The holy grail of meals - healthy(ish), quick and virtually no prep or clearing up - does it exist?

[ohwhattododo]

After 15 years of meal planning and trying to cook healthy meals from scratch, I am all cooked out at the moment!

For the summer holidays, I was going to try to give myself a bit of a break from cooking, but I'm struggling to come up with many ideas. If I eat rubbish, I feel rubbish, so trying to still keep up the fruit and veg etc.

The best I can come up with is something like a lentils/grain/rice pouch, a tin of mackerel or some ready-cooked chicken, and some cherry tomatoes and tinned sweetcorn! Looking for as little prep and washing up as possible. Doesn't have to be overly exciting either, just easy.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

Foil baked salmon or trout is quick and easy with no pans to wash up. Add sliced lemon or splash of white wine before cooking. Serve with salad, or pouch of puy lentils.
Or a little more effort...make a bed on the foil of sliced tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic then add the fish, this works well with cod, hake, haddock etc. Serve with microwave rice.

New potatoes in a packet you can microwave, pre cooked chicken and salad or peas.

yoghurt and berries.

Weetabix. With raspberries.

If you do cook them do double the protein so you can have chicken, sausages etc the next the next with a salad or in a baguette.

My too-tired-to-think meals are:

Chicken tray bake: chicken thighs with skin and bone still on, baby potatoes, baby tomatoes, black olives, toss in a bit of oil with some garlic paste or granules (you can peel garlic if you want, but you don't want) and bake for about 35 mins. You can add sliced peppers if you can be bothered to peel and seed and chop them. Otherwise, just serve it as it is, with a leafy salad.

Salmon slices drizzled with sweet chilli and soy, baked in the oven. Served with 5 minute egg noodles, over which I steam sugar snap peas and pak choi. Squeeze lime and sprinkle sesame seeds on top if you want.

Pork steaks with chunky sliced potato or sweet potato still in their skin, sliced fennel and pear (no need to peel or core, it's supposed to look rustic with fresh sage, a bit of butter and a glass of cider poured into the tray. Cook for 30-35 mins. Serve with steamed greens if you can be bothered or bag of salad if not.

Filled or plain pasta with pesto and salad. I often sprinkle some chilli flakes into the pesto for people who like it hot and steam romanesco or purple broccoli over the pasta to serve as a side with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Soup. Lasts days, cheap, easy. If you make it thick it passes as curry/pasta sauce/burrito filling/whatever

I like cream cheese and smoked salmon on oatcakes. Serve with salad from a bag and some cherry tomatoes, maybe a handful of nuts. Follow with fruit.

Supermarket cooked chicken or ready made quiche with a bag of salad or baked potatoes or roasted veg. For potatoes with no prep you can airfry tinned potatoes and they go like little roast potatoes. Not as nice as the normal ones but great time saver.

If you don't want any chopping or boiling then maybe ready meals/ prepped items or frozen chicken/fish ect.

Could you batch cook? I know it means spending a longer period of time in the kitchen 1 day but it saves time on multiple days going forward.

My 2 laziest meals

Stir fry:
Bag of stir fry veg (or tins)
Packet or jar of sauce
Cooked chicken pieces or prawns
Fry & mix
To be healthier, do in chicken stock instead of oil

Cheats risotto:
Microwave rice, soup, cooked protein - mix
Variants;
Chicken/mushroom soup & chicken
Lobster bisque & seafood
Ham & pea soup, ham, peas

Sorry there is boiling,

boil pasta, drain, dash of olive oil in same pan, chuck in prawns, then red pesto and then a bit of sourcream, stick pasta back in pan, quick stir and you are done.

I do the same, but add some bagged baby spinach at the end.

Chunky ratatouille - which I appreciate needs some chopping, but I make a big batch. Then reheat and serve with steak/lamb chops/chicken or even butchers sausages.

Very tasty but not very filling I think

Two fried eggs on toasted spelt bread with cherries and a bit of good ripe cheese to follow.

You can get packs of shredded ham hock from supermarkets, that's really nice.
I also make lentil and beetroot salad. Just boil lentils in bouillon, then add chopped packaged beetroot, chopped spring onions, lemon juice and olive oil. That goes nice with feta on top or with the ham hock, or smoked salmon?
I always chop anything (not raw meat etc) on a plate that I then use to eat off, to save washing up!

Picky bits tea- one choice out of carbs (sourdough, pitta, wholemeal crackers, rice, pasta), one or two choices of protein (depending on veggie, but hummus, greek cheese, cured meats, any type of cold meat, cooked fish, cheese platter), and some vegetables (bagged salad, small tomatoes, tiny cucumbers). Pickles and pickle, shove the oil and vinegar out, salt and pepper on the table.

Repeat all summer, no need for cooking at any point!

Garlic prawns always do it for me - melt garlic butter, chuck prawns in, heat gently. Serve on pouch of rice. You can add some frozen peas and a big blob of garlic philly to the prawns as well

@ohwhattododo Have you tried The Roasting Tin Cook books by Rukimi Iyer?

( you can thank me later!)

Bag of filled tortellini cook in 4 minutes in a pan of boiling water, microwave ready made pasta sauce mix the 2 together then into an oven proof dish sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and grated Parmesan cheese shove under the grill to brown, Voila serve with garlic bread and ready made salad

Mozzarella and tomato salad

Only chopping required are the tomatoes 🙂

Rocket
Tomatoes
Mozzarella (or Burrata if feeling fancy!)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar reduction
Crusty bread and lurpak

Put rocket on plate
slice tomatoes and put on rocket
tear mozzarella and put on tomatoes
season and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic reduction. Serve with crusty bread and lurpak.

Like you, I'm fed up of thinking of different things to eat and shopping for ingredients and then preparing and cooking different things to eat and then cleaning up afterwards.

I've taken a break from it all - at the beginning of the week I make a (mahoosive MN 😁) salad with e.g. salad leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, some sort of lettuce, sugar snap peas, green beans, grated carrot, cooked veg (cauliflower / broccoli / carrot etc ) onion, mixed seeds, nuts, peppers, finely sliced cabbage, sliced boiled egg ............ basically anything and everything you fancy. I grate a pile of parmesan cheese to sprinkle over.

And then you can just serve it up every day with e.g. stir-fried steak (takes 2 mins), quiche, fish/prawns/scampi, stir-fried chicken marinaded overnight (e.g.in honey, soy sauce, mustard, ginger, garlic), or whatever......

It's so easy to do at this time of the year - and you can chuck in anything else to the salad throughout the week depending what you fancy.

It just gives you a break from the daily grind of cooking , saves having to think up different meals, saves on preparation and washing up. It's just there in the fridge ready to go.

Lazy "assemble" it meal is :
Hot smoked salmon (served cold or nuke for 1 minute to walk up).
Pouch rice
Bag of prepped veg or handful of spinach in a bowl - in micorwave
Dollop of creme fraiche and squeeze of lemon over the top.

(handy, tasty, easy, quick - but does rack up cost if that's an issue for you).

If you can face standing over a frying pan for 5 minutes, lamb chops or a steak fried quickly. Serve with a basic salad and some bread.

Scrambled egg on toast is a standard quick supper here after a day out. Sometimes boiled. Occassionally with smoked salmon added.

@ilovemyspace I do that when I get get nice kale - massive kale salad with kale, almonds, lemon, oil, parmesan. In fridge. goes with everythingm. sometimes I add some fresh chopped avocado or cucumber to liven it up.

@IdLikeToBeAFraser your kale salad sounds great. I find kale can be very stringy and chewy though when raw. I would take the stalks off, but how do you get the texture a bit more malleable?

salmon / stir fry pre chopped lamb or beef
bag of egg noodles
bag of stir fry veg
pot of stir fry sauce of choice or just use soy sauce / seasoning

stir fry protein, remove, stir fry veg, remove, stir fry noodles, combine all together with sauce or splash of soy/seasoning, reheat and serve. Just one wok or enormous frying pan to wash up.

omelettes are good too, with any left over veg and or cheese / or boil too many potatoes one day on purpose and use in a Spanish omelette the next day. Serve with bagged salad and crusty bread roll.