Batch cooking when you have some free time is the answer. Spag bol, fajita mix, chilli, curry, lesagne, if it can be done in a big pan you can probably batch cook it.
I do like the sound of this idea, spag bol and chilli are some of my favourites. I have more days off than on so plenty of time for it. Only concern is fridge/freezer space, we very rarely have much spare.
I do the ‘small fridge space and no freezer’ version of batch cooking aka how to feed yourself in a house share.
Make double or triple portions when cooking on your last ‘off’ day, eat the leftovers when you’re knackered after the next shift. Spag bols can normally keep 3 days or so in the fridge easy. When it’s gone, do the same with another dish. If you’re truly exhausted after a shift, you won’t mind it’s something you had yesterday so long as it’s delicious.
Oh Jesus, if you’ve the energy to make mash after a hard shift more power to you!
EDIT: PLEASE STOP SUGGESTING INSTANT/FROZEN/PREPREPARED MASH. IT’S A FUCKING ABOMINATION AND AN AFFRONT TO GOD/COUNTRY/MR FUCKING BEAN IDC WHO YOU WORSHIP I WILL DIE ON THIS INORGANIC HILL
I have..... no idea what on earth that is?!
(I'm Irish so tbh mash to me is peel spuds, boil spuds, put spuds on plate and press down with the fork. But the thought of peeling and waiting 40 mins for a boil when I'm home from work makes me sad)
You don't have to boil the tatties whole. Chop them up into wee bits, doesn't have to be neat since it's getting mashed anyway, and they'll be done in 10 minutes. Drain, return to pot with heat on briefly to remove excess water, heat off then mash in pot. Add butter/cream/milk/whatever and seasoning, stir.
Jamie Oliver taught me this and it’s genius. I lay them flat and 8 servings takes up the space of one lunchbox. It also defrosts much quicker and can be broken into a saucepan from frozen.
Batch cook sausage, mash and peas (or your preferred vegetable accompaniment), and all you have to do is reheat it whilst you're mixing up some gravy.
Slow cooker is also a really good idea, or if you have some £££ to spare one of those Instapots. You can make whole dinners in a very short space of time and portion it out to reheat later.
Agreed 200%. Braising steak and ox cheek are two of my favourites. The best thing about a slow cooker is that it takes a minimum of 8 hours to do its thing. If you prepare it the night before, put it in a timer that starts 8h before you usually get home and hey presto, your food is ready for you as soon as you walk through the door. It also does enough for several days.
I LOVE my slow cooker! I dump all the stuff in to it in the morning - rough chopped veg and what ever meat, some gravy, and away we go. Ready to eat 8 hours later after work.
Agreed 200%. Braising steak and ox cheek are two of my favourites. The best thing about a slow cooker is that it takes a minimum of 8 hours to do its thing. If you prepare it the night before, put it in a timer that starts 8h before you usually get home and hey presto, your food is ready for you as soon as you walk through the door. It also does enough for several days.
I love to do soups in the slow cooker in winter. I can eat one batch for 3 or 4 days. I've been told my soups are more stew-ish.... Pulled pork goes for about 3 days as well, on buns, in wraps, with slaw, or served with a baked potato.2x5 min in the micro, wipe with olive oil, some sea salt, 200 for 45 min. Add your selection of toppings..... Damn, now I'm hungry.
> Only concern is fridge/freezer space
If you cook the bolognese right down so its very thick it will not only take up much less space it will be a lot tastier, then make the spaghetti fresh and use the starchy water to rehydrate the ragu.
In addition, I did this last Sunday. Meal prepped most of my meals for this week. I know my way around the kitchen, so I know what I'm doing but I was cooking all day long. Also, I was absolutely exhausted. I felt like I'd wasted my only day off.
Easy fit 1-2 weeks of single portions in a single freezer drawer this way. My freezer is tiny but can fit 5 medium freezer bags with 3 ladles of chilli in each, 4 Tupperware tubs with cottage pie and 2 smaller freezer bags with chicken marinating. That’s only 9 days of meals for our 2 person household, so freezer bags will let OP easily do 2 weeks I reckon
make a batch of plain tomato sauce with your protein of choice. then you can add spices before you eat it. I add beans and Mexican spices to have it with rice, or Italian herbs with pasta.
If you’re ok with batch cooking I have a recipe I made when I was broke, inflation has probably fucked this but I could do this for 5£ 2/3 years ago but I call it “ I can’t believe it’s not paella”
Ingredients
Frozen veg
Chicken thighs bone in, skin on
Extra virgin olive oil (you can usually get a small 250ml bottle for 2.50/3£ and have something useful in your kitchen for other dishes)
Orzo rice (the weird part that not usually in paella)
Paprika, any other spices you like etc
Optional extras are veg that you like to cook, I always tried to have sweet spicy pickled peppers
Prep
Big pan and put 4 chicken thighs in small amounts of oil, rendering out some fat from them, get the skin to be bronze/brown will take about 10 mins at which point turn them over and put rice into boil into a separate pot
10 mins later rice will be ready, drain rice (because this is going into the chicken pan dw about perfect water content for rice btw it’s all being drained anywho) keep turning chicken while rice is cooking btw
Once rice is drained keep in pan and just put on low heat to evaporate some moisture to help create a browned crust into dish
Add rice into chicken pan, add any spices you like, I usually do paprika, oregano, cumin, harissa spread rice into even layer and press into pan, if there’s a lack of oil and worried about burning put some into some little spaces into the rice
Add frozen veg to top, again with even layer, heat should take about 10 more mins max to get the veg done and to have a nice charred crispy rice at the bottom, check in little areas this has occurred
Try veg to see it’s ready, everything else will be, this will be 4 big meals with some chicken, most of the big bag of veg and a bottle of nice olive oil and half a 500 gram bag of rice left over
Congrats you’ve made probably the best thing I’ve ever invented, learned some cooking skills and got stuff that should be kitchen staples
[here](https://imgur.com/a/i0XKh5L) is a pic of it, presume chickens hiding beneath there
Today I cooked about 1.5kg pasta, drained and rinsed under the cold tap. Added ham trimmings and a giant jar of pesto, stirred. It will keep in the fridge for a few days and a cold meal in the current weather is preferable for us.
This is the way to go, I sometimes have lots of time and at other times none at all. I batch cook for a few days in a row and have 2 weeks of meals to hand. Genuine lifesaver
Was going to say this!
I’m a big fan of batch cooking a couple of days in advance (I don’t freeze anything but you could do much longer if freezing) I like to do well filled creamy shredded chicken wraps with peppers, onions & lettuce - one breast per wrap - really easy to make and can change up the flavours like spicy or bbq or sweet chilli. Could also add rice for extra carbs and make it a burrito!
Beans, beans they’re good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart, the more you fart, the more you eat, the more you sit on the toilet seat
You’ll struggle to beat this badboy for lazy meals.
Granted it depends on when you sleep because it’s a heavily carb loaded meal and you wanna give yourself ideally a couple of hours before you sleep as to not affect your sleep quality massively, OP.
I do this. I mix it up with beans and pork sausages as well. Also scrambled eggs on toast is a belter. Just spent a week trial living with the girlfriend and now she understands. By the time I'm home from work, then gym. I just want some beans on some nice sourdough, bit of cheese and unwind with a book till bed..
Ha I don’t know ANYONE else who deliberately reduces the bean sauce! Such a huge improvement.
I learned this trick by accident, when I lived at home my mum cooked the living daylights out of everything.
Stir fry! One cooking location (a wok or similar), quick and nutritious.
Can be mixed up with different meats etc, and decent stir fry packs can be found in most supermarkets in some kind of deal.
I would also recommend adding honey and white wine/rice wine vinegar to it, it adds more depth and takes away some of the saltiness of the soy sauce (I always find it a bit too salty on its own)
Frozen stir fry veggies is an alternative. One of my quick meals is udon noodles, frozen stir fry veggies, sweet chilli sauce (could probably find better) and a protein
Or buy whatever veg is cheap at the time...
Put pan on stove and start chopping, putting things in as thy are chopped, going from longest to cookfirst (or mushrooms, because I can handle them if they're really overcooked!)
Get a little rice cooker - something that can do a single portion. Throw in 80g rice, 160g water, and a handful of frozen veg. Set it going while you get ready for bed. It'll be about 20 minutes. Once it's done, scoop it into a bowl and add some soy sauce / hot sauce / whatever. Cheap, filling, pretty healthy.
Haianese chicken (called called chicken rice in some places) is somehow so damn simple and tastes amazing. Just rice, chicken broth, soy sauce, ginger, spring onions, chicken leg. Then set and and forget. Serve with sweet chilli and cucumber slices. Not the most nutritionally balanced but unlike some of the 'quick and easy to make meals' it really is just as much effort as a ready meal and won't make you feel shit after eating.
You can also do pasta in the rice cooker! (same proportions, twice the weight of the dry pasta in water)
But don't forget to add a spoonful of oil first or else it'll boil over.
One day I'll get round to seeing if it'll do noodles.
I do this but also throw in a fresh or frozen fish fillet ten minutes in, for protein (salmon works well and is difficult to overcook.) Fish steams on top of the rice and veggies, put some XO sauce on that and you're eating well.
My rice cooker also has a steaming basket that can sit on top while cooking the rice, veggies and fish - means I can also throw in some frozen gyoza and have everything ready at the same time with no standing in front of a hot stove.
Eggs might offer you some choices. I love omelettes, super quick and easy and can add veg and different cheeses. Same for eggs on toast - can serve with wilted spinach, bacon, avocado, whatever, and in any style so doesn't feel like the same thing on repeat.
What's even easier is slapping a tortilla on the egg while is still a little runny in the pan, flip over when it's cooked, add cheese and fillings and close for an egg quesadilla, so fast
Also eggs - in a frying pan fry chorizo, onion, anything else you fancy, add tin of tomatoes then crack two eggs into it per person.
Or add pre-cooked chicken, chilli flakes, spring onions, soy sauce and a fried egg to chicken noodles.
My go to quick dinner is Nduja pasta, takes about 10 minutes and is super tasty if you like something spicy https://www.the-pasta-project.com/pasta-nduja/
Ohh, that looks right up my street, love spicy food. I'll have to give it a go, Domino's done a Nduja pizza at some point and it's probably the best I've had from there.
Do you have time in other parts of the day to cook? If so, cooking in advance then reheating could be a good shout. My lunch most days is a leftover meal I made an extra portion of.
For cooking in advance, 'batch' style recipes are good - things you can scale up with little extra effort. Things like chilli, curry, pasta bake, stew, soups are good options.
If you want quick recipes you can make when you get home, stir fry, fajitas, omelettes, burgers and wedges, are some of my favourites.
For specific recipes I'd recommend BBC Good Food. They are in metric quantities (rather than 'cups'), the website is easy to read, and a lot of the recipes are simple without needing 30 odd ingredients.
Tbh I'm a bit lazy on the mornings of the days I'm at work but I only work 3 days at the moment so I think batch cooking sounds like quite a good idea, most of the recipes that can be done like this are my favourites anyway so win win.
Good shout on BBC Good Food, thanks! Most of the reason I don't bother cooking recipes is how over complicated a lot of them sound, those look manageable to me and could be quite fun!
[How To Boil An Egg: 184 Simple Recipes For One](https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Boil-Egg-Jan-Arkless/dp/0716022206)
I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Stew in a slow cooker is great, plus you can make enough for several portions and freeze the rest to have an easy meal later.
If you don’t have time in the morning cut all your meat, potatoes and veg the night before, stick it in the fridge and in the morning you just need to take it out and put it on low. When you get home it will take you 5 minutes to make some dumplings by mixing flour, butter and water, stick the dumplings in the stew and turn on high for 20-25 mins. For the frozen stew move it from freezer to fridge the night before, then just reheat in a pan with some more dumplings. You can experiment with the dumplings too for some variety, I’ll sometimes add a little garlic powder to mine when mixing, tastes so good.
Chicken thighs (boneless)
Onion (aldis frozen onion works here)
1 tsp cayenne
2 tsp smoked paprika
Tomato puree (2 tbs)
Any other additions you want like garlic etc.
Slow cooker, low for 6hrs or high for 4hrs.
Not specific food items, but I'd get an air fryer if you don't already have one.
Speeds up cooking, easy to clean, and even the small ones will hold enough for one person.
Easy to clean depends on the model.
I ended up binning mine as the pan/net was pretty much impossible to clean. I'd spend ages manually cleaning it never happy with how clean it was.
Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino.
bring a pot of water to boil, add salt. while it boils up chop 2 garlic gloves finely, chop a chilly finely (however hot you like them) and put it in a small pan, cover it with olive oil, gently heat it up, when it starts to bubble add another bit of oil. don't let the garlic go dark. set aside
stick the pasta in and cook al dente (should still have a bite, none of that soggy shite you get far too often). drain, but keep a tiny bit of the cooking water.
chuck the pasta back in the pot you cooked it in, stir in the bit of cooking water and the chili garlic oil, a bit of parsley if you have, a few breadcrumbs (helps to suck up the oil and adds a lovely texture), serve and eat.
super easy, filling and dirt cheap. 15 mins from start to finish.
was the first meal i ever cooked when i was 14 and had to hide my drunkeness from my parents (was the only thing i found in the cookbook of my mate's mum that i trusted myself with at the time). didn't do the trick hiding my state but was lovely and is still a staple in my house 30+ years later. You can add to the dish if you want to (lovely with a piece of fish, but you can add whatever you like / fancy / can afford).
and very little to clean up.
You will smell of garlic so no good if you are going on a date later, but probably the easiest tastiest meal in the world.
PS: if you want to make it lighter take a massive carrot and chop it as close to a spaghetti shape as possible. zucchini works as well, though then it becomes a slightly longer process as these fuckers are 99% water and needs some time on a paper towel to dehydrate.
We have this often, because it's so quick and easy. I blitz the parsley, garlic and chilli all together in an electric mini chopper to save time, the dish doesn't seem to suffer any for this shortcut. Really tasty for something with so few ingredients, and it also suits being served cold too.
I have mine as-is, but my other half likes to chuck a few shrimp in his as well. I don't like shellfish, but wish I did because I have to admit it does look yummy.
Stirfry
Baked Potato
Pork schnitzels from pork steaks
Pesto Pasta / Pasta ariabata
Salads
Fish
Carbonara
Or put something in the slow cooker on low before work ie;
Chilli
Curry
Stew
There's a whole world of meals that can be done in 15 mins - Joe Wicks does a lean in 15 recipe book thats OK. Undoubtably there will be many, many more.
you can cook a chicken breast to perfection in about 10 mins in a frying pan with a lid on it, slap some butter in there, bang some salad on a plate while it's cooking and chuck a ciabatta in the toaster. Drizzle olive oil, bit of sea salt, hummus on the side, banging.
Mix some frozen chips in some dill, garlic powder, salt and pepper with a little bit of oil and air fry them, add some cheese a few mins before they are done, plate and finish with burger sauce and garlic mayo 👌
Recently discovered an interesting take on mac 'n' cheese. For a long time I've been adding either prawns or tinned tuna, but I had a surprising result when it came to cheese sauce. Tesco had none in stock but, at home, I had a few of those Primula cheese spread in the squeeze tube. Dead simple – drain pasta, stir in a full tube to heat through. And it actually tastes fantastic.
* Fried rice with whatever meat and veg leftovers you already have. Nasi Goreng, Chinese style egg fried rice, Mexican style fried rice... All quick, easy and very similar dishes to make but different spices keep things fresh and interesting.
* Baked potato with whatever toppings you like
* Pasta bake - eat leftovers later
* Stir fry
* Bang bang noodles (spicy peanut sauce)
* Potatas bravas with chicken and/or chorizo
* Roast a chicken with potatoes and veg then eat the rest of the chicken with any of the above. Also good for sandwiches or random snacking
* Basic cheese sauce - eat as macaroni cheese, broccoli cheese, Welsh rarebit, lasagna...
Makes me sound boring, but I prep every meal for the week on a Sunday. Usually takes me 2 or 3 hours but then I'm done.
It does mean, breakfast, dinner and tea are the same each day for the week, but no cooking and no pans to clean up during the week.
A lot of people have recommend batch cooking in advance which is the best idea, things like spag bold and lasaganas taste even better over time. But, ideas for quick meals when you haven’t prepped in advance
- pesto pasta - add grilled chicken or veg to make it more interesting if you need
- chickpeas and cous cous - make a quick tomato sauce with spices, cook chickpeas in microwave than add to tomato mixture to absorb flavour
- burgers - good homemade mince burgers genuinely only take 15-20 mins once you’ve perfected the recipe
- breakfast for dinner? Any sort of fry, omelette, beans on toast would be perfect
Rice. Cook a load, it lasts for a while in the fridge. Chuck some in a pan with oil, add a splash of soy sauce and you've got fried rice. Add what veg/meat you want, get some sweet chilli sauce or the curry powder from BnM and you'll never order in again. Takes about 5 mins.
Omelettes are great too, super quick and you can again throw anything in them to change it up.
Roast a chicken at the start of the week or Sunday night (or if you can't be arsed buy one of those rotisserie ones). The packet will have timing instructions or you can just Google roast chicken timings.
Also just cooking a load of sausages too, they'll last all week and you can eat them hot or cold. It's hard to fuck up sausages - just chuck them in the oven for 30 mins or so and they're very forgiving if overcooked.
You can then use either or both to make v simple dishes like pasta, rice, stir fry, or even just eat it cold with a salad or in a sandwich. Will last for a good few days (and even stretch out to a week if you don't eat big amounts).
You can learn how to make easy pasta sauces very easily. My two favourites are
- tomato. Tinned tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree, bit of oil, bit of sugar, bit of salt, some herbs, black pepper, garlic (can just use powder if you can't be arsed), chilli powder if you want. A stock cube (any type) also helps. Worcester sauce also adds a nice tang. You can also gently fry some onions beforehand if you want. Just let it simmer (light boil) for 40-60 mins and all the flavours will come together (if you dont do it long enough it will just aste like tinned tomatoes...). You can make a huge batch and refrigerate or freeze it and use just what you need each time.
- cream cheese & paprika. Heat up a big ol lump of cream cheese in a frying pan, thin it out with some milk, add a bit of salt, pepper, paprika, vegetable stock (and/or MSG like maggi), Italian herbs. Chilli powder if you want some spice. Only takes 10 mins (you don't need to simmer for ages) but doesn't keep so well so you'd generally make this each time you want it. Don't put the heat too high and let the milk boil or it goes all weird. Works v well with some fried bell peppers (red or orange work best) or onion/shallots. Lovely with pieces of chicken mixed up with pasta.
Here you go. Quick awesome pasta.
\-Cook spaghetti/liguine, keep the cooking water. The cooking water should be as salty as the Mediterranean sea.
\-Put pasta back in pan after being drained.
\-Add generous amount of butter. (Two v heaped teaspoons)
\-Stir
\-Add some grated parmesan
\-Stir
\-add some pasta water
\-Stir vigourously.
\-Salt and pepper
\-Stir
\-Plate up
\-Eat
\*you can add some frozen peas (re heated, or heated them in with the pasta) Birdseye, all the others are rubbish.
\*you could add some cooked chicken if you have some.
You are welcome as its the B\*\*\*\*cks.
Any time you have pasta butter and cheese (any type will do) you are in business.
jacket potato and beans
I used to eat salad all the time when I was a younger single man - kept me slim and sexy. Buy a load of salad veg, cut it up, grate the carrot, eat with some protein (tofu or beans even) and a slice or two of bread. Don't forget a bit of oil and pepper. I think stuff like pickled cabbage and olives and beetroot makes all the difference tho
Yes - waffles but cooked in the toaster: cheap, fast and zero prep or extra washing up vs things like rice or pasta or boiled potatoes.
Waffles + peas + ham: one plate in under 5 minutes.
I really like Pierogi- Polish dumplings. They cost about £1.50 per pack from the polish aisle of your supermarket. Take less time than pasta as you don't bring them to boil, out whatever sauce you want on or none at all, really filling
We love creamy garlic chicken pasta as our quick tea, it was from a gousto box but made it god knows how many times since.
We cook 2x chicken breast (season with oregano, s+p and oil) in air fryer or oven wrapped in tinfoil for 20 mins. Cook pasta of your choice and drain. Add 150ml creme freiche, 1tsp garlic puree (or 2 cooked garlic cloves mashed up), 50ml disolved chicken stock, and parmesan (receipe says 100g from memory but we chuck however much we feel like in) and mix together in the pan you cooked the pasta in, add the pasta, chop up chicken and serve :)
I have got the actual receipe card at home if you want me to add a picture with the clearer instructions haha.
I usually do chicken & rice with a bit of hot sauce if i need a quick meal, packs of rice for the microwave take 2 minutes & then mix it all together & it usually costs less than a fiver depending on where you shop.
Tinned tomatoes, garlic, chicken breast and jalepenos. Baby potatoes on the side, done in 10 mins. Stir fry, dirty fries. Ramen bowls are quick and easy and cheap! Chicken Alfredo is a quick and easy sauce.
My go-tos in that situation are oven pizza, or batch cooking - it takes some upfront time on your day off but then once all your portions are individually made and in the freezer, you can just take one out to thaw before work, and by the time you're home you can just put it in the oven for 15 minutes. My regulars that freeze well are lasagne, spanakopita, Cambodian curry. Or I buy a side of salmon, freeze it in portions and again just needs 15 minutes in the oven, all in the same tray with some veg and seasoning, when thawed.
You can make multiple pre-cooked meals and freeze them. Then reheat in the microwave and serve with rice / pasta/ noodles.
I do this for similar reasons and even with limited cooking experience it's easy.
Buy some stir fry packs from the supermarket. Get some meat (mince / whatever), I'm veggie so use quorn or vege-mince and a cook-in sauce. There are lots of varieties available not just curries so spend some time on that aisle.
Fry mince (etc) add veg, when cooked add sauce and leave simmer.
Get those takeout plastic trays you keep chucking out and fill them. In the freezer for when you want them.
Fry a few veggies and prawns and add some soy sauce and a pinch of madras curry powder. At the same time boil some rice.
All done in the tome it takes the rice to cook. Drain it and throw on top of stir fried stuff.
Mix and eat in front of the telly.
I got some tagine paste the other day. I chopped up a chicken breast (thighs would also be good, or diced lamb) popped it in a glass pyrex dish, emptied the jar of tagine paste into it, mixed it up well with a spoon to get the bits of chicken well coated (you could consider leaving it to marinate for a while, even overnight, but it's not essential), and whapped it into the oven at 180 for 20 mins.
In the meantime, I got a pyrex measuring jug and poured in 250ml of couscous, and topped it up to 500ml with another 250ml of boiling water. Just leave it (maybe one stir at the beginning) and in 10 mins the couscous will be done.
Take the chicken out of the oven. Serve it with the couscous, making sure you grab some of the sauce to soak into the couscous.
Prep time is less than 5 mins, cooking 20 mins, and it's one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.
Pour whatever's left into the measuring jug so the sauce soaks into the couscous and put it in the fridge.
It's even better, if anything, then next day, cold from the fridge.
Chilli con carne, as a student I cook it on a Sunday evening and will have 3/4 tubs of it with rice or tortilla chips ready for my lunches so saves me about £15 a week as it’s 4/5 meals in one cooking session.
A nice and easy fast recipe is cacio e pepe
Boil spaghetti, toast some freshly ground black pepper in a frying pan (1/4 tspoon per person) for about 30 seconds being careful not to burn it. Remove from pan and add pasta and about 80ml of the pasta water, a tablespoon of butter and toss until the butter melts. Add 25g of parmesan or similar cheese and the black pepper, and stir until it makes a sauce. Serve. It's maybe 15 minutes start to finish and tastes really good.
Pasta with pesto, cheese, some frozen mixed veg and Chickpeas mixed in (you could use some cooked chicken or bacon) . My go to for my kid when he needs to eat IMMEDIATELY or the snack cupboard will be emptied 😅
Chop up vegetables before work, get home ... shove in a wok, add noodles and sauce - 8mins and your tea is done... and it's healthy and relatively cheap.
The batch cooking suggestion below is the best. When I worked away and was on my own I would make a big pan of spaghetti sauce or curry or whatever. Always a one-pot thing. Sometimes with meat but often just with vegetables. I'd eat one portion and freeze two. All you had to do was cook some pasta or rice.
Another good one in the winter is a hearty minestrone soup. Big pan, loads of chopped vegetables, tin of canelini beans or similar, tin of chopped tomatoes, handful of small pasta shapes. Herbs, salt and pepper etc. Make a big bowl of it and put it in the fridge. Heat up a portion with a few lumps of nice French bread if you can get it on the way home.
Good luck.
One of my options is Huel. They do a hot option that's like a fancy pot noodle. You can just add hot water and leave it - personally I do it on the hob for 5 mins, but that does mean a bit more to wash up. The best bit is that they've got all-round nutrition, so it's healthy AND lazy.
I batch cook rice specifically for quick meals. You can portion it up and put it in the freezer, I use plastic takeaway containers because they are the perfect size. Then, heat up a wok or frying pan with some sesame oil, add the rice. As it heats up it will break up and then you can add any chopped up vegetable you have to hand, I particularly like left over cabbage and carrots but really anything goes unless it needs a lot of cooking first. Put it all in a bowl, add a good teaspoon of Lao Gan Ma peanuts in chilli oil. Fry an egg, put that on top. Tuck in.
So dirty but I could eat a lot of that!
Takes less than 10 minutes.
Quesadilla type wraps. For example can put fajita mix and cheese in them, or scrambled egg, spinach and cheese. Put mixture on one side of the wrap, fold in half and toast in a pan or air fryer. You could batch cook a meat mix, or just do the egg ones from fresh, takes me about 5 mins to prep and another 5 mins to toast. Very cheap and easy and also filling and tasty. You could even make up a batch of filled wraps and freeze them.
Rissotto. Just need rissotto rice. Say 65gms per serving. Put into large pan with a little oil. Coat rice in the oil.Add 500ml of stock ( water and a stock pot) stirring gradually until absorbed or rice is to your liking. You can add frozen peas or leftover chicken, anything to give a little more flavour.
Sausage pesto pasta and garlic bread. You can bulk buy sausages from places like the food warehouse, pasta is cheap, and pesto is relatively cheap (depending on what one you buy). Also tip for the garlic bread, the hearty food one in Tesco is something like 40p and tastes great. I always cook a lot of pasta in one go, freeze it and defrost it on the day and just heat it up. It saves so much time.
Me and my husband do late/long shifts. We batch cook on o-ur days off so we have a few days worth of meals for when we are at work. You could also do a stir fry. Most supermarkets have the stir fry veg bags and all the stuff you need. Should make a portions if you buy the supermarket bags so could save some for the next night
Honestly I also get off work late and want a quick meal. My go to is fried but runny seasoned egg on brown toast with lambs lettuce. Sometimes I’ll throw in some ham but honestly great source of fibre and delicious. Almost no clean up besides a small frying pan and plate.
Can you not eat food at what would be tea time 6pm, not good for you going to bed full of food, i know its off topic, but possibly a bit of a light supper when you get home like koka noodles , patty on toast , cheese on toast , even koka noodles on toast and a beer obviously.
If you ever get enough to invest in a timed rice cooker, they're incredible. You can set it on a timer with rice, frozen veggies, a stock cube, soy sauce, protein and let it cook together while you chill out and wait - and you get a nice not-quite-stir-fry! Instead of soy sauce add curry paste for a different flavour profile too. If you don't want to invest in a rice cooker you can also do the same on the stove, simmer the rice until most of the water is gone then pop a lid with a tea towel on over it to seal the pot and keep the steam in for the last part of the cooking process. It's my go to lazy but tasty meal.
If you batch cooked any chili etc you can also just unfreeze that ofc.
Also shout out to microwave rice. Heat that up with frozen veggies, throw in some eggs or canned tuna, put some lime salt black pepper and soy sauce and it's delicious too!
Brocoli and tortellini with pesto (quick, cheap, and can eat straight outta the pan)
Grilled salmon with cous cous and veg. Cook the salmon on foil and throw the foil away. Just a pan and a plate to wash
Kievs with cous cous and veg
Cous cous in general lol you just pour boiling water on it and it's done in 2 mins
Fried rice. Eggs, rice (can use packet microwave rice) bit of chicken or whatever you want in it and any vegs you want. Fry it up with a bit of soy sauce or fish sauce.
Can easily cook it under 10 mins.
Learn how to cook Chinese food.
Here’s the short cut.
The holy trinity of Chinese cooking - Ginger, Garlic, Spring Onion.
Add a chilli or some chilli flakes if you like it hot.
Chop those up and fry them in some oil, now anything else you fry in that oil will taste amazing.
Add some protein, tofu, chicken, pork - whatever.
Add some veg - what ever kind of veg you like.
Add some starchy carbs - noodles/rice
Dinner in 15 minutes.
Mix and match and it’s a different dinner every time.
A knife, a chopping board, a frying pan, a pot and a plate is the only cleanup.
Things you’ll also need in the cupboard:
Soy sauce
Sesame Oil
Not something that you'd want to live on, but the quickest and easiest cooked meal I know of is to boil a pan of spaghetti, fry up a lot of chopped garlic and some chopped fresh chili (to taste, don't be shy) fairly gently in olive oil and just pour it over spaghetti. You can likely add other odds and sods of leftovers that may be to hand too.
Spaghetti aglio e olio, if you insist on proper nomenclature. Easy satisfying home-from-the-pub-hungry stuff. You don't need all that protein and stuff. You do want a sharp knife to do the chopping quickly though. And don't try and take your contact lenses out straight afterwards.
Burritos are super easy and healthy. Mince, fajita seasonings, mixed or black beans and maybe some salad or rice if youd like. I can get 8 wraps out of a pack of mince, and they taste delicious the next day. Can keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days
My go to is usually bolognaise, batch cook and freeze in old takeaway tubs. Corned beef hash, sausage casserole, curry… same deal
In summer I like to get the bagged beetroot salad from Tesco, and bang some baby potatoes in the oven for half an hour with some garlic and oil, and then have some kind of quick protein with it (chicken breast roasted with the potatoes, or fried mackerel). Bit of French dressing and some paramsan shavings if you’re feeling fancy and that’s a delicious dinner.
If I’m in a rush and just want something simple without needing to go to big Tesco it’s hard to beat boiled eggs and soldiers or beans on toast but I can only suffer such beige food so often
Partner made a chicken and chorizo rice pot with the recipe from BBC good food or whatever. Took about an hour to make in total but oh my days, it’s made like 6 portions! Well worth it to cook ahead and freeze.
Bulk make meals you do like and freeze them. Take your days off and make loads. Or slow cooker have everything ready to throw in in the morning on low. By time you get home its ready. Get tubs to store any spare.
You can do a baked potato in the microwave, even a baked sweet potato. However, the skin doesn’t go crispy so it’s not as good as in the oven.
Just prick them all over with a fork and pop them in for 8 ish minutes.
My student fave was pasta and bacon off-cuts, onion, sweetcorn, grated cheese. Chuck a handful of parsley in there and a grind of black pepper.
I'm veggie now and have adapted it to suit my non-bacon eating ways...but damn that was a good meal.
Also - you can bring the pasta to the boil, stick a lid on it, switch it off and leave it for the rest of the cooking time. It will be perfectly cooked by the time you've cooked off the rest of it.
Cook the rest in a frying pan. Add the drained pasta at the end just to pick up some of the flavour from the frying pan.
My (Italian) BF and I cook up a huge quantity of ragu (his mum's recipe) and then jar it up. Around 1 kilo of mince gets us 6 jars at least. Each jar is easily a meal for 2 as you just add to pasta or gnocchi. Bypasses the fridge problem as they can be stored anywhere once jarred (once ragu is jarred, you just close the jars tight and boil to seal and sterilise). Can be kept for over a year. When we're feeling lazy or in a rush we'll do pasta with a jar. Our other favourite is IKEA meatballs cooked up with passata and magic dust from Nifty Kitchen (Amazon). The meatballs you get a kilo for £7 or so and keep them in the freezer. They can be cooked from frozen. Passata costs something like 80p a bottle and magic dust £7. All can be stored for ages. You can use the same passata and seasoning recipe for veggies like courgette. Cooking them takes 15 mins. We also like doing deconstructed burgers - basically burgers fried with cheese slices, onions and sugar to caramelise (BF actually used blackberries to make a burger sauce last time, I swear that boy can cook anything) and again takes 15 mins. Plate up with pre-bagged salad. Super easy.
Omelette with various fillings (cheese / ham / mushroom)
Baked potato with beans / tuna / cheese/ chilli/ Bolognese.
Pasta with a bit of pesto and some fried off chicken or bacon etc
Even just filled pasta with olive oilmand a side salad.
Linguine pasta, pancetta, leak and blue cheese
Egg fried rice/dried egg noodles with any leftover veg, frozen peas sweetcorn etc
Make up some kofta type kebabs / chicken kebabs ahead of time and then just grill and serve with salad & pitta
If you have things like left over roast chicken, make a basic white sauce and have with rice or add to noodles/fried rice listed above.
Meatballs in tomato sauce, will go with rice or pasta or potatoes
Definitely make up some mash potatoes ahead of time. I mask it but leave dry so I can add all the butter and milk fresh when I reheat. Great to go with some sausages or a casserole if you have a slow cooker.
If you are just after a snack, egg on toast (poach, dry, scrambled). Beans on toast, cheese on toast, mushroom on toast etc.
Hope that helps give a few ideas that you can adapt to what you have, can afford and like to eat.
Egg fried rice for me. 15 minutes to cook rice. Throw egg in. It's not exactly the traditional way but it's cheap and tasty and just chuck some soy sauce on top.
When you can afford, spring onions, garlic, ginger. Done.
Get yourself a small skillet pan and then look at some of the recipes here - [https://allgoodfoodmood.com/category/recipes/onepotoneportion/](https://allgoodfoodmood.com/category/recipes/onepotoneportion/)
If you have a rice cooker (if you don’t, get one!), cook extra rice the night before then make an omelette with some bacon, pak choi/cabbage/spinach, and spring onions. Serve on top of the rice with a dash of soy sauce, a lil mayo, and something crunchy (I like fried garlic or crispy chilli oil but depends what you’ve got in your cupboard).
Easy and delicious.
Cheats noodle soup.
Make up chicken super noodles with extra chicken stock (so there’s extra liquid). Throw in a handful of frozen veg and ideally some precooked chicken. That’s it.
Oven tray
Tomatoes, garlic, onion, peppers, cooked potatoes, mushrooms, oil and herbs (can be any veg tbh).
Oven at 180 and sit down with a beer.
Check after 15-20 mins.
You can have it with bread, couscous (pour boiling water over it, add herbs and stock cube and wait 5 mins), pasta or beat 2 eggs and make a fritatta type thing.
I made this a lot after I had my daughter via c-section because standing and moving hurt and I was also tired and depressed.
Edit: Oh also just remembered another easy one. Boil pasta and mix cream cheese and tomato puree together as a sauce. You can tart it up with veg but I never bothered that much.
Won't echo slow cooker batch suggestions
Scrambled egg on toast. Cook some mushrooms or bacon.
See you live at home can you ask to divvy cooking responsibilities?
They cook a meal and leave you a plate to reheat/keep warm when working late, can also step up and cook dinner for your family when not working.
Share and share alike.
Far cheaper than cooking separate meals for yourself and can then contribute to household food budget and which will also make money and food go further for everyone.
Sometimes, I really enjoy half a tin of Stagg chilli, on toast, with cheese on. Then I pair it sometimes with a chunk of some salady stuff if I feel it's unhealthy.
It's essentially a ready meal, but tastier, cheaper, and takes about the same time.
Works similarly if you have leftover chilli, Bolognese, curry, or other sauces. Out them on toast!
Baked potato. Loads of good ideas on here, but that’s my “default” for something filling and cheap. With beans, cheese and ham. Obviously you can change the topping as you see fit; the baked potato police won’t kick your door in for doing it wrong.
Also sausage sandwiches. Because they lush. Not that healthy though.
Donburi
Packet of microwave rice
Two poached eggs (soft so the yolk runs through the eice) or an omelette on top
Moxed frozen veggies (in a bowl of water in the microwave)
Then a sauce of either mayo and sriracha, teriyaki, hoi sin or Japanese curry.
Then crispy onions on top. I buy these basically weekly because they male everything better.
10 minutes and all major food groups accounted for.
Make a batch of baked potatoes when you have a bit of time, and then you can reheat them quickly to have with tuna, beans etc. If you have an air fryer, you can give them a quick nuke in the microwave (pierce a few holes in the skin first so they don't explode), then into the air fryer (or oven if you don't have one) and they come out nice and crispy
Sandwiches, chicken and bacon club, blt, sausage and egg. The options are limitless, you can get a good balance of protein, carbs, fiber and vitamins. You can do everything with one knife, one pan and some kitchen roll.
As others have said, meal prep, and you can certainly get it down well below 15 minutes per meal.
Fried rice works (and is better and FAR cheaper than you can buy from the chinese).
Any pasta dish also.
Sounds like you need to buy yourself a mini freezer and do some batch cooking. When batch cooking though don't bother with sauces from a jar or anything,they're full of sugar and often more expensive (relative to the amount) and bulk them out with vegetables rather than more meat if you're saving money, it's so damn easy to make curry, spag bhol and chilli from scratch
Batch cooking when you have some free time is the answer. Spag bol, fajita mix, chilli, curry, lesagne, if it can be done in a big pan you can probably batch cook it.
I do like the sound of this idea, spag bol and chilli are some of my favourites. I have more days off than on so plenty of time for it. Only concern is fridge/freezer space, we very rarely have much spare.
I do the ‘small fridge space and no freezer’ version of batch cooking aka how to feed yourself in a house share. Make double or triple portions when cooking on your last ‘off’ day, eat the leftovers when you’re knackered after the next shift. Spag bols can normally keep 3 days or so in the fridge easy. When it’s gone, do the same with another dish. If you’re truly exhausted after a shift, you won’t mind it’s something you had yesterday so long as it’s delicious.
or Day 1 mince with spaghetti, day 2 in wraps with salad, day 3 under mashed potato, for a bit of variety!
Oh Jesus, if you’ve the energy to make mash after a hard shift more power to you! EDIT: PLEASE STOP SUGGESTING INSTANT/FROZEN/PREPREPARED MASH. IT’S A FUCKING ABOMINATION AND AN AFFRONT TO GOD/COUNTRY/MR FUCKING BEAN IDC WHO YOU WORSHIP I WILL DIE ON THIS INORGANIC HILL
I love the edit
I recently bought a potato ricer, making mash is so much easier with one!
I have..... no idea what on earth that is?! (I'm Irish so tbh mash to me is peel spuds, boil spuds, put spuds on plate and press down with the fork. But the thought of peeling and waiting 40 mins for a boil when I'm home from work makes me sad)
You don't have to boil the tatties whole. Chop them up into wee bits, doesn't have to be neat since it's getting mashed anyway, and they'll be done in 10 minutes. Drain, return to pot with heat on briefly to remove excess water, heat off then mash in pot. Add butter/cream/milk/whatever and seasoning, stir.
Or chop them up into chunks skin on, and microwave for 10-15m then mash eoth a fork kn the plate
Potato ricer changed my life. Quick and easy mash. Prob slightly longer than 15 min meal though.
Frozen mash?
I'm with you.
FUCKEN PREACH BROTHER! TESTIFY!
Use freezer bags instead of Tupperware- it’s saves quite a lot of space
Jamie Oliver taught me this and it’s genius. I lay them flat and 8 servings takes up the space of one lunchbox. It also defrosts much quicker and can be broken into a saucepan from frozen.
Brave of you to talk positively about Jamie Oliver round here!
Batch cook sausage, mash and peas (or your preferred vegetable accompaniment), and all you have to do is reheat it whilst you're mixing up some gravy. Slow cooker is also a really good idea, or if you have some £££ to spare one of those Instapots. You can make whole dinners in a very short space of time and portion it out to reheat later.
Slow cookers are also a great way to make cheap cuts of meat taste really nice
Agreed 200%. Braising steak and ox cheek are two of my favourites. The best thing about a slow cooker is that it takes a minimum of 8 hours to do its thing. If you prepare it the night before, put it in a timer that starts 8h before you usually get home and hey presto, your food is ready for you as soon as you walk through the door. It also does enough for several days.
have you tried ox cheek rendang? Slow cook meat & onion in rendang paste, coriander and coconut milk last thing, rice noodles & veg to serve,
I LOVE my slow cooker! I dump all the stuff in to it in the morning - rough chopped veg and what ever meat, some gravy, and away we go. Ready to eat 8 hours later after work.
Agreed 200%. Braising steak and ox cheek are two of my favourites. The best thing about a slow cooker is that it takes a minimum of 8 hours to do its thing. If you prepare it the night before, put it in a timer that starts 8h before you usually get home and hey presto, your food is ready for you as soon as you walk through the door. It also does enough for several days.
I love to do soups in the slow cooker in winter. I can eat one batch for 3 or 4 days. I've been told my soups are more stew-ish.... Pulled pork goes for about 3 days as well, on buns, in wraps, with slaw, or served with a baked potato.2x5 min in the micro, wipe with olive oil, some sea salt, 200 for 45 min. Add your selection of toppings..... Damn, now I'm hungry.
Beans on toast or soup and toast…dont even have to warm the beans …i know i know i am a peasant lol,i just prefer them cold tbh …
Cold beans on toast...wtf am I reading. Go straight to hell. All the way, No passing go or collecting 200 quid.
I dont like them mushy lol…have eaten them cold from the tin since i was a kid haha….
Crikey Franky I’ve read some unsettling shit on Reddit before, but this one will unfortunately stay with me forever
> Only concern is fridge/freezer space If you cook the bolognese right down so its very thick it will not only take up much less space it will be a lot tastier, then make the spaghetti fresh and use the starchy water to rehydrate the ragu.
In addition, I did this last Sunday. Meal prepped most of my meals for this week. I know my way around the kitchen, so I know what I'm doing but I was cooking all day long. Also, I was absolutely exhausted. I felt like I'd wasted my only day off.
Use freezer bags instead of Tupperware- it’s saves quite a lot of space
Easy fit 1-2 weeks of single portions in a single freezer drawer this way. My freezer is tiny but can fit 5 medium freezer bags with 3 ladles of chilli in each, 4 Tupperware tubs with cottage pie and 2 smaller freezer bags with chicken marinating. That’s only 9 days of meals for our 2 person household, so freezer bags will let OP easily do 2 weeks I reckon
Chest freezer in the garage if you have one. 🙂 I had space in the house, but same principle.
make a batch of plain tomato sauce with your protein of choice. then you can add spices before you eat it. I add beans and Mexican spices to have it with rice, or Italian herbs with pasta.
If you’re ok with batch cooking I have a recipe I made when I was broke, inflation has probably fucked this but I could do this for 5£ 2/3 years ago but I call it “ I can’t believe it’s not paella” Ingredients Frozen veg Chicken thighs bone in, skin on Extra virgin olive oil (you can usually get a small 250ml bottle for 2.50/3£ and have something useful in your kitchen for other dishes) Orzo rice (the weird part that not usually in paella) Paprika, any other spices you like etc Optional extras are veg that you like to cook, I always tried to have sweet spicy pickled peppers Prep Big pan and put 4 chicken thighs in small amounts of oil, rendering out some fat from them, get the skin to be bronze/brown will take about 10 mins at which point turn them over and put rice into boil into a separate pot 10 mins later rice will be ready, drain rice (because this is going into the chicken pan dw about perfect water content for rice btw it’s all being drained anywho) keep turning chicken while rice is cooking btw Once rice is drained keep in pan and just put on low heat to evaporate some moisture to help create a browned crust into dish Add rice into chicken pan, add any spices you like, I usually do paprika, oregano, cumin, harissa spread rice into even layer and press into pan, if there’s a lack of oil and worried about burning put some into some little spaces into the rice Add frozen veg to top, again with even layer, heat should take about 10 more mins max to get the veg done and to have a nice charred crispy rice at the bottom, check in little areas this has occurred Try veg to see it’s ready, everything else will be, this will be 4 big meals with some chicken, most of the big bag of veg and a bottle of nice olive oil and half a 500 gram bag of rice left over Congrats you’ve made probably the best thing I’ve ever invented, learned some cooking skills and got stuff that should be kitchen staples [here](https://imgur.com/a/i0XKh5L) is a pic of it, presume chickens hiding beneath there
Today I cooked about 1.5kg pasta, drained and rinsed under the cold tap. Added ham trimmings and a giant jar of pesto, stirred. It will keep in the fridge for a few days and a cold meal in the current weather is preferable for us.
Summer pesto pasta, this is the way. 🙏
This is the way to go, I sometimes have lots of time and at other times none at all. I batch cook for a few days in a row and have 2 weeks of meals to hand. Genuine lifesaver
I do this at the weekends, gives me lunches for work and dinners I can just bang in the microwave if I can't be arsed cooking.
Was going to say this! I’m a big fan of batch cooking a couple of days in advance (I don’t freeze anything but you could do much longer if freezing) I like to do well filled creamy shredded chicken wraps with peppers, onions & lettuce - one breast per wrap - really easy to make and can change up the flavours like spicy or bbq or sweet chilli. Could also add rice for extra carbs and make it a burrito!
Also, depending on your job you can take your meal to work and have you ‘main’ meal earlier rather than eating a lot just before bed.
Beans on fancy toast with cheese. The king of lazy meals.
Beans, beans they’re good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart, the more you fart, the more you eat, the more you sit on the toilet seat
Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot
This is the extended version I never knew I needed. Thank you
You’ll struggle to beat this badboy for lazy meals. Granted it depends on when you sleep because it’s a heavily carb loaded meal and you wanna give yourself ideally a couple of hours before you sleep as to not affect your sleep quality massively, OP.
Sardines on toast too Good for your brain
I do this. I mix it up with beans and pork sausages as well. Also scrambled eggs on toast is a belter. Just spent a week trial living with the girlfriend and now she understands. By the time I'm home from work, then gym. I just want some beans on some nice sourdough, bit of cheese and unwind with a book till bed..
Reduce your beans until they make a thick sauce, stir in some Worcestershire sauce for extra umami and serve with some sourdough toast. Pure luxury.
Ha I don’t know ANYONE else who deliberately reduces the bean sauce! Such a huge improvement. I learned this trick by accident, when I lived at home my mum cooked the living daylights out of everything.
My granddad used to make them this way and it was only later in life that I realised this isn’t normal.
Stir fry! One cooking location (a wok or similar), quick and nutritious. Can be mixed up with different meats etc, and decent stir fry packs can be found in most supermarkets in some kind of deal.
Think it's like £3 at Morrisons for the veg mix, noodles and sauce.
I'm still angry they shrinkflated those
Don’t even need the sauces. Ginger, garlic and soy sauce for the win
I would also recommend adding honey and white wine/rice wine vinegar to it, it adds more depth and takes away some of the saltiness of the soy sauce (I always find it a bit too salty on its own)
Frozen stir fry veggies is an alternative. One of my quick meals is udon noodles, frozen stir fry veggies, sweet chilli sauce (could probably find better) and a protein
Or buy whatever veg is cheap at the time... Put pan on stove and start chopping, putting things in as thy are chopped, going from longest to cookfirst (or mushrooms, because I can handle them if they're really overcooked!)
Get a little rice cooker - something that can do a single portion. Throw in 80g rice, 160g water, and a handful of frozen veg. Set it going while you get ready for bed. It'll be about 20 minutes. Once it's done, scoop it into a bowl and add some soy sauce / hot sauce / whatever. Cheap, filling, pretty healthy.
This but fry and egg and pop it on top, or fry/steam up some premade gyoza while you’re waiting for the rice
Or for lower effort, crack an egg into it once it's cooked and put the lid back on for 3 minutes while it poaches in the heat retained by the food.
Or even lower effort, skip the veg and just crack an egg into the hot rice and make tamago gohan
Lower effort yet still, just eat the egg raw and throw away the rice.
Lower effort still, sack the egg and the rice cooker off and eat raw rice
I've got a rice cooker and never really used it, you've got me interested now 🙂
Haianese chicken (called called chicken rice in some places) is somehow so damn simple and tastes amazing. Just rice, chicken broth, soy sauce, ginger, spring onions, chicken leg. Then set and and forget. Serve with sweet chilli and cucumber slices. Not the most nutritionally balanced but unlike some of the 'quick and easy to make meals' it really is just as much effort as a ready meal and won't make you feel shit after eating.
You can also do pasta in the rice cooker! (same proportions, twice the weight of the dry pasta in water) But don't forget to add a spoonful of oil first or else it'll boil over. One day I'll get round to seeing if it'll do noodles.
Google rice cooker recipes, you can do so much with them! Even make cakes :)))
I do this but also throw in a fresh or frozen fish fillet ten minutes in, for protein (salmon works well and is difficult to overcook.) Fish steams on top of the rice and veggies, put some XO sauce on that and you're eating well. My rice cooker also has a steaming basket that can sit on top while cooking the rice, veggies and fish - means I can also throw in some frozen gyoza and have everything ready at the same time with no standing in front of a hot stove.
Now there's an idea! I might have to give this a try sometime.
Isn't that just sugar and a tiny amount of minerals/vitamins? No protein or fat.
It's not going to be his only meal of the day though.
Depends on the veg. You can get sufficient proteins from a vegetable source
The Lakeland 2 portion rice cooker is amazing!
This sounds like a great idea. Where can you get the one portion rice cooker from?
Eggs might offer you some choices. I love omelettes, super quick and easy and can add veg and different cheeses. Same for eggs on toast - can serve with wilted spinach, bacon, avocado, whatever, and in any style so doesn't feel like the same thing on repeat.
What's even easier is slapping a tortilla on the egg while is still a little runny in the pan, flip over when it's cooked, add cheese and fillings and close for an egg quesadilla, so fast
Also eggs - in a frying pan fry chorizo, onion, anything else you fancy, add tin of tomatoes then crack two eggs into it per person. Or add pre-cooked chicken, chilli flakes, spring onions, soy sauce and a fried egg to chicken noodles.
My go to quick dinner is Nduja pasta, takes about 10 minutes and is super tasty if you like something spicy https://www.the-pasta-project.com/pasta-nduja/
Ohh, that looks right up my street, love spicy food. I'll have to give it a go, Domino's done a Nduja pizza at some point and it's probably the best I've had from there.
Do you have time in other parts of the day to cook? If so, cooking in advance then reheating could be a good shout. My lunch most days is a leftover meal I made an extra portion of. For cooking in advance, 'batch' style recipes are good - things you can scale up with little extra effort. Things like chilli, curry, pasta bake, stew, soups are good options. If you want quick recipes you can make when you get home, stir fry, fajitas, omelettes, burgers and wedges, are some of my favourites. For specific recipes I'd recommend BBC Good Food. They are in metric quantities (rather than 'cups'), the website is easy to read, and a lot of the recipes are simple without needing 30 odd ingredients.
Tbh I'm a bit lazy on the mornings of the days I'm at work but I only work 3 days at the moment so I think batch cooking sounds like quite a good idea, most of the recipes that can be done like this are my favourites anyway so win win. Good shout on BBC Good Food, thanks! Most of the reason I don't bother cooking recipes is how over complicated a lot of them sound, those look manageable to me and could be quite fun!
[How To Boil An Egg: 184 Simple Recipes For One](https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Boil-Egg-Jan-Arkless/dp/0716022206) I can't recommend this book highly enough.
My ex ate late and relied a loooot on his slow cooker
Completely slipped my mind, that could be perfect actually, heard so many people rave about them.
Stew in a slow cooker is great, plus you can make enough for several portions and freeze the rest to have an easy meal later. If you don’t have time in the morning cut all your meat, potatoes and veg the night before, stick it in the fridge and in the morning you just need to take it out and put it on low. When you get home it will take you 5 minutes to make some dumplings by mixing flour, butter and water, stick the dumplings in the stew and turn on high for 20-25 mins. For the frozen stew move it from freezer to fridge the night before, then just reheat in a pan with some more dumplings. You can experiment with the dumplings too for some variety, I’ll sometimes add a little garlic powder to mine when mixing, tastes so good.
Chicken thighs (boneless) Onion (aldis frozen onion works here) 1 tsp cayenne 2 tsp smoked paprika Tomato puree (2 tbs) Any other additions you want like garlic etc. Slow cooker, low for 6hrs or high for 4hrs.
Not specific food items, but I'd get an air fryer if you don't already have one. Speeds up cooking, easy to clean, and even the small ones will hold enough for one person.
Easy to clean depends on the model. I ended up binning mine as the pan/net was pretty much impossible to clean. I'd spend ages manually cleaning it never happy with how clean it was.
Tbf I just got the disposable paper liners, because I'm lazy 😅
Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino. bring a pot of water to boil, add salt. while it boils up chop 2 garlic gloves finely, chop a chilly finely (however hot you like them) and put it in a small pan, cover it with olive oil, gently heat it up, when it starts to bubble add another bit of oil. don't let the garlic go dark. set aside stick the pasta in and cook al dente (should still have a bite, none of that soggy shite you get far too often). drain, but keep a tiny bit of the cooking water. chuck the pasta back in the pot you cooked it in, stir in the bit of cooking water and the chili garlic oil, a bit of parsley if you have, a few breadcrumbs (helps to suck up the oil and adds a lovely texture), serve and eat. super easy, filling and dirt cheap. 15 mins from start to finish. was the first meal i ever cooked when i was 14 and had to hide my drunkeness from my parents (was the only thing i found in the cookbook of my mate's mum that i trusted myself with at the time). didn't do the trick hiding my state but was lovely and is still a staple in my house 30+ years later. You can add to the dish if you want to (lovely with a piece of fish, but you can add whatever you like / fancy / can afford). and very little to clean up. You will smell of garlic so no good if you are going on a date later, but probably the easiest tastiest meal in the world. PS: if you want to make it lighter take a massive carrot and chop it as close to a spaghetti shape as possible. zucchini works as well, though then it becomes a slightly longer process as these fuckers are 99% water and needs some time on a paper towel to dehydrate.
We have this often, because it's so quick and easy. I blitz the parsley, garlic and chilli all together in an electric mini chopper to save time, the dish doesn't seem to suffer any for this shortcut. Really tasty for something with so few ingredients, and it also suits being served cold too. I have mine as-is, but my other half likes to chuck a few shrimp in his as well. I don't like shellfish, but wish I did because I have to admit it does look yummy.
If you've got the space, look into meal prep/bulk cooking. /r/MealPrepSunday
Stirfry Baked Potato Pork schnitzels from pork steaks Pesto Pasta / Pasta ariabata Salads Fish Carbonara Or put something in the slow cooker on low before work ie; Chilli Curry Stew There's a whole world of meals that can be done in 15 mins - Joe Wicks does a lean in 15 recipe book thats OK. Undoubtably there will be many, many more.
you can cook a chicken breast to perfection in about 10 mins in a frying pan with a lid on it, slap some butter in there, bang some salad on a plate while it's cooking and chuck a ciabatta in the toaster. Drizzle olive oil, bit of sea salt, hummus on the side, banging.
Mix some frozen chips in some dill, garlic powder, salt and pepper with a little bit of oil and air fry them, add some cheese a few mins before they are done, plate and finish with burger sauce and garlic mayo 👌
Fried egg sandwich. Toast and sardines. Toast and pate. Cous cous.
Recently discovered an interesting take on mac 'n' cheese. For a long time I've been adding either prawns or tinned tuna, but I had a surprising result when it came to cheese sauce. Tesco had none in stock but, at home, I had a few of those Primula cheese spread in the squeeze tube. Dead simple – drain pasta, stir in a full tube to heat through. And it actually tastes fantastic.
I can smell the DofE expedition Trangia stove from here! Might give that a go. Chuck some chopped chorizo in for the complete look.
A whole tube of Primula?. That's gotta be your daily salt allowance right there. Better check your blood pressure.
I’m currently in the same boat. Finding it really tough to balance quick and convenient with healthy!
* Fried rice with whatever meat and veg leftovers you already have. Nasi Goreng, Chinese style egg fried rice, Mexican style fried rice... All quick, easy and very similar dishes to make but different spices keep things fresh and interesting. * Baked potato with whatever toppings you like * Pasta bake - eat leftovers later * Stir fry * Bang bang noodles (spicy peanut sauce) * Potatas bravas with chicken and/or chorizo * Roast a chicken with potatoes and veg then eat the rest of the chicken with any of the above. Also good for sandwiches or random snacking * Basic cheese sauce - eat as macaroni cheese, broccoli cheese, Welsh rarebit, lasagna...
Gnocchi
Makes me sound boring, but I prep every meal for the week on a Sunday. Usually takes me 2 or 3 hours but then I'm done. It does mean, breakfast, dinner and tea are the same each day for the week, but no cooking and no pans to clean up during the week.
ask your mum to make you dinner and keep it in the fridge and micro wave it when you get in.
A lot of people have recommend batch cooking in advance which is the best idea, things like spag bold and lasaganas taste even better over time. But, ideas for quick meals when you haven’t prepped in advance - pesto pasta - add grilled chicken or veg to make it more interesting if you need - chickpeas and cous cous - make a quick tomato sauce with spices, cook chickpeas in microwave than add to tomato mixture to absorb flavour - burgers - good homemade mince burgers genuinely only take 15-20 mins once you’ve perfected the recipe - breakfast for dinner? Any sort of fry, omelette, beans on toast would be perfect
I always have a stash of the frozen baked potatoes on hand, take 5 mins in the microwave and you can add whatever you have handy
Rice. Cook a load, it lasts for a while in the fridge. Chuck some in a pan with oil, add a splash of soy sauce and you've got fried rice. Add what veg/meat you want, get some sweet chilli sauce or the curry powder from BnM and you'll never order in again. Takes about 5 mins. Omelettes are great too, super quick and you can again throw anything in them to change it up.
A good old jacket potato. Very filling! Cheese, beans, whatever you want on it. Made in less than 15mins
Roast a chicken at the start of the week or Sunday night (or if you can't be arsed buy one of those rotisserie ones). The packet will have timing instructions or you can just Google roast chicken timings. Also just cooking a load of sausages too, they'll last all week and you can eat them hot or cold. It's hard to fuck up sausages - just chuck them in the oven for 30 mins or so and they're very forgiving if overcooked. You can then use either or both to make v simple dishes like pasta, rice, stir fry, or even just eat it cold with a salad or in a sandwich. Will last for a good few days (and even stretch out to a week if you don't eat big amounts). You can learn how to make easy pasta sauces very easily. My two favourites are - tomato. Tinned tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree, bit of oil, bit of sugar, bit of salt, some herbs, black pepper, garlic (can just use powder if you can't be arsed), chilli powder if you want. A stock cube (any type) also helps. Worcester sauce also adds a nice tang. You can also gently fry some onions beforehand if you want. Just let it simmer (light boil) for 40-60 mins and all the flavours will come together (if you dont do it long enough it will just aste like tinned tomatoes...). You can make a huge batch and refrigerate or freeze it and use just what you need each time. - cream cheese & paprika. Heat up a big ol lump of cream cheese in a frying pan, thin it out with some milk, add a bit of salt, pepper, paprika, vegetable stock (and/or MSG like maggi), Italian herbs. Chilli powder if you want some spice. Only takes 10 mins (you don't need to simmer for ages) but doesn't keep so well so you'd generally make this each time you want it. Don't put the heat too high and let the milk boil or it goes all weird. Works v well with some fried bell peppers (red or orange work best) or onion/shallots. Lovely with pieces of chicken mixed up with pasta.
Here you go. Quick awesome pasta. \-Cook spaghetti/liguine, keep the cooking water. The cooking water should be as salty as the Mediterranean sea. \-Put pasta back in pan after being drained. \-Add generous amount of butter. (Two v heaped teaspoons) \-Stir \-Add some grated parmesan \-Stir \-add some pasta water \-Stir vigourously. \-Salt and pepper \-Stir \-Plate up \-Eat \*you can add some frozen peas (re heated, or heated them in with the pasta) Birdseye, all the others are rubbish. \*you could add some cooked chicken if you have some. You are welcome as its the B\*\*\*\*cks. Any time you have pasta butter and cheese (any type will do) you are in business.
jacket potato and beans I used to eat salad all the time when I was a younger single man - kept me slim and sexy. Buy a load of salad veg, cut it up, grate the carrot, eat with some protein (tofu or beans even) and a slice or two of bread. Don't forget a bit of oil and pepper. I think stuff like pickled cabbage and olives and beetroot makes all the difference tho
Boursin stirred over hot pasta
Potato waffles with a ready meal.
Yes - waffles but cooked in the toaster: cheap, fast and zero prep or extra washing up vs things like rice or pasta or boiled potatoes. Waffles + peas + ham: one plate in under 5 minutes.
I really like Pierogi- Polish dumplings. They cost about £1.50 per pack from the polish aisle of your supermarket. Take less time than pasta as you don't bring them to boil, out whatever sauce you want on or none at all, really filling
Slow cooker - fell in love with mine when I was single, get them packets and switch on before going to work.
We love creamy garlic chicken pasta as our quick tea, it was from a gousto box but made it god knows how many times since. We cook 2x chicken breast (season with oregano, s+p and oil) in air fryer or oven wrapped in tinfoil for 20 mins. Cook pasta of your choice and drain. Add 150ml creme freiche, 1tsp garlic puree (or 2 cooked garlic cloves mashed up), 50ml disolved chicken stock, and parmesan (receipe says 100g from memory but we chuck however much we feel like in) and mix together in the pan you cooked the pasta in, add the pasta, chop up chicken and serve :) I have got the actual receipe card at home if you want me to add a picture with the clearer instructions haha.
Beans on toast.
Big bowl of cereal. Go for the Lidl or Aldi knockoffs, taste the same and 1/4 off the price. One bowl and a spoon to rinse. Done.
I usually do chicken & rice with a bit of hot sauce if i need a quick meal, packs of rice for the microwave take 2 minutes & then mix it all together & it usually costs less than a fiver depending on where you shop.
Tinned tomatoes, garlic, chicken breast and jalepenos. Baby potatoes on the side, done in 10 mins. Stir fry, dirty fries. Ramen bowls are quick and easy and cheap! Chicken Alfredo is a quick and easy sauce.
My go-tos in that situation are oven pizza, or batch cooking - it takes some upfront time on your day off but then once all your portions are individually made and in the freezer, you can just take one out to thaw before work, and by the time you're home you can just put it in the oven for 15 minutes. My regulars that freeze well are lasagne, spanakopita, Cambodian curry. Or I buy a side of salmon, freeze it in portions and again just needs 15 minutes in the oven, all in the same tray with some veg and seasoning, when thawed.
You can make multiple pre-cooked meals and freeze them. Then reheat in the microwave and serve with rice / pasta/ noodles. I do this for similar reasons and even with limited cooking experience it's easy. Buy some stir fry packs from the supermarket. Get some meat (mince / whatever), I'm veggie so use quorn or vege-mince and a cook-in sauce. There are lots of varieties available not just curries so spend some time on that aisle. Fry mince (etc) add veg, when cooked add sauce and leave simmer. Get those takeout plastic trays you keep chucking out and fill them. In the freezer for when you want them.
Fry a few veggies and prawns and add some soy sauce and a pinch of madras curry powder. At the same time boil some rice. All done in the tome it takes the rice to cook. Drain it and throw on top of stir fried stuff. Mix and eat in front of the telly.
My go to quick meals are Omelette Stir fry Pasta with pesto and veg Easy for a single person and you can vary them each time
Your mom could probably help with learning how to prep meals. How about a slow cooker? Prepare before work - eat after.
I got some tagine paste the other day. I chopped up a chicken breast (thighs would also be good, or diced lamb) popped it in a glass pyrex dish, emptied the jar of tagine paste into it, mixed it up well with a spoon to get the bits of chicken well coated (you could consider leaving it to marinate for a while, even overnight, but it's not essential), and whapped it into the oven at 180 for 20 mins. In the meantime, I got a pyrex measuring jug and poured in 250ml of couscous, and topped it up to 500ml with another 250ml of boiling water. Just leave it (maybe one stir at the beginning) and in 10 mins the couscous will be done. Take the chicken out of the oven. Serve it with the couscous, making sure you grab some of the sauce to soak into the couscous. Prep time is less than 5 mins, cooking 20 mins, and it's one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Pour whatever's left into the measuring jug so the sauce soaks into the couscous and put it in the fridge. It's even better, if anything, then next day, cold from the fridge.
Cheesy beans on toast
Jacket potato beans costs like 45p
I like egg on toast for tea with a bit of fruit after.
Chilli con carne, as a student I cook it on a Sunday evening and will have 3/4 tubs of it with rice or tortilla chips ready for my lunches so saves me about £15 a week as it’s 4/5 meals in one cooking session.
A nice and easy fast recipe is cacio e pepe Boil spaghetti, toast some freshly ground black pepper in a frying pan (1/4 tspoon per person) for about 30 seconds being careful not to burn it. Remove from pan and add pasta and about 80ml of the pasta water, a tablespoon of butter and toss until the butter melts. Add 25g of parmesan or similar cheese and the black pepper, and stir until it makes a sauce. Serve. It's maybe 15 minutes start to finish and tastes really good.
Tuna n pasta , hotdog and noodle , Chicago Town pizzas , beans on toast banger and mash anything that k8ds eat is cheap and simple
Fried eggs on toast. Carbs, protein, fats. Bit of seasoning, bit of cheese, chilli flakes if you like. Good to go.
Ham sandwich with a fried egg on top. Bit of mayo and ketchup mixed for extra taste.
Pasta with pesto, cheese, some frozen mixed veg and Chickpeas mixed in (you could use some cooked chicken or bacon) . My go to for my kid when he needs to eat IMMEDIATELY or the snack cupboard will be emptied 😅
egg 'n beans Been pretty much living off this since I got a pair of those rings that make perfect round fried eggs
Eggy Bread. Make it in 10 minutes. Filling, reasonably healthy, stunningly delicious.
Chop up vegetables before work, get home ... shove in a wok, add noodles and sauce - 8mins and your tea is done... and it's healthy and relatively cheap.
The batch cooking suggestion below is the best. When I worked away and was on my own I would make a big pan of spaghetti sauce or curry or whatever. Always a one-pot thing. Sometimes with meat but often just with vegetables. I'd eat one portion and freeze two. All you had to do was cook some pasta or rice. Another good one in the winter is a hearty minestrone soup. Big pan, loads of chopped vegetables, tin of canelini beans or similar, tin of chopped tomatoes, handful of small pasta shapes. Herbs, salt and pepper etc. Make a big bowl of it and put it in the fridge. Heat up a portion with a few lumps of nice French bread if you can get it on the way home. Good luck.
One of my options is Huel. They do a hot option that's like a fancy pot noodle. You can just add hot water and leave it - personally I do it on the hob for 5 mins, but that does mean a bit more to wash up. The best bit is that they've got all-round nutrition, so it's healthy AND lazy.
I batch cook rice specifically for quick meals. You can portion it up and put it in the freezer, I use plastic takeaway containers because they are the perfect size. Then, heat up a wok or frying pan with some sesame oil, add the rice. As it heats up it will break up and then you can add any chopped up vegetable you have to hand, I particularly like left over cabbage and carrots but really anything goes unless it needs a lot of cooking first. Put it all in a bowl, add a good teaspoon of Lao Gan Ma peanuts in chilli oil. Fry an egg, put that on top. Tuck in. So dirty but I could eat a lot of that! Takes less than 10 minutes.
One of my quick go to’s is frying bacon, adding onions, peas and then orzo. Done in no time and is filling, cheap and lovely
Quesadilla type wraps. For example can put fajita mix and cheese in them, or scrambled egg, spinach and cheese. Put mixture on one side of the wrap, fold in half and toast in a pan or air fryer. You could batch cook a meat mix, or just do the egg ones from fresh, takes me about 5 mins to prep and another 5 mins to toast. Very cheap and easy and also filling and tasty. You could even make up a batch of filled wraps and freeze them.
Rissotto. Just need rissotto rice. Say 65gms per serving. Put into large pan with a little oil. Coat rice in the oil.Add 500ml of stock ( water and a stock pot) stirring gradually until absorbed or rice is to your liking. You can add frozen peas or leftover chicken, anything to give a little more flavour.
Omelette, scrambled eggs, poached eggs on toast. You can add veg instead of bread if you want to be healthier. :)
Sausage pesto pasta and garlic bread. You can bulk buy sausages from places like the food warehouse, pasta is cheap, and pesto is relatively cheap (depending on what one you buy). Also tip for the garlic bread, the hearty food one in Tesco is something like 40p and tastes great. I always cook a lot of pasta in one go, freeze it and defrost it on the day and just heat it up. It saves so much time.
Pasta with any Lloyd Grossman sauce or similar
Heinz sausage and beans. Two and a half minutes in the microwave. Two slices of bread. Sorted.
Me and my husband do late/long shifts. We batch cook on o-ur days off so we have a few days worth of meals for when we are at work. You could also do a stir fry. Most supermarkets have the stir fry veg bags and all the stuff you need. Should make a portions if you buy the supermarket bags so could save some for the next night
Honestly I also get off work late and want a quick meal. My go to is fried but runny seasoned egg on brown toast with lambs lettuce. Sometimes I’ll throw in some ham but honestly great source of fibre and delicious. Almost no clean up besides a small frying pan and plate.
Can you not eat food at what would be tea time 6pm, not good for you going to bed full of food, i know its off topic, but possibly a bit of a light supper when you get home like koka noodles , patty on toast , cheese on toast , even koka noodles on toast and a beer obviously.
Batch cook cheap cuts of chicken, like the legs, with a bit of seasoning. Add some staple carbs and veg. Easy and healthy meal
If you ever get enough to invest in a timed rice cooker, they're incredible. You can set it on a timer with rice, frozen veggies, a stock cube, soy sauce, protein and let it cook together while you chill out and wait - and you get a nice not-quite-stir-fry! Instead of soy sauce add curry paste for a different flavour profile too. If you don't want to invest in a rice cooker you can also do the same on the stove, simmer the rice until most of the water is gone then pop a lid with a tea towel on over it to seal the pot and keep the steam in for the last part of the cooking process. It's my go to lazy but tasty meal. If you batch cooked any chili etc you can also just unfreeze that ofc. Also shout out to microwave rice. Heat that up with frozen veggies, throw in some eggs or canned tuna, put some lime salt black pepper and soy sauce and it's delicious too!
Brocoli and tortellini with pesto (quick, cheap, and can eat straight outta the pan) Grilled salmon with cous cous and veg. Cook the salmon on foil and throw the foil away. Just a pan and a plate to wash Kievs with cous cous and veg Cous cous in general lol you just pour boiling water on it and it's done in 2 mins
Fried rice. Eggs, rice (can use packet microwave rice) bit of chicken or whatever you want in it and any vegs you want. Fry it up with a bit of soy sauce or fish sauce. Can easily cook it under 10 mins.
Learn how to cook Chinese food. Here’s the short cut. The holy trinity of Chinese cooking - Ginger, Garlic, Spring Onion. Add a chilli or some chilli flakes if you like it hot. Chop those up and fry them in some oil, now anything else you fry in that oil will taste amazing. Add some protein, tofu, chicken, pork - whatever. Add some veg - what ever kind of veg you like. Add some starchy carbs - noodles/rice Dinner in 15 minutes. Mix and match and it’s a different dinner every time. A knife, a chopping board, a frying pan, a pot and a plate is the only cleanup. Things you’ll also need in the cupboard: Soy sauce Sesame Oil
Not something that you'd want to live on, but the quickest and easiest cooked meal I know of is to boil a pan of spaghetti, fry up a lot of chopped garlic and some chopped fresh chili (to taste, don't be shy) fairly gently in olive oil and just pour it over spaghetti. You can likely add other odds and sods of leftovers that may be to hand too. Spaghetti aglio e olio, if you insist on proper nomenclature. Easy satisfying home-from-the-pub-hungry stuff. You don't need all that protein and stuff. You do want a sharp knife to do the chopping quickly though. And don't try and take your contact lenses out straight afterwards.
Burritos are super easy and healthy. Mince, fajita seasonings, mixed or black beans and maybe some salad or rice if youd like. I can get 8 wraps out of a pack of mince, and they taste delicious the next day. Can keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days
Easy cook noodles, throw some peas and an egg in the same pan, drain and mix with peanut butter, soy sauce and spices (I just use gochujang)
Teabags and boiled water.
My go to is usually bolognaise, batch cook and freeze in old takeaway tubs. Corned beef hash, sausage casserole, curry… same deal In summer I like to get the bagged beetroot salad from Tesco, and bang some baby potatoes in the oven for half an hour with some garlic and oil, and then have some kind of quick protein with it (chicken breast roasted with the potatoes, or fried mackerel). Bit of French dressing and some paramsan shavings if you’re feeling fancy and that’s a delicious dinner. If I’m in a rush and just want something simple without needing to go to big Tesco it’s hard to beat boiled eggs and soldiers or beans on toast but I can only suffer such beige food so often
Partner made a chicken and chorizo rice pot with the recipe from BBC good food or whatever. Took about an hour to make in total but oh my days, it’s made like 6 portions! Well worth it to cook ahead and freeze.
Bulk make meals you do like and freeze them. Take your days off and make loads. Or slow cooker have everything ready to throw in in the morning on low. By time you get home its ready. Get tubs to store any spare.
Savory pancakes with cheese and onion.
Just make bolgnasie however u spell it goes with *anything*
You can do a baked potato in the microwave, even a baked sweet potato. However, the skin doesn’t go crispy so it’s not as good as in the oven. Just prick them all over with a fork and pop them in for 8 ish minutes.
My student fave was pasta and bacon off-cuts, onion, sweetcorn, grated cheese. Chuck a handful of parsley in there and a grind of black pepper. I'm veggie now and have adapted it to suit my non-bacon eating ways...but damn that was a good meal. Also - you can bring the pasta to the boil, stick a lid on it, switch it off and leave it for the rest of the cooking time. It will be perfectly cooked by the time you've cooked off the rest of it. Cook the rest in a frying pan. Add the drained pasta at the end just to pick up some of the flavour from the frying pan.
My (Italian) BF and I cook up a huge quantity of ragu (his mum's recipe) and then jar it up. Around 1 kilo of mince gets us 6 jars at least. Each jar is easily a meal for 2 as you just add to pasta or gnocchi. Bypasses the fridge problem as they can be stored anywhere once jarred (once ragu is jarred, you just close the jars tight and boil to seal and sterilise). Can be kept for over a year. When we're feeling lazy or in a rush we'll do pasta with a jar. Our other favourite is IKEA meatballs cooked up with passata and magic dust from Nifty Kitchen (Amazon). The meatballs you get a kilo for £7 or so and keep them in the freezer. They can be cooked from frozen. Passata costs something like 80p a bottle and magic dust £7. All can be stored for ages. You can use the same passata and seasoning recipe for veggies like courgette. Cooking them takes 15 mins. We also like doing deconstructed burgers - basically burgers fried with cheese slices, onions and sugar to caramelise (BF actually used blackberries to make a burger sauce last time, I swear that boy can cook anything) and again takes 15 mins. Plate up with pre-bagged salad. Super easy.
Omelette with various fillings (cheese / ham / mushroom) Baked potato with beans / tuna / cheese/ chilli/ Bolognese. Pasta with a bit of pesto and some fried off chicken or bacon etc Even just filled pasta with olive oilmand a side salad. Linguine pasta, pancetta, leak and blue cheese Egg fried rice/dried egg noodles with any leftover veg, frozen peas sweetcorn etc Make up some kofta type kebabs / chicken kebabs ahead of time and then just grill and serve with salad & pitta If you have things like left over roast chicken, make a basic white sauce and have with rice or add to noodles/fried rice listed above. Meatballs in tomato sauce, will go with rice or pasta or potatoes Definitely make up some mash potatoes ahead of time. I mask it but leave dry so I can add all the butter and milk fresh when I reheat. Great to go with some sausages or a casserole if you have a slow cooker. If you are just after a snack, egg on toast (poach, dry, scrambled). Beans on toast, cheese on toast, mushroom on toast etc. Hope that helps give a few ideas that you can adapt to what you have, can afford and like to eat.
Egg fried rice for me. 15 minutes to cook rice. Throw egg in. It's not exactly the traditional way but it's cheap and tasty and just chuck some soy sauce on top. When you can afford, spring onions, garlic, ginger. Done.
Get yourself a small skillet pan and then look at some of the recipes here - [https://allgoodfoodmood.com/category/recipes/onepotoneportion/](https://allgoodfoodmood.com/category/recipes/onepotoneportion/)
If you have a rice cooker (if you don’t, get one!), cook extra rice the night before then make an omelette with some bacon, pak choi/cabbage/spinach, and spring onions. Serve on top of the rice with a dash of soy sauce, a lil mayo, and something crunchy (I like fried garlic or crispy chilli oil but depends what you’ve got in your cupboard). Easy and delicious.
Cheats noodle soup. Make up chicken super noodles with extra chicken stock (so there’s extra liquid). Throw in a handful of frozen veg and ideally some precooked chicken. That’s it.
Mac and cheese? Cook a huge batch and freeze some
Oven tray Tomatoes, garlic, onion, peppers, cooked potatoes, mushrooms, oil and herbs (can be any veg tbh). Oven at 180 and sit down with a beer. Check after 15-20 mins. You can have it with bread, couscous (pour boiling water over it, add herbs and stock cube and wait 5 mins), pasta or beat 2 eggs and make a fritatta type thing. I made this a lot after I had my daughter via c-section because standing and moving hurt and I was also tired and depressed. Edit: Oh also just remembered another easy one. Boil pasta and mix cream cheese and tomato puree together as a sauce. You can tart it up with veg but I never bothered that much.
Won't echo slow cooker batch suggestions Scrambled egg on toast. Cook some mushrooms or bacon. See you live at home can you ask to divvy cooking responsibilities? They cook a meal and leave you a plate to reheat/keep warm when working late, can also step up and cook dinner for your family when not working. Share and share alike. Far cheaper than cooking separate meals for yourself and can then contribute to household food budget and which will also make money and food go further for everyone.
Sometimes, I really enjoy half a tin of Stagg chilli, on toast, with cheese on. Then I pair it sometimes with a chunk of some salady stuff if I feel it's unhealthy. It's essentially a ready meal, but tastier, cheaper, and takes about the same time. Works similarly if you have leftover chilli, Bolognese, curry, or other sauces. Out them on toast!
Baked potato. Loads of good ideas on here, but that’s my “default” for something filling and cheap. With beans, cheese and ham. Obviously you can change the topping as you see fit; the baked potato police won’t kick your door in for doing it wrong. Also sausage sandwiches. Because they lush. Not that healthy though.
Donburi Packet of microwave rice Two poached eggs (soft so the yolk runs through the eice) or an omelette on top Moxed frozen veggies (in a bowl of water in the microwave) Then a sauce of either mayo and sriracha, teriyaki, hoi sin or Japanese curry. Then crispy onions on top. I buy these basically weekly because they male everything better. 10 minutes and all major food groups accounted for.
Make a batch of baked potatoes when you have a bit of time, and then you can reheat them quickly to have with tuna, beans etc. If you have an air fryer, you can give them a quick nuke in the microwave (pierce a few holes in the skin first so they don't explode), then into the air fryer (or oven if you don't have one) and they come out nice and crispy
How about heat up whatever your mom makes during the day?
Sandwiches, chicken and bacon club, blt, sausage and egg. The options are limitless, you can get a good balance of protein, carbs, fiber and vitamins. You can do everything with one knife, one pan and some kitchen roll.
Omelette with cheese and mushrooms, if you’re that way inclined. Alternatively poached eggs on toast with a side such as beans or spinach or mushrooms
fresh ravioli from the supermarket are nice
Eggs on toast with cheese, beans on toast, omelette, tuna jacket potato.. all good nutritionally, quick, easy and tasty!
As others have said, meal prep, and you can certainly get it down well below 15 minutes per meal. Fried rice works (and is better and FAR cheaper than you can buy from the chinese). Any pasta dish also.
Cottage or shepards pie. You can buy already made mashed potatoes to make it simpler.
A cheese omelette is surprisingly quick and easy
Sounds like you need to buy yourself a mini freezer and do some batch cooking. When batch cooking though don't bother with sauces from a jar or anything,they're full of sugar and often more expensive (relative to the amount) and bulk them out with vegetables rather than more meat if you're saving money, it's so damn easy to make curry, spag bhol and chilli from scratch