Quick easy (cheap!) meals for a tired, brain dead, heavily pregnant person to cook...

[AButterflyLightsBesideUs]

As above - I'm 33 weeks, knackered and have PGP which makes standing for long painful by the end of the day.

I have also lost all my imagination and can't think of dinner ideas.

We're trying to keep costs down due to just buying a load of furniture and planning for DH's paternity leave devouring a chunk of his salary in Jan/Feb.

What's cheap, easy and doesn't require much standing to prep/cook?

I'm 39+5 (no PGP though) and made soup last night and also haggis, neeps and tatties. I did all the peeling and chopping sitting down for soup veg/neep/tatties and cooked the haggis in the microwave. The soup cooked itself once I chucked in the stock.

We're having a prawn stir fry tonight. Prawns, peppers, spring onion and cabbage. (Add prawns once the vegetables have been in a few minutes) then I just add water and a veg stock cube while boiling some noodles and add to the pan a few minutes before serving.
Could change the meat to anything you've got in the freezer or just keep it vegetables.

Not sure about price as it's normally leftovers and a pack of dry noodles is about £1.

One pot dishes where you can chuck meat, veg, stock/herbs in a pot and leave it to cook in the oven.

Quick and easy dinners in our house are
Fajita
Carbonara
Omelet
Stir fry
Sausage and mash
We eat frozen peas with everything and chunky carrots as they are quick to prepare and dd loves them. Increasingly huge quantities of mash for similar reasons, just add some kind of protein, cheap cuts of meat cooked long and slow in stock is good.
Stews - do big ones and eat over several days
Pasta bakes without cheese sauce, roasted veg and protein if needed, the bigger the chunks the quicker the prep time, before serving chuck some crème fraise mixed with grated cheddar on top.
Baked potatoes, simple, cheap and yummy. Sometimes we have with a roast chicken and again, peas. Today with the leftovers we will have chicken noodle soup, Asian clear style which takes about 10 mins and is filling and comforting.

Mine are all a bit boring really, but I've contributed so wont feel guilty about stalking your thread and stealing ideas also pregnant and tired and fed up with standing, with a toddler who gets bored watching me cook and wants to play

lily why has it not occurred to me to sit at the kitchen table to chop stuff?? Thank you!

Soups are a good shout, we like a thick minestrone type affair and it uses up anything and everything.

butterpuff that sounds like the sort of stuff I should be doing more of. DD would be thrilled tbh if it was sausage & mash every day. I am a big fan of "I made some potato wedges, now make your own omelettes to go with it" and will be wheeling that out again tomorrow.

One of my lowest effort and cheapest offerings at the moment is to cook a truckload of extra roasties & veg at the weekend and then on Monday hack it all up roughly and fry it with an onion for bubble & squeak and have with fried eggs.

One pot/one tray stuff has the double bonus of minimal clearing up too. Which reminds me, I should do more in the way of traybakes - chicken thighs/sausages with chunks of potato, onion, carrot, squash, roasted and serve with peas/broccoli and some bisto. Lazy arse roast that fulfils "proper meal" ideals.

I'd forgotten all about fahitas, we'll do those soon, thanks.

Butterfly. If you are cooking I would recommend batch n freeze. You will be glad of a few meals at the ready once baby comes!

Yes, yes to batch cooking. We bought a chest freezer recently so that we can stock up on home made ready meals and I can have a couple of month off cooking when baby arrives (without us all getting horrible food poisoning from DH attempts at cooking)

u need frozen chopped onions, and that mix that some places do with onions/carots/and something. that saves loads of time. and also stew veg.

Chicken leg/thighs seasonsing (we like lemon pepper) oil, small amount of water, peppers and onions. Put in a deep tray, cook on 200 for around 45 mintues, serve with potato wedges. Easy and cheap

If you shop at Yesco, the frozen fajita mix is soo easyand quick

Have you thought about getting a bar stool to sit on at hob

Gnocchi in Gorgonzola sauce.

1-3 mins to boil the gnocchi (it's done when all the gnocchi rises up to the surface)

1-3 minutes to melt a pack of Gorgonzola in a separate pan. Add a few drops of milk or water if it's too thick for you.

Combine on a plate - tada, all done!

If you're not into blue cheese gnocchi also goes well with any tomatoey pasta sauce (can get perfectly good pre-made sauces from the chilled section supermarket, next to the fresh pasta and pizzas usually). Or you could also melt a pack of Philadelphia for a milder tasting version. Some people add some spinach too.

Literally my easiest, quickest yummy meal, I can think of anything easier!

Thanks all, I really appreciate the suggestions

dreaming I am a big fan of frozen veg & tinned lentils

Meal plan for next week is sort of done now so that's something I can now forget about again for a bit.

When I'm being lazy, proper jacket potatoes are great. Rub with olive oil and salt and stick them in the oven for at least 1-1.5 hours. Then you can use up whatever you have for fillings, tuna, cheese, beans. Even the bottom of a jar of pesto or left over olives, anything at all.

Sausages and root veg all baked together

Marinate some chicken thighs in soy, honey, ginger and garlic then roast for 45 mins. Serve with instant rice and frozen peas

Sliced peppers (ready sliced and frozen?) and tinned tomatoes, simmered with garlic and cumin, crack in a couple of eggs at the end, cover and cook til set

Baked sweet potatoes with beans and cheese and salad on the side

I wheeled out jacket potatoes endlessly during my sick stage because they were so easy and DH could then sort fillings when he got in. Whilst I do still love them, I still can't face them with beans and cheese

CHicken in soy, honey, ginger sounds ace. I'm wondering about marinating a big batch and freezing them in bags so I can tip them on a tray and bake as a one handed post baby cooking effort. That should work shouldn't it?

OP that's exactly what I do. It freezes brilliantly.

You can use the same marinade on pork belly - serve with rice and steamed broccoli. Also steak - flash fry and slice thinly over salad

You are a genius Micky

Www.friendlyfirstfoods.co.uk/recipes

Lots of good, healthy, lazy recipes here hun x

My quickest easiest dinner is frozen salmon (aldi do a bag with about 5 pieces about 2.50 ish) is in individual wrappers you just pierce and steam in microwave, frozen veg in steam bags, and noodles! And soy sauce /sweet chilli sauce whatever. V. Quick and easy and doesn't seem too naughty despite being completely microwaved!!
Also stuff like lamb chops which you can just grill I like to do them in a spicy marinade then u can have with boiled rice or wedges instead of roasties so you don't have to peel them! Or chicken that u can just chuck in oven, Salad instead of veg so there's less prep and pans to wash!!
I'm not pregnant but got 4 Dc so had my fair share of tired times or only having one arm free or not much time to cook with a clingy baby!

Watching with interest same boat just one week ahead! Feel like I'm not eating very healthy as I'm just doing things that I can throw in the oven and forget about. Will def be trying the one pot ideas.

(Ps nice to see you butterfly not long to go now )