What’s your favourite quick dinners?

[Tinks15]

I have two small dc & work 3 days a week - i’m out of ideas for quick dinners on these nights. One of my girls is quite fussy the other one isn’t overly so. Please could you share ideas with me?
I do try & batch cook so we have a few easy meals when I can but I don’t always have the time at the moment.

well tonight we are having tomato soup and cheese on toast!

But my quickest meals are;

Hotdogs (Lidl German brockqurst) with deli potato salad and cucumbers.

Shakshuka- sautee onions, peppers in a pan. Add tinned chopped tomatoes. When cooked well crack an egg per person into the dish pop onb a lid until the eggs poach and serve with bread. I add chilli for adults and choped coriander.

But for me the game changer has been designated days. Monday is pasta day. Thursday is soup and sandwich day.

Thanks @MumsThewordw02 hotdogs is a good one, had forgotten about them & I like the sound of the shakshuka. I always cook ‘nicer’ meals on my days off when I have a bit more time to do all prep etc.

For me the bonus of hotdogs is both mine actually eat them! I have that on my late shift days and I have to get something into them quickly.

* well tonight we are having tomato soup and cheese on toast! *

I always regard cheese on toast as a bit of a palaver!

Microwave rice in a sachet and then stir through M&S pre cooked salmon and some tinned sweet corn. On the table in 3 mins

Pitta pizzas. Toast then kids can put purée, cheese and whatever on top. 5 mins in the oven. Cucumber and carrot sticks on the side.

Obvious one, but pasta - easily adaptable for fussy eaters. Chuck a bit of cheese or a stir in sauce on. Cook veg in with the pasta to save on washing up.

Stir fry using a pack of ready chopped stir fry pack with rice noodles and a sauce with either chicken or cashews.
Pasta with smoked salmon, peas and chives
Grilled haloumi in toasted ciabatta rolls with salad
Grilled paprika chicken with cous cous and salad

Egg fried rice is my go-to quick dinner. Frying pan with cooked rice, beaten eggs, frozen peas / sweetcorn / prawns / ham or whatever else I have to hand.

Pasta with tomato sauce -- variations: chop sausage (salsiccia, chorizo) into bits and fry and add, add chickpeas, add leafy spinach and stir in. I don't want to eat this ever again, personally. So sick of it.

Chop a chicken into bits (breasts, thighs, drumsticks, wings and back (back isn't eaten, admittedly), season, in oven for 45 minutes on 200 degrees - dinner is done in an hour which is acceptable to me, serve with rice or potatoes, use "stock" from the pan as "sauce" -- this meal is so simple I can do it in my sleep and could personally eat it several days a week but my husband is fussier and "needs variation" apparently

smittenkitchen.com/2019/10/skillet-ravioli-with-spinach/-- love this

Quick tacos à la Sweden -- fry mince with seasoning (cumin, paprika, garlic and onion powder) and serve with chili sauce, lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, cucumber slices, maybe sweet corn from a tin, maybe avocado or guacamole, maybe sour cream, and tortillas. Everybody builds their own. Difficult for small children.

Meatballs and macaroni -- Swedish staple

Jacket potatoes can be done in advance and microwaved when you want them. Also frozen pizza can be cooked in the oven the night before and reheated the next day with salad or beans.

Microwave mac n cheese recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/quick-and-easy/microwave-mac-and-cheese

Batch-cooking is my favourite - always something in the freezer.

Stir-fry is next. Bag of frozen mixed veg in an emergency, fry chicken/prawns, noodles take 4 minutes to cook, add soy etc or a blob of jarred sauce.

Beans on toast with melted cheese and crispy bacon
Pasta with stir in sauce
Omelette
Ham and cheese toastie with salad

Pesto pasta. And I grate courgette and cheese

Potato waffles in toaster with fried egg and beans

Scrambled egg on toast

Do you have a pressure cooker? I often pressure cooker a whole chicken or chicken thighs. Shred it and serve with wraps, bbq sauce and salad or corn on the cob. It then gives lunches for the next day or left over chicken for fried rice or stir fry.
I also do a few hello fresh recipes (the recipe cards are on the website) as they can be really quick. Mango chutney chicken and sausage burgers have gone down well recently.

Thanks you lovely people - some great suggestions here. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of half of these!

Oh I have to return with oven pancake (Swedish classic):

Make a pancake batter from 1 litre of milk, 500 ml of flour and five or six eggs. Grease a deep oven dish (the kind that fills the whole oven, whatsitcalled). Pour batter in and cook at 200 degrees for about 25 minutes. Cut into squares, serve savoury (like a foreigner) with ... I dunno, savoury crepe stuff, I don't eat it like that. Or with jam, like a Swede. :)

Curried Rice and eggs
Use some good curry paste - put a few spoonfull into a sauce pot,
boil a kettle of water and pour into a coffee cup til full - tip into the pot with sauce and stir .tip basmati rice into the cup half til way filled - add to pot,stir bring to boil, turn down to simmer,put a lid on til cooked .
use rest of water to poach eggs 5 mins before rice is done .
add any odd veg etc .
feeds two etc .

Omelette

Sausage pasta, cook the sausages the day before.

Traybakes, not quick but you can do something else while they cook

Peppered mackerel/salmon, a nice relady prepared salad and rice or potatoes or couscous. Often have left over roasted veg to stir into couscous.

If you buy ready made pancakes (the savoury kind) then it is really quick to make stuffed pancakes- no batter involved! I have grated cheese and ham for my fussiest DC. For me I love creamy prawns and chicken mushroom and veg in a white sauce. The latter can be made in advance (cooked chicken from a leftover roast is perfect for this) and frozen and brought out to defrost in the morning. Stuff pancakes, rolls up, bake in hot oven 10-15 minutes and away you go!

We had fish finger tacos tonight. So quick and easy realfood.tesco.com/recipes/fish-finger-tacos.html

@banivani

Oh I have to return with oven pancake (Swedish classic):

Make a pancake batter from 1 litre of milk, 500 ml of flour and five or six eggs. Grease a deep oven dish (the kind that fills the whole oven, whatsitcalled). Pour batter in and cook at 200 degrees for about 25 minutes. Cut into squares, serve savoury (like a foreigner) with ... I dunno, savoury crepe stuff, I don't eat it like that. Or with jam, like a Swede. :)

That sounds very like Yorkshire pudding from the description!

It is very similar but you have to call it pancake to feel able to eat it with jam. ;)

Pulled pork. Not quick but shove in slow cooker then when back from work serve with rolls and salad!

Gnocchi stir fry.

Throw packet of gnocchi into boiling water - they take about 3 or 4 mins to bob to the surface.

Meanwhile fry up onion, bacon, peppers, bits of chorizo and any other available fridge 'gravel' you feel like.

Drain gnocchi and throw into frying pan. Stir it all together for a couple of minutes and dish up.

I often add smoked paprika at the onion stage, but not sure if your girls would eat it.

Not quick because it has to cook in the oven but very easy and can be left alone to sort itself out -
put chunks of red onion, mushrooms, peppers and halloumi in a roasting dish with oil, oregano, paprika, pepper. Can add cherry tomatoes too if wished. Eat in wraps or pittas, with salad.

Similar -
cook the vege as above but minus the halloumi
when it's done, add white wine, cream and pesto and stick back in the oven to warm through.
Eat with pasta and parmesan, plus chorizo if carnivore.

Hot dogs with corn on the cob

Picky tea - cheese, crackers, grapes, deli stuff etc