What's your best, easiest and tastiest dinner recipe?

[MineAreCrafty]

Please. I'm tired, bit fed up, not very good in the kitchen, but needing something tasty. Give me ideas people!

Pasta with what ever sauce or meats or veg you have in the house

Get those chicken goujon things (dippers, if you have nothing else). Cook them in the oven. Put some noodles in boiling water. Fry up some finely chopped spring onions and red pepper. Put soy sauce, coriander, maybe a bit of honey, chopped chilli, some Worcestershire sauce into a saucepan and warm it up.Cut the chicken pieces up, put them on top of the drained noodles with the onion and peppers and pour the sauce over them. Takes about five minutes once the crunchy chicken pieces are cooked.

Take away of your choice .

Ooh the chicken and noodles sound good! Take away would be fab but a bit too skint...

Not wanting to be a pedant, but those words don't go together OP

But easiest is goats cheese quiche with onion marmalade and a crisp green salad with frisée, but go big on the quiche. You can do a big home made pizza too, just buy a couple of bases and all the ingredients and just lob them on. Always hits the spot.

Steak - no need to do anything but fry or grill it. Served with salad it's a 10-minute meal at most.

Or, for cheapness;

Chicken breast, smother in whole grain mustard, wrap in bacon and bake as normal.

Serve with new potatoes and green beans. Dauphinois Potatoes are nicer if you have the time and some cream. The chicken need only be small as the bacon packs it out.

A light gravy to give it some juice to serve.

Only five ingredients, six if you add carrots.

Roasted veg (peppers, courgette, red onion, sweet potato) with halloumi, hummus and couscous, or roasted veg with feta and salad. Healthy, super quick to prep and can be varied easily, eg with roasted meat, salads, different veg added etc.

posh Mac and Cheese... made with stilton and gruyere

Kedgeree - or fish and rice really. I just love it. I do a crap version with smoked mackerel. Hardboil an egg per person and cook a lot of rice. Flake the mackerel into a bowl, slice the eggs in, slice in some tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, add the rice and stir well until combined.

sirloin steak, halloumi chips (10 minutes in oven), cherry tomatoes and avocado.

and then a quick peppercorn sauce made in the steak pan.

15mins, delicous!

A big chunk of french stick with sharp cheese and celery , nut and sultana salad on it with kettle chips on the side

Pasta
One of those pasta bake sauces
A lot of mozzarella. (Enough to fill a small wheelbarrow)

Risotto - put mushrooms, leeks, courgettes, peas and as much garlic as you can find in with the rice and leave for 10 minutes. Then add a good pile of Parmesan - lovely!!

Fast.
Cook some linguine, whilst still hot add smoked salmon bits and stir spinach leaves through then add a bit of cream to bind it. Salt, pepper and you're good to go. Bread on the side if you want more carbs.

Thanks everyone! I'm copying and pasting lots of these to give some variety to our drab dinner existence

One that came up on my Facebook feed which I have used is chicken breasts topped with green pesto, tomatoes and cheese then baked. Really easy and full of flavour.

I have two. One is a seafood pasta.

Half a pack of mixed frozen seafood (from Iceland or tesco), I defrost them quickly in some boiled water from the kettle. Then cook up a cheap pack of pasta shapes (50p from tesco value range), whilst the pasta is cooking I finely chop and fry an onion and handful of mushrooms, add in some pepper and chilli flakes and a tub of cream cheese (again about 50p). Stir through to melt the cheese and add in the seafood and a ladle of the water the seafood defrosted in. Heat through and nom nom!!!

Second is Ramon noodle soup with extras

Thinly slice a chicken tit or whatever meat you fancy. (1 boob serves 2). Thinly slice veg of your choice like onions,mushrooms etc (use a spud peeler to thinly slice peels of carrot) and handful of frozen peas/ sweetcorn).

Fry the meat then make up the Ramon noodle soup per pack instructions (1 pack per person) and bung in the meat and veg whilst the noodles cook. Throw in a big bowl and stuff yourself

I'm doing veg curry tonight - fry onions in bought curry paste, add veg, a tin of tomatoes and coconut milk and serve with poppadoms

Cook some gnocchi, drain and stir in crème fraîche, blue cheese and spinach

Chilli? I do a bean one or you could use mince. Top with tortilla chips and cheese and brown under the grill

Ooh yeah, seafood pasta, yum. These are all great, you know when you just get stuck having the same old stuff?

You can either do this with prawns or chicken. Marinate them in olive oil, garlic granules, pinch of tumeric, pinch of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Pan fry and add roughly chopped onion, red/yellow pepper and courgette. Finish off with a dollop of crème fraiche.

Green bean salad is great too. Blanch green beans then add goats cheese, stawberries and pecans with a balsamic dressing.
Or bacon, blue cheese and fried mushrooms for something more robust.

Baby spinach salad with peas, avocado, pistachio nuts and a creamy mustard dressing is lovely with a lam chop.

Pea soup is quick, easy and cheap.

If you have leftover (white bread) this is a great recipe (and could also be a brunch or lunch dish). Chop up onion a red pepper and ham. Grate cheese. Mix 3 eggs with 200ml of milk. Add your chopped ingredients and half of the chrese to the egg mix. Layer bread in an oven proof dish. Pour over the mix and cheese and cook for 20min at 180c. Can also be made ahead.

I do the kedgeree thing. I add onions, hard boiled egg, and peas, and tart it up with dill. For added greed, put a good dollop of butter in.

Right, I'm doing a shopping list for next week with these ideas and tonight I'm doing kedgeree. Love MN.

Spaghetti carbonara: cook spaghetti. At the same time fry some chopped up bacon and beat up an egg (one per person). She the pasta is ready drain then put in a bowl (or back in the saucepan to save washing up) and mix the bacon and egg through. Egg cooks slightly by the heat of the pasta.

Or use a leftover sausage, chopped up small, or add peas, sweet corn, mushrooms... may not be authentic but all yummy. I usually add mustard to my eggs too (don't know why, really, as I'm not that big a fan).

One of my favourite most quick and easy meals is carbonara
cook spaghetti, once cooked take off the heat. Keep some of the pasta water.

In a large frying pan or wok, melt some butter and some garlic cloves that have been squashed, fry a pack of pancetta until golden and crispy, once cooked set it aside to cool and remove the garlic

In a bowl beat eggs and grated parmesan cheese ( 3 large eggs should do it )

Add spaghetti into pan with pancetta pour over egg mix and toss it all together, serve with lots of grated parmesan over the top and green salad ( if you want some greenery )

Make sure the pasta has cooled a bit before adding egg mix or it will scramble, also you can add some pasta water to make it more saucy and glossy.