Meals in 15 mins

[GeriGremlin]

Do you have any ideas for proper meals that are ready in 15 mins?

At present I first prepare a salad for myself and veggie sticks for the dc. I just have the salad.

I also do a quick omelette, scrambled eggs, sausage rolls or sausages that they eat once they are finished with the veggie sticks.

They are not the best eaters and don't eat well at school and nursery so need feeding a few minutes after we arrive home. But they eat a fairly balanced diet this way.

Dh thinks they should have a proper meal. He doesn't get home till a few hours later (when they are asleep usually) so at present he does his own meal.

I'm not very organised and don't like the idea of cooking and freezing on the weekend, I couldn't think of anything worse to be honest.

If your DH thinks the kids should be having a proper meal and that your solution (which sounds absolutely fine by the way), isn't good enough, then tell him to pop his pinny on and get batch cooking at the weekend.

I realise some of these suggestions may be discounted based on fussiness, but my quick meals are 1. Ham and pea pasta, it's a Tom kerridge recipe, and takes literally the time it takes to cook the pasta.
Jamie Oliver has a recipe for pasta with anchovies, pine nuts and raisins, sounds more complicated than it is, it's a well flavoured tomato based sauce and my other go to pasta dish is carbonara, bbc good food has a good and easy recipe.
We also resort to shop made pizza once a week and snack on cucumber, carrots, pepper houmous and olives whilst it's cooking.
If you have a slow cooker you can pop some new potatoes, carrots and a chicken in and have a lovely roasted chicken ready when you get home.

But if it's recipe/meal suggestions you're after, then here are a couple of suggestions:-

• Courgette spaghetti and ragu tomato sauce (add loads of extra veg and blend), with a sprinkle of cheese on top.

• Homemade fishcakes. Cut fish of choice into chunks. Add a splash of milk and microwave until cooked. Add instant mash powder until mix is stiff enough to form fishcakes. Season and either fry or bake. Job done.

Get a slow cooker.
It's been a godsend for us.
Pasta bake, chicken, soup... it doesn't have to just be stew

Yeah, what BestestBrownies said!

You say they eat a fairly balanced diet this way, they eat when they need to and you don't need to spend time cooking when you don't want to.

Where's the problem?

What you’re doing sounds absolutely great. If you wanted an alternative occasionally, why not batch cook and freeze in small thin portions some nutritious sauces to have with pasta. I do a “magic green sauce” (which is whizzed up veg with pesto), very popular with my two who are rubbish at eating their greens, sounds like you’ve got that sorted though! What about soup and toast, would they eat that?

Filled Pasta with one of those stir-in sauce sachets or pesto.

Beans on toast 😂

Chicken wraps and salad.

Hot dogs or sausages in a bun.

Slow cooker can do roast chicken, gammon, backed potatoes, casseroles, while you are out at work it will be ready for you getting home.

Pasta? You can do loads of different sauces too- a quick quorn bolognese takes 10 mins.
(Jar of bolognese sauce or can of tomatoes with chopped onion and garlic, add the quorn and some mushrooms and cook for 10 mins on the stove).

Pesto, vegetable pasta sauce etc.

Or mini pizzas? Get some mini bases and add tomato purée, mozzarella cheese, spinach, mushroom etc and cook for 10 mins.

Jacket potatoes- blast for 10 mins in the microwave, 10 mins in oven to crisp up and add beans and cheese.

Fish fingers, beans & peas. (Probably about 15mins)

Pasta Primavera or spaghetti carbonara.

Fillets of salmon, lemon sole, etc wrapped in foil and baked in the oven, you could serve with a microwave pouch of mixed grains.

Mushroom stroganoff served with pasta or rice.

Quick risotto!

Noodles with veg & shredded chicken.

If you've not yet discovered it, orzo is a very useful type pasta to have in the store cupboard for a quick meal as it cooks in just a couple of minutes. It looks like grains of long grain rice and goes well with any stew type dish.

Another useful quick to cook store cupboard item are the vacuum packs of potato gnocchi, as they cook in moments, and go with a wide range of sauces & stews.

Sweet potatoes microwaved in minutes. As PP says a slow cooker can salmon, any meat, frittata . Soup maker is also a godsend.

Salmon baked in foil in the oven (15 mins).
Straight to wok noodles or micro rice. Steamed broccoli or whatever veg they like. Soy sauce to jazz it up.

Macaroni cheese is another 15 min meal and kid friendly! Add brocolli or cauliflower to the pasta for the last 5 mins to get your veg in.

Chicken fried rice- use cooked chicken I'd really rushed or cut up and fry chicken first then get micro rice in a wok, crack in an egg, add frozen peas and tin sweet corn and curry powder and soy sauce.

Thank you so much for all the great ideas, I am so glad I asked. I will be writing up a list for rotation. I will keep up with these quick simple meals until the dc ask for more complicated meals and can actually help me make them and also wait patiently!

When I said I don't want to spend the weekend cooking, that included not wanting to watch dh cook. That is not how I would like to spend the weekend.

And I have never had a microwave before! Never thought to get one but now I'm wondering if it would be a good investment. Don't have a slow cooker either.

Slow cookers are the best! I actually cook a leg of lamb in mine at the weekend and it's so easy. Week meals you can do pulled pork in a barbecue sauce, sausage casserole, just research slow cooker meals online. If you've got time in the morning to chuck everything in, it should work for you

A 'proper' meal isn't necessarily a healthy meal anyway so don't worry about it too much.

Dd's school lunches are 'proper' meals but heavily biased towards meat, non-complex carbs and cheese so not exactly helping towards her five a day.

At home she might have wholemeal pitta bread topped with tomato puree, cheese and sweetcorn (baked in the oven) and served with carrot sticks, cucumber and raw peppers.
That's not a 'proper' meal but its her 5 a day and healthier than the meat lasagne/pasta/fish and chips she had for lunch.

My quickest go to meal for busy nights is pizza made on a wrap. Grill wrap lightly, tomato base (usually use passata or puree depending on what is in) cheese and toppings on, back under grill for 2 minutes. It's a 10 minute meal they love. Serve with the veg sticks.

My favourite quick meals that go down well are: stir fry, pasta with a quick shop bought sauce or tinned tomatoes and some pasta with frozen pecans/ sweetcorn / broccoli, pesto pasta (you can also throw in a garlic bread or have this with your salad), shoe bought pizza is always handy to have in. Jacket potatoes cooked in the microwave, quorn cooks very quickly so you could do a quick chilli or bolognese, fajitas.