Looking for dinner ideas for teens who've had cooked meal at school?

[Walkingtheplank]

My DD13 and DS11 have cooked meals at school.
What do your children have for their evening meal?. MIne seem to be living on pasta/noodles as they don't want a 'proper' meal but they need something more than a sandwich.
They do end up going in and out of the kitchen through the evening. I'm not sure if this is hunger/boredom/being a teenager!

Any tips would be very useful!

Ours have a full meal. School portions aren't huge here.

I would give them soup & bread with cold cuts and cheese.

It's smaller than a real meal (and quicker to make!), but it's still nice to have something warm - plus extra veg!

Mine have a full meal too. School meals are never enough to fill them.

Mine has a full meal at school, esp now they have free range at the salad bar if they buy anything. For tea he'll have beans on toast, miso soup with noodles/chicken/veg, soup/toast/cheese, filled pasta, jacket potato with beans and cheese, pizza out of the freezer, or a poke bowl if he can persuade me to do sushi rice. He'll mostly cook for himself unless I offer which is great and he won't snack. Last night he had a pomegranate when he came in at 4, an Aldi pizza at 6, and in between did a very hard session on the turbo trainer, so its not like he isn't working

I’d give them a smaller portion of a main meal or something like jacket potato with toppings, beans or scrambled egg on toast.
It won’t be good for them to just be loading with carbs in the evening and if they aren’t having protein they won’t stay feeling full

We have a family dinner as normal. My DCs are younger but school dinner is a distant memory by the time they get in, so they have a light tea around 4-5 depending on activities and dinner at 8pm as a family.

Oh dear. It looks like I'm underfeeding them.
DS doesn't seem to want very much, but picks through the evening. DD is hungry enough for something more substantial. This is not helped by the nature of my job which often means I am often on my way out late afternoon/early evening and therefore their dinner is a separate thing in itself.

School dinners are quite problematic, round here (nw London) a meat and two veg meal but child size with 20 minutes to find a seat and eat.

My friends son took pictures of the meals to prove how small, two new potatoes, desert spoon of veg and half a chicken breast.

Just bumping in case anyone else has any meal ideas.

I give mine a full meal in the evening, they eat with us, and adult-sized portions. Both are slim but growing, and would be hungry if they didn't get a full meal. School dinners are nice enough but are more a hot light lunch really rather than a substantial meal.

If DS doesn't want much but then he's picking, maybe try eating later so he will be hungry and eat more of a meal and not need to snack

jacket potatoe with beans and tuna
chicken wraps with salad
Nachos and chilli
noodle soup
toastie and soup
omlette and salad
mini fry up

DS has school lunch and has a normal hot meal with us in the evening. He's 16 and 6ft tall, a roll and a bit of ham wouldn't be enough for him.

Breaded cod, bread & butter & peas, omelette,
Sausage rolls & beans
Cheese, crisps, cherry tomatoes, chutney
Thick home made soup & chunks of wholemeal bread

Mine eat a full meal too and then supper before bed 😁

Always hungry 🙄

Soup and nice bread & cheese

Homemade pizza (batch cook nice tomato sauce and freeze in pizza size portions)

Pasties

Jacket potatoes

Fish cakes

When DD and I have had a big/late lunch but still want comfort food in the evening I sometimes give us crudités and guacamole followed by a pudding like bread and butter pudding or rice pudding.

Thank you all. Some good ideas here.
I'm realising that part of the issue for us as a family is my work often prevents us from sitting down together - they often need to be able to make the meal themselves. Hmm, lots to think about.

Minehave a school lunch then make themselves a snack like toast or a pitta when they get in around 4 then they have a full meal with us around 6.30/7 depending on how long I take to cook it!

I do batch cook stuff and put in freezer so I can re- heat in oven for a quick tea like bolognaise sauce for pasta, shepherds pie, chicken casserole, pies etc.

Quick stuff I look from scratch when I get home at 6pm:
Beef tacos (the packet with the tacos and seasoning in it), grated cheese, veg sticks
Steak/ chicken Kiev/ chicken goujons, chips and peas
Stir fry with rice or noodles
Cooked rice stir fried with egg, ham, peas, sweet corn etc
Omelettes or frittata
Fish baked with creme fraiche, chopped tomatoes, basil and Parmesan (Jamie Oliver recipe)
Cooked breakfast- my kids favourite!!!
Pork steaks, sweet potato mash and greens

I just serve the normal family meal, if they are full from lunch (never happens) they can have a smaller portion.
If they have to fend for themselves, I guess cheese and beans on toast, omelette, scrambled egg would be quick and easy. Somewhat lacking in fruit and vegetables, though! Most teens should be quite capable of cooking basic normal meals, stir fry, sausage mash &veg, spaghetti bol etc. Or you could plate up portions of whatever you are having for them to reheat (one day in advance if you eat later than them).

I've never understood this dilemma tbh. There is no logic in the idea that you should only have one 'proper' meal a day. Eating a pile of snack food or sandwiches can be as filling or calorific as a proper meal, but unlikely to be as healthy. Equally a proper cooked meal doesn't have to be big portions. I can see why it might be a logistical problem with work though.

Mine both also have the normal family meal in the evening. In fact primary aged DS has a decent snack/sandwich when he gets home at 3.30 and then his evening meal at 6.30. Eldest is in secondary and isn’t much of a snacker so tends to just eat evening meal but a decent portion.

Mine have demolished a slow cooker full of beef stew this evening.

Generally we prepare a slow cooker meal in the evening and due to work/ after school activities we help ourselves with jacket spuds/ bread/ micro rice throughout the evening.