Evening tea suggestions for kids

[Ronia]

Last year DS was in after school club most days and had soup, hot dogs, sandwiches etc. there so we didn't do evening meals.at home. With flexible working my two DS come straight home from school now. They have school dinners, and I think portion sizes are decent, so I'm struggling with what to give them for tea (ages 4 and 7).

What do you all give your kids for tea in the evening?

We have family dinners, I only cook once and we ate together around 6.30pm most nights.

On my days at home DD got a snack, small sandwich, crumpet, cereals to tidy her over.

Big drink when they come home, maybe a couple of breadsticks or a banana or similar and family tea at 5.30. Faves are spag bol and anything in a big Yorkshire pudding.

We do give them snacks at pick up time to keep them going. They eat around 5/5.15pm as we start bedtime routine just after 7 (lights out around 7.45).

Do sounds like you give them full dinners? Even if they have hot dinner at school?

The school portions aren't very big. My DC have school dinners and I do a normal family evening meal and they always eat it. They're skinny little things too.

They have an evening meal of whatever I am making for the whole family. I find these threads so strange. A hot meal at lunchtime does not mean that you can't have another hot meal in the evening. Just as a cold salad type meal is perfectly fine in the evening if you have had a sandwich at lunch.
Whu do people find it so hard to do simple, normal things like putting a family meal on the table without getting advice from a bunch of randoms on the internet?

Normal family dinner 🤷‍♀️.

School portions are small and I want a meal with veg protein carb etc and easier to make a hot meal for us all. Seems a bit stramge to do something for them first....

Yes I would do a simple cooked meal as it's easier to get some veggies in. Might have the odd beans on toast night though.

Mine are same age and eat hot school lunch.

We do snack at pick up, popcorn, cheese, yoghurt or crisps.

Then big hot family dinner at 530pm. Sometimes earlier as 4 year old gets cranky.

Things like fish pie, spag bol, curry with rice or chapattis, pizza and veg. They have big portions, always with fruit after.

@rainbowunicorn

They have an evening meal of whatever I am making for the whole family. I find these threads so strange. A hot meal at lunchtime does not mean that you can't have another hot meal in the evening. Just as a cold salad type meal is perfectly fine in the evening if you have had a sandwich at lunch. Whu do people find it so hard to do simple, normal things like putting a family meal on the table without getting advice from a bunch of randoms on the internet?

Because I've never seen school dinners and haven't seen the portion sizes. In any case I actually started the thread looking for suggestions for food as we get bored of the same old thing and also a lot of our home staples (spag bol, light curries etc.) Are what they get in school so I'm struggling to come up meals that don't also duplicate what they're getting in school. We hadn't got the menus until late this week and was giving them pasta at home on days they'd had it at school. Just didn't have to think about it last year!

Well what would you normally cook in the evening? Surely you've been eating dinner for the last however many years. Just carry on doing that but make enough for he kids too and eat together surely?

The portions are small at school if they eat it all. Let alone if they don’t like one little bit of it.
So I would just do a normal dinner. On club night they might have The dinners you describe from the club, so hot dogs, cheese toastie, omelette, beans on toast, chinese duck and pancakes, meatball sub

DD survived on jacket potatoes and cheese most of school years, she had packed lunch so there was a bit of variety there.

We could taste the meals during parent evenings and DH always said they are bland and not really tasty. While they encouraged to eat all, a lot of the children will leave the bland veggies and just eat (or better pick) what they like.

With a decent dinner I can ensure at least that the family eats fairly healthy.

I get where you're coming from op, occasionally i want to give my kids fish fingers and oven chips but it always seems to be the day they've had the equivalent at school! We've definitely had "double macaroni cheese" days too!
I wouldn't worry too much about this though as long as it's varied enough over the week.

@PineappleUpsideDownCake

Well what would you normally cook in the evening? Surely you've been eating dinner for the last however many years. Just carry on doing that but make enough for he kids too and eat together surely?

This!

Or if that's no good for some reason then give them the sort of food that they had at after school club, that you have written in your first sentence

@PineappleUpsideDownCake

Well what would you normally cook in the evening? Surely you've been eating dinner for the last however many years. Just carry on doing that but make enough for he kids too and eat together surely?

We haven't had to give the kids dinner in the evenings most school days. As I explained in the OP DS1 got fed at after school club. DS2 was in nursery and again had all meals there. On school days we didn't get in until 6 bit the kids were fed. They'd just have a light snack really. And again, I know how to cook family meals. I was just wondering what people give them to avoid replicating school dinners.

I’d just give them a smallish portion of the meal I was cooking for myself. Then eat together.

Maybe they could look through recipe books to find some main meals they fancy

DS 6 eats an evening meal with us at 6pm. I'm not convinced re: school dinner portion sizes and will often leave one part of the meal eg fish fingers and beans but leave the potatoes.

When he eats at home in the evening, I know he's had a nutritionally good meal.

At this time of year, the slow cooker is your friend. So easy to get something prepped in the day and quickly cook some rice/pasta to go with it when they return from school.

Whatever we're having.

Eat together at 6/6:30.

We'll keep doing what we do outside of school time and just give them our usual family dinners then. Like I said just looking for some interesting new dinner suggestions 🤷

What do you give them for dinner when they're not at school?

There's your answer.

Go onto the Food/recipes board. There are lots of threads on meal planning which may give you new ideas.

As I said above the food we give them is fairly standard pasta, currie fish or chicken with veg. This is also what they get served in school so just looking for interesting suggestions of new meals so they don't get the same thing all the time. Feel stuck in a food rut and figured this might be a place where people could share nice meals the vary from our usual menu.

@Itwasaquarterpast11

Go onto the Food/recipes board. There are lots of threads on meal planning which may give you new ideas.

Thank you!

I meant what do you normally cook for yourself in the evening? I realised you werent cooking for your children but surely you and your partner were eating? Carry on cooking what yoj were and make more of it?

Bbc goodfood recipes is where I go if I fancy something different.

But if you'd started a thread saying "I fancy cooking something different tonigyt what do you suggest?" You'd get different answers to the one you started!