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.

I'm the OP, I've reported this thread and asked for it to be moved to somewhere more permanent.

I had no idea it would take off!

This takes less than 5 mins to prep but about 45 mins in the oven, so zero effort but not quick as such.
Pack of sausages (Toulouse preferably as loads of flavour) and a punnet of cherry toms in a roasting dish, spread out in 1 layer. Sprinkle of dried oregano if you have it. Good glug/drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a cap full of balsamic vinegar over the lot. Season to taste, mix well. In the oven at 180C for about 45 mins. Half way through cooking squish toms with a fork (optional add drained tin of butter beans).
Result = yummy sausage tomato casserole. Serve with salad and crusty bread. Make double the amount, freeze half and you have an even easier dinner for another night, which is esp yum stirred through pasta.

Easy chicken:

Enough chicken breasts/legs for your family
Lemons (not because I have them in for g&t honest)
Oregano, dried
Olive oil
Garlic

Put the chicken in a roasting tin, slop some oil over it, chop 1 or 2 lemons into quarters and chuck them in. Add 4-8 garlic cloves (untouched). Liberally sprinkle salt, pepper and the oregano over the chicken. Bake for 25-40 minutes depending on the type of chicken and your oven, I use 180C on my fan oven.

Serve with some easy variety of potato and veg. I can go from fridge door unopened to all in the oven in 3 minutes.

Should've referenced Jamie Oliver

Ooops, too soon.....

...JO as the basis of my contribution to this thread.

Excellent topic!

Some great ideas here! My children (and DP!) are fussy little buggars too - will only eat plain pasta and none of them like pizza (pasta & pizza being my favourites!) although they are quite good with some veggies.

So... my quick go tos -
Plain pasta sprinkled with cheese with broccoli & peas on side (they won't eat it if mixed up)
Omelette or any other version of egg
Toasties with salad on side
Leftover gammon, egg & chips (no veg )
Fish fingers, cheesy mash & (cooked from frozen) veg
Cooked chicken, salad & bread and butter, sometimes with new potatoes instead/too (in the summer usually)

I really like the sound of omelettes made in the toastie machine.

Baked beans on garlic bread with grated cheese. Kids love it!

Chop a carrot some onion, butternut squash or sweet potatoes all smallish pieces (celery or other veg You have in fridge can be added) fry it up add red lentils and stock - cook add some cut up salmon for a few mins at end until cooked through - 'pink fish soup'weirdly my children love it as they can be fussy buggers.

Great thread!

I do salmon pasta pesto which takes about 5 mins - cook salmon from frozen in microwave (I've got a microwave steamer which does this perfectly), meanwhile cook some tiny pasta shapes eg. stellini with handful of frozen peas added. Flake salmon into pasta and peas, add splodge of pesto.
Smoked salmon quiche - ready made pastry case plus packet of smoked salmon offcuts, pour over a couple of beaten eggs, add a bit of cream or soured cream or crème fraiche if you have it, salt and pepper and dill , cooks in 10 mins.
Mackerel pate - flake smoked mackerel into bowl and mix with bit of mayo and bit of Greek yoghurt , lemon juice and black pepper, serve with plate of toasted pitta cut into fingers and carrot sticks.
My favourite thing though, which my sister and I used to make when we were teenagers, is pea sandwiches. Big bowl of peas (pref petit pois, minted is good), splodge of mayo, black pepper and salt, mix. Serve with a plate full of bread and butter, mmmmm.

ickypop that recipe sounds fabulous must hunt out toulouse sausages, there's not much sausage variety in ROI! My butcher does mediterraen ones and they're what i've used in sausage casserole before.

ebdh sounds good too

Boil pasta. When 5 mins from being cooked add brocoli, carrot ribbons, sweetcorn (or whatever you have in fridge/cupboard). Drain then mix in a tin of tuna.
Easy, quick, one pot recipe.

Another pink fish one:
-salmon in oven prove dish in equal parts soy and mirin covering the fillets, with chopped ginger, 5 spice and garlic if required, 20 mins in the oven

• served with noodles and stir fried broccolli, garlic and red pepper in sesame/veg oil. The sauce from the salmon should be poured all over the lot.

This terryaki sauce can be used on anything, fried strips of chicken, beef etc.

Mammy I get them from Waitrose on a 2 for £5 offer. Sainsbury's Toulouse sausages are really good too. But the Mediterranean ones sound like a great substitute, anything with garlic and extra flavours in would work well I think.

Cheesy tortilla - nicked from an outdoor playgroup where they cooked it on a fire.

Take two plain tortilla and a frying pan. Warm pan gently. Spread pesto/tomato pesto/pizza topping/whatever you fancy on one. Chuck in frying pan. Sprinkle grated cheese, sweet corn, anything chopped very fine on top. Put other tortilla on the lot. Toast in pan for a couple of minutes. Flip with fish slice (or so the plate on top, turn and slide back into pan trick) and toast other side. Not too much - don't want it crunchy. Slide onto chopping board and cut pizza style.

Also good for cook-n-go situations so long as filling isn't too oily. Dd1 prefers just cheese on hers, in which case I give her a pile of salad veg to eat alongside it.

icky we've neither of those supermarkets here, will see what I can find.

Hi all,

We're going to move this over to recipes so that it doesn't disappear!

P.S very hungry after reading.

janicebattersby I just tried the mini pancakes with my pair and they BOTH liked them. I can't tell you how unusual that is... thank you!

Great thread, thanks all!

Yey!! Cheers Lorna!

I don't have kids but I do the school run and babysit for my sisters and feed the older ones after college while my sisters work and feeding 10 people aged between 1 and 17 can be difficult but whole roast spiced chicken (Tumeric, chilli flakes, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, garlic and salt) Baked sweet and normal potatoes buttered, seasoned with salt and pepper and mashed together. I usually have pots of veg/sides for them to pick what combo they want to save cooking everything (chopped peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot sticks, mozzarella balls, mushrooms, red onions, sweetcorn, radishes, pickled beetroot, onions and cabbage). I serve chicken and potatoes (put what the babies will eat out and put the sides on the bench then the older ones come in and serve themselves sides (rule is they each need to pick at least 3 different types of veg) then go sit and eat.
It looks like a lot of food but they all like different things and it saves waste, washing up and arguments over food as I usually have the sides pre-chopped for salads and other recipes throughout the week.

pack of salami,peppers,tomatos,onions garlic in pan.cook.add dolmio jar sauce
toss in optional dollop of mascarpone,pesto
add dollop of cheese mozerella works best
toast some pine nuts
wait till reaches yummy colour
goes with anything!
over fish.through pasta,on toast,with a jacket.sitrred through lentils or normal beans.mmmmmmm
and works perfectly stirred through some pasta into a dish sprinkle with leftover bread crumbs and cheese stick in nobs of cheese and bake.

packet of garlic bread.cook some mince the tomoto kind or the shepherd pie base kind.any which way.put in dish.lay out the garlic brad on top in its slices.genios pie topper alternative!

get them to each fish by layering it on bottom of sidh topping with your go tp mac and cheese recipe bake..delicious.

Mildred2 of my kids are like that - all veg has to be on the side of the pasta and seperate from each other - not mixed. Started aged about 7 and still doing in in their teens!

Kids liked this when little and I was tired.

Baked Ravioli. This is more filling than serving ravioli with a sauce, bit like a cheat's (non bechamel) lasagne.

1-2 packets of your favourite ravioli (spinach and ricotta for us). Put in baking dish . Pour over a jar of pasta sauce or a small tub of passata mixed with a crushed garlic clove and some herbs. Mix up. Slice or crumble over a ball of Mozarella and grate on some parmesan (if your kids like it) Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until bubbling . I usually stick in a frozen garlic baguette as well as it takes the same time. Serve with steamed broccoli and peas.