please suggest quick & easy meals

[bethdivine]

DD is 10wks old and DS is 2. I try and have our meal ready for 5.30, so that DS can eat with us. DH literally gets in from work, changes and we sit down to eat. It's a struggle some days as I do try and vary what we eat, and as DD doesn't yet have a set feeding pattern (or not one that I've noticed yet anyway!) it can be stressful if she wants to feed when I need to stir/check the oven, or if she's been feeding then DS needs some time with me.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions for meals that are fairly easy to prepare and fairly nutritious, but am not worried about the odd bit of convenience!

Already do lots of the usual easy stuff, bolognese, shepherds pie, pasta (mainly tom sauce with tuna or veggies or just parmesan or left over chicken or sausages), jkt pot (with beans, cheese, tuna) and batch cook & freeze on the weekend etc. but please share your easy recipes / shortcuts thanks.

Here is a dead easy pasta thing.
Just put some tomatoes in a dish with maybe some peppers or courgette or salami or just tomatoes, cover with a little oil and out in a hot oven for 15 or 20 minutes.

5/10 mins later cook your pasta. Chuck the roasted veg over pasta.

ooh lovely, thanks, will try that one

Sandwich.

Cuppa tea and biccys.

Bag o crisps.

Jaffa cakes.

This is really tasty and takes abot 10 mins to prepare, 50 to cook so yummy dinner in an hour.

Chicken breasts, the ones that are part boned with skin on are tastier I think, potatos cut into chunks (don't need to peel them), quartered onions, peppers, courgettes, sweet potato, carrots, whatever you have in the fridge really.

Put it all in a large roasting dish with some garlic, olive oil, a couple of sprigs of thyme or rosemary. Make sure it's all coated in the oil, the put in a hot oven for abot 50mins, stir it around half way if possible.

I also do this with marinated lamb chops, pork fillet, etc.

Also, if you spatchcock a chicken, which is cutting it open along the breast bone and flattening it out, it will cook in an hour.

I hate doing it, so when I'm brave I do a few at a time. Then put each one in a large ziplock bag, with crushed garlic, olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice and herbs, then freeze them. Take it out the night before, defrost in the fridge, and by the time it's defrosted, it will be really tasty.

My favourite quick meal:
salmon fillets with some lemon and herbs, 15 min in the oven. In the meantime boil some baby potatoes and brocolli and toss with olive oil. Yummy, healthy and very quick.

And my '5 min meal':
Put kettle on and pour boiling water over couscous. Chop some tomatoes, red pepper or other veg. Drain a can of chickpeas and mix all together adding olive oil and herbs.

Forgot to say if you don't want salmon, tuna steaks also nice and easy.

Can i just throw in the idea of a slow cooker,these are great as you can throw in whatever your making when you get a spare 5 mins early on in the day then switch it on and leave it,it will cook away and be ready to serve when your hubby gets in.Theres loads of recipes on here for them.

Chop a chorizo sausage into chunks. Fry until crispy in a pot with a little oil and then remove from the pot with a slotted spoon. Add diced potato to the pot (smaller dice cooks quicker), water and a pork or ham stock cube. Add shredded savoy cabbage or spring cabbage to the pot. Cook until the potatoes are soft. Add the chorizo back to the pot and heat through. Serve with crusty bread.
You can peel the potatoes or not - doesn't really matter. Sometimes I squish some of the potatoes at the end to thicken the soup up a bit. I have left the chorizo in the pot throughout, but it goes a bit of an odd spongy texture, so it sounds a bit anal to take it out but I prefer it that way to be honest

Sorry - ommitted an ingredient - add a tsp of smoked paprika to the water - taste and add more if you like it a wee bit spicier.