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!

[Cordelia1234]

Just try and vary it...but it is hard when you get in and have to instantly feed...I fed the young ones before us to be honest....just couldn't help it really....as bed time was looming....and I'm sure lots of people do...

[dementedma]

I would feed the little one small then you and dh eat later tbh.
Everyone tired and grumpy isn't going to make for happy mealtimes anyway. Quick meal for dcs, lots of good suggestions,then one does bath and pjs while the other sorts out adult dinner.

[Bonnie152]

Unfortunately changing childcare is not an option. We live in a really small town with limited options to suit the times we need childcare. We wanted them to both go to a CM (who would then take eldest to school nursery - wraparound care, while youngest would be with CM all day) but there were either no spaces available or not at the times /days we needed.

It'll be better when they are both at school as they'll have a hot meal in the day for sure.

Just thinking out loud but wondering if I could provide a warm meal for them at nursery in one of those thermal pots - bolognaise/pasta etc. Hmmm I'll investigate!

[alicemalice]

Never heard of a nursery that doesn't do an evening meal - must be fairly unusual, no?

[TheCrumpettyTree]

My DC eat at nursery so only need a snack by the time they get home at most. The days they go to nursery DH and I eat after they've gone to bed.

They get a good hot dinner at nursery so I know they've eaten well. Unfortunately, that's your problem.

[LineyReborn]

What time is your 3 year old having packed lunch? And then what to eat ('snacks / drinks'?) until approx 6pm?

That just doesn't sound right, unless the snacks and drinks are sandwiches, milk etc.

[TryingtobePrepared]

The mumsnet cookbook top bananas has some fab quick recipes and they are written by mum's who get the need to be able to cook a meal while juggling toddler etc. Also don't be too tough on yourself beans on toast is a pretty nutrionally balanced meal. One of our faves for speedy meals is frittata cook for you night before heat up for kids or vice versa protein cheese cheddar or cottage, ham or tuna veg what evers handy serve with salad coleslaw but effectively meal in one

[foursillybeans]

Cooking for the freezer is the only way to go for you I think. Just dedicate a couple of days to stocking up the freezer and then continue to fill it as and when you can (weekends, a quiet evening). It's actually easier than you think. I can get stews, chicken casserole, bolognase, etc in the oven to cook in 15 minutes now in an evening then leave to cook for an hour or two at 8pm. Then I turn the oven off. It cools down slowly and then refridgerate or freeze.

It only takes 10 minutes to heat things up in a saucepan and serve with rice, pasta, crusty bread or microwave jacket potatoes. Even things like oven baked meatballs are quick if popped in the oven and served with tomato sauce (defrosted also) and heated in a saucepan with rice.

Also don't feel bad if you live off the same sort of meals during the week. Everyone does. We also have a pizza night on a busy weekday evening. You can then have more fancy meals at the weekend if that it would you like. I wouldn't bother with Jamie's 15 minute meals. They are more complicated and usually take at least half an hour.

[Jenijena]

My son's first nursery would only do a packed lunch 'tea' and, like you, we wanted to eat with him. Unfortunately, by the time we got home he was knackered.

Popukar meals were

Gnocchi, peas, Ham/lardons
Special fried rice (boil water. Jasmine rice poured in. In the 10 minutes if rages to cook, stirring try onions/peppers/peas/sweet corn/mushrooms/frozen prawns/etc and whatever you have in). Chuck all in together at the end.
Omelette
Pizza
Pasta + pre made sauce (macaroni cheese can be frozen)
Pre cooked chicken & bits
Slow cooker (bit getting that sorted in the morning isn't easy either)

If I had a programme able oven, or even a microwave, i'd have done a lot of jacket potatoes.

[Bonnie152]

Liney Reborn - they both have their last nursery snack about 4:30 of milk and cheese and crackers and fruit or rice cakes and fruit. Then when they come home I give another drink and sometimes another snack. 3 yr old can wait and is usually happy to play for a bit but 1 yr old is totally crabby and crying at the kitchen door making for a stressful cooking experience!

I'll have to have a word with my 1yr olds nursery and double check they do no tea option but I'm fairly certain they don't. 3 yr olds definitely won't as it's a day nursery but she just goes for after school care.

[Fran03]

You could always make things the night before when they are in bed if you didn't want to spend your weekends batch cooking. Any kind of bakes can be made up, put in the fridge then they are ready for reheating in the oven the next day. Also curries, casseroles etc taste better the next day. If you want a stir fry prep your veg the night before and marinate your meat and put in the fridge. I try to do this but it doesn't always work out so frozen 'rubbish' is not going to harm them every so often and worth having in. Or take it in turns for 1 of you to cook and the other to sort the kids xx

[JeepersMcoy]

DH and I both work and we always eat with dd as sitting down together is something that is really important to me. It is possible, but as others have said it takes some planning and practice, and a slow cooker really helps.

I tend to do a mix of slow cooking bulk stuff and doing really quick meals. I often stuff a whole chicken in the slow cooker at the start of the week, which we have with some veg and rice, and then use the leftovers for stir-fry or hot chicken and potato salad other days. If you have the chicken pre cooked it takes ten minutes to knock up a stir-fry and noodles. Couscous is also really quick with some precooked meat and veg.

Today I have done a huge chilli in the slow cooker and have a chicken so will shove the chicken in the slow cooker tomorrow and then alternate left over chicken stuff and chili in the week.

[Haroldplaystheharmonica]

Not much help but I've just changed my hours at work for the same reason as the OP, I was sick of us getting in after 6pm and rushing around to get tea done before we had to get to youth club, scouts, cubs, etc. I'll be working the same hours across 4 days so will be home by 3pm every day and we'll be able to eat more homemade meals together. Not possible for most people I know, I'm lucky!

[FreeButtonBee]

There is nothing for it other than batch cooking and relentless planning.

Spag bol
Chilli con carne
Marinated chicken chunks which can be pan fried or cooked in the oven (lemon juice and garlic, BBQ sauce, ginger and soy and lime). Can be served with rice or bread and butter or couscous or anything really
Ready made quiche with veg/salad
If you make a batch of mash and freeze them bangers and mash can be sped up if you skin the sausages and cook them in small chunks.
Fish pie is so easy to batch cook. I bought 50 tinfoil containers on eBay for £9. Worth every penny not to have to do the washing up after and you can make ton
Nothing wrong. With pasta and sauce once a week. I slow roast a massive tray of courgettes, aubergine, onions, carrots and tomatoes and then blitz to a nice smooth consistency. Super healthy and great on its own or with bacon/chorizo/chicken/mozzarella on top

[JeepersMcoy]

Oh, and when dd was smaller I would give her a pot of fruit or veg sticks as soon as we got in through the door. This would keep her going for 20mins until dinner was sorted. Maybe try that with them both so you get a chance to sort yourself out. :)

[honeylulu]

We save a portion of our dinner from the night before so it just needs heating up for children. Sometimes toddler doesn't eat any or only picks at it (often scoffs the lot though) but she has breakfast, hot lunch and a snacky tea at nursery at 4pm so I'm quite relaxed about whether it's eaten or not.
I always offer though as think going from 4pm to 8am without a meal at least being offered is a bit too long.

[mirime]

DH and I get home about 7. My DPs look after DS while we work and we eat together about 7.30. Try to keep it fairly healthy, but don't always manage it.

DS does go to bed later than normal for a 3 year old, but it does mean he wakes later - about 8am, which is convenient as its the same time I get up and we're still co-sleeping.

Haven't been organised enough yet to regularly make a large batch of something on the weekend, plus DS is so fussy is still end up cooking something else for him.

[NattyTile]

You could do the "cook when the smalls are in bed, give them the leftovers the next day" and still eat with them; you could just plate yourselves up something like a salad and consider it a starter maybe?

[JuanTime]

If you batch cook in bulk you'll be cooking 1-2 time month. Mash is easy to cook in bulk,so is rice. Use frozen veg.batch cook means minimum hassle when you get in,simple reheat of cooked food. As others have said spag bol,sausage,mince etc all work. Make a few pasta sauce too.
Fish fingers,omelette,beans & toast are all great emergency food

[Maryann1975]

I'm a childminder and give the children a hot meal at lunch time. I batch cook and generally have loads of little meals in the freezer. Shepherds pie, spag Bol, fish pie, beef stew, chicken casserole, meatballs in sauce. Small pots of cheese sauce to add to pasta as a quick meal. I also do to much veg with the Sunday roast and they have that with any of the above for the first bit of the week. If what we are having on the night is suitable, I save some for the children for the next day. It works really well. It does take time to set up and a bit of a pain to have to make meals in advance, but the children help so it's part of an activity for the preschoolers. (Getting carrots/potatoes out, moving them from the chopping board to saucepan, stirring the meat etc).

[havalina1]

I really get the fear about this. I'm going back to work in September and my kids will be 1 and almost 3 too. DP is a farmer, doesn't cook and is like a bear if he eats too late. He goes to bed early and is up at 6 and out the door. His problem is he doesn't eat a proper lunch so comes in ravenous for dinner.

I work in IT, it's a demanding job and often work from home. But I will work til 5.30 and I am absolutely dreading the stress of the evenings and how to manage.

When you say cook on weekends, does that mean your weekends are just preparing for the week? (More dread). And batch freezing - so do you make up Bol sauce and freeze - how (consider me completely stupid) - is it by portion size and what kind of storage? question for lasagne - is it ok to freeze pasta? (So is lasagne OK to freeze?).

Just dreading it, the whole return to work. The work but will be fine, I'm dreading the chaos at home.

[99GBPChargeToUseMyPostsJournos]

If a slow cooker might work for you, it might be worth considering an instant pot instead.

It's a slow cooker and a pressure cooker and a rice cooker and also cooks like you would in a normal pan.

So if you are organised you can use the slow cooker. If not you can cook up meals quickly and easily with the pressure cooker. You can even cook chicken from frozen if you are totally disorganised!

It might be worth joining the instant pot community on facebook if you use it, to see what it can do and get an idea of whether it would be right for you.

[JuanTime]

If you batch cook,you'll be reheating for 3-4min instead of cooking from scratch. A simple reheat of dinner is quick and much less stressful than meal prep with grisly toddler. I work ft,I can't imagine cooking from scratch getting home from work. Imo,reheating a frozen prepared meal and veg is time efficient and no hassle.

[JuanTime]

Havalina,I cook 1-2 month.its not an enormous chore.i cook meals and then portion up. So when getting home I'm basically reheating.in morning I put frozen portions in fridge to defrost over day,in evening I reheat

Spaghetti bol, freeze sauce in freezer bag/ tubs.for the kids measure a portion to freeze.
Lasagne,cook it and when cool cut into squares to freeze.freezes a treat
Pasta I just cook from dried or if you want really quick use fresh pasta
Mash potato,rice freeze well
Soups are good too
Basically anything you can buy as a frozen Meal you can replicate at home

It's not onerous and imo worth while,so at night you're only reheating

[Dontyoulovecalpol]

OP I am going to make a radical
Suggestion - no batch cooking

We are in a similar situation. Weekends have to be about quality family time. Not about cooking and freezing. And batch cooking only marginally saves time- what it does it just moves your prep and cooking time from every evening to your precious weekends.

Instead, what we do is meal
Plan easy quick meals. Online shop.

Some examples are traybakes with chicken potatoes and veg/ cheese - all thrown on a tray and in the oven

Fish is usually fast- this sort of thing-www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/prosciutto-haddock-with-butter-bean-mash/

Lean in 15 is good as long as you are picky about which recipes to ensure they are truly fast!

Omelettes, stir fry (pre prepped veg) ready made quiche with salad and so on