Give me your VERY easy midweek easy dinners…

[tryingtotry]

And I mean VERY!
Like the dinners that doesn’t even involve any type of cooking except oven or microwave, maybe a pan of water! The ones you consider you’re easiest…the ones that are more what ready made items go well together…

e.g omelette, chips and salad
Sausage mash and peas
Cooked chicken and bread
Jacket, cheese and beans

Something I discovered recently was Bird eye grill steaks, I do them with skin on chips, rocket, tomatoes and mushrooms(basically a glorified burger but nice on a Friday as a pretend steak!)

What little combinations have you found that work for you!
I need some more inspo and I have no time to cook!

For you or kids? I made my 3yo “hulk pasta” the other week and him and his brother ate the entire pan. Boil up pasta, over the top of the pasta in a metal sieve steam Brocolli, frozen peas and some frozen spinach. Drain all and mix together with half a jar of pesto.
takes 10 mins and uses 1 pan.

Salmon or cod fillets baked with simply some mango chutney spread on top. Serve with microwave rice, new potatoes or chips and some peas. Really simple but so tasty.

Put a piece of salmon in the air fryer...drizzle with sweet chilli sauce and cook for about 10-15 minutes

Serve with a sachet of coconut flavour microwave rice. I also steam some green veg to go alongside

Filled fresh pasta (ravioli, tortellini etc) - it cooks in 3 mins in boiling water. Toss with a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and add some wilted spinach/rocket/other leaves plus maybe some green beans, broccoli or sweetcorn.

We had the most amazing goats cheese and honey one from Aldi the other day, think it's one of the nicest filled pastas I've had outside of Italy!

Nachos
roast salmon, new potatoes, carrots and broccoli

Omelette - make a big one and cut in half/quarters etc. no need to flip it as you can finish top under grill for a few mins

Salmon, rice and greens
Steak, new potatoes and greens

Your best bet (assuming you eat pork) is to cook a large shoulder of pork at the weekend, then one day make a stir fry (use ready chopped veg, sachets of rice or noodles if you like), another day pan fry onions, add pork, cumin, can of black beans, can of chopped tomatoes, chilli to taste, ground coriander, season, then add chopped coriander. Serve in wraps with sour cream, another day serve pork (heat in microwave) with mash, veg and apple sauce. Once the pork runs out fish is your friend, so quick - perhaps a quick curry or pasta

Today I had leftover beef from yesterday, with onions, carrots, pepper, broccoli and mushrooms, ginger and garlic, soy, beef stock, chilli, sesame seeds and lime zest & juice served with rice, took me a minute to put rice cooker on (takes 40 minutes as brown basmati) then 20 minutes to chop up then cook the actual dish, was as good as anything you can get in restaurants but super easy and quick, you could use ready chopped veg too

We don’t have a microwave but our go to easy dinners are

scrambled eggs on heavily buttered sourdough
tomato soup and a cheese/tuna toastie
tuna pasta
baked potato
red pesto and salmon pasta (ready cooked salmon)
frozen breaded chicken cut into strips and put in wraps with whatever we have (avocado, sour cream, salad etc)

This is what I do. I make this when we've got little bits of surplus food from previous meals, eg a bit of sweet potato cubes, quarter of a broccoli, some feta, etc.

Tray bakes, I usually have peppers of different colours, mushrooms, onion slices, courgette.

Spray a baking tray with spray oil, add the veg and put in the oven for 12-20 mins. You can add chicken or salmon.

Not easy on day one but if you make a stack of pancakes you can add savoury fillings, fold over and freeze for easy meals later.

Pasta with just butter added at the end (lemon juice and pepper works too).

I have two slow cookers, in the small one (1.5L) I throw in chicken pieces (breast / thigh / left over roast chicken) sliced mushrooms and a tin of condensed soup. It sometimes needs pepper but I do that later when I taste it.

Roast meat in the SC too. Just put it in the pot and switch on.

Things on toast, egg, beans, cheese, crème fraiche. The same on baked potatoes.

Fish and rice (I like smoked haddock) cooked in a mix of water and orange juice.

Pack of pre-cooked chicken, pack wraps, pack grated cheese, pre-prepared salad, sauce of your choice.

Lob it all on the table and everyone helps themselves.

Chuck rice in a baking dish with tomato purée, water, mixed herbs, salt, cherry tomatoes and frozen med veg… bake for 30 mins and you’ve got like a tomatoey risotto type thing.

I love the slow cooker if I want an easy dinner:

Pre-made meatballs, PASSATA, cube of frozen chopped spinach, red wine knorr stock pot, chilli flakes if you fancy zingy. Sling it all in the slow cooker before work. Make rice / pasta to accompany

chicken, fry off chopped bacon or chorizo, onions and garlic, chopped carrots, big glut of white wine, stock, possibly single cream of you fancy a creamy version - serve with rice

chicken, fried off onions, garlic, chorizo, peppers. Add white wine, stock, lots of hot sauce, serve with rice

chip chicken breast into strips, coat with egg, bread crumbs or fried chicken coating, fry off in oil / I’m sure you can do this in the air fryer too, serve with salad and wraps with a range of sauces like balsamic glaze/sweet chilli/mint Greek yoghurt depending on what you have

But a packet of prawns, and a packet of fresh egg / Singapore style noodles.

Stir fry them in 3 minutes ish.

This can be ‘elevated’ - as it seems to be in current parlance - by adding chilli, coriander, garlic, white wine (marinading the prawns, if time.)

Not that cheap, but quick.

Tuna pasta bake with Colmans sachets for the sauce.

Curry from a mix with whatever protein and veg you want with it, packets of microwave rice.

Chicken thighs and veg in a roasting dish, jar of curry sauce poured over and served with rice.

Another I forgot was a packet of microwave sticky rice with 2 fried eggs on top and I have bacon with it.

Pan-fried gnocci with extras. Fry gnocci until done, then remove from pan and fry chopped bacon, onion, red pepper, finely chopped gherkin and jalapeños. Add the gnocci back in, top with grated cheese and serve. So good.

A bag of stir fry veg, cooked prawns, add chilli/garlic/soy sauce and microwave rice

What a great idea! I sometimes boil veg in with pasta, but steaming it is even better.

Shop bought basic pizza with a ton of fresh veg on top - tomatoes, mushrooms, red peppers are our favourites.

I love couscous with olive oil, chopped onion and preserved lemon, green olives and pecans or cashews.

Another tray bake fan- usually sausages or chicken. I use frozen sweet potato chunks, frozen butternut squash (I take them out an hour before if I remember), red onion chunks and some sliced peppers. I’ll often stir through some harissa paste for flavour.

Traybakes. I just look what have I in and go from there.

Nachos.
Load with cheese and melt. Then top with jalapeños, guacamole etc

Slow cooker.
I started a chicken casserole last night
As we need to eat early tonight and this one keeps it warm once finished cooking
I've put cubes of potato in there so no need to make any mash etc and grabbed a load of crusty bread on the way home earlier. All in all it will have taken me 10 minutes max.