Tag: easy

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Throw it Together in Three Minutes Lunch

Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch

Throw it Together in Three Minutes Lunch

This was a quick tuna salad thrown together a day I needed healthy food in a hurry and it worked so well I copied it again the next day again.
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Prep Time 3 minutes
Total Time 3 minutes
Course Appetizer, Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine Mediterranean
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • ½ tin Chickpeas Drained – the other half tin with the drained juice put in a mug in the fridge for tomorrow
  • 6 whole Cherry tomatoes Quartered
  • 1 tin Tuna Drained
  • 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
  • 10 whole Black olives From jar in brine
  • 1 tsp Capers From jar in brine

Optional½

  • 6 leaves Basil Ripped into pieces

Instructions
 

  • Chuck it all together in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste, stir then enjoy!

Notes

This is about 3.5 of the 5-a-day target, here’s the working:
6 cherry tomatoes 168 g
10 olives 40 g
Basil 6 g
Total weight of veg 214 g
5-a-day per serving (80g = 1 portion of 5-a-day) of veg 2.5  
Chickpeas 117.5 g
Plus portion of beans/pulses (no matter how much always 1 portion) 1  
Number of servings 1 Servings
5-a-day per serving (veg plus beans/pulses) 3.5 5-a-day per serving
Keyword 5-a-day, cheap, easy, quick
  • Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
    Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
  • Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
    Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
  • Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
    Throw it together quick 3 minute lunch
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Recipes

Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)

Yellow split pea dahl with mini naan and glass of wine

Slow Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)

ScranMa
This is a really easy, cheap and tasty dish, and can be made from store cupboard and freezer ingredients. If you're using the spices for the first time you can use a mild curry powder instead of the individual spices listed here to cut costs. It can be a main dish, or served as a side dish.
My kids eat this because they like the Roald Dahl stories (hence the name Yellow Roald Dahl) and because it's not very spicy. Add 1tsp hot chilli powder to the slow cooker mix for some extra zing!
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian

Equipment

  • Slow cooker (crockpot)

Ingredients
  

  • 8 spray Spray oil
  • 260 g Yellow split peas Rinsed (or not if you're feeling lazy)
  • 3 cloves Garlic Chopped (or straight from freezer)
  • 1 whole Onion Chopped (or straight from freezer)
  • 2 tsp Turmeric
  • 3 tsp Cumin Seeds
  • 2 tsp Root Ginger Chopped (or straight from freezer)
  • 2 whole Stock Cubes Best with 1 Kallo Vegetable and 1 Kallo Garlic & Herb
  • 750 ml Water
  • 1 stick Lovage Optional! Included once as a friend gave us one stick and it was great, you could use 2-3 sticks of celery chopped instead, it's an entirely optional extra .
  • 400 g Carrots Diced

Instructions
 

  • Put the slow cooker on a medium heat.
  • Mist the slow cooker ceramic bowl with cooking spray. Put the split peas, onion, turmeric, ground cumin, crushed garlic, ginger and stock in slow cooker and stir. Optionally add 400g of carrots (or cauliflower florets are also a good tweak), submerging in the liquid. Cover and leave on medium for 6h (or low for 11h).
  • For an optional side, which tastes so good the kids were fighting over the last sprout (I still can't quite believe it): just before end of slow cooking time, heat 1/2 tbsp sesame oil in a frying pan and gently fry 1 clove of sliced garlic and the other 1 teaspoon cumin seeds for 1 minute, stirring until fragrant. Add 350g of shredded brussels sprouts and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until bright green (don't leave them on while you try to persuade a child to wash hands before food or they burn…see photo…oops!).
  • Serve with optional naan or rice – the photo has this dahl on a bed of steamed savoy cabbage to increase veg intake and a garlic and coriander mini naan.

Notes

I first tried this for 6h on low following a different guide, but the split peas were still a bit hard, so it worked after putting on high for another 1.5 hours, by which time everyone was too hungry.
Keyword cheap, easy, indian, kids, scranitfortheplanet, slow cooker, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian
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Sprouts Worth Fighting Over

Sprouts quick fried in sesame oil with garlic and cumin seeds

Sprouts worth fighting over

ScranMa
I know this sounds ridiculous, but my kids actually wanted more of these and fought over who got the last one…they are so simple, fast, healthy and tasty if you can get the prepped small button sprouts in season.
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Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 5 minutes
Course Side Dish
Servings 3

Ingredients
  

  • 0.5 tbsp Sesame oil
  • 1 clove Garlic Chopped (straight from the freezer)
  • 0.5 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 240 g Brussels Sprouts Small, whole, prepped in-season sprouts are the best

Instructions
 

  • Add the sesame oil, frozen garlic and cumin seeds to the frying pan and gently heat so that the oil takes on the flavour of the additions for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the sprouts, and fry on a high heat for 2-3 minutes until they are bright green and only just slightly soft.

Notes

Don’t use big sprouts for this, or they’ll still be hard and not cooked, if you only have these give them a quick steam for 2-3 minutes before putting into the frying pan of tasty oil.
Also don’t spend 3 minutes trying to persuade a child to wash hands before dinner or they do burn (although somehow they didn’t taste burnt, just caramelised and yummy, thank goodness, and still the kids fought over them).
Keyword cheap, easy, scranitfortheplanet, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian
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Recipes

Quick Chilli

Quick Chilli

We've all got a basic chilli recipe, this one is based on our Best Bolognese Ever with a couple of store cupboard additions to keep it simple and quick, since all the hard work in making the Bolognese was done another day.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 5 minutes
Best Bolognese Ever 40 minutes
Total Time 46 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Add the best bolognese ever to a pan, add in the kidney beans and hot chilli sauce and heat through.
  • Serve with microwave rice for a dinner ready in 5-6 minutes (since you've done all the hard work earlier)

Notes

OK, the kids don’t like the kidney beans or chill sauce, so I put a portion of the Bolognese in a different pan for them, and then only add the beans and hot sauce to the grown-ups one. All with rice, everyone happy!
Keyword easy, mum friendly, student friendly
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Recipes

Minestrone Pasta Pesto Soup

Minestrone Pesto Pasta Soup

Minestrone Pasta Pesto Soup

A wonderful taste of Italy, delicious with gooey cheese melted on the top. While there's no set of ingredients for this soup (more what you've got to hand or in the cupboard), we found this combination delicious and it's 4 of our 5-a-day in one go.
It can be tweaked to be vegetarian or vegan by taking out the prosciutto and switching the stock cubes for vegetable, mushroom or garlic and herb ones and swapping the pesto and cheese for vegan versions.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Italian
Servings 5

Equipment

  • Hand blender (optional)

Ingredients
  

  • 6 spray Spray oil
  • 1 whole Leek Trimmed and finely chopped
  • 1 whole Carrot Chopped
  • 6 slices Prosciutto Finely chopped/ripped
  • 3 cloves Garlic Chopped finely (or 15g straight from freezer)
  • 170 g Broccoli stem Chopped thin like matchsticks
  • 1500 ml Water
  • 1 whole Ham stock cube
  • 1 whole Chicken stock cube
  • 1 tin Chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tin Butter beans
  • 75 g Soup pasta Or spaghetti broken into 5cm pieces
  • 2 whole Courgettes Chopped
  • 60 g Peas Frozen
  • 15 g Fresh basil leaves Chopped finely
  • 2 tbsp Reduced fat green pesto
  • 2 tbsp Cheese Grated

Optional Serving Suggestions

  • 4 slice French baguette 2cm thick
  • 200 g Cheese Grated

Instructions
 

  • Mist a large pan with spray oil on a medium heat. Add the leek, carrot and prosciutto and fry for 5 minutes until the leek has softened, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and stir it in.
  • Dissolve the 2 stock cubes in 1l of the water (boiling hot) and add the stock to the pan, along with the broccoli stem and tinned tomatoes. Bring to the boil, and simmer uncovered for aout 12 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
  • Meanwhile, drain the butter beans and add them to the remaining 500ml water, then blend them with a hand blender. If you're using smaller sized beans like kidney or black-eye beans then no need to blend.
  • Add the soup pasta, beany water and courgettes to the big pan, and cook stirring occasionally for about 8 minutes until the pasta is cooked. Stir through the frozen peas and basil and season to taste.
  • Ladle into bowls. Add ½tbsp pesto to the bowls for the people who like it and mix it in. Serve with optional cheese on toast (or "isle flottante") on top for kids, or extra grated cheese for a keto hit.

Notes

This is a great recipe as it can be amended for whatever you’ve got to hand, and the base of tomatoes, garlic and basil with pasta is delicious. We first tried this during lockdown using the broccoli stem due to lack of cabbage, and butter beans as those are our favourite in soup and it went down surprisingly well. 
We wanted to work out how many portions of our 5-a-day of fruit and vegetables this soup was: we think it’s about 4 of our 5-a-day based on a portion based on the NHS advice that “80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit and vegetables counts as 1 portion of your 5 A Day”.
Here’s the working, please comment if you have a better way to work it out:
Leek 250 g
Carrot 65 g
Garlic 15 g
Broccoli 170 g
Tomatoes 400 g
Butter beans (drained weight) 235 g
Courgettes 400 g
Peas 60 g
Basil 15 g
Total weight of vegetables + beans 1610 g
Number of servings 5 Servings
Veg weight per serving 322 g
5-a-day per serving (80g = 1 portion of 5-a-day) 4.0  of 5-a-day per serving
Keyword 5-a-day, easy, soup, tweak-for-vegan-version, tweak-for-vegetarian-version, winter warmer
  • Minestrone Pesto Pasta Soup
    Minestrone Pesto Pasta Soup
  • Minestrone Pesto Pasta Soup Bowl
    Minestrone Pesto Pasta Soup Bowl
Categories
Recipes

Easiest Boiled Rice Ever

Easiest Boiled Rice Ever

I know, it's rice – how hard can it be? It was still a revelation when I learned this method of boiled rice, as it's the least effort and most taste. It's also fine if you get timings a bit wrong as the pan can be switched off and left warm for a few minutes without it going to mush.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 12 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Chinese, Indian
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • Measuring jug, or see-through container like a high-ball glass
  • Pan with a lid

Ingredients
  

  • 200 g Basmati rice Any quick cook rice will work, basmati flavour is our favourite
  • 360 g Water

Instructions
 

  • Weigh out the rice into a see-through measuring jug (or glass). Note the level that the rice comes up to in the jug and pour it into the pan.
  • Measure twice the amount of water as there was rice in the jug, e.g. if the rice came up to 200ml, then measure out 400ml water. Add the water into the pan and season to taste.
  • Put the lid on the pan, bring to the boil then turn down the heat to low and leave for 10-12 minutes. Don't take of the lid, don't stir, just leave it be. The rice absorbs the water perfectly so there's no need to drain or rinse, just spoon onto plates when you're ready to serve.

Notes

Obviously tweak the amount of rice you want per person. Remember it’s not double the weight of the rice, it’s double the volume of the rice, leave it in the pan with the lid on and no stirring!
Keyword cheap, easy, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian
Categories
Recipes

Spicy as you like it Chicken Jalfrezi

Spicy as you like it Chicken Jalfrezi

ScranMa
This is a great curry, packed with vegetables, and this is a healthy version that can be ready as fast as a take-away would typically arrive. It can be as hot or mild as you like dependent on the chilli level you prefer. It's easy to make double the sauce quantities and freeze it, so it can be put together in 15 minutes on a week night.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Onion Base Mix time 17 minutes
Total Time 37 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian

Equipment

  • Hand blender

Ingredients
  

Onion Base Mix (This can be made ahead of time and extra portions frozen)

  • 2 medium Onion Chopped
  • 1 medium Red Pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
  • 2 cloves Garlic Crushed (or 10g straight from the freezer)
  • 5 cm Root Ginger Grated (or 10g chopped straight from the freezer)
  • 6 spray Spray oil
  • 4 tbsp Water

Chicken Jalfrezi Ingredients

  • 1 medium Green pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
  • 1 medium Orange pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp Garam masala
  • 400 g Passata Use the best quality you can so it's thick
  • 600 g Chicken breast Diced into bite-sized pieces
  • 6 spray Spray oil

Optional

  • 1 whole Chilli Sliced thinly (Optional)

Instructions
 

Onion Base Mix

  • Heat a medium sized lidded saucepan over a medium heat. Spray with the cooking spray and stir-fry the onions for 5 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and ginger, spray again with the cooking spray, and stir-fry for another 3 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
  • Take the pan off the heat, add 4 tablespoons of water, and use a hand blender to puree the onion mixture until it's smooth. It's easiest to do this in a measuring beaker or jug, to avoid splattering any of the hot mixture. If you don't have a hand blender you can mash it or try and push it through a sieve.
  • If you're making multiple quantities and have multiplied up the Onion Base Mix ingredients, this is the point to pour the extra portions thick sauce into a portion and let it cool for the freezer (remember to label with date and contents as it looks quite like carrot soup). I normally do triple quantities, eat one and freeze two so that it's easy to take out the night before and defrost in the fridge ready for another week.

Chicken Jalfrezi

  • Spray a large pan with spray oil, and put on a medium-high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 5 minutes until browned in places. Add the green and orange peppers and optional chilli, then stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
  • If you're doing rice on the hob, following the easiest-rice-ever-method then measure it out and put it on now so it's ready at the same time as the jalfrezi.
  • Next add the onion base mix to the chicken pan along with the garam masala, cumin seeds and passata. Add the optional chilli at this point, or more if you like it really spicy. Stir, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, part-covered, for 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened and the chicken has cooked through.
  • Season and serve with rice, poppadums or mini naans (I take mini naans straight from the freezer, sprinkle with water and put into the toaster a minute before serving, or they can also be grilled to warm through quickly.) On weeknights we love this with mini naans microwave rice for speed.

Notes

I usually swap the pepper colours over, one child loves red pepper and hates green, and the other vice versa (of course, but at least they’ll eat one). I tend to put the green into the onion base mix as it’s then blended up and so hidden, and do more of the other colours that are visible in the final step as more gets eaten overall. Since I normally do triple quantities of the onion base mix then freeze two, it’s easy to use a cheap, bulk pack of peppers and decide what to put in the onion base mix depending on the varieties in the pack.
I usually rope in one of the kids to help rip up the peppers for the chicken step: I pop the top with my thumbs and pull out the whites and seeds then they do the rest, as they eat more that way and I’m happy for them to eat the odd bit while we’re cooking if they want to.
Keyword easy, fake-away, indian, kids