I'm afraid I am guilty of eating far too much convenience food but I am determined to change my ways, so what would the STW massive suggest for some easy quick meals that are healthy too?

Nice salads. Half a bag of ready prepped salad leaves, few tomatoes, a tin of tuna, maybe some sweetcorn, some feta cheese and a bit of homemade mustard vinaigrette. Takes about 5 minutes to make, no cooking involved, tasty, surprisingly filling, balanced and pretty healthy.

stir fry. A little oil in the pan, get it hot, bung in almost any vegetables and some protein (tofu, meat, fish), plus some soy sauce. ready in a tick, delicious and nutritious.

I do tuna pasta quite a lot, it's healthy, fills you up and is ideal meal for before and after exercise. Penne pasta, tin of tuna, sweetcorn, red/green/yellow peppers, ground pepper. Then I might add bits to change the taste like pesto, proper parmisan, olive oil. 15 mins

If you don't mind trying cooking rather than living on bags of salad and pasta, then get yourself to a local book store and buy a copy of "1000 Quick and Easy Recipes". Got this myself years ago when I was a single bloke. There's a whole range of stuff in it and most of the recipes can be prepared and cooked, ready to eat within 45mins.

I knocked this one out post ride on Tuesday night. First time attempt, quick, easy and tasted great based on a mackerel biriani I had in Poole recently.
– brown rice
– packet of mackerel/smoked mackerel
– frozen peas
– Pataks curry paste of any denomination

1. Bring brown rice to the boil then simmer for 30 mins.
2. Hit the shower
3. Throw a portion of peas in the microwave
4. Skin a packet of smoked mackerel/peppered mackerel (reserve skin and one fillet for the dog). Dice other 2 fillets.
5. Drain rice then warm mackerel in the rice pan
6. Drain peas and add to mackerel along with rice and Pataks curry paste (not sauce) to required spiciness.
7. Warm through and serve.

Comes out as quite a dry curry but the oiliness of the mackerel makes it really nice and pretty healthy.

Second the stir fry. If you mix it up with different meats & sauces, you can actually have it most evening meals in a week without getting bored.

I also eat alot of salmon.

Oh and on the weekends I have a curry or something to ruin it all.

Don't get hung up on what's "healthy". Food isn't really good or bad, it's just about balance and moderation:

1. Eat mostly vegetables
2. Not too much
3. If your great granny wouldn't recognize it as food, try not to eat too much of it

3. If your great granny wouldn't recognize it as food, try not to eat too much of it

eh what like curry or pasta?

eggs on toast is my favorite.

Ready to eat within 45 minutes? Screw that, that's not quick or convenient :p Anything I do needs to use 2 pans maximum and be done in 15 minutes, else it's popping something into the microwave. That said the Asda fresh tastes microwave bag stuff seems OK, you can actually see (and recognise) the ingredients :p

+1 For Stir-Fry, get yourself to a Chinese supermarket for lots of inspiration (also good cheap woks). Like the others have said though most veg can be stir-fried, along with some decent flavours, don't forget the garlic/chilli/ginger though!

Another good one is some cooked lean turkey steak mixed in with some reduced fat creme fraiche, red pesto (much or as little as you want) some chopped chillis from a jar (forgot their name but get the f_uck off hot ones) warm the mixture through and served with about 50grms (p/p) of whole wheat pasta. You can mix it up a bit by frying the turkey at the start with some garlic, or be super healthy and grill it/steam it first before mixing it in with everything.

Coat some lamb neck with a good coat of turmeric (reckon about 100g of lamb per person), brown off in a pan with chopped onion/peppers (or whatever veg you fancy) the stick in some korma curry (1tbs per 100g lamb) paste – I make one up but the patak one works v.well. Fry for a few minutes then cover with stock, simmer for about two cans of beer (approx 40 mins or until the lamb is tender). Lob in tin of chick peas, 200g of low fat soft cheese and a bit of chopped coriander. Serve it with some wholemeal rice and the remaining two cans of beer. If you like spinach in your curry then chuck a few handfuls of that in with the final ingredients.

*neither of these are my own recipes I've just adapted them over the years, lots more where they came from but these two are my favourites!

Pembo – yours sounds good, think you've sorted out my tea for tonight cheers!

Thomthumb, I was thinking more like all the convenience crap that's been invented in the last 20 years or so, Instant mash, poptarts, cheese-strings, all that sort of shite

fajita's

Hot wok/frying pan
little oilo, chicken, bacon, onion, chilli pepper (or two) fry untill cooked,

lots of paprika (about a teaspoon at least), couple of min,

peppers, fry untill cooked,

tin of tomatoes (half teaspoon of dried basil, or a handull of leaves later if your using fresh)

Taken about 10-15min so far, including chopping

leave for 15-20min on a heat that will dry it out slightly and remember to stir occsionall.

Either serve with rice (always in the cupboard) or rol into fajitas.

Also easy (ingredients for 2 people):

spag bol
half onion, clove of garlic, 300g mince in a frying pan, fry untill cooked
any other random veg (carrots, mushrooms, peppers etc)
2 tins of tomatoes
basil
30min simmering untill reduced and looks like spag bol.

Lasagne
same as above, but make a white sauce form 300ml of milk boiled, a tablespoon of flour and a nob of butter in a blender (yes this is cheeting).
layer with 250g of lasagne in a small oven dish. or mix with cheese, 300g pasta and spag bol sauce for a cheesy pasta bake.
40min in the oven at 180deg.

curry
onnion, peppers, meat, chillis (fry) tins of tomatoes, curry powder (simmer for 30min),

All take 15min to prepare and 30min or so cooking.

fried rice:

cook rice (for about a min less than the packet says, it needs to be firm not stodgy)

fry meat, veg, etc in wok

add rice and stir

add a beeten egg if required and stir.

Rissotto:
nob butter in pan, fry some chicken

turn heat right down

add rice and absorb the oil, (can cheet and use basmati, it cooks quicker)

add 1/2 glass white wine

add chicken stock (have this boiling in a seperate pan or crumble a stock cube into the rice to begin with and add water form the kettle, just make sure its boiling)

keep adding water a little at a time (your aiming to have just enough to be cooking the rice without burnign it, but not enough to have any spare, untill the rice is cooked.

Add parmasan and herbs, black pepper etc

1. Eat mostly vegetables
2. Not too much
3. If your great granny wouldn't recognize it as food, try not to eat too much of it

I usually base it on the granny of someone from Italy 🙂

Came from this originally: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?_r=1

remember to stock up on the tuna as it may soon be extinct 🙁

For easy quick pasta recipes I heartily recommend

Pasta: Every Way for Every Day

Falafel is good for you, easy and tasty..

J

spag bol ….. carrots

Are you **** insane?

Spag Bol has to have carrots in it. Onion, celery and carrots are the holy trinity of Italian cooking.

Onion, celery and carrots are the holy trinity of Italian cooking.

and not pasta & tomatoes ??

Nope. Virtually every recipe starts with those three, but not all have pasta or tomatoes.

Except tiramisu, obviously. or panacotta.

You don't put onion, celery and carrot in your tiramisu? Heathen 😉

Obviously celery and onion. But not carrot.

And also, would you not put wine in a spag bol? I would. Onion and garlic in pot, brown off the mince add tomotaoes and wine then put it in the oven. Off to work – come back four (or eight) hours later and its ready. Make a huge pot and freeze some.

My mates special spag bol "recipe" contains a whole bottled of tomato ketchup but I'm guessing its not traditional.

I usually put red wine and milk in my spag bol, but there's no one right way of making it.

True. Probably because like Chicken Tikka Masala its a british dish. You wouldn't get anything resembling Spag Bol in Italy, and certainlu noy Bologna. You'd probably get spaghetti con ragu which would be close but not with minced meat – think more casserole style – and normally with pork or wild boar def not beef.

I don't think what most people think of as Spag Bol in the UK would be what most folk from Bologna would…