Favorite meal with minimal cooking

+ 1

Love tuna pasta salad.

An "easy" thing I make is to always have cooked ground turkey or lean ground beef in my fridge. I simply add it to salads, lentils or make wraps with it (tortilla/cheese. etc). I toss it in eggs too. I cook in bulk on the weekends and then nosh on it during the week. I don't know if you can sub it with fake meat....but that's my quick go to.

Chinese take-out

Not a massive fish fan, but quick seafood things I've liked
- smoked herring on toast
- pan-fried trout, lightly breaded (I'm sure you could try it with oat flour instead of refined white, and maybe use paper towels to absorb a tiny bit of the oil )
- scallops or shrimp with olive oil, garlic, paprika and lemon with kale or spinach
- mussels
- low-cal frozen fish (breaded, tbh, but I try to pick healthier products)

Other
- pasta, when I have no time. I might throw some broccoli in there for the last six minutes of cooking, and/or whatever meat I have on hand, or cherry tomatoes, or I'll cook up some mushrooms and zuchini on the side. Or I'll just have spinach salad with it
- rotisserie chicken saves my day, too
- eggs
- a can of soup with half a can of beans or lentils thrown in (for days I'm seriously out of juice); other half goes to a salad the next day
- just antipasto - cheese, bread, spreads

The rest of my go-tos all involve beef.

I think most people missed the part where you specified being a pescetarian. Fortunately, seafood cooks very fast.

I buy large bags of frozen fish, usually flounder, talapia, salmon, cod, swai, and Mahi Mahi. Get the ones that are flash-frozen and wrapped individually. That way you can just throw one into the fridge to defrost overnight, or drop it in a bowl of cold water under the tap for about 20-30 minutes to defrost while you're doing other things. Shrimp also cooks very fast, and you should get the peeled, deveined kind to save time (tail or no tail is a question...the tails add flavor, but it does take time to pop them off when you eat them)

To cook, you can sautee, broil or even microwave with your favorite seasoning sprinkled on top and a squirt of lemon or lime. At most, this takes about 12 minutes for thicker pieces of Mahi and salmon, much less for thinner filets.

For sides, do you have a rice cooker? It's a great way to cook dried rice, quinoa and lentils without having to watch to prevent burning. Just put it in and do something else while it cooks, about 20-30 minutes for most types (a little more for really hard brown and red rices).

There are specially made steamer dishes for the microwave. They usually come in 3 pieces, a base which holds water, a basket with holes to hold the veggies but let steam through, and a cover. You can get them in all sizes. They're also good for steaming your seafood.

If you get the rice cooker, you can also experiment with adding veggies and seasonings to your rice, lentils, and quinoa to make a one pot meal in 30 minutes. Just add what you want and add a little more water. Make sure the veggies are in small bits. I often add shredded carrots and finely chopped onion to my rice before cooking.

These days, you can usually find veggies in the produce department in microwaveable steamer bags. All sorts of french beans, sugar snap peas, cubed butternut squash, baby asparagus, baby carrots, etc., sometimes in mixes, and sometimes with seasoning included. If there's no seasoning, all you need is a little butter and salt and pepper, maybe a little garlic depending on the veg.

Saute two or three cups of spinach in the barest wisp of olive oil, crack two or three eggs into the pan and scramble with your spatula, incorporating the spinach into it. Slide out onto a plate and top with goat cheese. Delicious, quick, and only one pan to wash.

Spread canned fat free refried beans into a whole wheat tortilla, fold both sides in to form a flat burrito. Bake in the oven for 7 or 8 minutes, top with salsa, greek yogurt, and lettuce (or sub avocado for the greek yogurt.) It takes only an extra couple of minutes to make 4 of them and sometimes I do that on the weekend and just reheat in the microwave through the week.

Put cod fillets on a baking sheet and sprinkle with chili powder, salt, and cumin. Roast in the oven at 450 for 5-6 minutes. Remove and squeeze lime juice over the fish. Meanwhile steam some veggies in the microwave (you can buy the steamer bags or just put a couple of tablespoons of water in a glass bowl with some carrots and cover them and steam.) If you have some extra time you can roast some cauliflower in the same 450 oven, just toss it in a bit of olive oil and roast until caramellized.

I like to make savory oatmeal sometimes: put half a cup of oatmeal in a microwaveable bowl with a cup of water and a pinch of salt. Microwave three minutes, then stir in some grated parmesan cheese. It's good as is, but you can also toss in some frozen peas or squeeze a little lemon juice over it. It's kind of reminiscent of a risotto but healthier and without all the stirring.

Being single I cook full or large recipes & freeze them in individual servings to pull out when time is short & pop in the microwave. One of my favorite b'fasts is a healthy & balanced baked blueberry French toast casserole made with nonfat milk, nine grain bread, egg beaters & some egg etc. Crockpot oatmeal with apples or other added fruit is great to cook ahead, divide up into servings, freeze & microwave to thaw in the am. I freeze a lot of turkey chilli & soup recipes that are easy to grab for lunch @ work. Having a green salad prepped once or twice a week is a great base that I add chicken, fish, cottage cheese,
beans etc to for a fast dinner. A piece of toast or part of a sweet potato rounds out the meal.

Bento box with loads of fresh veg, shop bought sushi and microwave rice?

Fish is ridiculously fast.

Thick salmon fillets take all of 15 minutes to cook pan-seared, use a bag of those 90-second microwave rices, and in a second pan get some broccoli going.

Most of the time when I am pressed for time I do a crockpot meal. I realize you won't eat this but something like this is my usual "No time at night" thing:

Get the crock pot out in the morning, turn on low
Chop an onion into big pieces
Handful of baby carrots
Handful of celery cut into pieces
Salt, pepper, spices, bay leaf
Cut 1lb of chuck roast into bite-size pieces, layer them on the veggies
Cut some potatoes into bite-size chunks - the kind you can eat skin-on are best for fast prep
Layer them on top of the meat.
Pour in a can of Guinness or any other dark roasty beer
Adjust liquid level by adding water so it comes up about half way the meat.
Cover and leave it alone for like 8-10 hours.

Start to finish its maybe 10 minutes of "work".

When you get home if you want you can reduce the liquid into a thick sauce if you have the time, or not worry about it.

rbfdac wrote: »

Thanks again for more suggestions. I need to get my crock pot out and I also need to look in to cooking scallops. I love scallops but never have thought to cook them at home.

There was a Gordon Ramsay youtube video I found a while back where he demonstrates how to cook them, and I found it extremely helpful. They come out wonderfully, and so quick to do.

Right now I would say chicken waldorf salad. Chicken, 2 apples, walnuts, craisins, greek yogurt, light mayo, lemon juice and pepper.

my latest minimal cooking meal http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2014/10/23/how-to-make-pan-roasted-pork-chops/

throw in a baked potato an hour before hand, and some asparagus right before you put in the chops, and you got a balanced meal.

I take raw eggs, whisk them, pour them into a muffin tin, add chopped up veggies and shredded cheese, and ham or bacon sometimes, cook them in the oven, then freeze. They're great to just grab, throw in the microwave, and eat while you're running out the door. I'm pretty sure there are recipes for this online.