Is it just me, or do you find those people on Instagram who spend their Sundays laboriously batch-cooking their weekly meals into perfectly aesthetic, identical portions, slightly panic-inducing? How on earth do people manage that level of organisation in their lives?
For me, there's barely enough time in the week to stay on top of what’s new on Netflix, let alone cook dinner every night. I know, deep down, that having every meal prepped would help me enormously, but realistically, that's just not how I'm going to spend my spare time.
And so I figured out a solution to my weeknight dinner woes. And that is to have a few cheap, easy meals in your back pocket, usually shortcuts of classic dishes, that are ready to eat in the time it takes for a bottle of supermarket red to breathe.
Click through to see a few that I've made up over the years.
Veggie Fried Rice
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 large egg
Light cooking oil
250g pouch microwave rice
4 spring onions
1 large handful frozen peas
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Instructions
Lightly beat the egg. In a large non-stick frying pan or wok, dry scramble it until it is just cooked through and broken up into pieces. Remove from the pan and set aside. Heat a splash of light cooking oil (light olive oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil and groundnut oil are all fine here) and squish the microwave rice inside the pouch so it is broken up as much as possible and there are no lumps. Add it to the pan, and fry until it is glossy with oil and starting to sizzle.
Add the spring onions, topped, tailed and sliced, and the frozen peas. Cook until the peas have cooked through. You can also add any leftover cooked veg you need to clear out of the fridge like asparagus, green beans, mushrooms and kale. Add the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and the cooked egg to the pan, and mix until all the rice is coloured with the soy sauce before piling into a warm bowl.
Chickpea Tikka Masala
Serves 1-2
Ingredients
1 small white onion
1 large garlic clove
Light cooking oil
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
400g tin chickpeas
225g tin chopped tomatoes
Sea salt
250g pouch microwave rice
Fresh coriander (optional, to serve)
Instructions
Peel and finely chop the onion and peel the garlic clove ready for the garlic press. Heat a generous splash of light cooking oil over a medium high heat (you can use vegetable, sunflower, rapeseed, olive or groundnut) and add the onion. Cook quickly at a slightly higher temperature than you usually would when following a recipe, and stir in the crushed garlic as the onion just starts to brown. Stir in the spices, and cook until they start to smell delicious.
Drain the chickpeas and add them to the pan, stirring until they are well coated. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt, and allow to bubble away, still at a medium high heat while you microwave the rice. Serve the chickpea curry spooned over the rice, sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander if you happen to have some that needs finishing at the bottom of the fridge.
Mussels with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 1
Ingredients
400g live mussels
10 cherry tomatoes
4 tsp pesto
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Fresh bread
Instructions
Fill the kitchen sink with cold water and add the mussels. Throw away any that are broken. Fill another bowl with cold water, and sort the mussels one by one into the bowl. Pull off any bits attached to the mussels. If any of them are open, hold them closed for five seconds. If they stay closed they’re good to eat; if not, throw them away. Heat a large, lidded, non-stick frying pan or casserole dish over a high heat and cook the tomatoes until they’re starting to blister.
Drain the mussels, add them to the pan, clamp on the lid and turn the heat down to low. Allow the mussels to steam open. Drain any excess liquid out of the pan, and add the pesto and season with salt and pepper. Put the lid back on and shake until the pesto has coated the mussels and got inside the shells. Throw away any mussels that have not opened, and serve with fresh crusty bread to mop up the pesto sauce.
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