of mini chicken fillets.

Put it all in a bowl with a jar of tagine paste. Mix about so its all covered. Roast and serve with cous cous.

Haven't read thread so sorry if repeating. Salmon, baby potatoes and baby corn. Dead easy. Anything with mash but do the mash in the largest potato ricer you can buy. Chicken drumsticks, jacket potatoes and salad. Ready made large family cottage pie or lasagne. Cheese and ham toasties in a breville with salad. Boil in the bag rice if you do rice. I have CP's and fibromyalgia. Feel similar. I've just got dh to pick up a Subway but we can't do that every night!

I have added more things to my shop arriving tomorrow.

Bart's basil paste is my pesto substitute (am not prepared to risk pine nuts/kernels as we have not tried them but thanks for link!). Will smear all over salmon in a cheffy fashion.

A load of packet sauces, marinades, and flavoured rices.

Kale winter soup mix (no one will like that but me which is perfect)

Stir fry packet veg and beef strips. Already have frozen micro rice.

Frozen mash, frozen potato waffles,frozen coley.

Puff pastry ready rolled.

Sliced mushrooms.

A massive gammon. Must order slow cooker to go with that.

Hallo OP
There's a whole load of slow cooker stuff in our content IIRC ^
This thread has been reported as super useful = d'you mind if we move it out of chat and into our food topic so it doesn't disappear forever?
TIA

Oh another - ready made puff pastry on a oiled baking tray. Add tomato passata, mozzarella, cheese, pizza type veg - bit like a puffy pizza. Another thing I do is give a snacky meal like beans on toast then make lovely chopped fruit - melons, cherries, apple, etc for kids to make own fruit salad. Xx

Thank you to the pp who mentioned making food for her ill mother as a child. I do what I can to avoid giving my children to much responsibility beyond sorting their own bags out in the morning and tidying their rooms (because frankly they are a bit crap at even that!) but it is good to hear the positives of being asked to step up.

My kids are nearly 9 and 11. They are keen to help in the kitchen but it is kind of small and messy and when you get two of them in there it can get a little heated. It is more of a teaching exercise than them helping me, iyswim? So I get them to help on days when I feel emotionally strong enough to be VERY PATIENT AND KIND in a stressful situation.

Tut tut Olivia

If you're going to post on this thread, you'll need to give us your favourite simple recipe.

It's in the new talk guidelines

I don't mind this moving to Classics...? Some people have posted a bit of personal info on here (inc me, but I will probably name change after all this unexpected attention) and I do feel a bit bad for shouting at SuburbanRhonda.

Minced beef in a Yorkshire pudding is a favourite quick meal here.

Fry a chopped onion (fresh or frozen) and some garlic in a pan. Add a packet of minced beef (or any type of mince, I suppose) until browned. Add some stock made with a stock cube, I use one in a half a pint' for this, some dried, mixed herbs, a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce and a handful of oats. Simmer for 20 mins or so, taste it to see if it needs anything and then through in some frozen mixed veg. Cook for another 5 mins or so.

Serve in a large frozen Yorkshire pudding.

OLIVIAMN, I do think MN should consider a cookbook based on this thread! With a shopping list of shortcut and cheat ingredients.

Great thread. Haven't read the full thing so may be repeating PPs, but my ultimate low effort meal is salmon fillets brushed with sweet chilli sauce and grilled for about 15 mins. Serve with ready-made spicy couscous in a packet, and broccoli.

I also like puff pastry (but it in a ready-rolled sheet) topped with any combination of sliced tomatoes, cheese, ham/salami, sliced courgette etc. Bake for approx 20-25 mins and serve with anything.

There's a great simple split pea soup in Nigella's Feast - just chopped onions, celery and carrots fried in oil, then add split peas and stock and simmer for about 45 mins. I blend it a bit with a stick blender at the end. I top it with sliced frankfurters but some people think that's revolting.

Yes, I second that suggestion,Isa!
MNHQ, are you listening to Isa and me( and maybe one or two of the others)??!!

Charity cookbook, to raise money for suitable causes? Maybe an ebook? Members could take photos of their dishes for it.

Tuna pasta bake

1 can tuna,
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can sweetcorn
1 onion, chopped and fried (or a handful frozen ones, fried)
half a bag of frozen peppers
half a tub of philly
Tomato puree

Fry the onions
In an oven dish- mine are the rectangular pyrex ones- put the tuna, peppers, sweetcorn and enough pasta to cover the bottom of the dish fully

In the pan, fry the onions, add the philly, add the can of tomatoes and a decent squeeze tomato puree

Tip sauce over the pasta and top up with water/stock until the pasta is 3/4 covered.

Bake in a 200 degrees oven, stirring occasionally until the pasta is cooked.

So many good ideas on here!

BBC Good Food website is also really good for quick midweek recipes.