Any ideas for healthy hot meals that don't take much prep or require much input while cooking?

[suiledonn]

Hi, I am 16 weeks pregnant and still suffering quite badly from sickness and nausea. The smell of cooking really sets me off and I can't tolerate the smell of raw onions, veg in general etc. I am running out of ideas on what to give dd and dh for dinner. Yesterday we had roast chicken breast, potatoes and frozen veg but we have had this loads lately. Has anyone any ideas of things that are realtively healthy but I can just throw into the oven?

angel hair pasta - takes 3 minutes to cook. Throw passata and frozen peas into microwave for two minutes sprinkle with cheese.

Both DS and I love it.

Sounds nice but I would have to add meat or something to bulk it up for dh. He is more a meat, potatoes and veg. eater but will eat vegatarian if it is filling enough.

Pasta and pesto
TBH, pasta with chicken strips and red pepper
Eggs - omelette, poached, scrambled
Jacket potato and beans and bacon/ham
Fish pie - throw fish in bottom, thrown in some frozen peas and corn, top with a simple white or parsley sauce and add mash
Chicken (or other meat) with some stir fried veg, serve with pitta or wraps

And have some of the better quality frozen meals in for the days you really can't manage. Chances are it won't last for too much longer so the odd ready meal or pizza won't hurt.

get some swedish meatballs and keep them in the freezer (Sainsburys recently had a special offer two for one), you can throw them frozen in with the peas and passata they defrost at the same time as the peas.

Could you manage sausage and mash - mainly throw in oven. If you have a potato ricer, mash even quicker to do.

buy amoy straight-to-wok noodles, they're also microwaveable with a sall amount of water. Pour tin of Sainsburys tinned beef curry over...

Hey presto!

Or you could stir fry with a bit of chicken and veg (frozen is fine) and sprinkle in soy sauce a little sugar (kind of teriyake sauce - ish)

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I am finding the cooking really tough going at the moment but am going grocery shopping later and will try to pick up somethings suggested here to try out. I think my main problem is that I usually always cook fresh, from scratch meals so not sure what short cuts I can take.

Oh yes, I remember this stage - I used to have to run out of the room in the middle of supper, because I just couldn't face eating it any more.

Any kind of one pot-stew with a baked potato is good, also fish fingers, chops (Hugh FW has some good recipes for baked chops). Don't forget tinned sweetcorn as a veg too!

Is there any part of the day when you feel better - i.e. could you cook a stew in the morning and then heat it up at night? I was much better until about 3pm, so did that when I could.

But tbh, I think we ate an awful lot of ready meals at this stage; DH would cook the veg and I would be kept out of the kitchen until it was time to eat!

Could you manage stew if you got DH to chop the veg the night before? Or would the smell of it in the oven turn your stomach too much?

Do you have a slow cooker? Sounds like you could do with one if not, as you could bung stuff in and not think about it all day.

How about mince with red kidney beans and passata, served with rice or pasta?

Don't have a slow cooker, not even sure what that is. Can someone fill me in?
My main problem with stews, bologneses etc is that the only way I know to get flavour in is to start by browning meat with onions, garlic etc and that is the one thing that would definitely have me heading for the bathroom.

Oh see it never occurred to me to brown the meat for a stew! I just whack everything in the pot, pour gravy or stock over it and put it in the oven.