In no particular order

Preface

I have a long term health condition called POTS that often leaves me with little energy to cook healthy meals for myself. I am compiling some of the recipes I have found that are nice tasting, relatively healthy, and most importantly super easy, for those in a similar boat to me.

A few stipulations:

  • I am vegetarian
  • I live in the UK
  • I usually shop at ALDI and Iceland, so a lot of recipes will be based off what they offer, and some may no longer be possible if they stop selling a certain ingredient (e.g. a specific spice mix packet)
  • My typical portion size is large, usually 1.5-2 times the recommended portion on food packets e.g. pasta

Recipes

Soup

Tinned soup is pretty good. You have a lot of options to pick from, it’s relatively cheap, and it’s usually at least one of your five a day.

I’ve found it does taste better warmed up in a pan than microwaved, but if you haven’t already, get youself one of those microwavable soup bowls with a handle and a lid for a quid or two.

If you want a little more, have it with some buttered toast, I haven’t found a soup that doesn’t go with buttered toast.

Speaking of toast…

Toast

Buy a big ol’ sliced loaf in a supermarket, and pop it in the freezer. After some trial and error adjusting settings on your toaster, you can get perfect toast every time from frozen.

The possibilities of toast toppings are probably endless, but my favourites are peanut butter, peanut butter with sliced banana, and cheese and pickle. Plus, beans on toast is a great quick hot meal especially with sliced cheese.

Also; toast sandwiches are totally a thing.

Pouches

ALDI do a lot of different foods in microwavable pouches, and you can make a really easy meal with one or two of them.

One of my favourites is…

BBQ Beans in Cheesy Rolls

  • Get a pouch of ALDI BBQ Beans and a Pack of ALDI Cheese Rolls (warning, they don’t last long, so maybe eat this on or around a shopping day, or if you have space, freeze it)
  • Cut open the rolls like burger buns
  • Heat the pouch in the microwave
  • And then just make a sandwich with the cheesy rolls and the BBQ Beans, tastes super nice, if a little messy.

BBQ Beans and Rice

(Can you tell I like these BBQ Beans?)

Mixing a pouch of BBQ Beans with some rice works really well too, I usually use rice in a pouch, you can get quite a few different types, including ones with healthy things such as pumpkin seeds and quinoa.

Slow Cooker

Slow cookers are great! You can get a reasonable one for £10-£20, try to get one with an Auto function, it’ll make cooking with them just a bit easier.

Curry

I make curry quite often in my slow cooker. You can vary how much energy you want to put into preparing it, and by the end of the day you have a warm filling meal.

ALDI have a selection of both curry sauces in jars and curry spice mixes. If you use the jar variety, just add less liquid later on.

For curry ingredients I usually use frozen mixed veg, and frozen pre-diced onion, which saves you a lot of work.

  • Get about 200g-250g of veg, defrost it beforehand if frozen
  • If you’re using a spice mix, add it to the veg and let it absorb a bit
  • (Optional) Lightly fry the veg (with spice mix if applicable), especially if you have some onion in there
  • Pop it in the slow cooker
  • Add your curry sauce if you’re using a jar, add some liquid if not. If you want a rich and creamy curry, half a tin of coconut milk works really well, if not top it up with a little warm/hot water (just remember that not much water will be lost when cooking)
  • Pop the slow cooker on Auto, or if you don’t have Auto, put it on High until it’s bubbling around the edges, and then turn it down to Low for a few hours until you’re ready to eat

Stir Fry

Iceland (used to, I can’t find them recently) do a frozen stir fry mix which was perfect for stir frys, just defrost the mix in the pan/wok before cooking.

Otherwise it’s quite easy to find stir fry mixes in the fridge section that last for a couple of days in the fridge, or just used some frozen mixed veg (with maybe some frozen diced onion).

I usually buy stir fry sauce packets from ALDI, and I add the sauce near the end of cooking.

As for noodles, I use “Ready to Wok” noodles from ALDI, which require no prep at all, just add them half way through cooking.

Speaking of Woks, using a medium Wok or Wok style frying pan is so much better for doing stir frys than a normal frying pan, along with just a basic wooden spatula.

Pasta

Pasta is very easy to make, just follow the instructions on the packet. It’s easy to make extra too, if you want to refrigerate or freeze some for later as a homemeade ready meal.

As for pasta sauces, there are many available. Personally I prefer not to go with the sauces that use a full jar, rather the stir in sauces in little jars that you can get in ALDI, which do 2-3 portions per jar.

You can also use some unconventional ingredients for a pasta sauce, in the past I have used:

  • Soup (cream of tomato works really well)
  • Baked Beans (yes really)

Rice

Rice is a great staple, and you can get it in pouches as mentioned above, and in packets uncooked.

Rice cookers can be found pretty cheap, and make perfect rice every time. Don’t bother with ones with a timer (unless you plan to cook things other than rice in it), as it’s not necessary for rice cooking.

Frozen Mixed Veg cooked according to the packet, plus rice with a bit of salt works really well as a basic, filling, healthy meal.

In fact, rice by itself with some soy sauce works well as a small meal in a pinch.

Frozen Ready Meals

Iceland is great for these, there’s so much choice, they taste good, and they’re usually pretty healthy.

ALDI I have less good experience with, their veggie/vegan range of ready meals I’ve found are a bit tasteless. The veggie pizzas are okay, but unless you’re going with the higher quality/price ones, I’d go with Iceland’s frozen pizzas.

TLDR/Ingredients & Utensil List

Staple Ingredients (ones I usually have in my cupboards/freezer)

  • Frozen Veg
  • Frozen Diced Onion
  • (Frozen) Sliced Bread
  • Tinned Soup
  • Baked Beans
  • Coconut Milk
  • A selection of Pouches (incl BBQ Beans)
  • Curry Sauce/Spice Mix
  • Stir Fry Sauce
  • Ready to Wok Noodles
  • Pasta
  • Stir Through Pasta Sauce
  • Soy Sauce
  • Misc. Frozen Ready Meals
  • Frozen Pizza
  • Frozen Veggie Burgers or Equivalent

Basic Utensils (ones I use the most often)

  • Microwavable Soup Bowl
  • Toaster
  • Microwave
  • Slow Cooker
  • Medium Wok/Wok style frying pan
  • Saucepan Set
  • Rice Cooker
  • Oven (would not recommend an oven built into a microwave, from experience)