Fed up of cooking twice a day!

[Scienceisnotopinion]

Need some tips/ideas. All of us, Dh and kids, are home for lunch and dinner. Will often make soups that last for dinner too, but they eat a LOT and often there will not be enough left and will still have to cook some side dish or something.
Anyone more organised then me that can help? I try to have a balanced week, meat fish veggy dishes. Thanks!

Everyone eats a sandwich and fruit for lunch. Cook dinner in the evening.

Dependi g on ages, everyone can just make their own snadwhich too!

Make one meal a day really easy so

Supermarket pizza with bagged salad
Beans on toast
Hummus and pitta
Hotdogs

You don't need 2 hot meals a day, let everyone make themselves a sandwich or something for lunch.

Stop cooking at lunch do a salad with quiche / cold cuts or sandwich . Nobody needs 2 hot meals a day .

My DC don't really like sandwiches but I only like to cook once a day. They are 11 and 15. The compromise is they can have something cooked at lunchtime if they make it themselves....and they do (simple things like pasta, jacket potato or chicken nuggets)

Sandwiches get very boring very quickly, we only eat sandwiches at picnics or day outs. Hotdogs and supermarket pizza or ready foods are something we only tent to eat once in a while as we tend to avoid processed food when possible.

We only have 1 hot meal a day, either lunch or dinner.
For the other meal we have salads, sandwiches, wraps, tinned soup (I don't consider this cooking) a picky lunch, cold leftovers (pasta bakes, homemade pizza) or leftovers that just need warming through rather than full on cooking.

Make double of your evening meal and have the leftovers for lunch the next day, or freeze for another day. Cook 1/2 as often and over time you end up with a variety of home cooked freezer meals. Also hard boiled eggs, cheese board, cold cuts, salad make a great lunch. Or just have a sandwich. No need to cook so often. I like to cook twice on the weekends but usually that's a hot breakfast of some kind and that can be really simple.

Just cook more then?

Could you use a slow cooker and put together dinner while you make lunch so you are only cooking once a day, albeit for a little longer?

I cook in the evening and make enough for leftovers for lunch.

I guess i was looking for ideas on things that can be cooked in big quantities other then soups...

I only do one proper cooked meal a day.
For lunch I'll do sandwiches or microwave something like tinned soup, beans, scrambled eggs or spaghetti hoops on toast.

Dont have a slow cooker but i guess i could prepare dinner at lunch time, good idea

I've just seen your update, you won't like my suggestions then.

Just keep on cooking OP, but make double the amount.

We really really dont do things like spaghetti hoops(bleurgh) or beans on toast

You don't have to have sandwiches every day, a couple of times a week and they shouldn't get boring.

To be honest I wouldn't like to have the same soup for two meals a day anyway, even if you did cook an additional side dish to go with it.

@Scienceisnotopinion

Sandwiches get very boring very quickly, we only eat sandwiches at picnics or day outs. Hotdogs and supermarket pizza or ready foods are something we only tent to eat once in a while as we tend to avoid processed food when possible.

Well, then I guess it's cooking twice a day if these ideas won't work.

Could other members of the family take it in turns to prepare? Why are you doing all of the meal prep?

We only have one hot meal a day. Lunch consists of bagels/wraps/sandwiches or rolls with crisps and fruit. I don't have the time or patience to cook two meals. In the winter months, well occasionally have Covent garden soup for lunch but that's about it.

2 or 3 trays of roasted veg - used for supper with say a piece of fish each

then for lunch with some noodles or pasta and halloumi

bolognese sauce used with pasta for lunch then in a lasagne for supper

curry for supper then with jacket potato for lunch

c

Because other family members arrive home bang on meal time and dont have much time before going back to their commitments, but they do help and cook on their days off for example

I don’t think you’ve got much choice, then. Given all your list of ‘nots’.

I don’t think you need to cook two hot meals a day.

However, you do seem to be suggesting that one thing you do is make soup for lunch and hope there’s enough left for dinner. I would say it’s debatable whether soup is enough for a proper dinner, but I can’t imagine many people would be keen to have for dinner the same soup they had for lunch.

You need to simplify lunches.

Sandwiches/wraps/beans on toast should be fine. Vary the fillings. Have fruit with it.

Then have a cooked meal in the evening. I appreciate you want to avoid processed foods as much as possible but having something like a premade pizza once a week won't kill anyone.