Would you/could you cook after 8pm

[Fuwari]

Sorry, saw it on the DM website! (I admit I go there but see it as a trashy mag!) Apparently one of the measures for avoiding blackouts over winter is asking people to either cook their evening meal after 8pm or to eat cold food. For me personally this wouldn’t work. I eat early, around 6. I’m usually in bed by 9. So there’s no way I’m going to be cooking my evening meal at 8. I’m quite happy to take any other measures, they mention also not using dishwashers/washing machines between 2pm and 8pm. But I don’t see how I could shift my dinner time to fit in with this. Just wondering what other people think?

We've had different phases:

Pre DC - both got in around 6, 6.30, maybe one of us went out for exercise, cooked and ate around 8ish.

Small DC - got home after nursery pick up around 6.15, DCs had eaten at nursery, snack and milk for them before bed about 7.30, we cooked and ate around 8ish

DCs at infants school, I changed to school hour working, all ate together 5.30 onwards, shifting to 6.30ish as they started after school activities.

Late primary school / early secondary school - activities all shifted to after dinner and DH and I both started exercising more regularly too in the evenings, back to eating afterwards about 8 or later, or some eating at 4 because eg swimming training 7-9. Got a bit random and couldn't always eat together.

Late teens (now) - on any given night usually a couple of us are out at sports/exercise early evening so still eating late but we don't always eat together either, the DCs sometimes cook eg pasta meals for themselves while we have something else, or sometimes someone will just have an omelette or similar.

We all go to bed fairly late now, 11 onwards, I get up around 6.30 most days, the others a bit later so it works just fine for us, we are all night owls but I'm a bit lark as well.

I've seen about the idea. 8pm is a complete nonstarter in this house as its DS's bedtime.

However before we saw this idea we had been talking about ways we can reduce our use of energy to cook over the winter. We already had something of a plan to use the slow cooker more often, to batch cook more and to cook during the day when possible so we can take advantage of having solar panels.

I think we can reasonably do this and then do a microwave reheat with some thought and planning.

I think the reality is that if we don't try and do something we will end up with brownouts and blackouts anyway which is far more inconvenient. I'd rather be planning a strategy that I can work with rather than having food out ready to cook and a hungry child and then a power outage.

If that means I have to cook dinner before school then so be it. Mid morning is also doable / cheaper for us with wfh. The alternative is worse.

Don't be so daft! People don't work shifts on MN, only 9til5 Monday to Friday!

Joke.

It's quite incredible on this thread to see so many unable to contemplate others who work different hours/patterns. Very narrow minded.

8pm is too late for me in general.
We normally eat around 7pm, starting cooking between 6 and 6:30pm.

Eating cold food in the evening won't work for us either due to work. We have out hot meal together at night as we tend to have sandwiches at work. I do prefer to have a hot meal each day, especially in the winter.

Imagine other people in life having the audacity to work different times. Crazy.

Well said MrsDThomas.

What this thread clearly shows is that rationing is not going to work. People are already saying they won’t comply

I cook at about 5 - 6pm, so that wouldn't apply to me

Do you not eat a light snack before you eat your hot meal late evening? Do you go from lunch time not eating anything at all?

Not being a smart arse, genuinely interested how this works for others.

We eat 4pm, and have a supper with older DC just before 8pm. Toast and tea, that sort of thing. Light snack before going to bed.

Then this will happen:

I think the reality is that if we don't try and do something we will end up with brownouts and blackouts anyway which is far more inconvenient. I'd rather be planning a strategy that I can work with rather than having food out ready to cook and a hungry child and then a power outage. as @RedToothBrush said.

I would do a slow cooker meal around 9am after I have done the school run. Probably best thing in my own situation so as not to use electricity later in the afternoon.

If people are told 'Your power cut will happen at x time' as they were in the 70s they would have to comply.

And this is what we will have if people don’t just comply voluntarily with trying not to use energy during peak times.

No, still weird.

I’m up before six, in the office and at my desk for 07:00, but still have my evening meal at a normal time in the evening.

Well they will just have to implement power cuts then. I want my dinner when I come home from work and so do my children. 8pm is bedtime for small children, it’s too late to cook. And all that will happen is everyone who’s been waiting for their dinner will start cooking at 8pm, creating a new peak time.

The thing is, it's just a suggestion. You don't have to do it. If everybody took the advice, it wouldn't work, because then the surge in usage would simply shift to a later time. Haven't RTFT, so squillions of posters might have said this already!

I sometimes cook after 8 during the summer when our family's eating patterns are all over the place, but not so much in autumn/winter.

I guess I'm just doing it the opposite way round to you as I might have a biscuit or snack when I come in from work, around 6.15/6.30 and then eat at 8ish

It all depends on work. I can't eat at 4pm as I am in the middle of work, while DH and I do wfh I can't just cook a meal and eat, I have core hours. WHF is not the same as working when I like for everyone.

I also don't see the point in making another light meal in the evening. I may eat a piece of cake or a biscuit if there are any at home or a yoghurt in the afternoon.

No way I could eat a full cooked meal like a curry, pasta, meat and two veg in the middle of the afternoon.

I have no desire to be cooking late in the evening/tidying up dishes and also have health issues going on so suffer from fatigue but just carry on making yourself feel better by claiming your way is the only way🤷

I eat with the DC every day after they get home from school around the table.

Yes, sometimes I cook late because DH is in the gym.

Sometimes we eat that late anyway. So it wouldn't bother me

Absolutely if it saved us a few quid!

Horses for courses isn't it. That seems like a nightmare to me, but completely understand why yourself and many others eat at these times.

I am a SAHM so it's a completely different lifestyle too.

Glad we are all different though. Would be boring if we were all the same.

Yes. I have just upturned the afternoon/evening schedule, that's all. I am flexible about meals but cater mainly to the DC. There are times when I do what several others on this thread do by feeding DC only at usual time, then eat my main meal with DH around 7.30pm but I would eat a small bowl of cereal at 4pm or an apple instead.

We usually eat late because most of us don’t get in until after 7 so it’s usually between 8-10.

Unfortunately because we all get back at different times we tend to cook separately so the oven is on cooking four different dinners which we might have to rethink.

When dc were small it would have been too late.

That's normal time for me. Once kids are in bed I cook for me. I don't have time to cook a proper meal for us all once we get home from wrap around care/ work and before the kids bedtime so they have left overs/ toast etc and I cook a proper meal when then are in bed, which they have the following day.