As the clock struck 5pm, two hungry boys looked at me expectantly. They wanted feeding and I had neither an array of exciting ingredients, nor the motivation to throw them together to create a delicious and nutritious meal.

I am largely a cook it from scratch girl, but with a lazy streak. I’ll cook double the amount of chilli and freeze half for a lazier day. Tonight I was all can’t be bothered, so I threw together a pan of pasta and pesto and we all chowed down. There are worse things to eat, but it was a meal of fuel rather than fancy, but that was fine.

Afterwards I sat down with my iPad and tweeted this…

I was interested because I can’t remember a time before pasta and pesto, it kind of arrived on the culinary scene just as I toddled off to uni and formed the basis of many, many meals there. So much so I couldn’t eat it for about three years after I left. My tweet brought a small flurry of responses…

There are some pretty interesting responses here. Easy stuff on toast and pasta six ways seems to be the order of the day. I wonder if it’s just me who feels a bit of parental guilt about not providing a meal containing seven vegetables and an organic, free-range source of protein. Sometimes a family with full bellies is all that you need to call a meal time a success.

It’s hard to make time to prep and cook a from scratch meal every night, it doesn’t matter what Jamie Oliver says, I defy him to cook a meal with a child clinging to his leg screeching “but I’m hun-grreeeeee”. A mid-week can’t be bothered meal is nothing to feel bad about. Honest.

What’s your favourite can’t be bothered meal? I am genuinely interested.