My five favourite lockdown meals

As the person who cooks 90% of the meals in our home (by choice), I feel like I've hardly been out of the kitchen since lockdown began. 

The first few weeks consisted of bashing out our usual favourites whilst trying to get to grips with our new routine. This wasn't sustainble long term for three reasons: 

1. Many of the 'usuals' on our shopping list were not available. 

2. Most of our favourite meals are big evening meals and I found I was cooking more than we needed.

3. I was bored rigid of the same meals week in and out. 

I started to dig through my large collection of (barely used) cookbooks and started making meals plans with new recipes included. For the first time I paid attention to the lunch sections, which I hadn't felt the need to use before. 

I've discovered some really delicious meals in the process - some really quick and easy, some a little more time consuming. I thought I would share my top five, for any of you that feel your meals could do with a shake up. 

1. Spicy pork & rice

Until recently I rarely cooked rice unless it was to go with a curry or chilli con carne - mainly because I was terrible at it. In the early days of the pandemic, when the pasta shelves were empty, I decided to give this one a go. It's from the Hairy Dieters recipe book and is pretty simple to make, not to mention delicious. I toned the spice level right down as we're no good at spicy in this house. The kids loved it.

2. Modern Greek salad

This recipe from Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals has become a lunchtime favourite over the past few months. I don't always make the spinach, chickpea and feta parcels with this meal, but the simple dressing along with the olives and the nuts makes for a really tasty salad combo and I use it often.

3. Prawn curry

This is another one from the Hairy Dieters. It's a really simple prawn korma, which has the added bonus of being pretty healthy. My brood absolutely love a (mild) curry so this was a big hit! I added an extra iron hit by adding a few spinach leaves to the bowl.

4. Self love stew

This is a recipe from budget cooking extraordinaire Jack Monroe. I think it's originally from the book Cooking on a Bootstrap, but is now available online.

The recipe focuses talks you through a cathartic cooking process, forcing you to acknowledge the action of making a nutritious meal as self care. 

It is great served with rice or mashed potato, or simply in a bowl with an oversized portion of crusty bread. 

5. Puff pastry pizza

We love making our own pizzas, but I'm a bit of a pizza snob and find the pre-made based a bit disappointing. I make my own dough when I have time/energy but a brilliant hack I've discovered is using puff pastry instead. It ends up like a tasty pizza flavoured puff pastry tart. Yum.

The one pictured is topped with tomato puree, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil and feta cheese. I imagine it's even higher in fat/calories than regular pizza, so for us it's definitely more of an occasional treat than a weekly regular.