Please can you share your meals that are: healthy(ish), very quick to make, economical and liked by small DC's (not a small ask I know...)

[thereisnoeleventeen]

I need to have a few more meals up my sleeve...so far I have:

Lazy shepherds pie - mince thrown into the slow cooker for the day with ready made gravy (carrots etc). Constructed at dinner time using ready made mash.

Cook in the roasting bag chicken - usually legs and things that the DC's enjoy. Served with frozen veg and rice or more ready made mash!

Fish fingers/chicken nuggets - served with more frozen veg and oven chips (not sure how healthy or economical this one is!).

I do a mean spag bol but I've over done it and need to wait a while before I do it again.

What do you cook that your DC's like? (my DC's are all 6 and under)

I am pg with DC4...DH is out of the house early and back when the DC's are in bed so I tend to do longer recipes at the weekend, and freeze leftovers for the week.

Chuck some pasta into boiling water
Add peas or broccoli in when pasta almost cooked
Drain
Add cooked diced ham or chicken or even both
Stir through some cream cheese,either plain or with garlic and herbs
Serve!!
Takes 10 mins

Off the top of my head

Casserole, same as the lazy shepherds pie but replace the mince with different meat, either chunks of meat (and slow cook meat like stewing or braising beef are ideal) or something like sausages.

Use pasta/cous cous as the carbs.

Jacket potatoes, not so quick, but bung in the oven and can be forgotten about. Go well with cheese/beans or similar, or make into a meal with cold meat and salad or one of the casserole type meals above.

Quick fried rice

Put pre cooked in a frying pan with as splosh of oil
Add some frozen mixed veg
Cook some eggy omelette in the microwave
Chop add to rice
Add chopped ham or chicken or pre cooked hot smoked salmon or perhaps some flaked mackeral
Add soy sauce to taste

Can you tell I have to cook mega fast teas

Quick enchallidas

Tortilla wraps
Add choice of filling
Eg left over chill
Roll
Sprinkle over grated cheese
Warm through in oven or microwave
Serve sweet corn or salad etc

Egg and oven chips with salad/frozen veg
(I get free eggs, maybe thats not that cheap if you need to buy them)

Quick tuna bake
Cook pasta
Stir in tuna,frozen mixed peppers,passata and some mixed herbs
Put in a baking dish
Crush a bag of low fat crisps or use pa ok bread crumbs and sprinkle over
Top with some grated cheese
Oven bake until warmed through and top crispy

Cheap meal I make is

Fry off onions, carrots and bacon, add garlic, dried oregano and paprika. One all softened then stick it in the slow cooker with some tomato puree and harissa (harissa is optional), half a carton of passata and some chicken stock.

I use bacon offcuts diced or chorizo if I have some.

You can serve with pasta or rice. Though if you have time risotto cake is fab. Make a plainish risotto the day before (just risotto rice, chicken stock, ground pepper and parmesan), leave to cool and mix in a beaten egg. Spread in an oven dish and bake for 30 minutes till crispy on the outside. Good for using up leftover risotto.

Easy pasta dinner, cook pasta, whilst it is cookimg melt soem gorgonzoall cheese with a tub of fresh cream.

Jist before pasta is ready chuck in some frosen peas and chop up some naice hame.

Serve pasta and peas with the cheesy sauce and ham mixed in.

lentil soup

sweat onions, bacon rasher and small amount of celery with butter in pan
add can tomatoes
stock cube
water
chopped carrot
and red lentils (not loads unless you want it mealy)

boil/simmer for however long it says the lentils need on the packet (usually half an hour or so)

then puree to avoid any objections about 'bits'.

amazingly healthy and cheap!

Or what about toad in the hole
Chuck sausages in oven proof dish
Cook for about 10 to 15 min
Add batter- only takes a minute to make(put you eggs in a cup then use same quantity of plain flour and milk,whizz with a stick blender
Cook till risen and golden
Serve with frozen veg

cheese and baked bean tortilla wrap, fold in together and toast up in a dry frying pan cheese goes gooey once both sides been toasted. usually lunchy thing for us though.

pasta bake is great. Use left over meat from roast, or just the pasta. You can buy jars of the sauce, which you just pour over the diced up meat and cooked pasta and bung in the oven for 20 minutes.

My sister does a great cheese sauce (ready grated cheese and creme freche) which she pours over cooked pasta and whatever frozen veg she pulls out the freezer.

Adding lentils to anything like Stew, Shepherds pie, Cottage pie, Curry etc, makes it go further with less meat, so cost less. You can't taste the lentils.

Thank you! Loads for me to try, I knew I should be doing more with pasta and meat that has been cooked already (another good excuse to do a roast at the weekend).

Chop chicken breast/turkey into small pieces. In a bag, mix plain flour, paprika and dried garlic. Coat chicken in flour-mix.
Coat in veg oil,
Bake in oven in 10 mins at 200 ish till golden

You can bake loads, use another night as protein in a jar pasta sauce with frozen veg added too.

Or put into wraps with mayo and salad or similar for a cold tea/lunch
Casserole in slow cooker- do a double batch and make sure potatoes are in there and you don't need to do a carb to serve

Egg noodles - boil for a couple of minutes, drain, mix with a bag of fresh stir fry veg or a few handfuls of frozen veg ... Frozen soya beans or prawns or left over chicken or shredded omelette

Flavour with onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce or a glug of bottled chow mein sauce

Pasta pesto: cook pasta adding some broccoli and/or peas part way through.
Drain and mix with pesto. Can also add cooked chicken/salmon/prawns. (I tend to microwave the salmon while the pasta is cooking, only takes a couple of mins) Another nice addition is little cubes of courgette quickly fried in a little olive oil.

My version of tuna pasta goes like this: cook pasta. Meanwhile put tin chopped toms in a small pan with garlic/herbs as liked. Simmer toms gently. Chop some carrots into little cubes and add to pasta pan halfway through. Couple of mins before the pasta is ready add a small tin of sweetcorn and some tuna to the tomato sauce. Drain pasta, mix everything together and top with grated cheese. (You could then bake this I guess but I just dish it up!)

Meatball pasta: boil pasta and add broccoli or other veg towards the end. While pasta cooking fry meatballs (I use pre bought but you can easily make from mince) and chop in half or quarters (depending on age of doc) whilst cooking which also cooks quicker. Add to pasta once cooked with red pesto or similar stir through sauce along with a ball of mozzarella cut into small squares and some grated cheese. My dc absolutely love this and I batch cook it and freeze portions.

Sausage stew: cut sausages into smaller chunks and cook in large saucepan. Add any other veg (I use leeks and carrots cut up small). Add tin of tomato soup, tin of passata (I whizz up tinned toms in blender), stock cube, tin of whatever beans I have (kidney/ butter beans etc) and then bulk it out with small cubes of potato or sweet potato. I usually let it cook for about an hour but if you need it quicker, pre cook the veg and pots in boiling water before adding.

Soup, sweet potoao, lentil and butternut squash, veg stock, boil and blitz with a hand blender.

Pesto pasta with cooked chicken, green beans and cherry tomatoes

Wraps, spread tomato purée on, ham, peppers, mozzarella and grill.

Quesadillas, as above but make a sandwich and fry in a dry pan.

What we call a pokey tea: bits and bobs of salad, hummus, pitta bread etc.

Toasties.

Omelettes

French toast and bacon

Mine love egg curry and rice (it can be made very cheaply too if you use the basics stuff,i got the recipe from a girl called jack,i add more spices and chilli in it though)

Pasta with chorizo-fry up some chorizo with a couple of cloves of garlic,add tin of tomatoes,season and a splash of water,bring to the boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes,add some cooked pasta and grate some parmesan on top.