3 quick meals ready in 20 minutes when you come home from the beach (or work)

Summer is here. Well, at least some days it is. This is the Netherlands after all… 😉

Now that school’s out, kids are home for 6 weeks, a lot of people are out and about.
We are. Tomorrow we’re going to the beach.

And when we come home hungry, bags need to be unpacked, sand cleaned from every nook and corner (from ears to nose and between toes), slightly sun burned and feeling rosy from the water, sun and wind, I don’t feel like cooking complicated things.

So here’s 3 meals that are ready in 20 minutes:

Pasta avocado pesto.

Boil pasta.
In the mean time, make the pesto by: blending 2 avocados, with 1-2 cloves of garlic, juice of 1/2-1 lemon, bit of salt, a good handful of fresh basil and a good amount of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve immediately stirred through the pasta, with roasted pine kernels and for instance cherry tomatoes.

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Chickpeas and sausages.

Open and drain 1 or 2 cans of chickpeas (depending on number of eaters and size of can).
Chop an onion and 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. Fry them in a bit of olive oil.
In a separate pan, bake the sausages until brown and done. (I buy small sausages from the halal butcher, I like the seasoning).
Add some spice to the onion and garlic, for instance paprika powder, bake for 1-2 minutes. Then add a can of peeled tomatoes to the onion. Add the chickpeas. Warm through.
Chop the sausages or leave them whole. Add it to the mixture.
Serve with a simple salad (for instance thinly sliced cucumber, or salad leaves with tomatoes, a sliced avocado).

Don’t feel guilty omelet.

Finely chop a small onion. Chop one or two tomatoes. Finely dice half a zucchini.
Whisk 4 eggs in a bowl (1 adult, 2 kids). Add the vegetables.
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the egg mixture. Bake until set.
Melt some grated cheese over the omelet. Add chopped fresh basil.
Serve with sourdough toast.
(Variations: all kinds of vegetables can be used, like spring onions, bell peppers, peas, chopped green beans, diced carrots, spinach etc. You can add a sliced avocado on the side for some extra fat).

There’s more where this came from.

I want to show you cooking doesn’t have to be complicated.
Even though I’m not totally against take away meals – there’s nothing wrong with getting some fries every now and then, any home cooked meal beats store bought microwave meals or most take aways. Because supermarket meals and take away contains a lot of salt, the wrong fats and preservatives, to name a few.

Even if you just have some pasta with peas, meatballs and a salad, as simple as can be, it’s better, cheaper and healthier.