I just made a really quick meal which my children loved! Share your after-work quick tea successes!

[BikeRunSki]

After work quick tea, wolfed down by the DC!

Cooked some pasta
Chopped up a couple of tomatoes and a ball of mozzarella
Fried up a box of lardons
Mixed the pasta, mozzarella, toms and lardons together. Added a few black olives, a couple of abel spoons of philly and a blob of pesto
Stuk it in a dish
Cover in grated cheddar
Grilled it

I thought I'd made enough for DH's tea too, but there's hardly any left. This never happens! They both ate it all up, even DS who "doesn't like tomatoes".

I called it "Pizza Pasta" because its all the stuff you'd usually get on a pizza, but in pasta.

Another easy one is to boil linguine, drain, then chuck in a tub of crème fraiche, one crumbled fish stock cube, and some chopped smoked salmon and frozen peas. Heat up til the stock cube has melted into the crème fraiche. Serve with grated parmesan.

Cheesy spinach pasta sauce can be made in the time it takes the pasta to boil. Cheat's way of doing it: thaw frozen spinach in the microwave for a minute or two (or chop fresh spinach), sauté for a couple of mins in butter with chopped onions, garlic, and twists of black pepper and nutmeg. Add a couple of spoons of plain flour and stir till the spinach is coated in it, and cook for another minute or two, then trickle in milk and stir it all in. Then throw in great handfuls of grated cheddar (or a moderate amount if you're not a cheese freak like me) and stir till the cheese has melted in. You will get a lovely glossy sauce without the faff of making a separate bechamel.

"Chinese noodles" Make 2 cups of packet noodles in the microwave-I use chicken flavour. While its cooking, chop a red onion, a bit of ginger, pepper and mushrooms. Heat some olive oil in a pan and throw in some sesame seeds and a dry chilli(if you like) Once they've browned a bit, add the onions and ginger, fry a couple of mins and add veg(you can add frozen peas if you want too). Add dash of light soya sauce. Stir fry for 5 minutes. Add in packet noodles and mix well. Done in under 15 minutes

My quick go-to midweek meal. Fry some bacon, pancetta or ham with cherry tomatoes and garlic. Add some spinach leaves, torn basil and cream. Stir into cooked pasta, this was the first meal I taught DD2 to cook last summer before she headed off to uni!

Panini pizza - slice panini lengthways in half, lightly toast, spread with tomatoe puree, grated cheese on top then maybe some sliced chorizo. Under grill until cheese melted/bubbling.

Or toast and butter pitta breads and fill with baked beans.

Fry bits of bacon and onion if they'll eat it. Stir through cooked pasta with dollop of Philadelphia.

This thread has made me realise how picky a eater DD is

This thread is great! DD3 would prob eat 90% of all ideas, DS1 about 35%, DS2 about 5% 😩
However I think they would all eat Omloaf! Definitely going to try that.
In fact - this thread should be re-named OMLOAF

If dc are being fractious and I am out of time, then children's size pasta cooked,(my dc are pre school), tossed in olive oil and grated cheese on top.

My DC's used to love carbonara - bacon and garlic fried, then folded through pasta with egg. Now that DD is pescatarian I do it with ready cooked prawns. Add peas for greenery.

Not read the full thread so some of these might be repeats...

I even feed this first one to my one year old using the teeny tiny baby pasta you can buy

Boil pasta and cook a frozen salmon fillet in the oven. Add peas and frozen broccoli to the boiling pasta. Mash up the salmon and add to the drained pasta stirring in creme fraiche or fromage frais. Add a touch of Philadelphia cheese to taste!!

My 4 year old sometimes just likes boiled pasta, grated cheese, peas and sweet corn all mixed in, serve with cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks and peppers

Simple chicken curry... BBC good food

If your child likes carrot sticks, cucumber, cherry toms or any type of salad, fruit or vegetable you can make any meal a little bit healthy, for a really quick tea sometimes I just throw fish fingers or chicken nuggets or a pizza in the oven and serve with salad/fruit/veg!!!

Tomato pasatta and mascarpone cheese mixed with some pasta is another fave of ours.. again throw together whatever veg/salad on the side!!!

Tuna Philly Pasta Bake

Cook pasta.

Mix Philly with a bit of water and stock. Add a tin of tuna and a tin of sweet corn.

Drain pasta, mix with sauce. Sprinkle over cheese and place under grill for a few minutes.

Firm favourite in this house, 20 mins max.

My ultra fussy eater will eat eggs in any shape or size (preferably scrambled) but wouldn't eat the stuffing in the omloaf - he or DH won't eat pasta or rice unless it's proper Chinese chicken fried So for those two a quick meal is eggs on toast or a bacon buttie or 3

My other DS and I like a quick meal of pitta pizzas - (used to make homemade pittas but lacking motivation at the mo) - spread tomato puree on a pitta (still folded), add any veggie type stuff or ham or whatever, but I prefer jarred roasted peppers - smother in cheese (or a little if you're being good) and put in oven for 5 mins. I love them served with Hellmanns mayo mmmmm. Nachos is also a good quickie - just smother some tortilla chips in jarred salsa, cover in cheese (and sliced jalapenos if brave) and either grill or microwave for extra quickness

Mine love 'snack plate' - basically anything j have left in the fridge but if it's in little piles on one plate they will eat it!! Usually add raisins, Apple, some kind of bread, cheese etc
When we were little my dad used to make 'cheese and egg' which we would eat with French stick. dH says it sounds too unhealthy for the kids but I may resurrect it!
Basically butter a dish - we used to use a Pyrex lid. Slice cheese in, crack egg over and cook until cheese is melty and egg cooked then eat with bread - yum! Though it's like molten lava!

Naan bread pizza (beats rank "pre made" pizza bases any day), with passata, mozzarella and any other choice of topping (my boys like seranno ham).

Cheats cottage pie - beef mince (browned), finely chopped onion, carrot, celery, fennel (anything you can get in there really), and a container of fresh Tesco Finest Beef Gravy. Add peas at the end. Serve with mash (or actually make into a pie with mash on the top & cook in the oven).

Pretend paella - in a wide frying pan with a lid fry a medium finely chopped onion with some chopped chicken thighs (better than breast, doesn't go dry/stringy), some sliced cooking chorizo, some finely chopped celery (optional), and a couple of chopped red peppers. Cook through for a couple of minutes. Add a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a pinch of saffron, then stir through one cup of ordinary long grain rice and two cups of water. Add a half to one stock cube. Cover and simmer for 15 mins. Remove lid to reduce any remaining liquid. Add chopped parsley and serve with wedges of lemon. You can chuck in some cooked prawns a few mins before the end if you like that sort of thing.

Love it x

This dish will massively out me, but fry some onions, chuck in leftover rice (yeah yeah, it's fine if you cook it through), stir in enough tomato ketchup to really coat the rice. Put some peas in if you want it moderately more healthy. Serve with grated cheese.
It sounds so weird but it's SO good!!

My quickie is bean burgers! I just chuck a tin of chickpeas (or whatever beans are in the cupboard!) a tin of sweetcorn a bit of fresh coriander
Sprinkle of paprika, coriander and cumin a squeeze of lemon juice and
3 tbs plain flour in the food processor, then make into burgers and fry for about 10 mins!!! Seriously yummy aswel! And for people concerned about protein beans are really packed full of protein :)

I feel like I should now redeem myself with something healthier...

Make up a pikelet/Scotch pancake mixture (no sugar!). Grate in some onion, courgette, carrot, whatever you have. Fry up the little pancakes and serve with cream cheese.
You can also freeze them and whack in the microwave for a few seconds when you need them.

Home made pizza base

375g flour
Packet of dried yeast (come 8 in a box pre measured normally)
225ml of hot water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of caster sugar

Mix together into a dough and kneed (5 minutes max)

Leave to rise if you have time, if not roll out straight away.

Put on pizza tray.

Tomatoe purée, dried oragano, (I add a few chopped tinned tomatoes for a bit more sauce) black pepper, cheese and any their toppings you like.

Cool for 15 minutes.

Homemade pizza in less than 30 minutes!

Can you move this thread out of Chat so it doesn't get deleted? Looks useful!!

Well done. I do something similar. Same name. Yours sounds better. Also pizza pie - shortcrust pastry base, home made and baked blind or shop bought, concentric rings of cherry tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, black olives and Sweetcorn, filled in quiche style with Parmesan and basil egg/cream mix. Goes down well.

Stir fry chicken in sesame oil, garlic, honey and soy sauce. Add cooked noodles and steamed veg for the last minute and serve.

MadgeMak

Placemarking. Not that my two will eat anything other than pizza (marguerita only, no yucky veg added please) and chicken nugget or fish fingers and chips. I'm at the end of my tether with it TBH.

My kids are the same, it drives me mad. How about chicken pasta?
Cook pasta and drain
Add a tin of sainsburys chicken in white sauce
Heat through
Add some chopped bacon if they'll eat that
Not a vegetable in sight!

I make naan bread pizza or bagel pizza

Apply tomato paste
Add sweet peppers/mushrooms/cooked chicken
Add loads of cheese
Sprinkle basil leaves

In the oven @200c for 6 minutes ,then its done