To ask what the heck you cook young kids that's healthy and doesn't take forever?

[Iveprobablybeenunreasonable]

I'm back at work in 2 weeks, and won't be picking my dc up from nursery until 5pm. They are 3yo and 1yo.
Both good eaters
Current routine is start cooking at 4.45, eat at 5.45, bath every other night and bed at 7pm.
They have usually finished eating by around 6.10 (dinner followed by fruit or yoghurt etc) so they get a good 45 mins of downtime before bed

I can't drag bedtime out but I won't get home till around 5.10 once back at work.
All the meals I make seem To take around 1 hour. They won't finish eating till about 6.40 and then it'll be bedtime!

They can have a night of beans on toast (they usually have this after swimming lessons Fri night) and a night where i reheat something like a chilli out of the freezer.

But what else can I do that's healthy and doesn't involve loads of prep and cooking time?

I have time to do NOTHING in the mornings which rules out the slow cooker. I have to get me and both dc up and out the house by 7.15am.

DH is not around during the week

Help pleeease!

Do they get a hot meal at nursery? If they do I has to be balanced and healthy. My daughter has a "proper" tea on a Thursday because she has swimming at school and is more hungry. Other than that she is happy with a sandwich, porridge, cereal, sometimes I make "pizza rolled up" which is a tortilla wrap with some tomato purée, spring onion, sweet corn and cheese on top I put it under the grill until the cheese is melted then I put some mayo on and roll it up.

Can you up the amount that you freeze and reheat? My DC have something from the freezer about 3 times a week. E.g. lasagne, cottage pie, fish pie, curry, sausage and mash (chop the sausage up before freezing). All things that I will make for mine and DH's dinner anyway, I just make twice as much and freeze the leftovers, so I don't have to spend hours batch cooking on the weekend.

Also, if they like chilli then a very quick tea could be microwave rice with chilli beans (from a tin) and grated cheese on top.

Chicken goujons
Frozen mash
Frozen peas

You could prep the slow cooker in the evening for the next day for curries, chilis and casseroles.
I don't think I make any meals that take an hour. So in 10-20 mins you can make:
Pasta with brocolli and pesto
Mexican chicken wraps
Lemon chicken pitta
Sausage and mash/ sweet potato mash/ root veg mash
Hot dogs with veg sticks
Frozen pizza and salad
Microwave jacket potatoes with beans and cheese.
Boiled eggs
Sweet and sour chicken with a jar sauce with rice.

No pasta does make it more difficult. Will they eat cous cous? That takes a few minutes and you can do a few different things with it and maybe a chicken breast with it?

Pitta pizzas - like it says on the tin. Half a pitta, add tomato puree, garlic & herbs, cheese & whatever else they want. Under the grill for a minute or two. Ta da.

Fish fingers, chips & frozen veg don't take that long. I do the frozen veg in the microwave, just put it in a bowl with a plate over for like a minute. For extra laziness, use microchips!

Cheese on toast / welsh rarebit.

Eggy bread or pancakes. Sweet or savoury.

Crumpets / toasted teacakes / fruit bread hot buttered, sometimes with jam or spread and a glass of milk is popular in my house.

You can get rice bags to heat in microwave. Do with frozen peas & sweet corn, also in microwave and scrambled egg = egg fried rice.

Mexican rice often has pulses in it. Serve with chopped toms, fresh coriander & cucumber. Add egg or cheese for more protein. But try first as it might come out hot spicy.

Oven food is fine sometimes e.g. fish fingers, something potato, frozen veg. You can freeze small portions of many things e.g mash etc.

That fresh pasta served with cheese and salad bits.

Always always batch cook and freeze portions. E.g. chilli, then defrost and add rice bag - just reheating time. Bolognese sauce with fresh pasta.

For batch cooking I often use my instant pot. Because there is less time for everything, I especially like this as I can leave it and it won't burn whilst I run around trying to do everything.

Good luck. It's a combination of all this.

Bung it in the oven options:

• Pork loin steak on baking tray, green beans, mushrooms, sliced onion or whatever veg you want wrapped in foil to make a pouch. On baking tray too, gas 6 for 20-30 mins depending on thickness of pork steaks
• Chicken drumsticks and corn on the cob
• Sausage, sliced peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes a drizzle of oil and seasoning all thrown into a roasting pan, gas 5 for 30 minutes

On the hob

• Stir fry with veg and/or noodles
• Chicken strips dipped in egg and breadcrumbs then fried up with some.microwave steamed veg
• We make a rice thing by frying up sausages and onions, then chucking a pack of microwave rice, some tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and seasoning on and letting it simmer for a few minutes.

-dolmio, mince meat and pasta (or the soft instant packet stir fry noodles if you're being really lazy)

Super quick

• beans/egg/tinned tomatoes/mushrooms on toast
• Tinned soup with a grilled cheese sandwich for dipping
• Cold chicken with salad

I make and freeze batches of things like mac & cheese, risotto, meatballs and spaghetti bolognese at the weekend that I can microwave from frozen on weeknights. Other than that it’s beans on toast, fish fingers and frozen mash, or ‘picky tea’ of crackers, cheese and fruit.

For the pasta, will they eat orzo pasta, it's really small and was the first type of pasta DS would eat?

Will you definitely be able to do any cooking initially? My DC have tended to be extremely clingy when they've first started nursery, made worse by them being hungry when they get home - what's your youngest like?

I have a combination slow cooker / rice cooker with a timer so rice is ready when we get home, and then I microwave something I've batch cooked at the weekend to go with it. If your oven has a timer, you can do the same with jacket potatoes - so then all you have to worry about preparing / microwaving is something to have with the potatoes. Mine will eat beans and potato, peas and potato, scrambled egg and potato, cheese and potato...

My little one (who's 2) has a hot meal at nursery but when she comes home on the full days she's usually very tired so if I make her wait too long while I cook she gets really whiny. Quick things she likes on those days are -

Scrambled egg with crumpets
Pesto pasta and garlic bread
Tomato soup with cheese on toast
Bowl of porridge with chopped banana and honey
Pitta Bread 'pizzas'

Orzo pasta is very good. I have star shapes for my minestrone and often I just put it in with a tin of soup to bulk it up a bit and do some cheese cubes and a roll.

Plus, using a slow cooker isn’t actually that much time at all. I often just put a chicken in before I leave and switch it on, nothing else.

Get an omelette maker .they are about £14 online
It’s way easier than using the hob.

You literally pour whatever ingredients in that you want in to a bowl whisk it up and then pour it into the omlette maker. 6 -7 mins later you have two amazing fluffy omelettes
I wouldn’t be without mine now

You lot are amazing... currently writing all of these down now!

Thank you so so much!

Nursery feed them ‘tea’ at around 4:30 usually so they won’t need dinner. I give half a bagel with cream cheese or a slice of toast or rice cakes and peanut butter with some fruit

Use pasta sauce with rice
Make up batches of chicken/veg etc to freeze for wraps which can be defrosted in the morning and heated up with cheese etc
Eggs
Sausage &mash and veg doesn’t use too much prep time

Scanning this thread for extra ideas as I often have this problem. My 2 yo is (very) well fed at nursery but will still usually eat dinner, but my 5 yo is ravenous after school as the snack the childminder gives him isn't very substantial. I find the problem is I want myself and DH to eat something more interesting than toast or pasta, but the time consumed cooking two dinners is too much and we'd prefer to eat as a family! Do you all eat later separately from your children!

@fratercula I eat the same time as my dc at 5.45... because by the time they're in bed at 7pm and I've cleaned up I don't want to then start cooking my own dinner so I'm the same as you! Plus we love to eat as a family... (even more so once they're in nursery 4 full days a week )

Salmon parcels oven baked for 20 mins, served with rice and veg
Bakers omelette (can be made in advance and reheated)
Stir fry with pre prepared veg bags and noodles
Variety of chicken dishes with either pre cooked chicken or 20 mins chicken breast in the oven - chicken fried rice, chicken, mash (made ahead of time) and veg, chicken noodle soup, pesto chicken with rice/pasta/pots and veg
Jacket potatoes in microwave
As for freezer meals you could make fish pie, cottage pie, bolognese, lasagne, mild curry for some nights

My dc are older now (10 and 7), but I started a similar thread a couple of years ago after work teas.

Batch cook and freeze.

Bolognese, curry, casseroles, stews. Take a pick out in the morning. You only need then to cook rice ( although I cook and freeze rice too), or quicky boil up a pan of new potatoes ( no peeling) or crusty bread, quick salad.

One of my quick but heathy meals for the kids is a tin of Mackerel in tomato sauce served with rice/ pasta/baked potato etc. You can throw in some frozen veg to cook with the pasta/rice if you want. You just have to be careful not to pick up the spicy sauce version because that stuff is seriously hot!

Presumably they are having lunch and snacks at nursery/school, if so don't sweat it your just reversing the meals. Wraps with chicken, cucumber/carrot sticks, egg on toast....whatever you'd give them for lunch basically.

There’s a book called “The Five o’clock Apron” that has lots of great family recipes