My go-to struggle meal:

• Cubed Tofu or pre-cooked lean sausage, sliced
• Tomato
• Rice

Remove tomato stem ends with a knife but otherwise leave unsliced. Put rice, tomatoes, and chopped tofu/sausage in a rice cooker with water. The tomatoes then explode in the rice cooker and flavor everything. It’s a balanced meal and takes two minutes of prep, and helps keep me from splurging on fast food on a low-energy day.

I’ll often add things I have on hand, like carrots, frozen broccoli, a bouillon cube, olive oil, feta or mozzarella cheese, fresh-picked basil, but I’ve done it with just the three ingredients above, and it holds up when salted.

Cheaty sorbet (or sorbet-ish).

• 400g (ish) of frozen fruit (mango, pineapple, banana, anything really, i use a pre-made smoothie mix).
• Splash of milk (oat milk works) or something like natural or greek yoghurt.
• bit of sugar, sugar substitute, syrup etc. for sweetness (adjust for fruit). Can even use a flavoured syrup if you want.

Load into food processor and pulse a bit until it starts to break up (add water if it is being stubborn). Once it gets going just go full blast until it is smooth, creamy and all lumps have gone then eat. I store some in the freezer for later - you do lose that amazing texture a little but its still so tasty and very welcome in this heat.

Spaghetti Carbonara without cured pork:

150g Spaghetti 1 egg Fresh grated Parmeggiano or Grana Padano Pepper

Cook noodles in very salty water, strain and put a little bit of the cooking-water back in the pot and let it boil down for a second.

Mix the egg with a handful of really, really good hard cheese, season with really, really good pepper.

Put the spaghetti back in the pot with the starchy water, let it cool down for a second (or the egg will cook immediately, which we really don’t want). Add the egg-cheese mix and stir. After a minute or two you will get a creamy and salty deliciousness wrapped around some fine al’ dente noodles. 3 ingreadients, 1 pot. 12 min work.

This is a surprisingly simple, yet tasty, soup.

1. Peanut oil or sesame oil or some other such strongly-flavoured oil. 15ml
2. Dark soy sauce or mushroom soy sauce (your choice). 5ml
3. Finely chopped chives/spring onions. 3-5g

Put oil in small soup bowl. Put soy sauce in bowl. Put chives/whatever in bowl. Pour boiling hot water over top. Let sit about a minute. Serve.

This doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does somehow.

Possible garnishment could include a sprinkle of white (not black!) pepper or a sprinkle of sesame seeds, but honestly neither is needed.

Cheesey beans on toast, or a poached egg on cheese toast

You can never go wrong with cheese (or toast) ❤️

I don’t know what it’s technically called, but I love this:

• 1x package of dry gnocchi (not the kind you boil for 12 minutes, this stuff is ready in 2 minutes)
• 1lb of your favorite sausage or beef
• 1 head of broccolini

Brown the sausage, adding garlic and red pepper flakes. Once your water is boiling, toss in the gnocchi. Chop up the broccolini and add it to the sausage. Take a few spoonfuls of the gnocchi water and add it to the sausage pan. Once the gnocchi is floating, add it to the sausage pan and mix thoroughly. After a minute or so, plate it up and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

For a more thorough explanation, see here: https://youtu.be/aVAN4_pWCwY?is=vHvJKljrvKN2411r

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An oldie, but a goodie: jam, bread, and the star of the show, peanut butter.

Another fun one is a tuna or egg salad sandwich: tuna or egg mixed with mayonnaise, spread across BOTH slices of bread (it’s important to get as much of that good stuff on the bread as possible).

Oh and pasta. Pasta + butter + topping of choice. Cheese, tuna; anything, really.

Fried butter beans.
Tin of butter beans - drained

Garlic - fried lightly in lovely olive oil
Add beans to pan and fry gently til they get a bit of crispiness in them.
You should really then add salt, chilli flakes and a splash of apple cider vinegar but that would be cheating the 3 ingredient rule.

Ok assuming onion garlic and spices don’t count… fry onion and garlic, chuck in chopped tomatoes with paprika and chilli and some water, simmer till reduced. Cook sausages separately. Lob butter beans in the tomatoes for 10 then whack all together.

Mine is:

Cooked quinoa, egg and cheese.

Mix it up and bake it in a muffin tin or fry it in a patty like a breakfast sausage. If you throw everything in a food processor you can work it like a dough to make a pizza crust or a flatbread to dip in sauce.

Leftover quesadillas

• Tortilla
• Shredded cheese
• Leftovers that make sense like roasted broccoli, sweet potatoes, etc

1. Place tortilla on a rack in the toaster oven
2. Add cheese
3. Add leftovers
4. Top with more cheese
5. Toast for 3-4 minutes until tortilla is crispy

This is great for a quick breakfast too!

Lemonade. Juice from 2 large lemons, add about 2/3 of a cup of sugar, and about a litre of water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Simple.

Mocha Float.

• Scoop of ice cream
• Very hot coffee
• Scoop of powdered hot chocolate

Make the coffee black, dump in the ice cream, and dust it with hot chocolate. Enjoy the contrast between piping hot and ice cold, and then just sip the mildly warm mocha once it melts.

Ingredients:

• vanilla ice cream
• milk
• banana

Directions:

• put that stuff in a blander and send it