Food shopping, cooking and eating - how on earth do people manage?

[Peasepuddingbloodycold]

After about 12 years of working from home and/or part time work I'm going to be in a situation were both DP and I are working full time out of the home, with a commute. I can't get my head round how to fit in the shopping and cooking of healthy, appetising meals on a budget.

Years ago, the last time I was in this situation, meant doing a big shop out-of-town every Sunday morning. Now I'm in the habit of walking to the shops at the top of the street and bringing home a couple of bags of shopping two or three times a week. Picking up whatever we fancy.

I just can't see how we'll manage to prep and eat healthy meals at the end of a long day at work and commute (in the dark). We're surrounded by takeaways and whilst DP is happy to live on vegetables I'm an emotional eater who is already overweight :(

What is preventing your other half assuming responsibility for this? You will both be working full-time so why is it all your responsibility? Will you be taking on the entire mental load for this?

Gousto/Hello Fresh are helpful if your partner is not going to shoulder their part of the burden.

Otherwise it's meal planning and Sunday prep - online delivery works well. Pies are a good quick meal. jacket potatoes and ready made filling, pasta and ready made sauce.

The slow cooker can be a great tool if you want to pop ingredients in and leave for 8 hours or so whilst you are at work and come home to a delicious meal and lovely smelling house.You can do stews,curries,chilli,shepherd's pie etc etc and hardly any effort at all.I use mine a lot on the days that we both do long hours.

Millions of people manage it.
Online delivery.
Meal plan and ‘dump bags’ in the freezer.

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf/?promo_code=SHARO314764&utm_source=weblink is a code for 65% off at Gousto if you want to try it without a larger financial commitment. I heartily recommend the 10-minute meals - have coopted a bunch of them into my repertoire.

TBH a lot of the time we eat repetitively - I do grilled chicken or a roast and that’ll be two / three dinners, the next will be an omelette and beans, then Gousto for two days, maybe a takeaway or an oven pizza with a side of veg or salad. I do a bigger shop once a week for oats, laundry detergent, loo roll, whatever else, and then the weeks roll as above.

Whoops -

LINK

Eh?
Why does it make your heart sink?
Shopping several times per week and having to decide what to cook every night is far worse and also sounds expensive.
I batch cook daal, curry, bombay pot, mince -chilli , shepherd's pie , stuffed peppers and freeze.
Also beef, chicken casseroles.

You could do Salmon, rice and stirfy, chicken tray bake , 2 x meals from freezer and then a pasta dish.
Easy

Grocery delivery. Al the main supermarkets do them. Get the stuff delivered for evenings/weekends.

Use a slow cooker - curries, stews, chilli, even a whole chicken, can be cooking whilst you're out at work.

Quick meal when you get home - stir-fry, pasta dishes, salads, jacket potatoes (microwave ones which are frozen) with different toppings. Omelettes.

We don’t get home till 6 and have 2 small children to feed and bath and put to bed for 7:30 so all our meals are quick in the week.

Meat, veg, carb. Can be done in 25 minutes.

eg,

pork steak with green beans and wedges
chicken wings with couscous and salad
salmon fillet with couscous and broccoli
prawns and chorizo in spaghetti with tomatoes and white wine.

All quick meals, relatively healthy and filling.

@Augend23 that might work for us, especially if we do click and collect rather than delivery.

Just used your code,thanks very much!

I have quite long days too but I have structured the week like this:

Sunday- cook for two days
Monday - Sunday leftovers
Tuesday - soup day
Wednesday - cook for two days
Thursday -Wednesday leftovers
Friday -takeaway
Saturday - fancier home cooked food

this means I only cook 4 days a week, sometimes 3 if there are leftover takeaways. I do my shopping on Saturday, and buy a lot of my veg frozen.

Simply cook is really good OP.

I went off gusto and hello fresh. Found the meals a bit complicated and had issues with quality especially in the warmer months. I’ve been using Simply cook for over 3 years now. It’s little pots of herbs and pastes to make a meal, the recipes are really simple and easily sourced ingredients- there’s only a few ingredients too because of the pots. I use these after work when I have less time. Also use the slow cooker and put it on in the morning or night before.

I like the Quick Roasting Tin book. Probably cook once or twice a week from that and make enough to include a lunch for the next day.

I have recently started batch cooking on a Sunday and so far,have quite enjoyed it.I spend around 3 hours making meals and bases and popping tubs in the fridge plus some in the freezer.There are some really useful videos,tips and recipes on YouTube if this would be useful.

Both work FT here, just 1 teen left at home we eat veggi in the week;
Similar to others:
Sunday :cook at least one other meal ( spag bol, chilli, some sort of lasange/ mac n cheese or curry) and often a soup
Monday: Sunday's meal
Tuesday: Pasta if not pasta on Monday, otherwise gnocchi
Wednesday: Often stir fry, sometimes Thai curry (if not rice meal on monday) or risotto

Thursday: Soup night with fresh bread and cheese
Friday:(DH WGH) HM Pizza

New dishes are tried out on a Sat or Sun.
Leftovers are boxed up for weekday lunches

We have 4 meals a week cooked from scratch. I chose from a list stuck to the fridge as I often have zero inspiration and plan for the week ahead. This week it was
roast on Sunday
leftover meat stir fry on Monday
keema curry with chapattis
veggie sausage pasta

i usually do home made pizza on Fridays- bought the right flour and a pizza stone for the oven which makes all the difference, they are better than take away pizzas!

Other nights it’s easier meals like jacket potatoes, omelettes with oven chips, etc. Or sometime just soup and a toasty.

Occasionally I’ll try a new recipe which might get added to the menu list on our fridge if it gets appeal. The list currently has the above plus:

chicken satay
lasagne
fish pie
sausage and mash
tacos or wraps with chilli
tuna pasta bake
slow cooker cowboy beans (the organised Mum blog has some yummy slow cooker recipes)

Meal plan
Weekly food delivery
Quick simple meals - make enough for double the portions you need - then that's one night next week you just need to reheat.

Food shop online, use slow cooker prep it night before then stick it on when leaving for work so it's ready, batch cook and freeze or quick 30 min meals.

It's pretty easy once in the routine of it honest!

Great! Hope you enjoy.We really enjoy the food plus find them a useful time saver too x

We really struggle with this. I usually work 3 evenings a week so I'm not around for dinner those days. My partner does 1-2 evenings a week so he's not around those days. My son has dinner at nursery 4 days a week and my daughter needs dinner every night. It's a nightmare to plan and we often end up doing quick things with takeaway being the adult option 1-2 times a week.

This is where it gets so easy to just order a takeaway and why uber,deliveroo etc are everywhere.Everyone is working more,trying to keep up with bills,running themselves ragged and trying to think of new,interesting,relatively healthy food on top,that kids will eat etc.It's sooooo hard plus expensive if you don't have a meal plan/weekly schedule etc in place.

We're at home so not under any time constraint but recently tried Hello Fresh and it was great. Is it worth giving something like that a go?

Love Simply Cook,real help in our house and we always have a couple of boxes on top of the fridge for evenings when we are short of time/inspiration.Recent favourites in our house are the Thai prawn curry and masala chops.Takes the thinking and deciding hassle out of things when we are pressed for time.

I found it worked better for us to get an online shop delivered on a Wednesday or Thursday evening than at the weekend. I meal plan the night before with a glass of wine and do the online shop.

If you don't do it already get the family to add things to a list / Alexa as we go on so that I can add all of that. Even DC are capable of shouting 'Alexa, add cereal to the shopping list!'

From what we make over the weekend when we've got a bit more time there's usually leftovers for Monday evening ('Fridge Surprise'). Then on Tuesday I'll do some sort of traybake which is quick. Wednesdays DC are out at a sport so will often do wraps/fajitas/salad/toasties or baked potatoes with toppings. Then on Thursday we'll have a fresh pasta and sauce and wait for the next delivery. I do cheat with ready prepared salad so that there is always green stuff on the plate.

Frittata is another quick option to use up veg in the fridge. If I WFH I'll make a big veggie chilli - have it one night with rice and then another night as enchiladas.

If I make a load of mash for Sunday dinner that's a quick fish pie in the week (keep some packs of fish pie mix in the freezer and do a tomato sauce rather than a white sauce).

I was a really impulsive and wasteful shopper until lockdown happened. Meal planning has saved us loads of time and money, I'm just embarrassed I didn't do it sooner.

Cook ready meals can be a lifesaver when you’re juggling stuff. Daylesford has some really nice soups and stews which also don’t have weird stuff in (Ocado)both pricey but often have specials.