Any suggestions for lazy dinner after work

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

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.

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!!

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.

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

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.

Stab potato with fork, put in microwave to bake.

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

Eat.

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).

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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

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