to wonder how working parents feed their families?

[Bonnie152]

Just interested in what others do really.

I went back to work in April and since then have really struggled with evening meals. My DC are 1 and 3 and by the time we get home at 5:30 they are very tired and hungry. It's a case of drop bags and make food. DH and I are starting to reach for the same old meals which aren't as fresh and nutritionally balanced as we would like (think pasta and pesto, egg and beans or grabbing chips on the way home from work, etc).

We like to sit down and eat with them as we've all been out of the house since around 7am and it's the only bit of time we get with them until bedtime routine at about 7 (and yes I do feel hugely guilty but that's another story!)

The main problems are having to feed them as soon as we get home and not having a bank of quick, tasty and healthy meals. How do other working parents manage with such young DC? I welcome any advice, recipes and tips for how you have smooth meal times on work days!

[arethereanyleftatall]

Everything is chopped into 1cm ish cubes and all mixed together in the above.

[arethereanyleftatall]

My fave quick healthy meal for my girls is...

Packet of precooked quinoa ( you get them in those packs like the uncle bens rice), mix with tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, peppers, cheese cubes, raw carrots, chicken if I have some cooked, peas and corn (frozen, then microwave).
Takes 5 mins max, my kids love it, and they can 'help'.

Cba with batch cooking, there's plenty of healthy meals that only take 5 mins.

[Xmasbaby11]

We have the same routine as you - dc are 2 and 4 and I bring them home about 5.30. We try to eat at 6. The dc are super fussy and have had a hot meal at lunch so they don't eat much.

I don't do much batch cooking as we're busy at weekends asked there's all the other housework to do! Maybe one thing a week and there's always a few homemade meals in freezer.

We tend to have -

Chicken pea and spinach curry (curry paste and coconut milk)

Pesto pasta with bacon, pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, onion, other random veg

Spicy Puy lentil with salmon and spinach

Stir fry - usually marinade chicken in advance

'Mexican chicken' chicken breast chopped up cooked with onion, red pepper and sweetcorn, passata and that mexican paste in a jar, sorry can't remember name!

I find even though meals shouldn't take long, I'm slowed down my kids running in and out of the kitchen and even setting them up with tv or activities takes time. As others say, it's hard when you've not seem them all day and you want a cuddle and to sit with them but you have to get on with dinner. It's hard work!

[Solasum]

I have a slowcooker, but apart from whole chicken, bolognese and ham, have really struggled to make good non watery stews so it is not used much.

We get in at about 5.30, and normally eat at 6, can be pushed to 6.30 with a snack, but much later doesn't work.

So I
-menu plan
-always have in a couple of 'instant' options, so potatoes to microwave, pizza in the freezer, enough ham, cheese, olives and bread to have a 'picnic' in case cooking goes out the window

• take shortcuts. I have chopped onions and spinach in the freezer, grated cheese, pastry in the fridge, pasta sauce, pre cooked rice sachets. All saves a few minutes. I really recommend Sainsburys frozen chargrilled Mediterranean vegetables, and frozen stir fry veg.
  

-tray bakes of things like chicken chunks and vegetables, or paper/foil parcels of salmon fillet on bed of frozen green beans on precooked rice. Seasoned, add butter, bake.

I find DS eats much more when he doesn't eat alone, so eat with him whenever possible.

It isn't exactly how I'd cook or eat by choice, as I really enjoy cooking, but I feel I just about strike the balance between providing nutritious meals and eating at a time that the household can deal with.

[GlindatheFairy]

Yes, the Little Dish type meals are made of stuff you can make yourself but not actually having to was rather the point. I did recreate versions of those meals myself - though it is galling when the kids prefer the ready made version! They were great when DH and I wanted to eat something like a hot curry that DDs wouldn't have liked at the time.

[GlindatheFairy]

I am not veggie but I wouldn't want to eat mince more than once a week. I always try to vary it roughly so that three dinners have no meat or fish, a couple have fish, red meat once a week, chicken once.

[Improvisingnow]

I'd suggest you have some snacks to give them the minute they come out. My kids were always famished regardless of what they had eaten during the day! Carrot sticks, bread sticks, small veg samosas, falafel all travel well and take the the edge off.

[smellyboot]

In one hour cooking fest I can make 6-8 meals to batch freeze. I do it when I get a free hour. Chilli, spag Bol sauce, curry etc. I work FT, had two very active kids and do a lot of volunteer work. They have pizza once a week and jacket spuds are a back up. I find having 4 pans on the go and one hour of mess means decent dinners most nights..microwave from freezer with fresh carb and veg.

[Shezza71]

Batch cooking and slow cooker-definitely
Have a look at this link for tasty homemade style ready meals
www.cookfood.net/

[MrsFrankRicard]

I have the same quick turnaround as you as our youngest needs fed around 30 mins after we are home, some quick meals that we have are -
baked salmon, either with veg, chilli sauce and rice/noodles or with a baked potato (started in micro) and salad
gnocchi with a tomato sauce, chorizo, rocket, cheese
bung in a couple of pizzas with salad
quiche, baked tatties, salad
sausages, chips and beans
macaroni cheese
pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce
chicken curry made with paste and coconut milk, rice
chicken fajitas
the occasional ready prepared thing, stuff like ready made mash, frozen chopped veg, pre chopped chicken all save time even though it's not ideal.

[RubbleBubble00]

They have hot lunch at school/nursery. It's well after 6 when I get them in so it's usually toast,fruit,yogurt ect. When they were having packed lunch tea was mainly meals I'd batch cooked and frozen (I'd precook pasta ect night before). I base them on sw recipes so loads of extra veg chucked in quorn spag bol, not hot chilli - I blend them a bit for the kids so they don't pick veg out.

But also I'd pop timer on my oven so we could have baked spuds with some veg sticks and cheese or even beans on toast. (Friday nights Chinese night lol)

[timealone]

I find food planning and prep one of the hardest things OP, but I fully admit that I make it harder on myself by expecting too much.

What we do is have a meal plan which rotates every three weeks. The days DS is in nursery, we have the easiest dinners, eg. pasta, broccolli and pesto/tomato sauce, pizza, veg chilli (10 min recipe from Deliciously Ella), and Fridays we have Freezer Fridays (some kind of frozen fare from the supermarket). We get home at 5.30pm-ish, but there is generally not a huge rush for dinner as he has a hot lunch and tea at 3.30pm (sandwiches or something). Tbh, I'm not even sure why we bother as he would probably be fine with a crumpet and a glass of milk!

One day a week DS is with grandparents, so its a bit more stressful as he only has a snack in the afternoon and is really hungry by 5.30pm. Those days I often have some leftovers from the day before (eg. risotto), but it does take some planning.

I don't go in for batch cooking in a big way as we are vegetarian and it just doesn't work as well for fresh veggies. Plus I have enough to catch up on at the weekend. However, we do freeze pasta sauce (even pesto can be frozen), soups, pizza dough, little portions of macaroni cauliflower cheese for DS etc.

My recommendation would be to do a little bit of everything - easy meals like pasta and omelettes, bit of batch cooking, fishfingers or something one night and then make something bigger on the weekend. Don't try to be perfect. Do you have a microwave steamer? I find it useful for cooking veggies to go on the side as you don't have to watch your saucepans to make sure they don't boil over etc. I also often put out cherry tomatoes, cucumber and avocado for DS and a bit of bagged salad for me and DH.

[Lucked]

We do a bit of batch cooking we also frequently eat after kids are in bed and plate up there's for the next night. We are lucky they only have two full days at nursery due to flexible working and help from my mum. Those two days are tricky!

Little tips
Tinned potatoes make passable mash very quickly and good with fish.
Vermicelli pasta cooks in 2-3 mins while reheating sauce in microwave.
Gnocchi very quick too.
I do a very quick Chinese dish with a bit of 5 spice.
We mostly just give fruit and yoghurt for dessert but if we have cake or a pudding then I sometimes just give them soup for dinner.

[Yika]

I batch cook and plan every dinner. Every planned meal involves something from the freezer, I don't mean planning fresh meals. I do sometimes do meals from fresh on a week night but they are 10-min style meals such as

• salmon fillet, boiled potatoes, frozen peas
  
• chicken pieces in jar/frozen sweet and sour sauce, rice
  
• lamb chops, couscous, tomato sauce
  
• scrambled eggs, fried mushrooms
  

Batch cooking includes regular roast chicken, portioned up and frozen. Vats of mashed potato or varieties thereof (sweet potato mash, potato and cabbage mash, potato and carrot mash).
I use frozen food a lot. Not usually frozen meals but rather individual food items such as fish; seafood, vegetables, potatoes, fruit. I also buy meat fresh and freeze it so that it's ready to whip out of a morning ready to quickly cook in the evening.
Re. meal planning: it can help do have set days for a given type of food.
Monday: mince based dish (spag bol, lasagne, chilli, meatballs, cottage pie)
Tuesday: egg based dish (scrambled, omelette, poached, quiche)
Wednesday: pasta
Thursday: stew
Friday: takeout
etc.
I still find it knackering, but it helps.

[Iloveowls2]

Frozen veg. Sausage, jacket potatoes, stir fry. We cook as soon as we get in at around 6pm it's all a bit of a rush but that's being a working parent

[JuanTime]

Thanks,never heard of brand I just goggled it.i already make that type of stuff for the kids and reheat in microwave when I get in.

[Dontyoulovecalpol]

Little dish are child's microwave meals but they are only made from the same ingredient you'd cook from scratch with- like the fish pie is just fish milk flour potato cheese.

Juan- by make the lasagne I meant make the white sauce and the tomato sauce. That's the time consuming bit, not dried pasta and frying mince!

[Lurkedforever1]

I only ever batch cooked stuff I was making anyway, rather than several different meals at once. There's only a handful of meals I think taste just as good after freezing, and I never fancied the idea of adding batch cooking to a list of weekly tasks. What I always did was just prep the next days dinner the night before when dd was in bed. Gives you far more variety too. Still do the same now just because I generally don't fancy walking in through the door and immediately starting cooking.

[GlindatheFairy]

It's a brand of ready meal for kids. DDs favourites were pasta with cheese and broccolli trees and there was a chicken "pie" one with a mashed potato top if I remember correctly.

[FeelingSmurfy]

Quick and easy meals for us are

Quesadillas - top a tortilla with cheese and any other random things you want, top with another tortilla and put in a dry frying pan. Put a plate or something on top to weigh it down, turn after a few minutes. Serve cut into triangles with cucumber, tomato etc

Omelette - cheese Omelette with onion/mushrooms/tomato whatever is in the fridge thrown in

When I do beans I always cut a tomato up and warm in pan for 1 minute first, add the beans and cook through. Makes them that little bit healthier and it's cheaper too because

Make your own tortilla night (probably best to do it yourself though considering ages) where tortillas, cheese, salad, dips etc are put out and everyone helps themselves and makes their own. Goes down well because everyone tailors it to their own taste

Muffin pizzas - cut muffins in half, bit of tomato puree then cheese and sweetcorn/tomato/spring onion/pineapple etc and stick in oven for 5 minutes, serve with carrot sticks, cucumber etc

Plus the normal beans on toast, egg on toast, tin of soup etc

[GlindatheFairy]

Something like salmon steak, jacket potato and veg is very quick too.

[JuanTime]

What is little dish meal?is that you serving a small portion

[GlindatheFairy]

"Batch cook at the weekend". Enough of the weekend involves food preparation as it is, aaargh!

When mine were little they got quite a lot of Little Dish meals, with some extra veg on the side. They would eat at the childminder's but she didn't provide the food so they would have what we had the previous evening or Little Dish.

[kateandme]

big batch of mince on sunday.put half in fridge half in freezer.then for the week you can top with potatos.mashed or sliced.top with garlic bread and oven bake.bolognase.nachos.mince on toast.tacos.buritos.mix through chilli or not.lasagne.
do you have oven cooker with timer.in the moring prep some salmon in some foil with veggies and a pour over dressing or glaze.set oven to turn on?or is still quick for if you get home.put some fish in baking paper with liced sweet potato.and slection of veg wrap en papiotte style.microwave for 11 minutes.serve with a sauce.
sunday roast chicken.by two. then you've got bits for a pasta meal. chicken and ham in white sauce and rice.curry.intersperce this with the batch mince.

[Dixiechickonhols]

slow cooked wonders group on facebook is good for ideas