to say that cottage pie is NOT a “weekday meal”

[RiddleMeThis2018]

Cottage pie is delicious. I know how to make it, but sometimes I like to look at a recipe online, to make sure I don’t put too much tomato in by mistake (disappointing, not to be recommended). Almost ALL the recipes say “delicious week-night supper” or similar. This is NOT a weeknight supper!! I couldn’t do it yesterday because the DCs and I got back from swimming too late. I’m not even working today and I had to psych myself up to it. The mince takes 50 mins to simmer, and that’s after all the chopping. Then there’s 20 mins in the oven assuming you time the potatoes right. And then the washing up!

I don’t blame cottage pie. I blame the website writers who want to make me think I should just whip this up on a Thursday when I get in from work. AIBU?

If you want a weeknight fish pie then do it like this.

Shop bought white sauce mixed with a frozen fish pie mix and a handful of frozen prawns and peas.

Top with ready made mash/frozen mash and pre grated cheese.

Bake in oven... couldn't be easier

Is it really too hard to get home at 6:30 pm have a cup of tea and chat to the dcs while frying off some mince and onions , cutting up some spuds , adding some carrots .. or peas to mince - mashing the pots and bunging in the oven. All ready by 7:30 ! Hardly 'duck a la fucking range' !!
I despair!

Ready by 7.30 ... then it’s 8 by the time you’ve eaten it. That’s late for kids of a certain age to be up and unbathed.

Mid week cottage pie in our house also comes from supermarket. It might be different when kids are older but at the moment they eat at 5.30.

Is it really too hard to get home at 6:30 pm have a cup of tea and chat to the dcs while frying off some mince and onions , cutting up some spuds , adding some carrots .. or peas to mince - mashing the pots and bunging in the oven. All ready by 7:30

Because for most people, there's a million other things to do too...

Empty and clean lunchboxes
Load/unload dishwasher
Put some laundry on
Hang laundry up
Hoover
Run bath for kids
Help kids with homework
Tidy up
Etc etc

Is it really too hard to get home at 6:30 pm have a cup of tea and chat to the dcs while frying off some mince and onions , cutting up some spuds , adding some carrots .. or peas to mince - mashing the pots and bunging in the oven. All ready by 7:30

It’s not that it’s hard. It’s just not how you’d choose to spend very limited time.

My kids are very young. I’m usually in by 6. 6.30 is as late as they want to eat. They’re also not at a stage where chatting to mummy while she cooks really works. So no need to ‘despair’ over peoples different circumstances

Tin of mince and onions, packet mash = brexit cottage pie

And now I burnt the fish Fingers as I was reading this and not paying attention

I do think that it’s easy to get to X point in your parenting life and forget every other stage up until that point. Not everyone is at the stage where the kids can wait until 7.30 for dinner. But if your kids are older, it’s easy to forget that stage.

"But if your kids are older, it’s easy to forget that stage."

I also think it's easy for parents with young kids to think "parenting"/"kids"/"family life" revolves around kids at nursery and primary school.

It's still parenting when you're feeding 14 and 16 year olds who don't get in until 9pm...

Is it really too hard to get home at 6:30 pm have a cup of tea and chat to the dcs while frying off some mince and onions , cutting up some spuds , adding some carrots .. or peas to mince - mashing the pots and bunging in the oven. All ready by 7:30 !

Quite frankly, yes, when you have tiny dc who need an early bedtime and time to digest befohand, when there are a million other quicker healthy and tasty options.

Has anyone said it isn't parenting when older kids are involved, PCohle?

Of course it’s still parenting. It just gives you more time to make the evening meal when they can wait till 9pm to be fed.

Mine are mostly grown up and left home. At no point in the years they lived here could they have waited until 9 to be fed.

I’m only quoting another poster

My cottage pie takes about half an hr including boiling and mashing potatoes, dry fry the mince,(no.simmering here,add chopped onion and frozen veg,gravy and top with mashed potatoes, I sometimes are crushed ready salted crisps to the mash and then grill untill,the top has browned .

It depends if you work or not and whether childminder feeds your DC. If you get home at 3:45, yep all the time in the world to cook up anything you want inc a Sunday roast. If you arrive home at 6 with kids, need to do homework, bath, food, relax. No it’s not you need something in 30 min or less with minimal effort so you can do other jobs whilst it cooks.
We’re lucky and childminder gives kids a full meal so we can cook and eat after they’re in bed.

All these sort of meals became weekday meals for me when I was told about Soffritto, or vegetable base mix, depending where you buy it. Finely chopped onion, celery and carrot. No chopping just bung it in the pan. Frozen chopped garlic too.
I only use 2 pans for both cottage pie and lasagne, why do people need more? And no measuring jugs or anything?
Also, pp saying about washing up the Bechemal sauce pan, this always put me off until I got a really good non stick pan and now I can rinse it
under the tap to clean, worth every penny.
Now I want cottage pie, I bet loads of mumsnetters are now having it tonight.

“I really do feel for the people on here getting off on putting others down about their cottage pies”

I’m not putting anyone down. I’d just rather cook something else because I really like shepherd’s/cottage pie and I wouldn’t want to make a quick one. I’d rather wait til I had more time.

I'm not afraid to put down the 45min or less cottage pie brigade.

I bet your mince is chewy and squeaky!

For those prepping in the morning, what time do you leave the house? We have to leave at 7.45 to get to school/nursery/work on time, after washing/dressing/breakfast, no time for anything else!

It takes me max of an hour from start to finish. I peel the spuds and put them on, and by the time they're ready to mash, the meat part is done. My only cheat is chopping the onions in the processor. I started doing that because they make me cry so badly, but they really do take just seconds.

I stick it in quite a hot oven (gas mark 6), with butter dotted on the top, and it's all crispy and golden after less than half an hour. I also don't add milk to mash, just lots of butter and black pepper. I think that not adding any extra liquid makes it brown more quickly.

I could do it from scratch on a week day but I'm probably more likely to cook it for tomorrow while I'm cooking something else for tonight. No more hassle and then bing it in the fridge for the next day.

@BertrandRussell people on here definitely are. Not necessarily you. I’m with you on that one, I love cottage pie and would only make it on a weekend when I had loads of time as I always end up making a mess with loads to clear up too!

You dont need to simmer it for 50 mins as you are oven cooking it as well.

Including prep should not take more than 50 mins. You can cut potatoes smaller when boiling to cook quicker.