Too much beige food: I need some healthy meal planning inspiration.

[GrouchyKiwi]

Due to a couple of health conditions I'm extremely tired at the moment and finding it difficult to cook properly for the family (DH home too late to help out much, except at the weekends). Consequently a lot of our meals lately have been freezer foods with some vegetables.

I think if I get back into meal planning then I'll find it easier to make healthy food.

The children love things like spaghetti bolognese and chilli con carne so we have at least one meal like that a week. I generally make two meals' worth at a time. But I'm stuck for other ideas.

Will you please share your favourite quick & healthy recipes, or things that can be made in the slow cooker.

Hi, As you're really under the weather and if you can afford it, would buying pre-prepared veg help? I'm guessing you are okay with things that take time to cook if it's unattended time.

This takes an hour or two in the oven but it's lovely and filling. Make a simple tomato sauce - onion, garlic, dried herbs, tin of tomatoes, half a tin of water and either a stock cube or a wee splodge of marmite. Peel and slice (pound coin thickness) potatoes and layer the bottom of a lasagne dish with them, to about 2cm thick. Cover with a sliced can of corned beef. Top this with the tomato sauce, then cover with a layer of potato slices. Brush top slices with a tiny bit of oil then shove in an oven for 1 - 1.5 hours, adding a bit more water if it dries out but the spuds are still too firm. I always serve with greens of some form.

Some of the fresh vegetable stir fry mixes are fab. I buy them because there's just the two of us, and that way I get loads of interesting veg in a single bag, but one bag does two meals, so I'm guessing it might be enough for a family. Add either meat (chicken or turkey?) or cashew nuts (our preference) and either a bought stir fry sauce or make your own. I like my homemade one - a splash of soy, a squirt of tomato ketchup, a dollop of honey and some five spice powder, and a splash of white vinegar. I just fiddle with the proportions till it tastes the way I want it that day. When all cooked, serve with noodles. I cook the dry nests, and we like the wholewheat ones but I know the rice noodles are popular.

Fajita type teas, with bowls of different things to choose from so the kids can add their chosen fillings to their wraps.

Small pizzas - I like to use english muffins, cut in half, as the base. Mix tomato ketchup, tinned chopped tomatoes (without too much liquid) and some italian herbs together and spread on the muffin halves. Top with grated cheese and then add whatever your kids prefer. I pre-cook mushrooms so they don't make the pizzas too wet, and obviously meat products are pre-cooked, but otherwise, most stuff goes on uncooked. 15 - 20 mins in the oven.

Frittatta with veg (frozen peas, sweetcorn and green beans work brilliantly in this). Can also be eaten cold next day for lunchboxes.

Do lots of one pot dishes or one dish in the oven type of meals, depending on what your family likes.

Do you eat curries? Garlic and ginger in curries are good for colds. Buy Patak pastes and add chicken and any veg combinations you like.

See if any of these are suitable.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/one-pot

One easy way to brighten things up is to have a salsa/chopped salad alongside a meal.

So, along the lines of:
baked sweet potato, jerk chicken, mango salsa

Jacket potato, quiche, beetroot salad (beetroot, cucumber, red onion, lemon juice and flat leaf parsley)

Chilli (in slowcooker) with homemade guacamole or cherry tomato salsa (halved cherry toms, red onion, red pepper, coriander, lime juice, red chilli)

Black bean soup with nachos and guac or tomato salsa as above

Macaroni cheese with a rocket and red onion salad and balsamic dressing - or pitta pizzas with the same salad

I found some if the Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients dishes quick and easy. Fir ease I have substituted a whole chicken for breast pieces in both these recipes and it has been fine.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/thai-red-chicken-soup/

A combination of sweet potato and butternut squash is nice. I do with frozen chopped in the pressure cooker as fast midweek dinner.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/roast-tikka-chicken/ we added onion too

I sometimes buy a whole load of mince. Then fry onions. Fry mince with grated courgette/carrot other veggies to hide. Then split it up, some to add passatta and seasoning for bolognaise, some to season for shepherd's pie base (can freeze on its own and defrost and add mash), some for pastry fillings you could also do some as chilli con carne.

Following. Heath condition means v tired but also just my brain isn't functioni ng to do all the steps in meal preps. Never mind have all the right stuff in..

Another v lazy one we've been doing is homemade baked beans (can do in slow cooker) with oven chips and something frozen (veggie sausage rolls, in my case).

Thai curry is really quick and easy if you use a bought paste. Rice noodles just need soaking to have alongside.

Would they eat fajitas? If so they only take 5-10 mins to make as you just need to cook the chicken, peppers and onions (or whatever veg you wanted to include) with the seasoning and then warm up the wraps and grate some cheese. I usually add some lettuce and guacamole too.

What about baked potatoes? You can just bung them in the oven and leave them to cook and then do a nice quick filling and a side salad.

Homemade pizzas? You can get the bases and tomato sauce and then it’s just a case of sprinkling some grated mozzarella and a few toppings on.

What is it that is tiring you? Chopping? Standing up cooking? Thinking? Everything?

Couple of mega easy ideas:

Veg stir fry from the supermarket packs. Add in stir fried meat if you want.

Tasty soup.
Fry bacon lardons. Add a pack of frozen stew mix so zero chopping. Add stock and some dried herbs. Add a pack of soup mix (the mixed grains and barley stuff).

Fresh tortilini with hidden veg sauce. Fair bit of chopping for the sauce but you could make a big batch and freeze when you’re feeling up to it and save for v easy meals letter.

One pot dishes (stews/curries/ravines etc) or traybakes are fab. Loads on BBC Good Food like this one

Pre-prepared veg whilst more expensive makes cooking much easier so if you can afford it do that.

Also there is nothing inherently wrong with freezer food - decent quality fishfingers, freezer mash with peas and carrots isn’t a bad meal!

Homemade pizzas?

What is the point in suggesting Home made pizza to someone who is struggling for energy. ‘Home made’ is hardly a million times better than a supermarket pizza!

@fluffy because it might be fun for the kids to make their own and pick the toppings etc. Jeez

'Homemade pizzas' presumably doesn't mean making the dough and hand churning the cheese oneself. It's a perfectly good suggestion.

Also home made pizzas are tastier and not processed. We do a lot of these.

Try a daal in your slow cooker. You can do a really simple version. Really good for you and super easy. Tasty too. It freezes really well, so a good one to do as a big batch. We make it more exciting with mango chutney and yogurt and flat breads.

It seems incredibly pointless spending precious energy recreating something that you can buy cheaply, with zero additional nutritional benefits.

What’s the point in your suggestion of homemade soup then when you can just buy pots of the stuff in the supermarket ready to be heated up? Or your suggestion of curry? Surely it’s easier to just get a ready meal version of it?

@Purplerain101 because there is additional nutritional benefits - way more veg portions than pre prepared chilled soup and less salt.

Home assembled pizza can certainly be better for you. You can control the amount of salt/sugar in the sauce, and put loads more vege on than you'd get with bought.

Anyway, this really isn't the place to argue about it. The OP is perfectly capable of deciding which of these suggestions she wants to try and which to ignore.

@fluffy same could be said for a pizza with a homemade tomato sauce base without all the additives and crap that a lot of jarred sauces have, and an array of fresh veg toppings and better quality cheese. Anyway - we’ll have to just agree to disagree

Oven baked fritata is so easy, put your choice of veg in bottom of oven proof dish and spray with oil. Put in oven to cook, I tend to go for red onion, courgettes and peppers but whatever, can also add any meat. Add beaten eggs, season and mix up a bit. Top with cheese then back in the oven.

How about peppers stuffed with cous cous, finely chopped red onion and mushrooms and your choice of herbs. Top with mozerella and bake.
Butterflied chicken breasts with garlic and herbs
Cod fillets marinated in a mix of yoghurt and curry paste then baked in the oven.

Thanks, this is great. I'm going to have an excellent meal plan for the next few weeks!

Fluffy It's everything, depending on the day.