super quick family meal ideas

lindadykes

Pesto Pasta - 10 minutes
Pasta
onion chopped into largish chunks
mushrooms - quartered (optional)
bacon - use a pair of kitchen scissors to quickly chop into 1" squares.
Jar of pesto

Put pasta on to cook, heat a frying pan and fry off a chopped onion, bacon, mushrooms. Place in a large serving bowl with a jar of pesto (homebargains do a lovely one for 79p) When pasta is cooked drain and add to the serving bowl , toss everything together.

Farmhouse Fry - 10 mins
Cold cooked potatoes - sliced (you can use tinned)
Onion -chopped
Smoked Sausage (sliced)
1 egg per person
tin beans (optional)
Use a large frying pan. Fry the onion until softened then add the potatoes and sausage, keep moving everything around and fry till the sausage and potatoes have some nice crispy looking edges. Make an indent in the mixture for each person and break an egg in. Cover the pan with a lid or upturned plate - the steam generated will cook th etop of the eggs. Heat the beans. Serve each portion with one of the eggs and some beans. If your frying pan isn't big enough you can fry the eggs seperately and just place on top of the potato mixture.

Chow mein - 10 mins
Dried chinese noodles - you can use those cheap value noodles just get rid of the flavour pack.
1 clove garlic finely chopped
a small piece of ginger peeled and chopped
A mixture of veg - at the very basic 1 thinly sliced onion and some beansprouts, but add any other veg you have just make sure it's finely sliced so it cooks quickly.
Any bits of leftover cooked meat or some prawns - this is flexible and can even be missed altogether.
Dark soy sauce.
Oil
Prawn crackers to serve(optional but nice, cook your own - a box of uncooked ones from homebargains is 29p and will last a number of meals)

Put noodles on to soak/cook as per instructions on pack. Heat oil in a wok, add garlic and ginger -stir fry for 20 - 30 seconds then add onions. Continue to stir fry for 1- 2 mins until the onion starts to soften. Add the beansprouts and any other veg and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes. Throw in the meat or prawns, then drain the noodles and add them. Stir fry to combine everything then add a couple of generous glugs of the soy sauce. Serve.

Pink.

Hi fizzle,

There's an earlier thread that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep the replies together.

Pink

Mellika

Pasta with broccoli, chopped cooked ham and single cream. Mix it all together and serve.

pauleyc

Mellika wrote: »

Pasta with broccoli, chopped cooked ham and single cream. Mix it all together and serve.

Yum that souds lovely, may do that for tea.Thanks

Mellika

pauleyc wrote: »

Yum that souds lovely, may do that for tea.Thanks

We do it very often, it's quick and very yummy.
In fact, it was the meal that converted my husband to broccoli. Before that he wouldn't try it, now he begs for it!
You can also use sliced frankfurters if you have no cooked ham.

Triggles

We have very simple fast meals that everyone in the house loves. First is simply browned mince, with tinned baked beans added, grate some cheese over top, and serve on top of rice. Second is simply chicken soup - chicken stock (from freezer), toss in veg (whatever available), and add dumplings 30 minutes before serving. Sometimes we put chicken in it, sometimes we don't. Serve with crusty bread.

bertiebots

fizzel81 wrote: »

are there any good threads with any

im back at work, boys are with childminder till 6 which gives me 2 hours to get them home, sorted fed and in bed

time in morning is limited so slow cooker can be used but it needs to simply be quick things i can sort easily in morning (ie under 10 mins prep) and then i need easy meals to cook at home without resulting to microwave, take outs and junk food

and to top it off i would like to get my shopping done for under £60 a week (eek) for me, my kinda partner(and he eats alot) and the 3 boys

I do a sweet potato & sausage casserole that takes about 10 mins to prepare ..this is a rough recipe as I just chuck in whatever I have at hand usually!

Pack of pork sausages (8 sausages is enough)
1 or 2 large onions finely chopped
2 or 3 sweet potaoes chopped into roughly inch sized pieces
tin of toms
tin of baked beans
mixed herbs
salt & pepper to taste
veg stock

I use a 3.5 lt slow cooker for this recipe.

First put your sausages in a frying pan and start to fry.
Whilst they are cooking chop up your veg and throw in slow cooker.
Open tins and throw contents in slow cooker. You can also add tin of sweetcorn.
Add herbs and seasoning and make up some stock (enough to just cover all ingredients in cooker).
Take nicely browned sausages out of pan and chop into inch long pieces with scissors and add to slow cooker.
Give it a good mix up ..stick the lid on and leave for 6 + hours!
This will feed about 10 so you can stick half in the freezer (you can always add more beans to bulk it out for another meal;) )
Its yummy honest lol:D

edit: forgot to say goes well with rice , mash or even easier chunky sliced bread and butter.

foreversomeday

I made a brilliant meal as an experiment the other day which was lovely and took hardly any time to prepare (though it does take around an hour to cook.) and the bonus - only the chopping board, knife, casserole dish and serving spoon to wash up!

I chopped up some chicken sausages (these are yummy, don't be afraid to try them! Look in the fresh sausages section of your supermarket, they are usually on offer too.) or you could use leftover chicken or just raw chicken pieces I suppose.
I also peeled and chopped potatoes and an onion.

I cheated a bit here and added a packet mix of coq au vin, however it is easy to make the sauce yourself if you have a bit more time as I have done in the past. Add a splash of red wine to make it extra nice.

I also put in about half a tin of tomatoes, although you could put anything in really - mushrooms would be nice.

I cooked it in the oven on about 170 C for about an hour and it served 3. Could probably have done with some garlic bread to mop up the juices though.

craftlady

How about this one....

SARDINE BEAN POTS

I use individual dishes so this is per serving.

Layer half tin of BAKED BEAN
tin of SARDINES
top with MASHED POTATOES (left over from day before)

bake in oven till hot and browned. serve with brocolli or green beans ..... or just as it is :rotfl:

thecornflake

I'm going to try menu planning this (next) month. However, a main obstacle is the culinary tastes of the rest of my family and I'm getting bored of spag bol and lasagne. Plus I need things that are either -
a) quick to cook so I can do them when I get in from work
b) easy and simple so my wife can make it (not a person who really enjoys cooking and not that confident either)

Things that will be refused point blank by either wife, daughter or both -

Lentils (yes I know - that's your first answer out the window)
Any curry of any type
Offal - Livers, etc
Pasta Bakes (although strangely pasta in general is ok)
Baked Beans
EDIT: Soup of any kind, although I'm working on this one (I love soup)