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.

@sashh - your baked potato gnocchi hack is brilliant. I must try it.

@IdLikeToBeAFraser ah, thank you! I did one day of a massage therapy course so it's come to the right place! Your recipe sounds lush. I love parmesan! 🤤

I'd say it would work if you made a foil parcel.

A meat thermometer is so useful too, chicken can be tricky on the bbq.

Do. I'm a big fan of leftovers.

If I make a Yorkshire pudding I make too much batter and make pancakes the following day.

Or I might add a small tin of sweetcorn to make corn fritters.

An asian style broth

1 cube frozen ginger
1 cube frozen garlic
1 stock cube
boiling water

That is the basic broth you then add your own choice of meat and veg and possibly noodles. Obviously you can add other spices.

3 days of chicken.

I roast chicken in my slow cooker but you could buy a rotisserie chicken, eat with crusty bread and salad.

Use the left over chicken to make a curry or a pie.

Easy pie recipe.

Cooked chicken (actually you can start with raw but you will need to cook it before making a pie)
Sliced mushrooms and leeks
1 tin mushroom soup
1 pot of creme fraiche
pre rolled puff pastry

Mix everything that is not the pastry in a bowl, if cooking from fresh then I throw it in the slow cooker.

Put in a pie or foil dish, top with the pastry and either bake or freeze for later.

Now what ever you have left of the chicken, the bones, skin, flesh etc. Put in the slow cooker with water, a roughly chopped onion and leave all day.

Pour the stock through a sieve and either use it or freeze. It is a great base for French onion soup.

WFH my standard lunch is baked fish, spicy spinach and new potatoes with some homemade tartare sauce (batch of homemade mayonnaise takes less than 5 minutes to whip up, then stored in fridge to be enhanced in small helpings as required).
Takes 30 minutes to make and cook (I can still be working while it cooks) and about 30 seconds to clear up as everything goes into the dishwasher.
A variation on that would be baked potato, homemade herb quark and green salad.
Asparagus with cold ham or egg mayonnaise or tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.
In cooler weather I batch cook soups and freeze in individual helpings or do something like a Sri Lankan dhal, also batch cooked.
If I need anything else (unusual) I can have either an apple or full-fat Greek yoghurt or, when in season, strawberries.