Some evenings can be happily spent in the kitchen, lovingly and leisurely preparing and cooking a meal for yourself and your family; other evening, even stepping inside the kitchen can feel like torture. This is true for everyone. There will be some days when nobody feels like cooking! You can always bring home some takeaway food, but that is neither healthy nor economical. 

For those days when you don’t feel like cooking, there are still some food you can prepare that will neither take a lot of time nor any effort. 

So, here is a list of what to cook or prepare when you don’t feel like it, i.e. when cooking is the last thing in the world you want to do! 

  • Stir-fried Vegetables. For the nights that you are extremely busy and tired, you can simply pop into your neighborhood grocery store and pick up a box of pre-cut mixed vegetable. Stir-fry them in a little butter, and sprinkle your favorite seasoning herbs, and you have a ready-to-eat healthy meal in a few minutes. 
  • Homemade Burgers. Over the weekend, you can make a few batches of meat or fish patty that you can defrost and bake in a few minutes. Put them inside a bun and smear some mustard or low-fat mayonnaise, and you have a homemade burger in no time at all. 
  • Egg Salad. All you need to do is to boil a few eggs – and maybe even throw in a single potato into the mix. Cut them up in pieces and mix together with mustard, mayonnaise and seasoning. Egg and potato salad is the perfect companion on movie nights! 
  • Zucchini or Eggplant Pizza. Completely vegetarian or vegan pizzas without the need to add flour to the mix. If you have zucchini or round eggplants at home, slice them up and top pizza sauce and cheese on them (perhaps a few slices of sausage or pepperoni), and in a few minutes, mini pizzas ready to serve. 
  • Dips with Greek Yogurt. Add some lemon juice and coriander to your Greek Yogurt, and blend them together for a few seconds with an Immersion Blender. A perfect dip to eat with julienned carrot sticks, whole bread or cucumber slices – this can be a complete meal for days when you don’t feel like cooking. 
  • Mediterranean Cauliflower. Cauliflowers are easy to cut into pieces and prepare, and also to cook. Simply add some diced tomatoes, green olives and feta cheese squares with the cauliflower, sprinkle some herbs and spices and cook them in a stockpot. In less than 10 minutes, you have a nutritious meal to serve your family. 
  1. Scrambled Eggs. You can’t really go wrong with scrambled eggs; they are absolutely classic. We usually eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, but they can be prepared and eaten any time of the day for a much-needed boost of energy. 
  • Homemade Muffins. Weekends are perfect for whipping up a batch of homemade muffins, preferably from oatmeal and fruits. Whatever fruit you have at home – blueberries, strawberries, bananas – anything can be turned into a hearty muffin when you have some rolled or quick oats with you. An entire batch takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and can be kept in the fridge for a whole week. On the nights that you don’t feel like cooking, these premade muffins can be a perfect dinner – heated and smeared with your favorite jam. 
  • Pancakes/Waffles. These, too, are typical breakfast recipes but something that can be enjoyed anytime throughout the day. You can make them from scratch or use ready-to-use pancake mix, and it won’t take more than a few minutes for a whole batch to be ready. Serve with maple syrup or honey, and the whole family would love to have pancakes or waffles for dinner.  
  • Chop Salad. Almost anything in your fridge can be chopped and turned into a delicious salad: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, leftover chicken, carrots, feta cheese, tofu or tuna. Sprinkle some lemon juice and your favorite herbs, or add a few teaspoon of salad dressing, and you will have a lovely chop salad to enjoy in front of the television.  
  • Anything Soup. Just like a chop salad, almost anything can be turned into a filling and hearty soup. If you have a slow cooker and you know you’ll be late coming home from work, you can start on a vegetable soup even before you leave the house in the morning. Carrots, leeks, cabbages, cauliflowers, whole tomatoes and tomato paste, potatoes, peas – together, all these can make a great soup ready for you to serve when you come home. You can also add some store-bought or pre-prepared stock into the soup, and the herbs and seasonings of your choice for taste. 
  • Oven-baked Pasta. Boil some pasta, add some canned pasta sauce, sprinkle some cheese and put the whole thing in the oven for a few minutes – your dinner is done. Pasta is delicious and acceptable any time of the day, and everyone loves to have pasta at least twice a week. If you don’t want to use store-bought pasta sauce, you can make a large batch on the weekends and freeze them for later.  
  • Leftover Rice. If you have leftover boiled rice from before, they can be quickly turned into a kind of fried rice with chopped onions, scrambled eggs, leftover chicken, sausage or ham bits, green pepper and sautéed tomatoes. A perfect way to not waste any food you have left in the fridge, this is a great recipe that takes minutes but is extremely filling. 
  • Instant Bread Pizza. Simply take some already-existing whole-wheat bread slices, smear some pizza sauce or tomato sauce, cheese and a choice of topping, and pop them in a toaster oven. Bread pizza ready instantly while you choose a movie to watch on the TV! 
  • Ramen. InstantRamen dishes doesn’t take much long to cook, but they look amazing, tastes delicious and are very filling meals. You can add a few boiled eggs or sautéed mushrooms to the mix, as well as any vegetables that you have in the fridge to complete the recipes. 
  • Sweet Potato Curry. Sweet potatoes aren’t just extremely nutritious, but also delicious. Making a whole pot of curry requires only a few pieces of sweet potatoes, kales and tomatoes; you can also add some roasted cashews or Thai curry paste for added taste. Less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook, and a hearty meal ready for the whole family to eat with bread or rice. 
  • Avocado Toast. For lunch or dinner, avocado toasts can be an excellent choice of food. All you need to do is to smash some avocados, add some salt, black pepper and a dash of lemon juice, and spread generously on a piece of toasted bread. 
  • Smoothies. If you feel full after a heavy evening snack and don’t want much for dinner, you can never go wrong with a fresh fruit smoothie. Pile all your favorite fruits into a blender, and add some almond milk or coconut milk for taste, a teaspoon of honey, and you’ll have a whole batch of smoothie to share with your friends. 
  • Mac and Cheese. We all love the classic taste of boxed Mac and Cheese we get in the grocery shop, but the homemade ones can be just as good. Put your boiled pasta and cheese into an Instant Pot, and you’ll have the same thing ready in a few minutes. 
  • Chicken Bruschetta. You can keep the marinated chicken breasts inside your fridge for days, and then take them out when you don’t want to cook. Add a slice of cheese to each piece of chicken, sprinkle some herbs, and your chicken will cook in under a few minutes. You can also throw in some chopped tomatoes and green onions to the mix.  

We all have days when we don’t want to step inside the kitchen to prepare an elaborate meal, but neither do we want to order something. These recipes, and more, are the perfect way to serve something healthy and filling for us and for our families, without having to spend too long in the kitchen.