How to create quick and tasty meals

Not every meal needs to come from a recipe book or take hours for you to prepare.

I work full time plus have approximately 3 hours a day commuting time.   I want to spend as little time in my kitchen during the week as possible.  If I can’t get it onto the table in 30 minutes, I’m not interested.

Below is a selection of meals I have made recently which may give you a bit of inspiration.  All of these took less than 30 minutes from fridge to table!

A lot of my meals will use left overs from a previous day or from batch cooking.  These will save you a lot of time and will also stop you wasting food.

Ham, Egg & Chips

My dad absolutely loves gammon, egg and chips when we go out to dinner, so this is a take on it in his honour!

Broccoli features a lot in my meals.  Mainly because I love it, but also it is so good for you.

First I put the broccoli on to boil.   I used left over new potatoes from a previous meal.  I quartered them then sprayed them with garlic Frylight.  I cooked them in my actifry for about 10 minutes.  While these were cooking I placed the smoked ham slices into my frying pan.  As its non stick I didn’t need to use any oil etc.  Just before it was fully cooked, I stacked the ham slices up to make room for my eggs.  I added the eggs to the pan and put the lid on.  After a couple of minutes you get great eggs without having to flip the them.

In total, I think this meal took 20 minutes.  Healthy and delicious.

Ham & Egg Salad with Chips

I do love a salad but sometimes I need something hot to go with it.

For this dish firstly I boiled 2 eggs.  To save time I used boiling water from the kettle.  They only need 5 minutes to cook.   Once cooked I set aside to cool enough before peeling.   I quartered left over new potatoes.  Sprayed with garlic Frylight and cooked in the actifry for 10 minutes.  Next,  I chopped up lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and the egg and mixed all together.  Add ground salt and pepper and vinegar to chips.

One again, with was ready in less than 20 minutes.  I didn’t use any dressing except for vinegar on the chips!

Jerk Salmon

I love salmon.  Again its really good for you and quick and easy to prepare.

I firstly added jerk seasoning to the salmon and set it aside.  I started boiling the broccoli.  I have an electric spriraliser so it was quick and easy to make spaghetti out of 1 large courgette and 3 carrots.  I placed this in my frying pan along with a few sprays of Frylight.  I cooked it for about 5 minutes, then set aside with the lid on to keep warm.  In another frying pan I cooked the salmon.  My pans don’t need oil so unless I want it for flavouring such as the garlic Frylight I don’t use it.  I cooked the salmon skin side down first.  I turned it regularly so it didn’t burn.  I like mine so its just cooked as it is more moist so only takes about 10/15 minutes to cook.

Breadless Burger

This night I was really craving a cheeseburger but didn’t want the bread!

I took less than 5% fat beef mince.  I added a meat seasoning to the mixture for flavouring.  The one I use is from South Africa but you can use anything you wish.  Just pepper would give it a nice flavour, but don’t be afraid to experiment.

I stuffed the mince mixture into Portobello mushrooms and baked them in the oven for 15 minutes on 180 degrees.   Once cooked I added cheese to top and put back in over to melt.  I chopped a large potato into chips, sprayed with butter flavoured Frylight and put in my actify for 15 minutes.   I had left over vegetable so of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots from the night before, so I put these into the microwave to warm for 5 minutes.

So much more healthier than the usual burger and chips!

You can also add sliced tomato and pickled gherkins if you wish.

Jacket Potato

Jacket Potatoes are perfect for cold days.  This meal was created because I was freezing cold and starving when I came in from work. It is a great example of using up left overs too!

A few days earlier I had made a stew.  I froze the left overs.  I put the potato into the microwave for 5 minutes.  When cooked I defrosted the stew mix in microwave for another 5 minutes.  I opened up potato and added the stew mix to the top, and popped it back in the microwave for another 4 minutes.  While that was cooking I chopped some lettuce and tomato.  Very simple but it was very tasty.

If you wanted to you could also add cheese to this.

Cheats Banoffe!

Sometimes you want something sweet.  This is a breakfast or a dessert!  You choose!

Pour 40 g of Grapenuts into dish (HEB).  Add toffee flavoured muller light.  Top with chopped banana.

Simple but delicious!

Meat free Brunch

Sometimes I don’t fancy meat!  This meal is very filling.  The secret is in the bread.  This is my Wheatbran Bread.  Its very simple to make.  Check out my recipe on my website or copy this link into your search engine.   http://bit.ly/2FZgoOp

The rest of the meal was cooked in 1 pan!  I added the beans, tomatoes and eggs to the pan, put on lid and left for 3 minutes.

Perfect!

This bread is also very versatile.  You can prepare it the day before and use if as you would normal bread.  Great with cheese, dipped in soups etc.

 

I hope these few meals give you some ideas.

Don’t throw last nights left overs away.  They will last a couple of days in the fridge or you can freeze them. Make sure you label it so you know what you have though!  I have lost count the amount of times I have had to wait until its defrosted to know what is in the container!  Makes preparing dinner interesting though!

Be creative.  There are no rules when it comes to cooking.  Its just what you fancy!  My husband asks me every night what we are having for dinner.   Many a time I will just say ‘something with chicken’.  I might know what ingredients I’m planning to use, but until I start cooking anything could happen!