Ideas for quick easier meals on weeknights?

[somsaa]

Both working full time from next week, 2 young children (one nursery age, one primary school) we won't be back in house 3 nights of the week until 5.30.

I need some quick easier meals for them days?

Thank you!

Anyone? I'm currently meal planning

Fresh pasta and sauce, infact pasta with anything, curry made with jarred sauce, pasta bake, oven food, sweet and sour sauce made with jarred sauce, stir fry?

Thank you @Iwasjustasking we do eat a lot of pasta, so fresh is a good option! Stir fry is a good option too!

Fish finger sandwiches and garden peas

Jacket potatoes with various fillings

Can you make a lasagna or similar at a weekend, portion it and freeze it then defrost and reheat during the week?

Soup - tinned, fresh or homemade when you have time

Pesto pasta - pesto mixed with a little pasta water and cream cheese to make a creamy sauce served with corn on the cob (my 4 year old loves it!)

Anything that can be slow cooked or batch cooked at weekends and portioned - chilli, bolognese and served with rice, pasta, potatoes or salad

Anything that goes in either the air fryer or slow cooker

Pasta
Chilli
Curry
Stir fry

Precook an oven full of jackets and use during the week for chilli, baked beans, etc, slice and reheat in oven if it's on for anything else (tiny bit of oil)

Thanks some great ideas!

I'm almost never home by 5:30 and don't have time to start cooking usually before 6-6:30, even on the weekends. I can't say I make any particular meals for weeknights, but I do plan in a few simpler meals for the week that can be rotated for a particularly tricky night.

eggs of any sort you like, on toast, with bacon/sausages/fruit salad (any or all of these)
Jackets with salad
Pasta with veg and garlic bread
Noodles in a soy/sesame oil glaze, or a miso broth, spring rolls (like from the packet)
Quesadillas or taquitos (basically wraps with cheese), my dc both love these and they're quick

I find stuff that you put in the oven while you do something else are good - tray bakes basically. You can do a mini roast dinner with chicken thighs and new potatoes and bisto gravy.

Or sausage tray bake with veg.

Stirfry is quick. Chop it up in the morning or buy ready sliced veg.

Prawn curry.

Scrambled eggs, omelette or egg in a cup with soldiers.

Couscous - either pre roasted veg or chopped small and done in the air fryer

paella style rice - jarred peppers/ prawns / frozen peas

Taming Twins is a good website for slow cooker ideas for the week. Ingredients can be prepped / bagged up in advance and thrown in the slow cooker in the morning. Chicken satay noodles is a good one

We are in the same boat and we have started batch cooking on a Sunday night. We normally do three meals and then we can just heat them up every night. It’s simplifies the week massively and stops the kids being hangry!

The Batch lady new book is fab with quick ideas to prepare in advance. Lots on her website to try for free too.

Do you cook on the weekends?
We usually do some roast chicken on a Sunday and put extra chicken pieces in the oven. Use this over the next couple of days for some pasta or wraps.
More for the dcs as they'll want something quick.

It's worth prepping a dish in the morning or the night before of a one dish meal then put it in the oven as soon as you get in.

If the kids need food earlier then they have the day before leftovers and you and dh wait til later to have dinner.
Otherwise you can find meals that you can be done within the hour so you're eating by 6.30

Some easy ones here

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/traybake-dinner-recipes

Will try and do some batch cooking too!

When I was working full time and was a single mum of three teenagers, I used to over cook on a Saturday and Sunday to have at least two mid week meals sorted.

I would cook a casserole in my slow cooker for tea on Saturday and make extra to have in the week. Sometimes it might just be mince meat ( with added chickpeas and grated carrots to make the meat go further) which I could vary by adding spices etc - might be a lasagne, shepherds pie, have sliced potatoes or pastry on top, poured over a jacket potato with added grated cheese.

Sunday was a roast meal and I bought a big enough piece of meat to do at least 2 or 3 meals - possibly cold with chips and salad, shredded in wraps or filled pitta bread, minced to make burgers, stir fries etc.

I got lots of ideas for quick and cheap meals from an old cookbook I had as a student which helped fill my starving teenagers up on other nights when there were no left overs. Sometimes though we just had sandwiches if I’d had to work late or e had an activity to go to, fish finger sandwiches always went down well or my homemade burgers which I’d pre prepare then freeze.

This is also us three nights a week. We eat a lot of very simple meals!

The things we do often are:

Jacket potatoes. You can cook an entire bag of potatoes in the oven on a Sunday and they last a good few days in the fridge. We normally just heat them up and have them with cheese and beans or tuna and sweetcorn. If we don't use them for dinners DH and I take them to work for our packed lunches so they don't go to waste.

Often on a Sunday I'll also cook something like chilli con carne and rice then either have the chilli on a jacket potato on the Monday or use it to top nachos, or put it in a wrap with cheese and pan fry it like a quesadilla.

We have a lot of meals on toast. Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes etc or any combination of the above.

Soup and a part baked baguette or garlic bread.

Stir fry veg with noodles.

Omelette with salad.

"Fish tacos" which is just fish fingers in a wrap with lettuce and some sour cream or aioli but my DDs love. You can add chopped onion, coriander, chilli sauce etc if you like.

Lots of pasta dishes can be made in under 15 minutes. I often boil some pasta, add peas or sweetcorn to the pasta pan near the end of cooking then while the pasta and veg is boiling make a quick sauce. Fry chorizo and add garlic and olive oil then toss through the pasta, or prawns, lemon and chilli, or cook mushrooms and cream cheese in a pan loosened with a spoonful of the pasta water to make a sauce.