10 Quicker Than Takeaway Meals – Best Recipes for healthy fakeaways – ideas for super fast easy takeout fakeaway meal alternatives.
Quicker Than Takeaway Meals
This 10 quicker than take away meals post was inspired by an article I read the other day, that describes the local diet as a “slow-motion disaster”, with more and more people sadly choosing quick, fast food and heavily processed meals over home cooked, whole food meals. (Here’s the full article.)
That may be down to convenience, personal tastes or just a lack in cooking skills, or confidence with cooking.
So, I thought I’d share some of my absolute favorite, quickest possible meals that I cook when I feel like a takeaway, but not the after effects that processed foods has on my body.
The delicious meals are often referred to as healthy fakeaways because they are all super easy to prepare meals that are ready faster than it would take you to order and wait for a takeaway (or takeout) meal to arrive.
You may prefer to create your favourite takeaway dishes in your slow cooker or air fryer, in which case, follow the directions on your device to create your favourite dishes at home.
The best bit is that all of our favourite fakeaway recipes are all incredibly easy to prepare and need very little in the way of tricky steps, extra help or cooking skills.
1. Breakfast For Dinner
We love hearty breakfasts for dinner and lazy brunches in our house. The kids see it as a quirky, fun dinner meal and I breathe a sigh of relief as dinner is on the table in as long as it takes to fry an egg!
You can make eggs as simple and quick or time consuming as you’d like. Choosing from speedy breakfasts of simply frying a couple of eggs to making an omelette, scrambled eggs or a whole fry up with all kinds of familiar breakfast favorites like sausages, bacon, vegetables, baked beans and maybe even a hash brown or two. (Here are 20 quick keto breakfast ideas for lots of breakfast for dinner options.)
2. Healthy Burgers
Burgers are one of our favourite takeaways and thankfully there are so many ways to quickly make homemade burgers that the whole family will enjoy.
You can make up your own burger patties with ground beef mince and a bit or salt and your seasoning of choice, or buy already shaped burgers that you only have to fry up. You can make a chicken burger or follow a plant-based recipe to create a meat free meal.
While the burgers are cooking you can see to prepping a few simple ingredients to enjoy as your favourite toppings or fillings.
And, either getting burger buns or crispy lettuce cups ready, if you’d prefer bunless burgers as pictured above with avocado and my homemade broccoli pesto, but you could of course have tomato sauce, mayo or a store bought pesto as you burger sauce.
3. 2 Minute Zoodles
This easy meal of 2 minute zoodles comes together in mere minutes and is a healthy fakeaway option for when you’re craving noodles as a cheeky Friday night takeaway.
You simply heat cream, cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, then add in zucchini noodles and tuna until heated through.
Top your tasty treat with your favourite flavours – mine are parmesan or grated cheese for the ultimate speedy comfort food meal that’s a great healthy takeaway alternative.
4. Egg Roll In A Bowl
Egg roll in a bowl is a healthy low carb way to enjoy all the flavors of egg rolls in one hearty bowl full that’s absolutely quicker than a takeaway such as a Chicken Pad Thai or a sushi roll.
You can adapt the easy recipe to your own tastes, dietary requirements and how much time you have to prep your meal.
To make the healthy alternative to a Chinese takeaway, simply brown ground beef mince in sesame oil and add in plenty of Tamari or soy sauce, then add in chopped cabbage and spring onion and cook until everything has reduced down and cooked through.
5. Chicken Bake
A chicken bake is a super quick way to make a hearty, tasty meal to enjoy in place of a (not so healthy) take away.
Choose from my favourite tasty traybakes – best ever chicken bake, honey roasted chicken bake, paprika chicken bake or pesto chicken bake.
Each easy recipe is made by simply combining chicken, together with your sauce or flavoring of choice and then baking until golden to create comforting dinners in place of favourite fast food dishes like fried chicken or butter chicken.
Serve with fluffy rice, potatoes, sweet potato mash or a low carb alternative if you’re of a weight loss or slimming journey and wanting to enjoy a nutritious meal that’s also the best experience for a proper comfort food meal.
6. Sausages
Sausages are a quick cooking meal option that comes in all kinds of varieties and can be enjoyed in a number of ways any evening of the week in place of unhealthy foods.
One of our favorites is an easy sausage casserole that tastes like a hearty, comforting stew but is so much quicker to make.
This particular recipe has only 4 ingredients – sausages, leek, broccoli and a jar of pasta sauce. It’s a firm family favorite and make a brilliant, super quick meal.
7. Tuna Salad
You can very quickly prep a tuna salad with all kinds of healthy and simple ingredients that makes the perfect no cook meal that’s quicker than takeaway food.
My go to ingredients include spinach, tuna and avocado with sour cream and mayo as a dressing. You can feel free to add in extra vegetables and also extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lime juice any other seasoning you like, to taste.
8. Pasta
There are so many perfect pasta dishes that you can cook super quickly that can make tasty substitutes for a takeaway cravings or simply as speedy midweek meals, especially when loaded with plenty of melted cheese.
While your pasta of choice, or low carb zucchini noodles, is cooking you can see to your chosen sauce that you’ll serve with your cooked pasta.
Or, you could make the above picture speedy tortellini soup, high protein pasta salad or 4 ingredient pesto pasta salad.
9. Homemade Pizza
There are a couple of incredibly quick ways to enjoy the flavors of pizza as a delicious meal, without ordering a take out one.
You could use a pita as a base and prepare pita pizzas, which are always a huge hit with the kids. Or you can go for a low carb option with a pizza omelette that’s ready in a couple of minutes or the above picture pizza stuffed mushrooms.
10. Meat and Cheese Plate
And my final quicker than takeaway healthy fakeaway option is to put together a plate full of no cook items that are easy to keep in the fridge to grab at when need.
Some of our favorites include salami, brie, smoked cheese, cheddar cheese and then balanced with vegetables such as chopped bell peppers or cucumber and maybe even a strawberry for an extra pop of color, flavor and nutrition.
You can even make prep-ahead lunchboxes or fill a zip-lock bag with foods that you can enjoy as a delicious fakeaway meal instead of ordering from a local takeaway.
More Healthy Delicious Recipes
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