Any suggestions for lazy dinner after work

asiadasia21

Any suggestions for a healthy meal after work or when you don’t feel like cooking. It is so easy to go through the drive thru after a long day. Any ideas for quick and easy meals?

amusedmonkey

My laziest meal is 3 minute noodles with a can of tuna. Canned beans are also handy for a quick and filling bean salad. If I have leftover chicken breast, I make a chicken salad sandwich (shredded chicken with greek yogurt, pressed garlic, cucumbers, and dill).

canadjineh

Scrambled eggs with a large handful of fresh spinach leaves wilted in, drizzle with a bit of hot sauce or salsa, on the side - celery sticks with cheddar or cream cheese in them.

amorfati601070

stir fry takes like 10 - 15 minutes. Load up on the veggies.

candylilacs

Hummus, if you like veggies dip them, or rice crackers!

neugebauer52

I have watched the Chinese way of preparing stir fried cabbage. Add a little bit of spiciness, soy sauce, sesame seeds / oil etc. My quick recipe. Also like eggs and spinach leaves (thank you canadjineh) - quickly prepared and lots of variations possible.

yirara

Cook pasta
Put oil in pan, add chopped onion, when ready add tin of tomatoes in pan, add tinned tuna, pinch of sugar and bit of lemon juice to lift the taste. Mix.

Alternatively
Cook pasta
Put chorizo or other hard sausage in small pieces in pan and cook the fat out. Add onion and garlic, add tin of tomatoes, add lemon to lift the taste. Mix. serve with parmesan cheese

Or cook very small pasta, like ellbows
Chop onion and garlic, in pan with oil until both sweat and a bit crispy. Cut tin of luncheon beef into small cubes. Remove onion from pan, throw in cubes and cook until crisps. Add onion/garlic back. Mix with pasta once ready. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Or cook rice, make basic teriyaki sauce
pan fry salmon in slices, cut vegetables in the meantime. remove salmon from pan. Put veggies into pan and maybe a drop of the teriyaki near the end. Put rice into big bowl. Veggies on top. Salmon back into pan and glaze with teriyaki, small amounts at a time. put salmon into bowl

Boil water. Chop spring onions, red pepper, chili pepper, garlic and ginger or whatever you like. Cut chicken.
Oil into pan, add garlic and ginger and cook until fregrant. Add chicken. Boil noodles in the meantime. Add veggies to pan and cook until ready. Add soy sauce and fish sauce in ratio 3:2. Drain noodle and add to pan. Add green from spring onions and stir. Eat.

All takes about 20 minutes to cook.

SuzySunshine99

Rotisserie chicken from Costco or the grocery store. It's precooked, so I just re-heat it in the oven.
I'll through some veggies in the oven to roast with it.

Lazz5k

Rotisserie chicken is such a smart idea! & it's sooo good!!
I also find myself making spaghetti squash bowls to make a quick meal.
Microwave a spaghetti squash, and sautee some peeled shrimp quick.
Once your done add alfredo sauce to the spaghettti squash, with shrimp and boom! Shrimp alfredo!!

echmain3

asiadasia21 wrote: »

Any suggestions for a healthy meal

What do you mean by “healthy”?

(I’ve asked this a million times and have yet to get a straight answer)

vim_n_vigor

In our house we prepare the bulk of our meals over the weekend and just heat and serve during the week, or we use the crock pot to cook our food through the day while we are at work. Then you can make pretty much whatever meals fit withing your definition of healthy.

cwolfman13

make a sandwich?

Lounmoun

Pasta and salad
Zoodles with sauce, cooked chicken and mozzarella
Eggs
Sandwich or wrap
Leftovers- soup reheats nicely

nocgirl72

Rotisserie Chicken is a good one. Or a couple chicken soft tacos from taco bell. Chick Fila grilled chicken sandwich. Wendy's small chili and a side salad?

vanityy99

canadjineh wrote: »

Scrambled eggs with a large handful of fresh spinach leaves wilted in, drizzle with a bit of hot sauce or salsa, on the side - celery sticks with cheddar or cream cheese in them.

I like this.

quiksylver296

Something already in the crockpot is my favorite. Done when I arrive home. Yay!

littlegreenparrot1

Stab potato with fork, put in microwave to bake.

Cook omelette while potato cooks. Add whatever veg is lurking.

Eat.

sarabushby

Spanish omlette / Tortilla (so many recipes you can try but just use whatever you have around you. To cook the potatoes or sweet potatoes fast just microwave them then slice)

Regular omelettes - not just ham/cheese/egg/mushroom but have you tried adding tonnes crab meat, sliced asparagus & some red chilli?

Egg fried rice with added prawns/chicken/pork veggies etc. Super fast if you use pre-cooked sachets or frozen rice.

Baked beans on toast /cheese on toast

Microwaved jacket potato with any filling

NadNight

I usually keep some microwave meals on hand in the freezer which are good but failing that I go for pasta which once cooked I put in pan with tuna, cheese and whatever green veg I can find (peas, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, spring onion).

lynn_glenmont

littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »

Stab potato with fork, put in microwave to bake.

Cook omelette while potato cooks. Add whatever veg is lurking.

Eat.

Don't forget to take the fork out of the potato after you stab it and before you put it in the microwave. Especially if it's a metal fork.

lynn_glenmont

I'll often do a "starter course" that doesn't need to be cooked when I'm in that situation to take the edge off, then make something cooked.

Tonight when I finally was able to stop working and get some food, I started with about 2 oz. of cooked ham (I put the Easter ham in small packages, enough for a couple of meals, and froze them, and now I can take them out one at a time whenever I'm in the mood for ham), an ounce of cheddar cheese, a 90 calorie potato roll (dinner roll size), and a mandarin orange. About 380 kcal.

Later, I threw a frozen Trader Joe's salmon burger in a pan to cook while I chopped a hot pepper, pulled some frozen diced onions from the freezer (whenever I chop a fresh onion for a recipe, if there's any leftover, I either pop it in a quart-size freezer bag with remnants for making stock, or I dice it and freeze -- it works fine from the freezer for any recipe where you want to saute it), and tossed them into the skillet with a little fat I had saved from the pan drippings from baking the ham, along with leftover diced butternut squash (bought frozen, so I never did any prep work on it). Cooked it like hash or home fries, and served with the salmon and a little Tabasco chipotle hot sauce. And a glass of unsweet plain soy milk to wash it down. Another 400 kcal.

Anyway, I'd say the themes for me is to (1) have stuff on hand you can eat without cooking -- leftover cooked meat, charcuterie, jerky, cheese, eggs, any veggies you like to eat cold (I like the edamame they sometimes sell in the fresh produce section in little plastic tubs), pickled foods, olives, bread, crackers, V8 juice, fruit, etc. If you come home really hungry, have some of those ready-to-eat foods to take the edge off. (Sometimes, I have those kinds of foods as my whole meal when I don't have a lot of calories left, which usually would mean I'm not that hungry, and also might not feel like making the effort to cook if I'm only going to have 300 calories for dinner). Then, (2) have already prepped foods on hand if you want to make something cooked but don't want to do a lot of work. These can be leftovers, frozen or canned foods, or foods that you've prepped (or bought prepped) earlier in the week.

Another trick is to put a pot of water on to boil as soon as you walk into the kitchen, while you think about what you want. Then it's ready if you decide to cook pasta or rice (you can cook and drain rice the same way you cook and drain pasta), boil potatoes, boil veggies, steam veggies (transfer some of the boiling water to another pot and insert steamer basket, boil or poach eggs, quickly refresh lots of different cooked things you might have in the refrigerator or freezer ...

endermako

get an airfryer, put everything in it, eat. so quick and yummy, you don't need oil. or you can premake your dinner on the weekends and just warm it up. I do that for tacos a lot

trisH_7183

Take a deep breath,keep a good thought about it’s nice to be home.

There is always cereal if that fits,but I like to make hamburgers .....eat one,freeze the rest.Do the same with salmon patties.Add a rotisserie chicken off the bone & frozen in zip lock bags, there you go,3 different proteins to choose from.

You can pop a bag of frozen steam cook veggies in microwave that will be done before you can change. Baked potato is good with chicken,cheese & salsa. Make soup,there are lots of fast,easy recipes on line.Rice & pasta can be reheated.Chef salads can be super easy........make the base then add meat etc when you are ready to eat.

_faedreamer

Get yourself an instant pot, you can whip up a delicious, hearty home cooked meal in less than half an hour. It's changed the way I live, I swear. No excuses for ordering crap when I can make amazing food so quickly and easily.

kshama2001

vim_n_vigor wrote: »

In our house we prepare the bulk of our meals over the weekend and just heat and serve during the week, or we use the crock pot to cook our food through the day while we are at work. Then you can make pretty much whatever meals fit withing your definition of healthy.

Ya, this is what I did when I worked long hours outside the home.

Now I work from home so there is no drive through between work and home

If I don't feel much like cooking I have something revolving around eggs, which I can do on autopilot.

kbmnurse1

Big salad.

trisH_7183

Easy recipe......any white bean will do. Can add fresh spinach if you like.

Tuscan Sausage and White Bean Soup
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
20 mins

Course: Soup
Servings: 4 people
Author: Barbara
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup onion chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 14.5 oz. can chicken broth
1/2 lb. ground pork sausage cooked and drained
1 15.5 oz. can undrained white beans
Salt and Pepper
Instructions
Melt butter in medium saucepan.
Add onion and garlic; cook for 1 to 2 minutes while stirring occasionally or until onion is tender.
Stir in flour.
Slowly add the evaporated milk and chicken broth while stirring constantly.
Once the mixture comes to a complete boil, add sausage and beans.
Heat through, and season with salt and pepper.

HereToLose50

Quick sandwich with deli meat and veggies like lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion -whatever you might put on a sub can be on a regular sandwich too. Quick toast the bread. Little mayo or plain Greek yogurt, little salt, oregano, basil, splash balsamic vinegar, etc

I make quick chicken or tuna salad a lot either for a sandwich or on top of lettuce variety. Chicken or tuna, weighed portion plain Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, diced onion, diced cucumber or pickle, sometimes diced fresh jalapeno, sometimes a little mustard. I'm allergic to celery, but that's a good crunchy item to add for a satisfying texture also. You can use boiled eggs in it or instead of the meat too. Egg salad doesn't have to be boring 😁

You could also precook some burger patties of your choice and individually freeze them. Pop one in the microwave then assemble your own burger according to your diet needs. Same with chopped chicken or other meats. I find having precooked and frozen portions of meat keeps me out of the drive thru the most.

Safari_Gal

Steak - chuck it on the grill - flip , flip 2min on each side - bon appetit

brittanystebbins95

I meal prep so I don't typically have this problem. But if I'm not feeling like eating what's in my fridge and I want something quick and easy, my go to is usually soup. Its so easy to just pop it in the microwave. And there are so many flavors to choose from.

debtay123

I too LOVE the frozen steamers- there are so many veggies to choose from. Some with sauces which have more sodium- but plenty with just the veggies- then you can mix other veggies or a startch such as potoates(nuke it) or instant rice etc- then add the protein- can be beans or deli meat or roasted chicken or tuna packets etc- you get the idea. Quick easy and yummy- esp. based on which sauces you use to "liven" the recipe up