With 20mins to prepare/eat food.....

wedjul05

what can I have??? I only have a window of about 20mins when I come home from work and then collect the kids from creche.

I head to the gym when the kids go to bed, usually just have a protein shake after the gym as it's too late to eat food.

I usually have an omelette with tuna/sweetcorn which I've been having for months but I am not bored of yet! Some days I would have rice cakes/peanut butter instead but the omelette is filling and I need it, the rice cakes/peanut butter aren't all that filling esp as I do a hard workout later on in the evening.

In work at say 12pm, I would have my 'dinner' type food i.e today it was spicy lentil stew. In the mid-aft, I would have fruit or a small bar of something. I get home from work at 5pm and I am usually hungry so I need something verrryyyyyy quick and easy to prepare.

I have been cooking chicken/turkey fillets and freezing them so I could have one with something when I come in from work? But what????? Veg take time to cook. Don't want to go down the route of buying the bags of steamed veg as they are expensive.

Any suggestions welcome:flowerforyou:

Scoochie1

Stir fry?

wedjul05

Not a bad idea. I could prepare batches of veg cut up and freeze them and pull out of the freezer when needed. Noodles do only take a few mins to cook?

I prepare all my work meals in advance and freeze them anyway so I'm used to doing something like this. Good idea! thanks

dls06

Thin sliced and pounded boneless chicken breast lightly dusted with flour, salt and pepper sauteed 2-3 min a side, Small cut potatoes boiled with garic, onion and thyme. Steamed or roasted veggies only take 15-20 min. Bagged salad with lots of cut veggies. I can have it on the table in min.
Frittata with lots of sauteed veggies, Thoma's sahara whole wheat pita, salad or fruit depending on what you need for the days goals.

asugar

Hi. If you have cooked brown rice, you can whip up a stir fry of chicken or tofu and veggies in olive oil in 20 minutes. Or do a big batch on Sunday and then reheat for the beginning of the week. Good luck.
Also a hummus spinach wrap is a quick healthy mini meal!

rc630

I would suggest sandwiches
If you have a good amount of calories available, use a hearty whole grain bread, or if not you can use one of the light whole grain breads (Natures Own, Sara Lee 45, etc). Use either deli meat (try to find low sodium) or chicken/turkey/other meat you've cooked at home and shredded or sliced.. or you can use cheese or peanut butter if you don't want to eat meat.
Load up with veggies (cucumbers, tomato, etc) or fruit (if you're using peanut butter, try bananas or berries) to make it more filling

dsjohndrow

I made my own frozen microwave veggies. I do them Sunday afternoon, and make 5 meals worth; 3 I freeze for later in the week, and 2 stay well in the frig. If you use ones that have varried cooking times such as carrots and red peppers, I pre-cook them. I also grill and freeze them too. We like yellow / zuchinni / mushrooms / eggplant as they have the same grilling time. I just use oil and premade Italian seasoning. (I cook chicken and tuna at the same time.) Then just add a tablesppon f water and put them on high for a few minute and half. It's not the same as fresh, but better than, and cheaper than frozen.

wedjul05

I'm liking all the suggestions, thanks. Keep them coming.

I reckon I will just have to be even more organised than I am now! Can you freeze rice with veg ok?? I could cook some peppers, courgette, thin sliced carrot etc with rice and then just add some sort of cooking sauce when I an reheating them once thawed.

THCamel

....omelette....

BerryH

Soup and a sandwich

dls06

If you have 20 Min.,You can cook fresh Veggies and whole grain rice. No need to have everything frozen. and most meat will cook in min. unless you are trying to tenderize.

wedjul05

I have to say my 20mins is more like 5 preparing, putting on washing, picking up food off the floor from the kids/tidying up the TV room after the morning chaos, 2 mins stirring food, doing a quick dish wash, stir food some more and then dish up and eat!!! I multi-task.

I'm liking the stir-fry suggestion, prepared maybe ven half cooked veg, frozen, thawed, reheated. Defo don't have the time to cook rice from scratch.

Going to invest in a good bean soup recipe for the autumn time too so will make that on a sunday for the week also. If only I had more time to cook/freeze and a large freezer!!!!!!