How do you sort family dinner on working days?

[InsolentAnnie]

I work pt, DH works ft. Really struggle on the days neither of us get home til 6 (DCs in childcare after school). We need to eat straight away, ideally, or it’s too late for the little one who is only 6, but we never manage to eat before 7 because it takes time to make things! We like cooking, do most stuff from scratch, but even basic things take 45 mins unless it’s something like tuna and sweetcorn pasta, which we can’t have all the time! What do other people do?!

Haven’t read the full thread but we use Hello Fresh. I couldn’t go back to trying to plan dinners and doing a weekly shop. Hello Fesh is full of variety and most dinners only take 20 to 30 mins with no waste.

You’re more than welcome. I’ve gotten into the habit of prepping everything as I’m unpacking the shopping. So everything basically goes into the fridge or freezer in a state ready to cook.

Lettuce, tomatoes etc go into a big Tupperware as a salad
Greenbeans, sugarsnap peas etc get mixed up and go into microwaveable bags with a knob of butter and some seasoning so I can just chuck them in the microwave for 3 minutes and have a side dish.
Slow cooker stuff goes into dump bags and then fridge or freezer depending on meal plan
Cuts of meat like drumsticks, pork chops, chicken thighs get portioned up in to ziplock bags with a rub or marinade and into the freezer.

That way I know that I have no prep to do at dinner time, I just decant into appropriate cooking equipment and let it cook.

I take a similar approach to big meals like Xmas dinner, get everything prepped well in advance, if it’s freezeable I’ll do it in the weeks leading up to Xmas. Store it all in foil or glass containers so on the day I just move it to the oven at the right time and wait for the timer to tell me it’s done.

Absolutely agree with preparing bags ready to go.

I have the reusable zip lock bags and currently have a chicken casserole in the slow cooker to freeze in batches and the left over veg all peeled and chopped into a bag ready to use. (Probably in the soup maker!)

Lots of part batch cooking, and prepping the night before.

An example is that we like “chicken pizziaola” so I have batch cooked portions of tomato sauce. We bung raw chicken breast in, mozzarella on top, into the oven and dinner is done in 20 mins.

One tray dishes like sausages or chicken with roast veg and chickpeas are easy to prep the night before and cook once you get home.

Also things like air fryer chicken breast and salmon are easy and quick. We have cubes of pesto in the freezer and will mix that through steamed veg and new potatoes. Again, done in <20 minutes.

loads of things can be done in 15/20 minutes.

Jacket potato cheese and beans
quick bolognaise with a jar of bolognaise sauce (frozen onion, frozen mushrooms, frozen peppers)
cheesy beans on toast
ham and cheese toastie
veggie stir fry
pizza
chicken Kiev jacket potato and salad
pasta and veggie sauce - frozen mushrooms, onions, peppers, peas and sweetcorn
cooked chicken fillets with salad and jacket potato
cooked chicken fillets chopped up, jar of curry sauce and microwave rice

Slow cooker is great or prep some food to quickly cook when you get in. I like to make 'dump bags' the night before. Pre cut the veg and meat and just dump it in the slow cooker on the morning with some water and when I get in I've got chicken curry. I might have to mix more curry powder in to thicken it up while the rice is cooking but that's it.

As many posters have said - batch cooking. One strategy I used when I was working and had a family at home was to chop 1 onion to every 1lb of minced beef. (I used to find any more than 3 onions and 3lbs of beef unmanageable)
Fry onion, add the meat and cook until all the pink bits have gone. I never added anything else, not even salt.
Freeze in boxes labelled ‘Batch Mince’. Take out of the freezer the night before or in the morning. The meat can be used as a basis for a lot of different meals.
Loads of great advice on this thread.

We both work full time (I also travel internationally fairly often) and DS has clubs 3 nights a week so it's fairly usual for us to have a 45 minute window - I'm well practiced in quick dinners 😆
My go to meals;
Gnocchi with veg in pesto
Fresh pasta - normally just served with cherry tomatoes, spinach and olive oil with parmesan
Courgette and sweetcorn fritters with poached eggs
Flatbreads with greek yoghurt, chopped salad, chicken thigh, hot honey
Tacos made by crumbling chicken sausage and topping with scrambled egg and tomatos
Prawn noodles
Quick fried rice with leftovers
Satay noodles
Omelette with salad
Hot smoked salmon with new potatoes and peas
Salmon tacos
BLT pasta salad
Tuna pasta
Chipolata and tomato bake with crusty bread

I do use straight to wok udon noodles and rice sachets for ease, and shop bought flatbread unless it's the weekend but all sauces and spice mixes are home made.
It does help that DS eats anything!

What about wraps -
pre cooked chicken and raw peppers or a pre cooked fajita mix. Do this in batches
or halloumi & salad takes minutes
pre cook baked potatoes with pre made toppings from fridge
Again slow cooker but can also be used to batch cook a large chilli or bolognese then put into portions

Batch cooking, leftovers, slow cooker set off in the morning. All work.

I love to cook from scratch too but have a couple of days a week when we need a really quick turnaround. Those days I will make Spag bol ((batch cook a huge batch every couple weeks & portion in freezer )
thinly sliced chicken breast with Nando style spices, quickly cook in the air fryer and serve in pittas with salad.
pesto pasta & garlic bread
stir fry’s
chicken thighs / or breasts chopped small cooked in air fryer with soy, ginger, garlic, sesame & mix into packet rice for a speedy meal.

Slow cooker dump bags are your friend. I prep them on a weekend and freeze. On the days we'll need one, I take something out of the freezer the night before, the stick in the slow cooker in the morning. ready to eat when we get home. It takes less than ten minutes in total on the weekdays to set it going and to plate it up.

Slow cooker, pasta takes 15 mins, stir fry takes 5 mins, reheating homemade soup takes 5 mins.

This. Also when I had school aged children I would do a basic beef or turkey mince bolognese, but double the portion size, on a Sunday night and put it in the fridge. Monday we would have half with spaghetti, so it just took the time to cook the pasta and reheat the bolognese. Tuesday I would toss red kidney beans into the other half, add a slug of paprika and a few dried chillies and just cook the rice while reheating it, for a chilli con carne. My DH would joke, “if it’s chilli it must be Tuesday” 😊

Pulled pork is a good one to batch cook, I do it in the slow cooker
defrost, heat, stir through bbq sauce
you can use it with rice, wraps, make nachos, stick it on top of jacket potato or chips and pork shoulder isn’t too expensive

Batch cooking and prepping.

On a Sunday, I get a food delivery, so I'll make several meals, then I portion up and freeze, or Tupperware in the fridge.

Whatever I cook, its on a plate and in the microwave within seconds of walking in the door.

Regular meals, that are all cooked at the same time, often include a curry, with rice, lasagna, full roast - that's a favourite as we have a fridge carvery😁 chicken stew or chunky soup. Plus more.

We just take it out the freezer in the morning to defrost in the fridge.

I've never really been successful with slow cooker dump meals, so I cook and freeze.

It may not be the poshest food, but it's home cooked, full of veg and quick.

On the days someone is home early enough to cook, do double the amount. Pop it in the freezer and microwave the following week on rushed days. That way you don’t have to give up your weekend to batch cooking.

Other than that, have something like:
a stir fry with pre-prepped veg and a shop bought sauce
omelettes (again I’d pre-prep veg to speed up)
jacket potatoes can be cooked in slow cooker apparently, really wouldn’t take more than a minute to wrap in foil and throw them in of a morning.
not ideal but a family size ready made lasagne and garlic bread, it’s not going to be a problem to eat a ready meal every now and again.
Pasta with some peppers, sundried tomatoes and pesto.

Mix of things.
Batch cooked freezer meals.
Quick meals, eg cold chicken and salad or egg, chips and beans or tuna pasta etc.
Ready meals, iceland and marks and spencer
do some really good quality ones.
Slow cooker, chuck it in, in the morning.

This is what I do too. And weekend batch cooking.

Cook in advance, Sunday we tend to cook 3 or 4 meals so just need to cook pasta/rice or just heat up.

Grilles cheese and a bowl of soup?? 5 mins max.

I know several of us have mentioned dump bags for the sc but you can do similar with other food, so for a tray bake slice all the veg and put in Tupperware, when you are ready to eat it just add the meat (if you are using any) shove in the oven for 15 - 20 mins.

We've started getting things in the slow cooker overnight, then get in the morning cool the food and put it in the fridge. Just needs microwaving at dinner time then!

Try food prep on a weekend?
we rely on hello fresh a bit now, purposely choosing the 15-20 min meals.