LAZY GIRL MEALS suggestions?

• Granola parfait
• Cottage cheese with berries
• Nut butter and fruit jam/preserve toast with cottage cheese
• Sweet potato toast*
• Mini pizza*
• Sandwich (eg Cilantro turkey burger with raita or tzatziki or toasted pita with gouda, avocado & tomato or avocado & salmon toast) Flatbreads (like pita/tortillas) for wrap options, can sometimes remedy some early morning takeoffs.
• Devilled egg toast*

* For when you're feeling up to putting in more time than you usually do to put your breakfast bites together.

ETA: Alternatively, you may consider meal delivery services or something similiar, for your meal options. Personally, I like Dream Dinners and Fresh & Easy which has unfortunately closed.

Healthy ready meals. I wouldn't recommend them every day, but they come in handy and you can steam or stir fry extra veg to go with them.

I batch beans and brown rice on Sundays (instant pot = zero effort). Nuke frozen broccoli, dump 100g beans, 100g rice. Squirt sriracha— boom. I also bake a bag of small sweet potatoes and eat them cold for snacks. Overnight oats in IP for breakfasts with blueberries and packaged nuts. Premade salads and pre-cut fruit bowls for lunch.

following
I want to know what deviled egg toast is

Me and my family are basic, I love my food quite bland. But one of my favorites is a simple chicken rice and peas and a tiny bit of soy sauce

mjrc2 wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

I'm a fan of bag o' frozen veg + precooked protein of your choice. I keep chicken sausages and frozen shrimp on hand. Every couple of months I cook a huge batch of brown rice and freeze individual portions in a muffin pan, so I also have rice pucks to add if I need a starch.

What is your method for freezing brown rice? I have never had much luck freezing rice.

I cook my rice in the crock pot, let it cool and then just spoon 50 gram (scant half cup) portions into a muffin tin lined with plastic wrap. Freeze until hard and put in ziploc bags with all the air pressed out. When I reheat it, I add a spoonful of water and zap for 30-60 seconds. The water during reheating seems to make the most difference to the texture.

hippysprout wrote: »

mjrc2 wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

I'm a fan of bag o' frozen veg + precooked protein of your choice. I keep chicken sausages and frozen shrimp on hand. Every couple of months I cook a huge batch of brown rice and freeze individual portions in a muffin pan, so I also have rice pucks to add if I need a starch.

What is your method for freezing brown rice? I have never had much luck freezing rice.

I freeze and reheat rice regularly. I cook it in a rice cooker, let it cool completely, then weigh it out into freezer bags and flatten them out to freeze. I reheat it directly in the freezer bag and it comes out perfect every time without having to add water. I've done this with brown, jasmine, basmati and flavored rices.

OP because I'm also sometimes lazy, I will cook chicken and some sauce in the slow cooker (general tso sauce, tikka masala, marinara, salsa, whatever I can find in a jar that tastes good) and portion the chicken and rice into bags together, freeze them in flat planks and reheat for lunches at work.

Really good idea! I just purchased an instapot so I will definitely try this. When you track it do you track the sauce to? or is it not that much to worry about?

I cook large pots, I got a express cooker and a slow cooker, let it cool and then keep it in individual portions in the freezer. I cook three or four different meals every two weeks and that's it, then I just have some salads and meat free in the grill. Some recipes:

- Ratatouille: canned chopped tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, onions, black pepper, chopped onions, garlic and some vegetable seasoning.
- Double bean meat free chilli: a can of chopped tomatoes, a can of cooked mixed beans, some (Tesco) free meat mince, chopped onions and chilli.
- Veggies and lentil soup: red lentils, carrots, celery, a leek, chopped tomatoes, coriander, garlic and vegetable seasoning.

Super lazy girl here as well. I am more the type to make up recipes than follow them, so I follow some basic guidelines that I feel are very easy.

1) Roast and bake nearly everything. Potatoes, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, corn, whatever veggie is in season or on sale - heck, eat fruit this way, too - although I tend to eat fruits fresh. Cut up into manageable pieces, toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe some herbs like rosemary or thyme, spread them on a lined sheet pan, bake @ 450F until tender. No mess, 5 min of work, done. For greens like spinach and chard, I stream them with water, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

2) Meats - buy precut portions of chicken, pork, streak, whatever - brown in cast iron, bake covered at recommended temp for that meat until done. You can also shred up chicken or pork cuts with a fork and bag that for sandwiches. Make a sauce using meat juices.

3) Some sauces I buy, some are mixed with 3 or 4 ingredients, like a honey mustard sauce or cream sherry sauce for chicken. Sauces can be very basic. All you need is a fat, an acid, spices, and a little sweet for depth. Butter + rice vinegar + salt/garlic/pepper, for example. An extra liquid can make them more substantial, like adding cream or yogurt or coconut milk. Vegetable or meat broths are a good liquid base, too. Additions like capers, fresh herbs, raisins, dates, shallot, cherry tomatoes, etc make it fancy without much effort besides rough chopping, tossing it in and cooking a couple minutes. Mix all the ingredients together and cook them down to the consistency you want.

My go-to is a lemon yogurt sauce (no cooking needed) that takes 2 minutes to make: 1 cup Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lemon, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic (can be purchased in a jar if you want), salt and pepper to taste. Slather it on meat, cooked veggies, grains, pretty much anything.

4) Grains - rice, farro, quinoa, millet, barley, couscous - simmer with water, salt and pepper until cooked according to the type of grain. Top with sauce used for meat, or coat with butter, olive oil, coconut oil, whatever sounds good to you.

I tend away from beans because I cannot tolerate them very well. If I do eat them, I buy them canned/precooked and heat and mash them on the stove with spices.

Meals with zero cooking:
Popcorn, cheddar or jack cheese and apples with peanut butter

Popcorn shrimp and cocktail sauce on cream cheese and crackers (watch out with this one, a little goes a long way)

Tuna fish sandwich - tuna mixed with mayo, chopped nuts, chopped olives, parsley, salt, pepper, relish - whatever else sounds good

Accompany everything with a salad (my salads have spinach, romaine, spring greens, shredded carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, blue cheese, chopped apple, dried cranberries, a nut (walnuts/almonds/pecans/cashews), shredded sharp cheddar). I prep the toppings ahead of time and pull them out to use over a week, or if I am too lazy for that I just use the toppings that require no prep like cherry tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles.

I hope this is helpful - we all have our histories and familiarities with how food should be, but this is how I have come to feed myself that works pretty well and doesn’t require too much effort.

1. Huge salad topped with drained 5oz can of salmon and ranch dressing.

2. Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat and an apple.

3. Soup, salad and sandwich; (usually tomato or veg soup, small garden salad and tuna or cheese sandwich)

Freakin’ baked turkey burgers over a giant bed of greens. I wouldn’t say I’m lazy, but I’m a mom and I like to be efficient and straight to the point. I’ll usually boil some whole wheat penne to add to the plate-o-fuel. Super easy.