What do you cook when you can't be bothered to cook?

[theneverendinglaundry]

I need a few easy dinners ideas with little or no preparation. I am so fed up with meal planning, shopping for meals, cooking meals, cleaning up after meals....I cook almost every night and would just love a few freezer/cupboard/packet things to make life easier some nights.

Am thinking of having the freezer stocked up with mash and other variants of potato. Jacket potatoes are mindless enough to make and also very cheap, so they're on my list too.

What do you cook when you can't be bothered to cook?

Sandwiches
Spag bol (jarred sauce + vegan mince + spaghetti or any other pasta)
Beans on toast
Peanut butter on toast
Snack tray - bits of whatever I can find in the fridge/cupboards - cucumber, cherry tomatoes, crackers, breadsticks, cheese, nuts, olives etc)

I think I have more of these types of ‘recipes’ than actual proper cooking ones!

• Toasties made in breville machine
• Toasted pitta bread, hummus, ready made falafel and salad
• Fishfingers, chips and mushy peas, or sometimes just fishfinger sandwiches, or in a wrap with iceberg lettuce and mayo
• Pasta with the Lloyd Grosman tomato and chilli sauce, with grated Parmesan or sometimes crumbled feta on top. Sometimes if I want to make it seem like I’ve cooked a bit I’ll get a ready prepped bag of roasting veg (or you can get them frozen) and do that first then stir that in with the sauce.
• Frozen ready chopped onions, garlic, chilli etc sizzled in a pan for a bit, tin of chickpeas, jar of ready made curry sauce, packet of microwave rice and/ or a supermarket garlic and coriander naan.
• Frozen pukka cheese and onion pie with mash and peas, DH has the steak pie version
• Fry whatever bits of veg I have in bottom of fridge, or use frozen onion and sliced peppers. Fry in sesame oil for a few minutes, add in a microwave packet of rice, crack in an egg, some frozen peas, soy sauce - gorgeous
• Cook egg noodles in stock (best with chicken if you eat meat but I have veggie these days), drizzle with sesame oil, squeeze of lime.
• Cook pasta, drain, stir through butter, black pepper and tons of grated cheese
• Frozen potato latkes with a fried egg on top, I have then with tinned tomatoes
• Fry some mushrooms (with extra garlic if desired), stir through some Philadelphia garlic and herb, serve with pasta or on toast
• Chop paneer into cubes (you can use chicken or fish too), you can add in veg like red onion, peppers, mushroom, cherry tomatoes etc too if that doesn’t make it feel

too much like cooking! Whack in a bowl and pour over one of those pataks paste pots - they’re often £1 for 2 in Lidl. Coat everything then cook it all in a griddle pan. Serve with the old faithful micro rice

• Fried egg, oven chips and tinned mushy peas

I do cook sometimes honestly!

Also tinned soup

Houmous, crisps and wine

Our absolute 'cannot be arsed whatsoever' meal is flatbread pizza. We buy 2 of those garlic flatbreads from Tesco and add our own toppings - so some variation of pesto, mozzarella, peppers, olives, cured meats, etc. Pop in the oven for 10 mins, slice them up and chuck some rocket over the top

I order a takeaway 😂

@bikerunski you are the winner of thread. I'm sold.

Puttanesca. Takes 12 minutes tops.

Thanks for all the ideas, I am writing a list for when I go to the supermarket tomorrow! Iceland here I come!

Quorn nuggets/veggie fingers/chicken gougons in wraps with salad

Pasta with stir in sauce

Egg/beans and cheese on toast

Jacket potatoes

Hash browns, eggs and beans

Frozen pizza

Ooh puttanesca my favourite. This is an excellent 'store cupboard ' dish...

Forgot to add omelettes!

We like those takeaway in a box type affairs, have had M&S and also Waitrose. Just as good as a real takeaway in my opinion, and so much cheaper. You can cook the whole lot in the oven, just coordinate the timings.

Roast sausages with veg.

Put the following in a roasting tin and spray with oil, wait 40 minutes, eat.
Sausages
New potatoes
Button mushrooms
Any veg you have lying around (pepper, courgette, red onion, cauliflower) in large chunks eg quarter the onion, whole mushrooms and new potatoes

Peppers stuffed with sausage meat & herbs.

Slice tops off peppers, dip them in boiling water.
Remove the seeds and pack the peppers with sausagemeat and a bit of chopped parsley, put the lids back on, put them in a dish in the oven for 40 mins.

After 30 mins, put shop bought garlic bread beside them in the oven.

Ready ten minutes later, Takes all of 3 minutes work and even my ds will eat it.

I must be a total slattern...some of these are proper meals and what i consider to be proper cooking!

Bikerunski

Hummus, crisps and wine sounds like the perfect, child free, night in. Curled up in front of the log burner, phone on silent, bliss.

Boil pasta. At same time warm good bit of olive oil in fry pan. Add sliced chilli, garlic, bit of chorizo an some cherry tomatoes. When pastas cooked drain and mix. Yum. Takes 12 mins Max.

If I truly can't be arsed it's a take away or ready meals if I've got people to feed.
If it's just me then I'll eat a random selection of foods over the course of a couple of hours like a chunk of cheese, a scotch pancake, heavily buttered crackers, a piece of ham, some asparagus with butter on... accompanied by loads of cups of tea and coffee.

If I can muster a bit of cooking then things like,
tuna, onion, rice and peas fried with soy sauce,
corned beef hash using ready made mash,
fish cake using ready done mash,
Pasta or tortellini with a sauce made from a tin of chopped tomato, sautéed onion, herbs, a vegetable stock melt and some mascarpone or Philadelphia,
Steak and asparagus, cheesy cauliflower mash or both,
Soup and bread,
Quesadilla,
Cous cous and roast veg.

Dominoes

@Mintjulia, it is. It’s happened about twice in the last 12 years.

Otherwise, things on toast. Spaghetti Hoops for the dc, peanut butter and/or Marmite for me. DH could go either way.

Go to are omelettes, jacket potatoes, fajita packs,

Early on poster shepherds pie and curry?? That’s not when you can’t be bothered to cook.

I’ve always got some leftovers/batch cooking in the freezer 😊

• Pizzas with tortilla or pitta bread.

Tomato paste, mozzarella, ham or any veg.

Under grill for 8 mins.

• Simple pastas.

• noodles with whatever veg, we usually have sauces to add and things like sesame seeds and herbs

I forgot to add nachos. I buy a bag of tortilla chips and a mix pack of tex mex style dips, bag of grated cheese and jar of jalapeños - combine and whack under the grill.

Used to do it as a starter when we were making fajitas but ended up so full it’s become dinner in its own right.

If you’re going to Iceland OP look if they have the Nando’s garlic perinaise - I got some in there last time and it’s really taken our lazy ‘something in a wrap or something with oven chips’ type dinners up a notch!