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!

Dinner. Make a large macaroni cheese (or two). Serve with cooked carrot battons, cutting up the whole bag/bunch of carrots and only cooking what you need. For lunch the next day serve the macaroni with salad and raw carrots.

Dinner. Make a huge pan of chilli con carne serve with jacket potato and home made coleslaw saving half the coleslaw for the next day. Cook twice as many jacket potatoes as you will use, refrigerate. Serve remaining chilli with rice and salad for next day’s lunch.

Dinner. Cut the remaining jacket potatoes in half. Scoop out the centres. Mix with some chopped bacon (cooking extra bacon to keep) replace mix in jackets, top with cheese and heat in the oven. I would serve with baked beans but you could use a veg or two of your choice. Whilst the potatoes are cooking make a large pan of soup - refrigerate.
Next day’s lunch. Half of the soup with baguette filled with remaining bacon and salad and left over homemade coleslaw.

Dinner. Make large pan of pasta in tomato sauce. Make meatballs (for 2 days) add meatballs to half the pasta and serve with veg/salad/garlic bread. Next day’s lunch. Left over pasta.

Dinner. Remaining meatballs in gravy served with mash, root veg and greens. Next day’s lunch. Remaining soup with cheese on toast.

Dinner. Cook two chickens. Slice breast meat and remove legs. refrigerate. Pick chicken off carcass. Make chicken fried rice using frozen mixed veg and a couple of eggs. Use carcass and any leftover chicken to make soup. Next day’s lunch. Chicken leg meat with salad and crusty bread..

Dinner. Roast chicken (slices) with roast potatoes and veg. Next day’s lunch. Half of soup with crackers and cheese, hummus, carrot and cucumber sticks.

Dinner. Fish, chips, peas. Next days lunch. Rest of soup with garlic bread or baguettes.

That’s only cooking once a day and so spaghetti hoops were harmed in the making of this menu!

@KangarooSally

OP: I'm currently doing X and I don't like it does anyone have any suggestions Everyone: try Y or Z OP: only X works for my family. I can't believe you'd suggest anything else, are you completely mad? Does anyone have any useful suggestions?

My thoughts exactly!

Surely it’s normal to eat beans/spaghetti on toast, sandwiches, or salad for lunch

But OP doesn’t want to cook twice a day yet doesn’t want convenience food either. Ever feel like you can’t win?

@WombatChocolate

It would have helped Op if you’d given details about who you are feeding and where in the world you are, when starting out.

Clearly the standard British lunch isn’t what you want to feed your kids and somehow your situation is different to that if the majority in here, yet you’ve asked on British MN for suggestions. Most people on here have kids going to school and are happy with cold lunches.

I’d get beyond the idea that growing boys cannot grow healthily unless they have 2 cooked meals a day, or that their diet cannot contain sandwiches etc. Your emphasis seems to be on them being boys too.

Are you somewhere where it’s usual or taking an attitude that somehow boys need something different to girls, or it a a woman’s job to cook twice a day for the male members of the family? If so, you’re not asking the right people by being on MN, because most people here will be if the view that beyond a certain age, kids can make their own lunches and sandwiches some if the time are perfectly good enough.

If you want a culturally very different kind of answer, it would be best to find another forum to ask on, rather than expecting the answers MN give to not be Britain based, in terms of cultural and food norms.

Emphasis is on boys because.... They are boys. I already said that they come home bang on lunchtime so time to eat really. They can and do cook on days off, but during the week it isnt feasible. No need to try and analyse my posts thank you.

I would also agree with what a pp said. I make enough for four portions and my OH eats too much so there's not enough left! Dish up a portion for them and don't let them help themselves!

I am with you on not wanting to cook twice a day and also not wanting to eat processed food. Sandwiches, beans on toast, shopping bought pizza, chicken nuggets and so on do not appeal to me.
On top of all these, we are vegan.
What I do is to batch cook lots of things twice a week. Thinks like a tray of roasted vegetables, a big portion of quinoa, pulses (lentils, chickpeas), also prepare fresh and big portion of salad, tofu in cubes. All those are put in separate containers in the fridge. At lunch we eat a pick and mix all all these plus other cupboard bits (seeds, nuts, etc.)
This is so nutritious and delicious and after batch cooking, it takes 5 mins to put bits from the containers on your plate.

Thanks to those that helped, for the rest, my mistake in thinking people could answer accepting some people eat differently. Forgot im on mumsnet.

I haven't thought too much about this so don't judge the nutrition but just always think to make every meal take at least one step out of the following days lunch and dinner. Probably a bit cheese heavy but as an idea...

Sunday dinner roast a massive joint with double amount of roasted veg

Monday lunchleft over roast dinner.

Monday dinner curry made with left over roast meat veg and serve with rice.

Tuesday lunch left over curry with jacket potatoes. Cook extra jacket potatoes.

Tuesday dinner penne with bolognese, cook double sauce and and pasta. When serving put half the pasta to one side and add pesto.

Wednesday lunch reheated jacket potatoes with cheese and spring onion or beans and cheese etc

Wednesday night lasagne from left over bolognese, just make a cheese sauce

Thursday lunch, have the pesto pasta with cherry tomatoes, chopped peppers etc

Thursday dinner make a lamb or sweet potato and chickpea tagine. Have with rice.

Friday lunch left over tagine with cous cous, only have to add hot water.

Friday night stir fry with egg fried (leftover rice)

Saturday lunch Gammon joint (I like nigella's ham in cola in the slow cooker) with veg and however you would like your potatoes.

Saturday Night macaroni cheese with left over gammon.

Sunday lunch left over Mac and cheese or ham and mustard sandwiches (one sandwich won't hurt!)

Goodness me, you are rude, OP. Sort your own bloody dinners out if everyone on here is so unhelpful.

Where do you live? What do other families in your country do for food OP?

Do you have chip shops?

You're ruling out so much OP , it's hard to know how to advise you.

No sandwiches
No hoops or beans on toast
Nothing egg heavy like omelettes
No pasta as doesn't reheat well
Salads aren't filling enough
Not keen on much meat

If you’re having difficulty making the right quantity then make a note of how much you use when you make your normal quantity so you can double it next time (e.g. if you use 3 leeks, 4 potatoes and 1 litre of stock and your family eats it all then you know that you need use twice the amount of you want leftovers to have later in the week
Also, separate the portions and put the leftovers straight in the fridge so people don’t go back at pick at them (my husband is terrible for doing this even if he isn’t really hungry). If they want something extra then have fruit, yoghurt, bread and cheese etc that they can help themselves to.

If you want other options for things you can batch cook then I recommend:

• Chilli (either meat or veggie/bean). You can cook this in bulk and then just boil rice/bake some sweet potatoes to have with it on the day.
• Pasta sauce. Make the sauce in advance and then just boil the pasta when you want to eat it.
• Tortilla. Roast a load of veggies at the beginning of the week (tomatoes, red onions, peppers, courgettes, asparagus etc) and then you can make a really quick omelette or tortilla on the day by just adding some eggs and feta/grated cheese and baking it.

Serve with salad and French bread.

• Curries. There are loads of tasty veggie curries that reheat really well. Just boil some rice or warm up some pre-made naans at lunchtime.
• Jacket potatoes. Easy to chuck in the oven. You can serve them with loads of different things (cheese and coleslaw, baked beans, tuna mayo) and have a salad on the side.
• Warm wraps or quesadillas. You can use some of the roasted veggies I suggested for the tortillas and then add cheese/chicken/hummus/falafel and serve with salad.
• Cold lunch. Olives, salad, pickles, cold meats/cheeses, pita breads/French bread.
• Toasties (much more exciting than sandwiches!). You can use loads of different cheeses and chutneys and serve with salad.
• Salads are great as long as you add protein (eggs, meat/fish, beans, lentils, cheese, falafel), carbs (quinoa, rice, cold roasted sweet potato, potato salad, flatbreads on the side) and fat (olives, seeds and nuts, avocado, cheese, cold meats, vinaigrette).

For quick meals, I recommend the ‘roasting tin books’ and Nigel Slater’s ‘quick suppers’. They have really quick and adaptable ideas that only take a few minutes to make.

If you struggle with meal planning then I really recommend a magnetic meal planner that you stick on the fridge. Mine is like a notebook with a page for each week divided up into days with a tear off section on the side for my shopping list so as I write the plan I know what I need to buy and can also add other things as I think of them.

I make a really big quantity of whatever I'm cooking. Eat for 2 days and then freeze the rest.

All vegetarian, these are mainly what I cook and all served with either veg or salad:

Dahl with rice yoghurt & poppadoms/naan bread

Ditto curry

Stew

Jacket potatoes with beans & cheese

Aubergine parmigiana

Lasagne with garlic bread

Pizza

Vegeburgers in a bun

Moussaka & crusty bread

Sausage & mash with enough mash leftover for the top of a ...

Cottage pie

Spaghetti Bolognese

All easy to make and filling.

Have one hot meal a day, whether it's lunchtime or supper, and let everyone sort themselves out for other food.

I would also look at a microwave that you could put on a shelf if you don’t have enough counter space as this is also limiting your options. Reheated pasta is fine in the microwave, but I agree not great in the oven. Jacket potatoes quick and easy with loads of toppings. Easier to reheat leftovers from a previous evening’s dinner as well.

We use a slow cooker here that gets sorted as lunch is getting sorted. Usually slow cooker meals take the time to cook that would normally be between lunch and dinner so it works really well. More time in the kitchen at lunchtime, but totally worth it, and it means you're not eating the same meal all day!

So to summarise:

Op: please help me with my problem

MN: what about x, y z, a,b.c

OP: no I don't like anything you've suggested. Because reasons. But still please help me.

MN: well there's not much else we can suggest unless you do x y or z.

Op: You're all useless. You don't understand my neeeeeeddddssss and that I can't POSSIBLY compromise on anything.

MN:

I do a massive salad at lunchtime, with chopped raw veggies (peppers, carrots, courgettes, toms, celery, etc etc) , leaves, maybe beetroot/olives, hummus or guacamole and maybe some leftover pasta, rice or butter beans, dressing, maybe seeds. I am (almost) vegan and my DH is a carnivore but I do a variation on this every day and he loves it. Doesn't take long to throw together. Could add cheese.

Emphasis is on boys because.... They are boys

Do you not feed your two daughters?

@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.

There's sandwiches, and then there's sandwiches.

Mon - baguettes
Tues - wholemeal bread
Weds - wraps
Thurs - ciabatta rolls
Fri - tiger bread

Same again the next week. With any of the following:

Cheddar, pate, ham, chicken, pilchards, blue cheese, salami, prawns, cold sausages sliced, brie, corned beef, tuna, mayo, mustard, pickle, salsa, tomato, rocket, beetroot, onion, lettuce etc.

That's a fortnight's-worth of lunches right there.

Sandwiches do not have to be boring.

Cook twice or three times as much as you need, freeze half or 2/3. That way you only cook once for 2 -3 meal times.

You can also cook three main meals (for 2/3 days) at the same time.

Actually, when I was doing this correctly (one Sunday evening a fortnight) I had so much frozen food I didn't need to cook for weeks.

We topped up with salads and non freezable stuff.

On weekends when everyone's home I like to cook a large lentil curry, we'll have it with rice in the afternoon then with naan or chapati in the evening.
I don't know if you're open to meals from different cultures @Scienceisnotopinion but if you are then checkout some Indian cooks on you tube.
I'll cook two small chickens in a tomato based sauce and do the same so there's the option of rice or chapati. Or if you add coconut milk instead of tinned tomatoes it's great served with spaghetti then with garlic bread later on or even potato wedges aNd crunchy salad

I make mince with passata - it becomes spag bog for one meal and chilli con carne with rice tacos and salad for the next.

I tend to cook extra chicken curry sauce. I find when you freeze cooked chicken it doesn't taste as nice. So just defrost the sauce and add fresh chicken / veg.

This week I made a simple King Prawn curry with a bit of red pepper and lots of Cabbage in it. It was a pack of prawns from asda and served 4 - 5 portions.

Do they eat a big breakfast? That might take some of the pressure off at lunchtime, and they would eat a sandwich or whatever your local lunch equivalent is. And you could relax a bit and concentrate on organising cooking double dinner.

Haven't RTFT but basically, you need some big pots. Big trays, big pans, big quantities.

My mum cooked every 2 days. 12 portions of rice in one go. 12 portions of lentil or bean stew. 12 portions of stuffed peppers or aubergines. 12 portions of chickpeas with rice and veg in the oven. 15-20 jacket potatoes in the oven - eat 6 one evening, turn another 6 into an omelette or whatever can be cooked in less than 5 mins in a pan the next day. Mash up the other 6 to use in another meal. It doesn't matter that they're not freshly baked, they can still be used and turned into delicious meals.

If you don't want to cook often - or don't have the time for it like my mum - then you need to cook in big quantities. You'll have 2-3 meals of the same, perhaps in a row, but outside of the UK that's completely normal, people don't have time to cook a different hot dinner every night.

I'd also switch the hot meal, if only having one, to lunch. There's nothing more tedious than cooking and cleaning up tonnes of utensils in the evening, when everyone is tired.

A bread maker that also makes dough would allow you to make your own pizza dough and add sauce and toppings yourself.

I wouldn’t cook twice a day, one meal can be cold, cold meat, bread, cheese, pickles and salad?

No way would I be offering 2 cooked meals every day. Just make extra in the evening and they can eat leftovers the next day.