Care to share your emergency baby/toddler meal?

[blushingmare]

As I was once again faced with a hungry toddler and a virtually empty fridge this evening and used my fail safe, tried and tested emergency Philadelphia pasta dinner, I thought "wouldn't it be great if lots of people shared their emergency meals, then I wouldn't always had to fall back on this old chestnut!"

So, would you care to share the meal you make when you've got in late, have a starving child and discover to your horror that there's very little food in the house?

This is mine....

Blushingmare's Philly Pasta

1. Cook pasta
2. Chuck in some frozen peas and spinach with the pasta
3. Drain when cooked
4. Mix in Philadelphia

It's actually delicious

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

Cheese on toast.
Crap picnic - bits of cheese, ham, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and butter

Mine have loved a chippy tea from an early age. DS was requesting sausage with chips and curry sauce from an alarmingly early age

[SpottyTeacakes]

Oh yes we always have fish fingers and frozen pease, peppers and spinach

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

Eggy bread too

[bigkidsdidit]

Either pasta, frozen veg, and pesto

Or

Frozen mash (which is wonderful and only potato, no crap) with baked beans and cheese

Or boiled egg and marmite soldiers

[bigkidsdidit]

Julie that was a really gobsmackingly smug post complete with smiley :)

Personally the DC eat at 5 and DH and I eat at 8.30-9 ish so even though I meal plan we only have lunch and breakfast together

[PoppyAmex]

Frittata w/ chorizo, potatoes and loaded with whatever veggies are lurking in the fridge. Super fast.

Fresh pasta with smoked salmon. Literally minutes from fridge to table and one of DD's favourites.

Rice with veggies and tinned octopus (another of DD's faves).

Courgette fritters with leftover mash (or ready made turnip mash from supermarket).

[absentmindeddooooodles]

Pesto pasta here too. Always find something or other togo in it. Frozen peas or salami etc. As long as theres cheese ontop it goes down well :-)

[HerrenaHarridan]

I can't remember what it's called but you know the filled pasta you get it's like ravioli but the pasta is thinner.

I buy packets of that and spilt into 3 in freezer.

Emergency dinner = boil kettle,
pasta out of freezer in bowl,
pour boiled water over,
frantically look for spring onions or anything thing else I can hack up with scissors.
When the water is cool enough to touch drain, top with cream cheese and stir.

[SupermansBigRedPants]

We almost always have a big tub of tuna sweetcorn sandwich filler which I throw over cooked fusilli and serve with chopped cherry tomatoes and grated carrot it is lush.

Packet of cooked chicken pieces again almost always have plus jar of tomato pasta sauce - slice chicken, chuck in with pasta and sauce at last minute.

I buy pasties for dp that I bang in the microwave he loves them, thankfully toddler ds does too so one of them with beans/bob spaghetti.

Dd1 had smoked sausage, butter fried egg and beans the other night - took less than 5 minutes total.

For us adults I do curry - cooked chicken pieces again, big jar of tikka sauce, binb rice for me , chips for dp - 10 minutes.

[hettienne]

Beans on toast
Cheesy pasta with frozen veg
Asda kids ready meals/tinned ravioli

[hettienne]

Gnocchi ratatouille with tinned ratatouille - I blend the ratatouille into a smooth sauce as DS won't eat anything that is recognisably a vegetable

Or sometimes, ratatouille, chickpeas/butter beans, couscous.

[Spindelina]

Chips omelette:
Cook some oven chips (from a packet or homemade i.e. pieces of potato tossed in oil)
Stick in frying pan with whatever leftover / frozen veg is to hand
Crack in a couple of eggs and cook them through.

Great as a food to eat while breastfeeding, too!

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I do the same as you OP, but I use grated cheese as it glues the veg to the pasta so the kids can't avoid eating a bit.

Sometimes I do it with pasta, sometimes with rice, I fill their bowls by layer to maximise gluing.

[RNJ3007]

I do bigger portions when I cook easy freeze things, so usually have some bolognese sauce or mac'n'cheese or mushroom risotto or casserole or pots of sweet potato mash in the freezer.

Otherwise, we too do fridge omelettes or 'scrambled beans' (baked beans mixed into scrambled eggs) on toast.

[dashoflime]

Pasta with tomato puree and olive oil.
Tinned ravioli

[ceeveebee]

Ha, I was going to say cheesy pasta, made with garlic and herb soft cheese but that's your own recipe

Omelette, with mushroom, spinach and cheese
Houmous or fish paste on toast/pitta
Homemade chicken nuggets - I make batches, cook and freeze
Fish fingers
Spaghetti hoops on toast in dire emergencies!

I also have a freezer full of portions of food - I always cook extra and freeze a portion of whatever

[PoppyAmex]

Ceev what's fish paste and where do you get it? I'm loving the sound of it and DD is fish mad so I think she'd like that too.

[Littlemissexpecting]

OP I'm impressed you have spinach in as a standby.
Those that have bolognese etc in freezer, do you cook from frozen?
Sweet corn and frozen peas seem to be popular.
We normally always have fresh pasta and sauces in fridge, they have a really long date. Packets of microwave rice too

[nextphase]

Poppy
Mashed up fish, from a tin or jar usually.
Try near the tinned tuna, or the tins of fruit in your local supermarket. The Brand i know is Shipmans, but there are probably loads more.

LittleMiss yep, I freeze the bologanase in a silicon muffin tin, and then pop them out into a freezer bag. One lump per child (mine don't like too much sauce) ina bowl in the microwave til boiling. If I'm doing it for adults also, I just pop into a small pan with a tiny bit of water on a low heat, and turn up when they start falling apart (otherwise they burn before they defrost?!)

[ceeveebee]

Poppy, yes it's retro shiphams paste!!
www.princesgroup.com/brands/shippams/
When we went to Portugal they give you fish pâté with bread before every meal and DD loved it, this was the closest I could find

If she likes fish then tinned mackere or sardinesl on toast a good standby too

[ceeveebee]

www.princesgroup.com/brands/shippams/

[PoppyAmex]

Thanks Ceev and Next.

I'm actually originally from Portugal and just remembered the little round sardine parcels some restaurants used to serve in the late 80's! I didn't know you could still get them.

I'm on a mission to find some now!

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Put 25g flour, 100ml milk and 25 g butter in jug, micro1 min then stir and repeat Three times. Add lots of grated cheese and add to pasta. Very quick mac n cheese :)

Eggy bread is another favourite here

[ceeveebee]

Poppy let me know if you find it anywhere in the UK - very handy for on-the-go too as they don't need to be kept in the fridge

[TheSydenhamSet]

My kids love green pesto pasta with cheese and fried pancetta. I slice up some cucumber on the side. Done