What are your go-to meals that you cook?

10 minute pad thai.

I have some rice pho noodles in a dry pack similar to ramen. I heat water to cook those and drain them, and microwave broccoli normandy or other vegetables, and throw that in with the noodles, seasoning pack, and some variant of onions, fresh greens, chives, rosemary, peppers, or whatever else looks good. Add a spoon of m
Peanut butter, soy sauce, and something for taste like peri peri sauce from trader joes, sriracha, or goyoza.

Sometimes i have air fryer potatoes or occasionally 3 gluten free chicken nuggets or something for crunch.

Fantastic and filling and mostly veggies. Eat it almost every day

I really want to post a lot of stuff here, but... I'm very tired and had a few drinks so I know I'm on that downward spiral.
But one I want to state from a random option: a bun, a chicken thigh (or breast, if you keep it small, I just have a thing against poultry breasts), some mint leaves, a couple strawberries, and mayo. Grill the chicken (or pan fry it, or oven bake it...), muddle a couple mint leaves and mix with the mayo, and the strawberries cover instead of tomatoes. Though you could do those too. It's a delightful and easy sweet and savory that a friend used to bring to potlucks - she'd make like 12, and never got to take any home. I found they were pretty easy to replicate on a single level, and at one point I ditched the mayo though I can't remember what I replaced it with (this was like 15 years ago).
If I remember later, I'll come back with a few more that are pretty easy and easily veggie based. But regardless, good luck!

Recently I’ve been pan frying salmon, then eating that with steamed broccoli and rice. Super easy, quick, tasty, and healthy. I just cut off a couple steaks from a half of a salmon, descale and lay in a pan with butter and olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, etc. Finish the fish and broccoli with lemon juice.

I get maybe 10 cuts from a side of salmon, which is like $2/cut. Total meal is maybe $5 and 1,000 calories.

My "I am dead inside but I want something warm that tastes good" meal is spicy tuna rice.

Cook 3/4 cup of rice in my rice cooker. If you don't have one, they sell microwavable rice pouches.

Defrost some frozen vegetables - chopped broccoli, peas, corn, edamame, whatever you have. I've also used fresh cucumber, or canned corn if it's all I had. Drain any liquid.

Open a can of tuna and drain it. Put it into a bowl with your veg, add ~2 Tbs mayo, and then to taste sriracha, soy sauce, and rice vinegar (or any other vinegar, just be careful with the quantity because rice vinegar is less acidic).

Once the rice is done, mix everything together. Furikake is good on top if you have it.

The other meal I make while dead inside is just a can of chick peas, olive oil, red wine or apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and if I have one, a chopped tomato.

My super lazy breakfast burritos:

Make a couple scrambled eggs. Set aside.

In the same pan, fry up some diced onions. After they're starting to cook down a bit (or after just a few minutes), add some beans (I usually use about 1/3 can black beans, but adjust based on preference and how much you want to eat). Add some frozen corn if you have it and want to. Add some leftover rice if you have it in the fridge (or microwave a bit of it if you'd rather not have it mix together; I like it a bit better when it's separate, but it's up to you). Add some spices (cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper) toward the end. Then dump a bit of salsa on and mix it together until even-ish.

Throw some shredded cheese on a tortilla and put it in the oven until the cheese is melted, then make your burrito.

So easy, and so good. I have this for lunch fairly often because of the ease and deliciousness.

I do a much better job when I'm planning on burritos. I soak dry beans and make a big pot slowly and the flavors come together a lot better. I also fry up onions and peppers separately to add, and probably get an avocado if there are any decent ones at the store, but you asked for easy recipes, and that's one of my easiest.

Another of my go-to super-simple recipes is spaghetti. I'll share it anyway, but it does use ground beef, so you might not be interested. I'm sure you could substitute a bean mix and it'd be quite delicious. Unfortunately, my spaghetti is one of my son's favorite dishes, and he's always "disliked" beans (meaning: he doesn't like the look or the smell or the idea of them, so won't try them), so I'm stuck with this beef version until he's older.

First: pour yourself a glass of wine. You actually can skip this step if you don't drink, but it adds some great flavor. You'll need the glass later in the recipe, but of course drink it while cooking, and just top it off when it's time.

In a big pot, brown some ground beef (we like a lot of leftovers, so I use about a pound and a half). Get the pot nice and hot with some oil in the bottom (olive is what I use) and toss in the beef. Let it sit for a while without moving it so it actually gets seared a bit and therefore brown. Then flip it over and brown the other side. Wait a bit, then start to chop it up, etc.

You should've diced half an onion by now. To avoid making yourself cry, ... never mind. I struggled to clearly describe how to dice it, so check out this short video to hear it from a professional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGS067s0zo. (Hopefully I'm not over-explaining, but you said you were a beginner, and it took me many years before I learned how to properly dice an onion.)

Once you're happy with how brown the beef is, add the onion, and cook it down until a bit translucent. Also add as many whole garlic cloves as you want. Don't let me stop you from going nuts; I love whole cloves. Then add spices. I don't measure anything, but I end up with at least a quarter cup total of spices. I start with a mix of Italian seasoning (I don't actually know everything in it, it's just a mix that I buy from the store). Then add a bunch of basil. Then garlic powder, oregano, and black pepper. Wait 30 seconds to a minute, then mix them in and wait another minute. Cooking the spices helps bring out the flavor, so make sure it's good and fragrant.

Add the glass of wine and then mix it in, scraping the bottom of the pan (aka deglazing). Add a can of tomato sauce, then a can of chopped tomatoes, then a can of tomato paste. I always rinse the cans to make sure I get as much of the tomato as possible into the spaghetti, since I can always just cook it longer to get rid of that excess water.

Simmer for a while on low until it seems done. Serve on your pasta of choice, of course.

Toasted gnocchi! I like to do toasted gnocchi with some lemon garlic button sauce. Good with all sorts of veggies, recently we did asparagus and arugula, which was pretty good.

The actual recipe is pretty simple:

• Melt a decent amount of butter in a pan
• Toss in some minced garlic for 30 seconds or so
• Toss in some lemon juice and take off heat
• Cook some gnocchi in boiling water, as you would normally
• When it starts floating, strain it and put in it a pan in a single layer over medium high heat
• Let it toast for a minute or two, until it starts to brown, then flip and toast the other side

Combine (optionally with some sauteed veggies) and eat!

This is super basic, but it’s an incredibly easy, relatively cheap one-pot pasta dish that’s supposed to be a more “wholesome” version of boxed Hamburger Helper meals. My whole family loves it, from the toddler up to the adults, and it dirties exactly four items (cutting board, knife, pot, wooden spoon or other stirring tool), five if you feel the need to measure everything precisely, but it’s a great dish to learn how to get comfortable eyeballing measurements. My wife found this on TikTok and we adapted it to suit our tastes, so no link or anything, just my handwritten sloppy notes:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground meat, we usually use beef, your preference of fat percentage
10 oz uncooked pasta (we tend to use fusilli, any short shape works great)
3 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced (we usually use white)
5 cloves garlic, minced
3c chicken stock
1c milk, any percentage works
1c tomato sauce
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
1/2t smoked paprika
1t oregano
1t dried thyme or marjoram
1-1.5c shredded cheddar

In your pot, add oil, medium high heat
Add carrots & onion, 3-4 minutes
Add ground meat, break up and cook through
Add spices, 1 minute
Add garlic, 1 minute
Add all liquids and pasta, bring to low boil, stir occasionally
Cook 7-10 minutes until pasta is good, should still be a little liquid left
Remove from heat, stir in cheese, let sit for 5 min so sauce thickens

Obviously also a great pantry-clearing recipe if you want to throw in any additional vegetables or mix the odds and ends of pasta types with only a few oz left in each box.

Spam Musabi is a standard for lunch.

Or for breakfast just spam, scrambled eggs, and pineapple.

One I've started recently is a quick instant pot stew of chicken with gochujang, soy sauce and sesame oil. I just throw them into the instant pot and pressure cook for~10 minutes. Once I release the pressure I then change it to saute and mix in carrots and broccoli (and zucchini if I have it) and let things saute for ~5 minutes. Pretty feeling, decently healthy I feel?, and fairly low effort.

There are times where even that is too high effort for me though. I'll then simply bake chicken thighs with basic seasonings like salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Ill then thaw some frozen broccoli and eat it with rice.

i always like to share this one: https://damndelicious.net/2014/04/09/one-pan-mexican-quinoa/

some modifications:

• as written, the recipe is vegan. that’s fine , but i find it comes out a bit lacking. it needs cheese. i typically use one of those “southwest “ type mixes
• i slice the avocado and serve on the side because warm avocado is gross
• you don’t need to bother with veg stock, plain water is fine
• lots of lime! 🍋‍🟩

it’s super easy, filling, and you’ll have leftovers

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someone else mentioned salmon and steamed broccoli- i do the salmon with a sort of teriyaki-esque sauce. frozen broccoli and shelled edamame steamed together and finished with a bit of rice vinegar, olive oil, a touch of sesame oil and miso (mix together into a sauce in a little bowl first, then top the veg with it) is really delicious

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thai green curry is pretty easy and you can load it with veg, and use different meats (or go vegan) for variety. https://m.youtube.com/@PailinsKitchen search pai’s youtube , she has a few different recipes. depending on location some of the ingredients can be a bit tricky to find tho

japanese curry is pretty easy too- just follow the directions on the box of roux

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for salads,

greek style

• tomatoes, i like to use the tiny colorful ones
• red onion
• red pepper
• cucumber
• olive oil (use a good one)
• sheep feta
• fresh mint
• oregano
• pepper
• olives (i used sliced green ones from a jar)

japanese style

• spring mix, butter lettuce, iceberg lettuce, whatever leaf is good
• some other veg like tomato, cucumber, carrot
• dressing: 3:1 oil-acid , olive oil + a touch of sesame oil for flavor, rice vinegar + a touch of yuzu juice for flavor, and then a bit of miso and some pepper. can also add grated ginger and carrot if you want

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miso soup is pretty easy and you can add whatever you want to it. we often add daikon, mushrooms (shiitake, enoki, etc) , carrots and things like that

Not veg heavy but I do love this Vodka Pasta recipe, it’s pretty quick cause I usually just prep the sauce while the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking:
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/fusilli-alla-vodka-basil-parmesan

(Can share if you DM if you hit the paywall).

I am also a big fan of Mediterranean bowls for lunch, because I can prepare all the chopped tomatoes/cucumbers/onion beforehand & the seasoned chickpeas (might not be in the recipe, I just toss with lemon, parsley, and the onion), and then can put on either microwave rice or lettuce for a quick lunch/dinner.
https://www.acouplecooks.com/hummus-bowl/

I’m also a big fan of making a large soup on the weekend (see my topic history where I asked for recs), and then reheating for lunches during the week. I picked up some “souper cube” knockoffs from Costco and I use those to freeze a couple servings as well.

I don't make it that often, but it's a comfy meal I really enjoy: Spinach!

1. Smash the heck out of some garlic. I usually do around 6-7 cloves for 1kg of frozen spinach

2. Add some butter and oil (or just oil of preference) to a pot, heat it up, add the crushed garlic and let it get nice and aromatic. Don't burn it

3. Add some flour - plain white, around a tablespoon. This is where you might want to add a bit more oil or butter, you want to have enough to not burn the flour. Stir constantly, don't want anything sticking

4. Once the flour has absorbed the oils and garlic flavors, extinguish it with full fat milk. You can either add it slowly in steps, constantly stirring to make a roux, or add a bunch at once and vigorously stir to make sure there aren't any chunks.

5. Once that's done, add frozen chopped spinach, then add more milk until it's covered.

6. Stir and cook on low heat until the spinach is of a desired texture. I like it on the more fresh side, but you can cook it longer.

7. Once the milk is hot and it's all cooking, you can add salt and pepper and other desired spices. Cream is usual, perhaps a bit more butter, a more neutral cheese that will melt nicely, etc

8. Once it's done, serve with a nice slice of sourdough and a fried egg.

What do low effort and beginner mean to you? Even just posting a recipe you like will help us calibrate, I think.

Super Easy:

Dry pasta or refrigerated tortellini. Boil in a pot per instructions. Pasta sauce in a bottle. Heat in a pan. Bonus points for toasted garlic bread, you can buy it pre-made. Double bonus points for red wine. Splash some in the sauce. Taste test the wine. Splash some more in the sauce. Better taste test it again...

Air fryer. Throw in frozen breaded fish and chips. Done. Maybe rinse it out every third or fourth cook.

Easy:

Dehydrated potatoes. Just add water. Let sit. Pre-cooked sausages. Fry them up. Peel, slice and fry up onions in pan. Pre-made beef gravy in a jar. Add to fry pan. Now you have traditional bangers and mash.

Low Effort:
Buy entire chicken. Empty out insides. Rinse. Dry. Salt. Pepper. Onion powder. Garlic powder. Line roasting pan with tin foil. Throw chicken on roasting pan. Most people tie the legs, I am lazy. Rinse baby potatoes. Chop them up and put in roasting pan. Rinse baby carrots. Throw them in the roasting pan. Thermometer in the chicken. Once the thermometer measures 165 F just check the chicken. is 165 throughout. Red blood is fine. Pink meat is not.