What are your easiest, laziest, minimum prep go to healthy meals when you cant/won't cook?

[NotYourSaviour]

DH and I have both put on 2 stone each over the past two years (and we were a bit overweight to begin with)...we've got into a horribly unhealthy cycle of takeaways and crap calorific food and I'm starting feel anxious about ever getting out of it.

If you've not got much in, not really feeling like spending time putting anything complex together and just want something easy and relatively healthy as an evening meal, what's your go to?

We need out of this rut but I'm stuck for ideas and am a hopeless, overly anxious cook. We both eat meat, but I'm not a big fish lover and I can't eat eggs, pity as I used to love an omelette.

Will read ideas with interest, thank you!

Edit - dammit missed an apostrophe in the title, apologies to my father and late mother for my failures 🤦‍♀️

The other night I chucked some chicken thighs in the air fryer with peri peri seasoning, made some wedges (homemade) in the other airfryer basket and steamed some broccoli in the microwave. It was delicious and didn't take long at all. Cheap, too.

-Steak with a load of veg/grill those big mushrooms with garlic.
-Big stir fry with a salmon fillet/prawns or chicken (making a sauce with soy sauce, ginger, garlic etc. not a packaged sweet sugary sauce.)
-Air fried chicken thighs with seasoning. Served with a load of veg.
-Full fat Greek yoghurt with different toppings.
I would basically go for high protein/healthy fats and less carbs. Tbh eggs are great for that!

Sounds simple enough, thanks! Tbh I love a bit of chicken with some broccoli and a small jacket spud, it really shouldn't be that hard should it 😂

Oh proper Greek yoghurt with fruit was my favourite thing, but I struggle with yoghurt now as well - I had my gallbladder out a few years ago and now I don't digest any type of yoghurt very well. Gutted.

Thanks for the other ideas though!

Sausages, baked potato, dish of beans/or peas all done in the oven

Done

Baked potatoes. Helps that I absolutely love them, as long as they're properly cooked in the oven. Tbh I'm always pretty happy with just a knob of butter and a few salad leaves but obviously something like tuna mayo is more substantial, or just baked beans and cheese.

Pasta carbonara - i dont do it anymore because i dont eat meat, but put the pasta on to boil, fry bacon bits until crisp and grate cheese. When pasta cooked, drain most of water and put pan back onto heat. Beat an egg and mix in with hot pasta, add in bacon and cheese as the egg finishes cooking.

Chop some nice roasting veg eg sweet potato, butternut squash, courgette, red onion.
Add some good quality chipolata sausage (high pork percentage) cut into bitesize pieces.
Mix with some oil and any herbs/seasoning you like and air fry for 15 mins.

just threw a bunch of frozen broccoli and sugar snap peas in the air fryer. Mixed with a bit of oil and seasoning. Then seasoned 2 boneless chicken thighs and put next to them in the basket. (put oil, rosemary, salt. pepper and garlic powder on chicken) Airfried about 20 minutes and was perfect.

My go to is a sorta-chili: tin of taco bean mix, tin of plain mixed beans, a cup of each person's vegetable pick + 1 one of mixed veg (I keep bags of frozen veg ready to go, and let them pick when it empties). I typically add some extra tomato puree, garlic puree, whatever herbs come to hand and just let that simmer away. I'll serve it with vegetarian 'meat'balls (these I'll airfry for ten minutes while I put together the chili, then add to the chili when cooked) or chicken/turkey that can be air fried. Sometimes to stretch further, I'll put some light oven chips or roast potatoes in as well.

Roast veg in the airfryer (frozen or ready chopped chilled if you can't be bothered). Few mini chicken fillets on top, mixed with a few spoons of pesto and a bit of stock. Great over pasta.

Flavoured (BBQ/ garlic and lemon/ peri peri etc) chicken/ pork or salmon in airfryer with steamed veg is my quick easy healthy meal, I eat this a few times a week.

A big omelette with peppers/red onions/brocolli/mushrooms or whatever veg you like and some cottage cheese or reduced fat cheddar. So easy and delicious.

I keep Warburtons sugar free wholemeal bread in the freezer - 55 cals a slice. 2 of these toasted with 2 poached eggs and some wilted spinach with a squeeze of lemon juice and black pepper takes 5 mins to prep, comes in at at about 275-300 cals (depending on how you cook the spinach) for a dinner that feels substantial and is healthy.

Tonight I did pasta with red peppers, shallots, tinned tomatoes, herbs, a bit of chilli and a few olives. It was delicious.

I can't eat eggs, pity as I used to love an omelette.

From the OP ^^

and no yogurt either

we love those hot smoked salmon fillets with chilli/or lemon and herb that are ready cooked fillets (we get from Lidl or Aldi but I’m sure you can get them anywhere)
They don’t need to be cooked at all so we just get them out of the fridge, serve with some coleslaw or boiled new potatoes/rice salad/couscous and broccoli/Mediterranean cooked veg or green salad etc.

super quick lazy midweek roast, we use ready cooked gammon ham/chicken/turkey slices (the thick cut ones you can buy already cooked for sandwiches/salads either packaged or from a deli counter) and then just do loads of veg, sometimes mashed potato too and bisto gravy.

I shall be having a mushroom omelette for my lunch tomorrow. Nutritious, quick and easy .

tuna, sweetcorn, mayo, bow tie pasta, salt pepper. low calorie, filling, tasty and no effort

Jacket potato with tuna mayo or cheese & beans
Pasta with herby cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes, peas
Roast sweet potato chunks & carrots, sugar snaps, roast salmon fillet
Fish fingers, rocket, pesto, in wraps
Chickpea & spinach curry with rice
Grilled bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans & toast
Veggie sausages, fine green beans, roast new potatoes

Have a look at the seasoning sachets by Schwartz, Coleman’s etc. My husband asked me to help him loose weight so I have been meal prepping for him (he is not into cooking) I bought an array of the packet mixes that all have simple easy recipes on the back but you can use various ingredients and don’t have to follow them to the letter. He’s vegetarian so for example if I buy the chicken casserole one (the seasoning is vegan) I’ll do it with Quorn fillets instead of chicken and add onion, carrots, peas. It all goes in one pot and is super simple and that’s 4 meals for him done. Just needs a side of rice, mash or jacket potato etc and can add extra steamed veg on the side.

Mackerel salad
Roast a large tray of vegetables when you’re cooking something else and then you can have during the week with meat/fish or add to rice or pasta with some pesto or canned tomatoes
Stirfry
Pork fillet with Cajun spice on a bed of cheesy polenta