What are your"too lazy to cook" recipe ?
What are your"too lazy to cook" recipe ?
I mean the one you do when you want something easy to do, but not when you're tired at the point you microwave a frozen-meal, or just cut down a piece of cheese and put it in a bread
Bake some frozen chicken nuggets, toss in buffalo sauce, cut up some iceberg lettuce and throw it all in a soft tortilla with ranch.
or just cut down a piece of cheese and put it in a bread
You can't just disrespect Germany like that...
Rice via rice cooker. Ground chicken cooked in a frying pan with preminced garlic and squeeze tub of ginger. Pinto beans from a can. Mix em all together in a bowl with shredded cheese.
Tofu scramble. I premake the spice mix, then open up a pack of tofu and crumble it into a preheated pan with oil, sprinkle over the spice mix, add black beans then pepper and sriracha (as well as a bit more of the spice mix), stir and heat it up a bit, then done. If I'm feeling less lazy, I'll add veggies and stuff, but it's honestly decent like this with the right spices. Here's what I use for my spice mix (this is for a full jar which will last between 10 to 20 meals depending on how heavily seasoned I'm feeling that month):
- 8 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 4 teaspoons chili powder
- 4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 4 teaspoons black salt (also called kala namak) or regular salt
- 3 teaspoons turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Open faced sandwiches (smørbrød/smørrebrød/smörgås) - slice of bread or toast, butter and some topping.
Very nearly as no-effort is boiling or frying an egg. Very nearly as no-effort as that is a scramble or omelette. Grilled cheese sandwich. Pasta with butter (sauce), garlic and/or chili oil. Baguette/sub/hoagie kind of thing as an upgrade on the sandwich - they sell "half-baked" ones that keep for a good while. Bacon and eggs, carbs optional.
A basic stir fry or meat-in-pan-sauce are still easy. Get whatever equipment makes your preferred foods (or healthy eating) easier.
"Every Day Dal" from Curries Without Worries 1 cup split red lentils Tbl ghee or butter 1-2 dried red chilies Tbs tumeric Tbs cumin 1-3 Tbs salt (to taste) 1 Tbs each minced ginger and garlic 5 cups water
Put in large pot bring to boil simmer 35+/- min stir it you want
Feeds 6-8 people & nice w rice
Lazy Chicken
- Pour about a centimeter white rice in a baking dish. I prefer something a 20x30cm tempered glass one, but I'm sure you can use whatever.
- Add frozen vegetables on top.
- Dissolve a chicken broth cube hot or boiling water, pour into dish, add water to a bit above the rice.
- Place frozen chicken legs on top, or whatever other frozen chicken pieces you'd like.
- Generously season chicken.
- Stick in oven for about an hour at 200°C.
You might need to add boiling water while it's cooking, but after making it a couple times you'll know about how much water is needed from the start.
Make rice, throw minced meat in, done. It looks like dog food but it's pretty good.
Pasta and jarred sauce
- Turn on your oven at 200c, ballpark
- Trim any excess skin you don't wanna eat off of a bunch of chicken thighs
- Chuck the thighs in a baking sheet skin up
- Wash some potatoes and cut em into wedges. You can peel em if you want
- Chuck em in the baking sheet with the chicken
- Sprinkle on some salt, and a bunch of other spices that work with chicken and/or potatoes. Garlic powder, pepper, paprika, fuckin dry basil or whatever, idk. Try to get it on both sides of the chicken but if you CBA just get it on the skin side
- Drizzle some sunflower or olive oil all over everything. Just a bit is fine
- Put the baking sheet in the oven. Doesn't matter if the oven isn't fully heated, it's fine
- Come back in like 1h and check if the chicken's done. Come back every 10 min after that until it is
- Once it's cooked, you might turn on the fan to crisp up the skin and the potatoes a little more, or maybe not, whatever
It's gonna be the most 7.5/10 dinner but it's like 5 min prep, it reheats fine, and you can walk away and shower or take a nap. You can wash the baking sheet tomorrow, who cares? It was the first 'recipe' I learned how to cook in college, and it's still my go-to lazy weekday recipe.
If you're lazy but not in a rush, legume soup. Throw lentils, canned chopped tomatoes, frozen veg and some spices and maybe stock powder in a pot and wait. If you don't want to wait for lentils to cook, replace by canned beans. Easy, cheap, minimal cleanup (this is usually the part I'm too lazy for) and very reasonably healthy.
Noodles with sriracha, olive oil and nutritional yeast
Cooking?!
When I'm specifically being too lazy to?
I don't even cook for myself on the good days.
Whenever I make soup, I always make a lot. The extra soup goes into quart bags and goes in the freezer. So I have a soup library.
Rip open a bag of soup, toss it in a pan on medium low. Make some popcorn in the air popper.
Soup and popcorn with about a minute of work. The hardest part is picking out which soup I want.
- Two minute noodles (ramen) and a cup of frozen veggies. Boil in water for 5 mins.
- While that's boiling, fry an egg separately - I like to season with a little salt and pepper while the egg is frying.
- Once noodles/veg are done, drain then add the noodle seasoning, a little butter and half a cup of shredded parmesan. Stir through until butter & cheese has melted and everything's well combined.
- Put noodles and veg in a bowl, egg on top.
- Enjoy!
Savory oats. Put oats, milk, butter and whatever you fancy in a pan. Done.
Quesadillas!
Smoked salmon and cherry tomatoes
Oatmeal made with milk. Stir in peanut butter when it is hot and ground cinnamon. Filling.
Spiced fried chicken breast, steamed veggies and carb of choice: mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, or wheat bread.
"Stir fry": Fry meat of choice in a frying pan, add spices and vegetables of choice. Eat with rice or on/with wheat bread. 1 frying pan with meat and vegetables add carb to that.
Grill meat and vegetables of choice. Add carb on the side.
Tin of (Aldi) chicken curry, add some frozen peas and spinach and fresh chopped (with a scissors) chillies. Better - in my opinion - than some take away and all chain pubs’ offerings. Five minutes maximum from cupboard and freezer to my mouth.
My family's spaghetti and meat sauce recipe. 5 ingredients:
Water, salt, pasta;
ground beef, tomato sauce (from a jar if fancy, but canned is great)- Boil and salt the water. Add the pasta. Boil until as soft as you want. While that's going
- Cook the meat, breaking into little chunks. Then drain the fat. Then add the sauce and some salt and mix it. Stop it some time after it's boiling
Serve together.
(Of course there are details like how much of stuff, but that's the jist of it)
I have a small rice cooker perfect for 1-2 portions. Aldi sells asian-style pan-fry veggie mixes including spices and all in large bags, frozen. They also sell veggie balls for frying, frozen.
Between those three + some spices + soy sauce, I can always create something nice with just a small pan, plus with the rice cooker timing is unimportant. Takes about 10 minutes max, most of which is standing next to the pan waiting for something to fry. Stacks nicely in a bowl, looks fancy, takes 0 effort, and I can customize the taste with the array of spices I always keep at home nowadays.
Don't have any, too lazy...
Rice cooker, after it's halfway, throw in an egg or two, leftover meat, can of beans, soup, or chili, whatever's available. It's nourishing and always tastes good.
Caprese salad
Buy a tomato. Slice it. Buy presliced mozarella Alternate tomato and mozarella on a plate. Put basil on top. Drizzle either balsamic vinagrette or salt and olive oil.
Delicous and super easy.
Also sometimes I make a quick melt on the waffle press, season with garlic powder and shredded parmeson, and dip in salsa. Fantastic and super easy.
Italian sausage, penne pasta, and marinara. Beyond easy...not particularly healthy.
Kraft Mac and cheese with sausage cut up in it.
Probably something from The Sad Bastard Cookbook. It's a free book with lots of easy meals and good advice.
Nutella on toast. Ruin your life and food like me
- boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Taco seasoning
- Fajita seasoning
- Salsa
Dump everything into crockpot, come back after work and enjoy shredded chicken tacos / nachos / burritos.
Indomie! It's not instant ramen soup, exactly.
You cook the noodles, drain them, then mix the flavor packets in. I prefer using half the salt powder package.
They are the pretty much the best instant noodle, and available in the West too. Seriously, go try them sometime!
If I'm too lazy to cook, I open a can of fish and wash a pile of cucumbers to eat as side dishes with the Indomie.
- Cook some pasta. Doesn't matter what kind.
- Add cream, if no cream is available add milk and condense longer.
- Add powdered soup base
- Enjoy salty, carbs goodness. (Doesn't taste as good if eaten often) If I am felling healthy i'll also eat a raw fruit or vegetable while the pasta is cooking.
While you cook up some boxed mac and cheese on the stove, cut up some broccoli and onions or whatever appropriate veggies you have lying around, and open a can of tuna (any kind of cooked protein is fine, so fry and shred some chicken breast or ground beef if you're feeling ambitious.) When that's done, mix it together in a casserole dish, throw some cheese on top and chuck it in the oven until it turns a bit brown.
Boil some frozen veg - add an egg if you’re feeling fancy. Throw some instant noodles in when the veg and egg is cooked. Strain. Season to your liking.
Salmon and asparagus.
Fried eggs with sliced tomato
Boil pasta. Drain. Add whole can of canned tomatoes to pot (fire roasted or Italian seasoning versions optional)
Carbonara.
Cook some chopped up bacon until crispy. Boil some pasta until cooked. Dump half cup of pasta water into bacon, mix. Mix 3 eggs with a half cup of parmesan, drip in a few tablespoons of pasta water while mixing. Turn off stove, dump pasta into bacon, mix for a few minutes, dump egg and parmesan in, mix vigorously. Eat with a big chunk of crusty bread. Should take 20 minutes from turning on the stove to eating.
Not sure if this would count, but here it is:
- Stovetop stuffing
- Canned chicken
Boil water amount on the box in the electric kettle. Drain canned chicken. (Some brands need to be rinsed because of the amount of salt in the broth they're canned in.) Add stuffing, butter (amount according to the box) and chicken into a bowl. Stir to incorporate. Add boiling water, stir again, and cover for 5 minutes. Fluff and serve.
I suggest using the low sodium version as there will be a lot of salt between the box of stuffing and canned chicken. Can also use leftover cooked chicken.
This isn't what you're really asking, but I have a bunch of stuff in the freezer that I can pull out when I'm sick, don't have enough time to prepare a meal or am just exhausted from whatever.
Making lasagne? Make 4, freeze 3. Mex night? I make 20 black bean burritoes at a time. Check out https://onceamonthmeals.com/ for inspiration. Less cooking, less dishes and less food waste. Go pro and pick up a food saver. I make 8 cups of rice and freeze it in a pint food saver bag. It's winter where I live and I have "soup bags" in the freezer so I can take out veggies that were at their peak when they were frozen and put it in a crock pot so I can have summer fresh soup.
Meatballs and spaghetti :)
Chicken "parmesan"
- non-scratch breaded chicken
- good marinara
- parmesan/mozza (sparingly)
Sourdough pancakes. Just put some oil in the pan, pour your starter, and add some spices.
One of these 2:
- some leftover rice, reheated.
or - a couple small potatoes, microwaved and then cut into cubes.
Mixed with one of these 3:
- 1-2 packets cooked maggi masala ramen.
or - a can of chili and microwave for another couple minutes.
or - bagged madras lentils, similar to above.
- some leftover rice, reheated.
Porkchop and potato cut into wedgies tossed in the toaster oven then some raw broccoli for pooping power later
Rice, salsa, cheese, sour cream, wing it from there with seasonings and proteins like beans or meat.
- Preheat oven to 425 MAGA temperature units.
- Put as many frozen brussles sprouts as you can fit in a single layer in an 8x8 roasting pan (disposable pan for extra laziness).
- Oh come on. You can fit another couple in there. Just cram 'em in.
- That's better.
- Spray olive oil all over 'em.
- Garlic salt all over 'em.
- Paprika.
- Onion powder.
- Black pepper.
- Throw a frozen Aidells-brand pre-cooked andouille or italian sausage on top.
- Cook for an hour.
If you want to be just a little less lazy, you can throw a handful of raw pecans on top of the brussles sprouts to roast about 18-20 minutes before that hour is up.
Long baguette sliced 2cm thick, wedge of Brie, and a slice of Serrano ham folded on top.
Some pickled item on the side, green olive or gherkins.
It's not cooking, it's just some ingredients that happened to land on eachother. Once in a while food.
Ravioli or tortellini.
Grab them in the premade packages dried or "fresh."
Boil them, drain them, dump the sauce in.
I'll never get tired of pasta.
Instant oats + milk powder+ peanut butter+ hot water+ mix tf outta it + add some fruits as garnish if you have any to feel royal :P
A good nutritious meal
Put 3 frozen chicken breasts in the instant pot, add 1 cup chicken stock, sachet of taco seasoning, half a cup of salsa, and a tin of kidney beans, pressure cook for 17 mins, break up the chicken and mix back in, serve with sour cream and grated cheese. Amazing.
Rice, pisto from mercadona and fried egg.
Hard boiled eggs
Pretty much all of them. I've made it a project to feed myself with just nonperishables given like 30 minutes of cooking a night, and I'm about 75% of the way there, I'd say. Salad greens and eggs seem to be impossible to replace, but I can realistically have my own chicken coop and a little growing area indoors. Canadian food prices and qualities are fucked, yo, especially away from big centers.
Last night, I had stierum with a simple salad. It's a bit like a single, big savoury pancake, and you eat it cut into cubes. The dressing is cream (the one rule-breaking element, for now), a dash of vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. I like to let it soak into the bread a bit
On nights I really DGAF, my go-tos are pasta with jarred sauce, or shakshuka. You can get shakshuka sauce in a jar now, so you just empty it into a frying pan, crack four eggs in, and cover until they're cooked. Serve with toast, which you can butter with vegetable oil or ghee.
You can make a vegetarian pulled pork with canned green jackfruit, an onion, bottled barbecue sauce, buns and jarred red cabbage and apple in place of the coleslaw. You pretty much pull apart the jackfruit, and add it with the sauce to sauteed onions. It's delicious, all three components are slightly sweet and they go together well.
I'll stop there, unless somebody is actually interested, but I've got a few more.
Roasted peppers and pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes.
Khai Jiao
It sounds super fancy and foreign, but it's really just a simple omelette with some fish sauce thrown in. You can get fancy with cornstarch to make it a little crispy, but I ain't got time for that.
Instructions:
- Beat some eggs with some fish sauce (not a lot, just a splash or a spoonful)
- Fry eggs in oil, pulling from the side so the liquid on top cooks
It's done when there's no more liquid on top. Eat with rice (can microwave some precooked rice).
Total time: 5-10 min. Try it even if you don't like fish sauce.
Lemon pepper chicken, take chicken breast, slap it in a pan, fill the pan with lemon juice, So that the chicken is effectively soaking in it while it cooks, put copious amounts of lemon pepper seasoning on the top of the chicken breast, Wait until fully cooked. It's absolutely delicious!
Slow cooker stuff if I'm lazy but thinking ahead a bit. Just throw shit in a pot and turn it on. I tend to get big lumps of meat rather than steaks or whatever, so the slow cooker has the added benefit of me not needing to do much cutting. I just do a few big chunks and it'll be so tender by the time it's ready it'll fall apart. Takes longer to put it away in containers than to prep it, then I'm done cooking for a week lol
Spaghetti bolognese is a regular if I need something soon. Little more work, but it's extremely quick and doesn't require being in the kitchen for the whole thing. Still makes a ton of meals that keep and reheat nicely.
Roasts are nice if I'm sort of having to impress someone but I'm lazy. You just throw shit in the oven and wait. Occasionally come back to throw in something that has a shorter cook time than the meat. Might be heresy but I've never really been keen on the leftovers of a roast though, so one cook is usually only one meal and maybe a sandwich the next day instead of several.
Leftovers. Honestly, I cook like two times a week. Throw most of it in the fridge, some of it in the freezer, and grab a collection of whatever and microwave, air fry, or convention oven it. Even better is if the "cooking" is smoking or crock pot. You know, throw it in, check every few hours, kind of deals.
Otherwise, I'll just eat ingredients and pretend it's a charcuterie.
The other is sandwiches and eggs. Make bacon, use bread or eggs to clean up grease, throw some meat or cheese on it, season with bull shit (whatever premixed seasoning sounds good). I like mayo and balsamic on my sandwiches too. That's my easier than eating out and actually worth eating stuff.
Tuna salad sandwich
Tuna, celery, onion, mayo, dry dill, garlic powder, pickles if you want in a bowl and mix. Spread on toast and that's it. Has plenty of protein and will keep you full.
Next is ramen.
Boil water to cook ramen noodles
Stir fry some onion, scallion whites, other hard veggies and garlic, once tender add some soy sauce, broth and some bouillon powder, and soft or leafy veg and the scallion greens.
Let that cook and add noodles and a light drizzle of sesame oil
Oh I have a lot of recipes like this, all pasta based because it takes just 10 minutes to boil the noodles.
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Cream or tomato based sauce - Microwave meatballs that are fully-cooked out of the pack for 3 minutes. Toss in the pan with onions and garlic, pour bottled sauce, mix in noodles.
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Pasta limone with shrimp - Generously salt water for boiling noodles. Fry a pack of fully-cooked shrimp with butter, garlic, onions, and lemon pepper. Mix in noodles. Add a couple of spoons of salted pasta water. Squeeze half a lemon. Sprinkle a good amount of parmesan.
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Peanut pasta - Dilute 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter in the pan with water until you get a saucy consistency. Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and sesame oil. Add a couple of spoons of salted pasta water. Mix in noodles.
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https://youtu.be/TH4Y_skmSoY?feature=shared
Grilled veggies, crispy garbanzo, some Greek yogurt and zaatar. Super quick and easy.
In a saucepan caramelize some onions (or at least until translucent), then add a package of ground beef and heat until cooked through (optionally spice) then throw some cheese (ideally a provolone or other neutral cheese) on top until it's melted... shovel all that into a baguette and enjoy a munkwich.
Cassava flakes mixed with milk and sweetener
Breaded chicken tenders with spaghetti and jarred sauce or pesto.
Pre-portioned chicken pieces in one drawer of the air fryer, tater tots in the other. Slice up tomato and carrots to go with them. Nothing left to do except wrap the bones after so the cats can't get them, but that's a future-me problem.
Steam cooked carbonara from instant ramen, cheese and bacon
1lb ground beef 2 cans sweet corn 2 cans of kidney beans Two cans diced tomatoes 1 can tomato paste Taco seasoning (I buy McCormicks from Costco so I have no idea how many packets)
In a large pot brown the beef Once browned open all cans and put them in the pot, juice and all Heat to simmer and add taco seasoning with your heart
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and/or some shredded cheese on top
Taco soup
Usually I cross the street for some Mexican food! Cheap and magnificent!
Bean and Cheese nachos Bonus if you have some sort of leftover chicken or other grilled meat to add.
Cook refried beans. Dab a thin coat of beans with a spoon on a chip and place on greased baking sheet. Add meat if you have it. Cover with shredded cheese. Bake on 350 for 5-6 minutes.
I like to serve with salsa and pickled jalapeños if I have them, which I usually do just for this dish.
If there is leftover rice in the rice cooker, a fried egg, chili paste and pork fu on that rice is great. Avocado on there is good too. Chili paste on rice if you don't want to make an egg.
A piece of cheese and an apple is good. Apple and peanut butter good. Cheese and crackers good.
I think your best bet, though, is to cook and save a portion you can pop in the microwave when you don't want to cook. And keep something like hummus on hand, healthy and easy. Seasoned canned beans.
Permanently Deleted
Water + rice + frozen mixed vegetables + plant-based protein source (beans, frozen faux chicken, TVP chunks, etc) + seasoning.
Throw it in a pressure cooker and you're done. Maybe 30 seconds of effort for a healthy, hearty, inexpensive meal
Canned fish + rice + potatoes + maybe some vegetables + water + maybe some spices. Put on heat, return after some time, get a soup.
If there's no canned fish, pour in some sunflower oil, etc. Every part is variable.
Depending on the amount of rice and water, this may not be a soup in the end.
Rice, sardines, kimchi, avocado, soy sauce, sesame oil.
I make a no knead pizza which is incredibly easy. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to prepare the dough in the morning. Just mix it in a bowl, cover it and let proof all day.
About an hour before you plan to eat, flatten the dough onto a baking sheet and let proof again. Once you're ready to eat, just put sauce and toppings of your choice, cook at the highest heat setting on your oven. Should be ready in about 10-15 min.
Best pizza I've ever had. Doesn't compare to the local pizza shops. A lot less greasy also.
Readymade spicy oats with some peanut butter or cheese, sprinkled with chipotle spice and some garlic herb mix.
Or Shin Ramen Classic with one egg.