The post immediately above yours this:
Instant ramen. Or if I'm feeling fancy, ramen that takes 6 whole minutes to cook
Add an egg to that shit, like an egg drop soup, omg!
Instead of egg, I usually have surimi (or imitation crab sticks). They're not expensive at Asian markets (about $4-6 here in California for a couple dozen sticks) and can be stored in the freezer for a long time.
I actually just had some for breakfast. Nongshim + surimi cut into smaller pieces.
Tinned tuna is also nice to add for some extra flavor and variety.
Chinese snail noodles are a little more work but usually worth it.
If I'm feeling rich an instant hot pot is nice
If I seriously don't feel up to cooking, like there's no fucking way I'm turning on the stove? Cereal.
My "just throw it in a pan" meal? Seashell pasta + canned tomato soup. Apparently one fateful day before payday, my grandmother had two hungry kids to feed, and nothing in the house but those two ingredients. So my gramma invented Spaghettios from first principles and a family comfort food was born. A hot meal so simple you can make it without a working brain stem.
I like this idea. Do you boil the pasta first or just cook it in the soup?
Boil pasta first, don't salt the water, there's plenty of salt in a can of tomato soup. Partially drain the pasta, you want some of the water left to dilute the canned soup, add soup, on an electric stove I turn the burner off at that point, there's plenty of heat left in the system to bring the soup up to temperature, a couple grinds of black pepper, ladle into bowls and spoon into your choice of face hole.
I do recommend using the water the pasta was boiled in rather than fully draining the pasta, adding the soup and then adding more water. The starch dissolved in the water does good things to the texture of the soup.
Egg noodles tossed in olive oil and topped with Parmesan and basil. Super lazy, super tasty, and cheap.
Peanut butter sammich
I'm more of a toasted salami and cheese on sourdough with mustard, salt, and pepper guy personally, but any sandwich really fits the bill. Sometimes I say fuck it and just throw butter and cheese on some bread when I'm really feeling lazy.
Soylent!
You can really taste the Brad
I'm here, what'd I miss?
Beetlejuicing.
Also, no, I'm not drinking people.
This is going to be super Asian... But I usually have rice on hand, and in the fridge an assortment of Chinese pickled/preserved veggies, fermented tofu, Vietnamese fermented prawns, salted and/or century eggs, kimchi, jars of seasoning like sate for example. Keeps forever (use clean utensils to avoid contaminating the jars) and good in a pinch.
Even better to add a side of greens if I have them. Boil or saute for a few minutes, then toss them in whatever seasoning (oyster sauce for example, keeps it simple and magically makes everything taste like stir fry).
I'm going to have to keep an eye out for fermented prawns. That sounds awesome
You can try to find it at a well-stocked Asian grocery store. It's called "tom chua" or "mam tom chua" (sour shrimp) and sold in jars like this:
The flavor is actually more sweet and sour though. It's very strong, so I'd recommend it more if you're already familiar with fish sauce. You eat it whole, complete with the shell (it's softened similar to sardines are).
It's challenging to cook when one lives alone. I came up with a frozen buffet system.
I make several main dishes, several side dishes, and several desserts. Subsequently, I divide the foods into portions that I would normally eat, then I freeze.
That way I can grab 2 or 3 items, microwave, and eat whenever I'm hungry.
Doing this, I only need to cook once or twice every shopping cycle.
- Boil macaroni elbows. Drain.
- Open jar of pasta sauce. Pour over macaroni. Stir until heated through.
- Add salt, pepper, a sprinkle of chile flakes.
Done.
Yogurt and granola, with a side of nuts and cheese for an portable, decent protein, heavy snack/light meal. Or, salad with chopped lunch meat and some cheese on top, so I can again get some easy protiens. I also keep some decent frozen meals in case I'm short on cook time and need a hot heavy meal. There are work gaps where I can barely spend time at home and the bagged "family meals" of pasta or mixed veggies are awesome portioned out for multiple meals.
Bagged pasta.
If i have the time to wait on noodles, spaghetti is a staple. They even make frozen meatballs you can cook in the sauce while it heats up!
I'm choosing sleep for dinner tonight!
Qui dort dîne
Popcorn, cereal, or yogurt with fruit.
I usually have some kind of instant noodles and chili oil about. That typically will get me through. I also have some canned/frozen stuff that goes fine with rice (which we always have cooked (and I don't know that hitting a button on a rice cooker and walking away counts as 'cooking')).
I've basically got 2 lazy meals:
Veg dog on a toasted bun with diced red onion, pickled jalapeños, mayo, mustard and ketchup.
Instant ramen with some extra fixins. Always green onions and shishimi togarashi and then some combo of frozen corn, black fungus, pickled bamboo shoots, kimchi, sesame oil, miso, nori, fried gluten, and/or tofu.
what brand veggie dog! sounds delish!!
I like the beyond ones a lot, but gusta are pretty good too, and a bit cheaper.
Walmart frozen burritos. They are incredibly cheap, by weight almost comparable to cheap staples like pasta or rice. I can toast them on the pan and add some fire hot sauce. Tastes good. Easy to make. Inexpensive. Only downside is that there's no way it's good for you.
"Only downside is that there's no way it's good for you."
That's a big 'only downside'. You should check how much salt is in those things.
(Why can't they make processed foods healthy?)
Pre-made sauce and spaghetti. Usually doctor up plain marinara by adding a little olive oil with sautéed pre-packaged diced garlic, some dried oregano, and maybe a little salt and pepper. The hardest part is waiting for the water to boil.
I batch cook and freeze stuff, so honestly, most of my food.
I'm always happy to put a throroughly frozen meal for 9 minutes in the wave instead of making any sort of effort. But freezing food kinda ruins most flavours and texture.
Really depends on what you make! Absolutely wouldn't freeze say, a steak. And texture, generally agree with you. But some jerk, adobo, honey garlic, curry chicken work just as well reheated. (Make the rice fresh though.) Same with a lot of pasta based dishes (or sauces, a bolognese freezes perfectly.) Even marinated chicken thighs and veggies are great!
Kraft Dinner 🇨🇦
Look I'm Canadian and grew up on KD so it will always have a place in my heart, but my god we switched to Annie's recently and the difference is staggering. I will never go back to KD.
Definitely ! Or Mr noodles in the microwave is even quicker . If I have everything I need I can make a smash burger in 10 minutes too .
Super lazy? Random bread/toast with store bought hummus.
A little bit cooking is okay? Then pasta with olive oil and garlic (and parmesan or chili if available). Or alternatively I put a can of kidney beans with a can of tomatoes, garlic, chili, and spices in a pot, cook it a bit, and serve with rice, pasta, bread, or tortilla chips. Or whatever else is quickly available.
Or frozen pizza.
Can o soup.
Baked beans on toast is my usual go to when I want something quick and minimal effort.
I'm not seeing it here so I will recommend:
Always have some frozen shredded chicken in the freezer.
It's super easy to make. Chicken, broth or water, some veggies like celery and onion and salt if you just used water and let it simmer in pot with a lid on at a low temp or use a pressure cooker for even more hands off and then hit with a mixer to shred the chicken.You can make several pounds of it in advance and then just wrap up portions of it in Saran wrap or foil. Bag it and put it in the freezer. It's now very resistant to freezer burn and it's a perfect ingredient for lazy days.
Tacos, grab some chicken add some cayenne cumin and lime juice and throw it in a tortilla.
BBQ, mix with BBQ sauce and heat up throw on bread or a bun or even better some yellow rice or rice-a-roni. You can add it to soup, you can turn it into all your classic chicken dishes and it's there and waiting for you.Shredded chicken.
does this have a vegetarian alternative
Fried tofu. I mean it's way more effort but freeze it to get all the water out and then you can even freeze it again.
Each time you do it makes the tofu more chewy than creamy and has a tougher texture which actually makes it easier to work with.From here I would have differing suggestions depending on desire. I personally love to cut them up just straight into cubed strips and lightly toss them in cornstarch with some salt or msg added and some white pepper and then fry them in a pan with generous amount of coconut oil. Get a nice golden crisp on them and you have basically strips that can also be used for sandwiches or nugget replacements or things of that nature. But if you want to have the shredded chicken style option.
Once frozen for the second time shred the tofu or cut into really thin strips when it thaws out and you want to toss it in veggie bouillon powder and some black pepper and a touch of soy or vinegar and then bake at 350 until golden or panfry.
It's a different texture and flavor per say but should be very useable for the same purposes of just being able to quickly toss it into anything and have it add some protein to a otherwise plain meal.
Both store very well and can be reheated easily. Preferably baked to reheat. But not everyone has a toaster oven.
Two cans of air fried garbanzo beans. I don't consider it cooking because it takes all of 19 seconds to open the cans, drain, spray cooking spray and turn an air fryer on. Gives me what feels like a bag of potato chips at a much healthier nutrition on the cheap. Toss some tajin seasoning on there and away I go.
Cheese.
Humous and baguette
Overnight oats, just steel cut oats in whole milk left in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Healthier and cheaper than a box cereal and so so easy. But if I didn't think ahead to chuck some in the fridge beforehand, then it's gotta be hardboiled eggs. I always have eggs in the fridge and chucking them in a pot and waiting 11 minutes is as easy as it gets.
Well, aside from eating fruit/berries with cheese and crackers but that could be argued to be a snack not a meal.
Microwave oatmeal
Ingredients
Oatmeal
- 1 part oatmeal (1 dl for a small meal, 2 for a bigger one)
- 1.25 parts water
- Some salt
- Optionally some psyllium seeds for extra fiber, maybe a teaspoon
Extras
- Some milk, maybe 1 dl
- Some lingonberry jam, maybe a tablespoon
- Mix everything in a bowl
- Microwave for 2 minutes for 1 dl oatmeal or 2.45 for 2 dl oatmeal
- Mix with a spoon
- Top with jam and pour over some milk (careful, it's hot)
Ready to eat in five minutes, very low effort, produces little in the way of dishes to clean, cheap as dirt, vegetarian if using cow milk and vegan if using oat milk, and not particularly high in calories but still quite satiating. Downside is that it's not the most exciting meal you could think of, but you arguably get more than you pay for all in all.
Even lazier meal: Mug of oats. Pour in boiling water. Dump in brown sugar. Stir until it's edible.
Peanut butter on bread. Just put a layer of PB on there, fold it in half. I take three with a glass of milk and I'm good to go. Great for those times when I've forgotten to eat dinner and I just want to make the bad feeling in my tummy go away.
What is up with the rest of these comments though, half of them still involve cooking. Who the hell has patience for that?
Bottle of soylent. 400 calories, chug it and forget.
BUT IT'S MADE OF PEOPLE!!!!!
(Spoiler)
That’s why it’s perfect nutrition
diet version: premiere protein shake
Sandwich or hotdog with chips.
Or a Soylent and some toast/ bread.
Avocado toast, actually. Toast bread, mash avocado on it, maybe sliced onions and if I have any cheese I have that with it or on it.
Try some pomegranate seeds on your avocado toast 😉
700 grams of hot wings into the airfryer or alternatively 450 gram pack of french fries. More often than not though I simply just don't eat if I'm not feeling like it. I skip meals each week. Yesterday I only ate breakfast for example.
Speed
fancy pooh meme I prefer Phentermine
Take a tortilla wrap, put a slice of gouda young cheese in it, wrap like a wrap, 40 seconds in microwave et voila! Hot pocket and filling meal.
pineapple slices straight out of a tin can
I bulk prepare and freeze food often for those situations, so I can get lazy and still have a decent meal. For example, my freezer currently has chickpeas stew with sausages, kibbeh, Bolognese sauce, a simpler tomato sauce, a half dozen pierogi... all of those can become a meal if paired with quick stuff, like rice or pasta and a tossed salad.
If that fails, I cook some quick polenta using pre-cooked cornmeal, then break some eggs in it.
Peanut butter on an apple.
Unpeeled. Just a large dollop of peanut butter sitting on top of an entire apple. Eaten with a fork and knife because that just somehow sounds more egregious to me.
Unpeeled. Eaten by hand. Messy and delicious
Fried rice:
Leftover rice from the fridge
1 egg
Frozen veggies from the freezer
Soy sauce
Simply heat through in a pan.
Even easier: microwave rice until piping hot, add raw egg yolk, butter, soy sauce
low carb: whisk 2 eggs in bowl, add equal amount of water, microwave for poor man's steamed eggs, soy sauce to taste
bonus: season with fish sauce instead of soy sauce
How long can you hold rice in the fridge for this?
four days max. 2 months in freezer.
Depends on your definition of cooking. My "lazy and unpretentious" meal is pasta with whatever. If I have a pre made sauce, that. Perhaps some frozen cream spinach, that works too. A couple eggs mixed into the hot, strained noodles is pretty tasty too. If my stash is completely empty, a piece of butter. Then top it all off with some grated parmesan, and eat it quick before the shame sets in.
Edit: works just as well with rice
I've got a bunch of frozen mashed potatoes pre-divided into meal-sized tupperware. Microwave one of those and it's quite hearty.
I've also got a rice cooker and it's super easy to make something both substantial and tasty with one of those, dump in the rice and water and then add a tin of condensed soup as well. Push the button and come back later to dump it onto a plate. I've found most kinds of condensed soup work well, though avoid anything with "cream of" in the title as those can end up unpleasantly goopy.
- Cereal
- pasta or rice, frozen vegetables, cheese
- Vegemite on toast
Jamaican patties. You can pick up a big box of them frozen from almost anywhere (at least where I live) and heat them up in one minute. I mentioned to a Gen Z in the fall that this got me through many a college all-nighter and noticed when I was at their place last weekend, they were all stocked up! Feels good to pass on the torch…
Yoooo, Jamaican patties and a red stripe are a combo I picked up in Orlando late one night at this little hole in the wall. They had some kind of yellowish Scotch bonnet (I think) hot sauce and these jerk wings that were so amazing. It was around the corner from this horror themed cocktail drag bar. I don't remember the name but if you're from Orlando you might know the spot. One of the best nights out I've had. Some guy offered me heroin as my friend threw up on the sidewalk.
It definitely made an impression, Orlando is fucking dope and I look forward to my next visit.
Disney, drag bars, and heroin. That sums up Orlando for me.
Just to elaborate a bit on why I consider these the quintessential lazy food, I went through a process of whittling down the options. In the all-nighter context, you will need to use the bathroom several times in the wee hours (no pun intended), and a patty will be ready for you by the time you come out. They come individually wrapped, and while it's a good idea to have a plate or bowl under them to catch any crumbs, you can typically eat them straight out of the packaging with little mess and dust off the plate each time. So your sink will not start piling up even as you work through as many as it takes.
A friend suggested pizza pockets as an alternative? I tried that. I found them a bit messier and the mozzarella can sometimes stick to the roof of your mouth and burn if you're not paying attention (which is quite likely while you're cramming). Anyway, a well-stocked store will have at least a few choices in terms of protein and spice level for variety's sake.
Now that I'm not as frequently under a desperate time-crunch but am still lazy, my go-to at work is Indian curries in little shelf-stable pouches. You need to pour the curry into a bowl and heat it up, so there are dishes involved, but they taste so good for so little effort otherwise!
I often consider them when I’m in the frozen food isle, but have never tried ‘em. Maybe I should.
I had to go look those up, I had not heard of them They look tasty but, damn they are a little pricey, at least in my area. Are they pretty good sized/filling?
The classic ones are beef inside, and while not huge, tend to satisfy my food cravings, and I'm not a little guy. They often have jerk chicken and veg options too if you look around, and if you're in an actual Jamaican neighbourhood, you can find a big variety at restaurants or even corner stores. (I grew up in Toronto and they were just everywhere for whatever reason.)
There's also some strategy in terms of whether to get the spicy or mild ones? Spicy makes you eat slower, which can be good to regulate one's tendency to gorge while cramming.
Greek yoghurt. Plain,no sugar or fruit. Cucumbers and oranges with tajín. Hummus with celery sticks.
Some store bought soup and a bit of toast or something from the freezer, most likely pizza.
Cheap frozen pizza and a simple salad.
You had me at cheap frozen pizza
The trick is you have to keep blowing warm air on the pizza until it warms up enough. You know, for the cheese to not cut your mouth like glass shards. Like my grammie's pizza used to do. She's legit from the old country. Rome. Oklahoma.
Tuna melts are surprisingly easy. You can make enough tuna salad to last three days. Toast some bread, stick the tuna on top, then cheese and leave under the grill for a bit. Perfectly tasty snack. My classic tuna combo is tuna, mayo, olive oil, celery, spring onion and canned sweetcorn. Salt and pepper to taste.
Nice touch with the sweet corn. Tuna salad is extremely flexible, there's tons of simple things you can add to it to match almost any cuisine. Indian, Asian, Greek, Spanish dress it up however.
Cup noodles with two eggs
Some of my favorites are peanut butter sandwiches, big chunka cheese, apples (any fruit really), hot dogs/sausages, 30 to 40 olives.
Charcuterie's are are always a win, especially with a bonus peanut butter sandwich!
Chips with cheese melted in the microwave.
Spam Musubi
Found the Hawaiian!
Frozen za and(or) beer.
Beer is food!
why would you freeze your weed before smoking? /s
Bags of carrot sticks is my go-to for when I really don't feel like cooking or eating unhealthy.
Giant fuckoff protein shake.
4 scoops of vanilla protein powder, 2 big spoons of peanut powder, cup of egg whites, decent whack of real maple syrup, and as much whole milk to get a thickshake consistency. Makes about a litre and its like half my daily protein target in one go.
That's an unhealthy amount of sugar.
No its not. 125 grams of protein, 50 grams of total carbs 30 grams of fat.
My maintenance calories are 3000, that shake makes up 970. I deliberately use maple syrup and whole milk to drive UP the fats and carbs if Im using the shake as a meal replacement instead of a supplement because otherwise I dont hit my Macros.
Chicken patties in the air fryer, on pane bread with mayo. Sometimes cheese. Might put frozen fries In the air fryer with them. That was my dinner tonight. Except I used frozen hash brown patties instead of fries. I meant to to have some mini cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for a side and totally forgot.
What's pane bread? Pane is simply "bread" but in Italian
Instant ramen or few slices of bread with cold cuts and some cheese microwaved till the cheese melts.
If I'm poor or badly prepared rice with chili crisp and and potentially egg. If it needs to be fast or very lazy 2 bananas and half a liter of milk through the stick blender. Otherwise cereal w/ milk or yoghurt, grocery store bedrolls croissant and such, prepared sweet yoghurt or instant ramen.
I wish I could make lazy meals like this, but with kids you can't be lazy and cheap at the same time. 😔
A couple of eggs cooked in the microwave to hard-boiled consistency, mashed with some Japanese kewpie mayonnaise, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Assemble together with slices of bread to make sandwiches. Pair with cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumbers for a quick side salad.
What's your method for microwaving eggs?
I have this device from Japanese dollar store Daiso originally meant for cooking Japanese-style soft-boiled eggs in the microwave. It's really just a simple plastic cup with a built in sieve of sorts for easy draining of excess water away.
It looks like this,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w_k7k19xeNs
You'd crack an egg into the cup, fill it with enough water to cover the egg, then nuke it in the microwave for about 50 seconds. Drain the water away and you're supposed to have a Japanese hot spring-style poached egg.
Except I have never got my eggs set to the desired doneness following the packaging's instructions. After some trial and error with various cooking times and power levels, I pretty much gave up on using it for its intended purpose. Yolks were either overcooked or the whites remained too runny.
I then figured that cooking the egg at 70% of my microwave's power setting for an additional 15 to 20 seconds resulted in a hard-boiled consistency, so this is my go to method for times when only a single hard boiled egg whose appearance is not a factor is needed rather than boiling it the traditional way.
If anyone were to cook this way, I would recommend some cling film loosely wrapped over the lid of the cooking receptacle though. There were a few times in my experiments where the egg kinda exploded. 😅
You don't, I love my microwave, eggs are a no go for me.
Plus they're as fast/simple just scrambled in a pan. And a bonus of this method is they are edible!
its called a mayon-egg and its abhorrant
five to ten microwaved potstickers and a can of carbonated water.
I am not into the foreign food being an American. The potstickers are an excellent suggestion though. But the carbonated water? Sounds Italian. Or Swiss. One of those foreign countries.
Can of refried beans, cheese, tortilla, whatever sauce, microwave, top with whatever veggies.
We make homemade soup in bulk and freeze them in mason jars. Very easy to have a healthy meal in five-ten minutes - just pull from the freezer and reheat on the stove or microwave. Make a quick grilled cheese with it if feeling ambitious.
Spaghetti, olive oil, butter, and grated pecorino! A slightly fancier mac n cheese more or less.
Whenever I get lazy I just throw some seasoned chicken drumsticks in my airfryer and then add some Uncle Ben's rice. Almost 0 effort.
Grilled cheeze with a thick layer of red onion chutney
Doritos in a bowl of water microwaved for 15 minutes throw spaghetti noodles in it and let soak til soft.
I want to unsubscribe from being able to read
This sentence can actually kill a full grown adult Italian.
This guy here has managed to get chef boyardee rolling in his grave.
Bologna bowl, good for when you're poor and/or lazy.
Slap a slice of bologna in a bowl, slice of cheese on top of that, then crack an egg on top of that and nuke it in the microwave for about a minute and 30 seconds. Good with toast or as is.
Stoufers mac n cheese, pizza, pop tarts/waffles, popcorn, depending on hunger level.
I have a poor diet lol
Ricecakes and hummus, Beans and toast
Grilled cheese sandwich. It's as lazy or as fancy as you're feeling.
Super lazy? Grease bread with cheese slice. Fry flip eat.
Feeling less lazy as you start? Cut a hole in one of the pieces of bread and fry an egg in it while you toast the other side, and upgrade the cheese. Just be careful. When you start eyeing meats and mustards to pair, you're in danger of making yourself a pretty epic sandwich.
One can of no beans Hormel chili, one can of black beans, rinsed and (somewhat) dried. Mix in a big bowl, microwave until hot, add sour cream and shredded cheese, and use it like dip with tortilla chips. If you're good at rinsing the beans, and your microwave doesn't suck, you can have this ready in 5 minutes. And the only dirty dishes to deal with are a single large bowl, and a spoon.
Another thing I tend to eat a lot when I get home from work in the morning and don't want to do anything, is literally just a bunch a wheat thins, a block of pre-sliced sarento cheddar cheese, and a container of sliced pepperoni from the deli. Takes like 2 minutes to grab those while I'm waiting for the bus home from work. Fuck ton of sodium, though. Same with the chili, I guess.
Frozen burrito :(
Popcorn, whatever fruit I have at home, glass of milk. Comes out to 500+ cal easily.
Mac & Cheese with a can of tuna. Usually either Kraft Deluxe or Velveeta Shells and Cheese and usually white/albacore tuna. Sucks that shrinkflation has made the cheese packets watered down so much that it's no longer tons of sticky cheese and that the cans of "solid" tuna are now only mostly solid pieces with added filler. But it is still a decent tasting, simple meal.
Total prep time AND ready to eat within 15-30min.
Get a bowl
Make a "sauce" with plenty olive oil, basil, garlic
Slice tomatoes in quarters (about the size of cherry tomatoes) and throw them in a bowl
Let it rest for min. 30min or as long as you want to. No upper limit.
Add hot spaghetti (al dente) and stir until everything is well coated.Edit: Expanded and added more precise instructions.
lol there’s always this one answer.
“What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking?”
“Well it all starts the day before with the honey glaze. That has to simmer for about 14 hours …”
Any tips on how to rest? Like on a bed or a chair? Maybe have a cheeky cigarette behind the kitchen?
I prefer a salad bowl but a bed might work as well
pasta
Minute rice, yogurt and sweet chilli sauce mixed together.
Some broccoli or cauliflower florets steamed in the microwave (salt, pepper, butter, tsp water, in a bowl, covered with a plate, nuc for 2 mins) and draped with a slice of cheese.
Frozen wraps are the bomb. Take seconds to thaw and the possibilities are endless. Put on it whatever, and it is good.
A good curry is incredibly easy to make nowadays. Patak's and Pasco make great curry bases. You just fry a big dollop of the base, then chuck in some chicken and either water or coconut milk.
Combine that with basmati from a rice cooker, and you've got restaurant quality food for 3 minutes of work, and some waiting
Bonus- your entire house now smells like curry 🤤
Least effort: essentially snacks, but somewhat filling and can get the job done
- string cheese (proteiny, and fun to pull apart like you're still a kid. Why can't adults have fun too?)
- cut up fruit
- those seaweed snacks@toomanypancakes
Some effort
- tortilla wraps with anything, basically, to make food portable. Bananas and Nutella? Cold cuts and cheese? Half a can of beans and a chunk of that leftover chicken?
- veg sticks and dip/ranch. Always taste better than I expect (which is not much). "Some effort" bc I cut em myself and mix my own dip (sour cream and mayo as a base and any seasonings you have around are usually a good mix. I go garlic powder, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice.)@toomanypancakes
And then slightly more effort but bigger payoff is making combos of the big 3 - carb, protein, veg.-Rice, gravy, canned peas
- Pasta, sauce (pesto?), Chicken (frozen/precooked) and (steamed bag)broccoli.
- 1 pot 'gumbo': rice sausage peppers onions tomatoes seasonings.
- instant noodles with an egg and some leafy veg tossed in
- frozen dumplings or ravioli
Mix and match
With some of these I feel like you're in danger of entering the higher effort territory so take your pick
Carbonara, because I nearly always have some lardons / bacon in the fridge, and usually have eggs and cheese too. Sauce is ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta, and it feels like a real dinner despite not really needing much prep.
Lazier? Instant noodles, with extra spices and a big spoonful of peanut butter. Makes it richer, creamier and keep nds 'satay' like. Also feels like there's a modicum of nutrional value. If I'm feeling virtuous I'll add some frozen / tinned sweetcorn or peas.
Toast or a toasted bagle / english muffin with peanut butter on it.
Toasted bagel with cream cheese, a canned protein, like salmon or smoked oysters, and capers. Super easy, and it also feels fancy. It's helped me out of a rut on more than one occasion
Can of soup.
Redbul. Or Alcohol.
Bread.
Bread with sausage and cheese. Microwave until cheese runs.
I only cook if there is someone else in the house who needs to eat. My meals are either family meals or leftovers, toast, cereal, toaster waffles. Occasionally a cheese quesadilla.
Or, more commonly, nothing. Unfortunately, there arent many "lazy" meals I could use to feed the whole family, which I am obligated to do at least twice a day, most days. Sometimes I can get away with re-using leftovers as the foundation of a new meal.
Bread or cereal
Chicken nuggets.
Avocado toast or peanut butter toast. I guess technically there is some sort of cooking involved there but it is minimal...
if "prepping something beforehand" and "throwing stuff in a pan and just let it sit for a couple minutes untouched" is still fine:
I've been doing big batches of japanese Gyoza in the last couple weeks.
I make a whole kilo of them beforehand, freeze them and just put them in a pan for a couple minutes when I want a quick dinner.
I love gyoza. prepping them takes a bit of fiddling around, but once ready, they hold for a while in the freezer
Tacos! Quick to throw something together from scratch and easy to make ingredients ahead.
They're versatile and can have all sorts of ingredients too. Really the longest part is cooking the meat and even that is pretty quick, just chop up the veggies and chuck everything into the tortilla. 10 minutes tops.
I make spaghetti pasta, put a ready-made sauce from the store (one from a jar), put a grated cheese on top and cook in microwave for 2 minutes.
I still need to do some work here, but I have done it so many many times for my brain it's like putting on shoes or brushing mt teeth, do not think about it. And it's still relatively nice meal for me, I just like it so much I can eat it very often without having enough. This might be the key, find what you like that takes less than 30 minuts and require no attention (like constant checking or mixing) and just get used to it.
You cook the pasta in water and then you put it back in the microwave with the sauce? Or is this like cold, pre-cooked pasta?
Cook in the water. The microwave is to heat up the sauce and cheese.
A slice of sharp cheddar on wasa crackers
Macaroni and cheese with ground turkey. Brown the turkey while you boil pasta, make a quick bechamel, add cheese.
Tacos. Brown some ground beef, add some taco seasoning (Pensey's Bold Taco Seasoning is my go-to, do a quick corn starch slurry to make a sauce. Serve on soft corn tortillas with cheese, salsa, sour cream (or whatever).
A burrito with some sort of meat and beans. Really depends what I have on hand, but fish chicken or beef all work. Canned black beans or refried beans are easy to use as filler.
I buy some frozen fish patties from Costco and just make sandwiches. Not really much to it than baking it and defrosting a bun.
Fettuccini Alfredo. Butter, cream, and cheese. Throw it over pasta. A tiny pinch of sodium citrate will keep it from separating too. Don't use too much, it makes the texture weird.
I keep ingredients for these things on hand most of the time. I keep a lot of things in my freezer for that purpose. Meat, cheese, homemade burger buns.
Just a note that these are all things that can be made with 15 minutes or less. I don't really keep fully prepared food around.
He said when you DON'T feel up to cooking
I don't really consider these things cooking, just whipping something together. But I just don't really keep fully prepared meals in my house. Just staple ingredients that can be quickly thrown together into several different meals. Notably I can make any of these in far less time than it'd take to have something delivered.
just frozen meat, heat it up, spice it up and cook it with olive oil.
As much ice water as it takes to feel full
I take some cooked rice out of the freezer, and put it in the air fryer with a few pieces of pork shoulder season it, and boom I have a nice meal in 15 minutes
Instant rice. Sugar. Cinnamon. Milk.
Rice from a pouch you boil it in and tuna also from a pouch.
I forgot about foil food pouches and was think like, a pouch on a rucksack.
For that good rucksack flavor!
Tuna salad. Almost all of the ingredients are stable or long lasting and it's very tasty and filling.
Ingredients are
A can of tuna ("in oil) is best, "in water" turns tuna to mush) Mayonnaise Finely diced onion Diced pickle Diced celery, lettuce or other leafy green Fresh or dry dill (optional ) Garlic powder (optional) Small drizzle of olive oil (optional, I use it when I use less mayo) American cheese (served on bread of choice, also optional)
It can be served on most breads as a sandwich or crackers. I recommend the bread be toasted as well
Directions: Dice components, drain tuna, stir, add mayo, stir, serve on carb of choice.
I think the prompt was ease of prep, not how stable the ingredients are.
You just dirtied a knife, a cutting board, a fork, a bowl, a plate, used a can opener, 11 ingredients, and prepped four of the main ingredients.
I do like tuna salad though and this sounds delicious. Except for the American cheese.
I mean I don't know what you're expecting to cook without dirtying a couple kitchen utensils. You can make the salad in a couple minutes and like half the ingredients are optional.
Roasted almonds. Tons of protein, lots of fiber, often keeps me sated for longer than a "balanced" meal.
I buy them raw and roast them myself, it takes 15 minutes in the oven on a pan, that's it. I have a giant tub that I go to when I need them.
Yes, they are calorie dense due to the oil but this is a replacement meal, not a daily thing.
It's actually amazing how far 100 g of almonds will take you in a day. I managed to lose 130 lb of fat by incorporating various high protein nuts into my diet.
Edit: Unsalted only. Salted nuts just provoke greater sensations of hunger.
leftovers
Hubby, but I wouldn't call him lazy
Spaghetti and meatballs. Rice and fishsticks. A piece of toast with oily chili-tuna slathered on.
First one with ketchup, superhot chilisauce and parmeesian, latter with lemon soysauce (ponzu) for the rice and sweet chili sauce for the fishsticks. Garlic mayo on the fishsticks is also nice.
The lazier I am, the more basic version. If I have any energy at all, I'll make an actual tomato sauce and not just put ketchup on spaghetti.
Food
Sauced up airfried beans in a tortilla.
