Please give me your quick, easy, after work dinner ideas!

[Mandymoo]

Back to work part time next week and wont be getting in til after half six. Me and dh wont eat til dd and ds in bed. So please give me all your easy, quick to prepare and relatively healthy meal ideas and i will love you forever and ever!

I dont own a slow cooker!!!

TIA X

My DC favourite dinner is one I got from Mumsnet a couple of years ago - tin of tuna, bag of microwave rice (2 mins to cook), small tin of sweetcorn, all mixed together and thats it! I have it once a week and boys go mad for it - this is the only dinner they are actually getting a totally balanced meal (protein/veg/carb) that they both devour!

Stir fry.
I buy pre packed chicken, some quick wok noodles, a couple of mushrooms and other veggies and packet / jar sauces.
Lob in wok, stir a bit, eat!

rice with some frozen chopped spinach stirred through it (defrosted first of course) ad an egg stir fried through the rice for protein. Can also add some peas, and if you want, a drop of cream.

Linguini pasta, cooked through with sliced ham and avacado and lemon juice iirc was a nice quick meal (haven't done it in a while and lost the cook book it was in)

spag bol does not take that long if you buy jar sauces.

thanks guys - keep em coming!

let me just go grab my cook books...

Here are some suggestions, if you like any I will post the details.

According to my cookbooks (!) there are the following dishes

Beef stroganoff takes 15mins cooking, 5 prep
Virginian pork chops takes 22 mins cooking, 5 prep
Gammon in maderia sauce takes 15 mins cooking, 5 prep
York ham and asparagus rolls takes 25 mins cook, 5 prep
Chinese chicken takes 10 to prepare, 4 to cook

Do you like fish at all?

Beef stroganoff - fry onions/mushrooms in butter, take out, fry floured/seasoned beef, add beef stock, worcestershire sauce, low fat creme frache and mushroom/onions then simmer

Chicken supreme - fry onion, mushrooms, mixed peppers, chicken, add white sauce, garlic, paprika and simmer

Chicken/bacon tagliatelli - fry onion, mushroom, chicken, bacon, add white sauce and garlic and italian herbs then simmer

Salmon pasta - fry mushrooms, sweetcorn, broccoli then add white sauce and tin of boneless salmon plus garlic

Spag bol - mince, mushrooms, onion, oxo cube, garlic, italian herbs, tin tomatos, tomato concentrate, red wine

Chilli
Gammon
Marinated chicken breast

(use olive oil for above, as little as possible)

I always try and cook double portions that can be frozen and taken out the freezer on the morning you will use them to reaheat.

Buy a bigger roasting joint and slice and freeze half of it for next time.

I've cooked beef stroganoff and cut the meat thinly as it was suggested, used similar to you recipy but the meat was not soft and i didn't like it. yet, I loved it when I had it in the restaurant. Could you recommend some ways of making this dish nice and soft, please? I've looked in many books and they all suggest cooking about 15 minutes. I can't imagine how you can make beef soft in such a short period of time. I'll be glad to know how.

Garlic mushrooms.

Mushrooms and garlic butter, parsley if you´ve got it. In the oven. About 30 mins. Don´t even peel em. Bit of crunchy bread, maybe sprinkle some cheese over the top if especially hungry.

Tin of sundried tomato paste heated up over pasta with parmesan. Add some presunto if you like.

Spanish omelette. 4 eggs, one onion, few potatoes......

Fedda - Its what you buy, I used to buy the beef 'steaks' 2 for £5 sort of thing from Sainsburys as it always looked nice and lean and reasonable price but tasted of nothing and was always chewy.

then

I went to a butchers and they suggested top rump (couldn't afford fillet which is the traditional/posh version). Its fantastic and I only pay £4 (£7.35 per kilo) for the same amount. They slice it off a huge slab of meat for and will even cut it up ready. Just coat it in seasoned flour and brown it quickly in butter before adding the other stuff and simmer for 15 minutes and it should be great. I have left it for longer and its not been a problem too

have you seen Nigel Slaters 30 minute meals? it's a great book, lots of brilliant ideas.

chocolatekimmy , thank you very much, it sounds great! I'll try it next time for sure.

the other thing is that rare beef (ie cooked 5-10 min and pink in the middle) is much softer than well done beef (15min) which is grey all through and all dried out.
Also important to let it rest between cooking and serving.

DH does most of the cooking but when he works late I make really lazy things like
bacon bits fried with mushrooms, on tagliatelle
simple chicken casseroles (eg Jamie's chicken cacciatore)
fish fillets cooked in foil
risotto
curry using jar sauce
meatballs made of sausages
homemade burgers