okay, i am beinng DRIVEN to meal-planning and am looking for un-faffy , quick recipes using cheap cuts that are DELICIOUS. because if someone tells me that tuna casserole or sausage stew is nice then i'll barf.

[ExterminAitch]

i'm fairly good on prepped stuff already, good recipes for chicken thigh curry, stews etc, it's more the instant-ish stuff i have difficulty with (apart from the ubiquitous pasta and pesto). although am always happy to hear any good tagine recipes and get better stews, curries etc.

however, what foods can we think of that are virtuous, delicious and quick to throw together, ladies? i'd rather the original recipe said 'takes 15 mins' iykwim, as opposed to 'fry onions in two mins etc' when you CAN'T.

oh, have thought of one.

carbonara. (although can we add veg apart from peas which we are sick of?)

risotto - 20 mins-ish - does that count?

Do you mean things like this?

Roasted veg with halloumi/feta or mozzarella.

Puff pastry pizza with salad.

Pilaff (lamb, rice, tomatoes, cinnamon, spinach)

risotto counts, deffo. the difficulty i have with it is the veg thing again, funnily enough. i want to eat more veg, but can't really bear an overloaded risotto. if only we ate like italians, with all their fab courses. if only i could be arsed, that is.

stir fries
beefburgers (make yer own)
cous cous

I've never made the same pasta sauce twice. I open the frig and the cupboard and gather up whatever fell out, then sling it in the pan.
Pasta a la custard powder and lettuce was quite the surprise. Usually I come up with a more traditional dish.

If you make a pizza base, you can top and cook it in under 20 mins.

ime much of speedy cooking is down to preparing food ready to use, tv chef style, the night before.

You can cook a fish fillet in a microwave in a few minutes.

Pesto. But a basil plant and keep it in a tray or water and put it on the window sill. It will grow loads bigger and so you can get more meals out of it.

Whizz basil with pine nuts toasted in a dry pan, garlic, oil and parmasan.

good ones, ladies. have totally forgotten about halloumi, we don't see it here that often i'd have to search. used to love it, though.

steamed asparagus is v. nice in carbonara

I used to be the god of speedy cooking. By 430pm I could have a hot dish on the table on a school night, from a cold start at 345pm...

keep em coming ladies, this is great. think i might do that thai thing, it looks lovely.

beefburgers is a stalwart in this house. might i recommend a teaspoon of rose harissa, a grated carrot and some grated cheese in the mix? hold together really well and have, er, a vegetable.

risotto- leek and blue cheese or
spinach and mushroom

salmon fillets can make a meal in minutes

bean salads made with
a) tuna, parsley, lemon juice + a few onions
OR
b) grated beetroot
OR
c) onions and red pepper

cooked pasta tossed in finely chopped tomatoes, bit of fennel, red onion, mint and basil with lots of olive oil

puy lentil salad with cumin, walnut oil+ lemon juice

broad beans, peas and bacon

feta + olives

roasted veg with chick peas (okay not instant but can do the roasted veg in advance)

Pork chops are cheap.

Fry them with clove of garlic,(pan fry if feeling poncey)

Keep them warm in a dish in the oven. In the pan where chops were, pour a glass of wine, bubble for a bit, scrape off all the crusty bits from pan.

Add a half a carton of double cream and 2 teaspoons of grainy mustard and salt and pepper.

Simmer for a bit, keep stirring.

Pour the sauce over th chops and serve with mash. Its absolutely delicious (and copied from Nigel Slater) It takes about 20 minutes start to finish.

pork and lamb chops don't take long to grill
cauliflower cheese
pasta butter and spinach

i make a v. nice v. quick prawn curry (from one of rick stein's books)

fry garlic and ginger, add some decent curry paste, fry a min or 2, add prawns, couple more minutes til they turn pink, then some of that creamed coconut you buy in blocks and some hot water

sauce thickens up nice and quickly, and it's pretty much ready
add chopped chilli, coriander and spring onions just before serving
even faster if you have it with chapattis rather than rice

risotto or paella with spring veg (bit late now though) does not taste too overloaded. (as i really know what you mean about too many flavours in a dish)

i LOVE bean salad, yes yes YES! why has that dropped off my culinary radar, i lived on it last summer...

and i have chops in the freezer, for that very nige recipe. it's in his 30 min book, isn't it? (which i find takes more than 30 mins but is still good imo). i am also RUBBISH at remembering to defrost in advance.

Pizza bases made en masse and frozen is a good one (note to self - must get organised and do that)

What constitutes an overloaded risotto, Aitch? - you would probably hate ours, which typically have onions and celery followed by whatever is lurking in the fridge - asparagus when the local farm is picking (not till next year now ), carrots, peas, courgettes... and then similarly whatever meat/fish is lurking.

yum
yummy yumyum

also like roast asparagus (roasts in about 10 mins so v. fast) with pasta
chuck in toasted pinenuts, olive oil, lemon juice, grated parmesan, some chopped herbage, parsley or basil

Frozen veg great.
Pour boiling water on peas/corn and leave till you have to drain them.
You can make mash pretty quickly if you slice the potatoes like they're crisps.
A steamer is a good investment, you can bung lots in and it cooks it all in a neat stack and you don't end up with 15 pans in the sink.

green eggs & ham (scrambled eggs with spinach in - start them young enough on the spinach & it is not (or less of!) a problem). Use frozen chopped spinach - either bought that way or done yourself & kept in ice-cube form in freezer (keeps for many months, ahem)

other egg things - poached particular favourite for some reason - perhaps it's the texture

corn on the cob

cheat quesadillas: spread one side of a tortilla with a bit of butter & put in frying-pan butter side down; grate cheese (red Leicester works best we find) over top, sprinkle over some finely chopped spring onions; as cheese starts to melt, fold over to half-moon shape; then flip to do both sides. Two-and-a-half minutes per quesadilla

salad spread - with tomatoes, carrot sticks & humous, bit of salami, pitta bread, hardboiled egg, whatever's around

well my favourite risotto has just saffron in it... so it's not hard to overload. more than one flavour veg is sacrilege imo.

tell you an annoying thing... dd, 2 and a half, doesn't like celery. she's a really good sport about food, but she can taste even finely chopped celery in spag bol (i see her wee face screw up) and she picks it out of her mouth. her father doesn't like it, to be fair.

but i love it, as an aromatic and a bit of a bulker-outer. boo.