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!

You are making a rod for your own back with your concerns about boring sandwiches.

Getting a family used to food as a performance art put on for their entertainment leads to frustration and exhaustion on the part of the artist.

Nobody was ever hurt by boredom at the table. A sense of entitlement when it comes to someone else's time and labour otoh can do a lot of harm.

I can cook from scratch so I do!

So can I. I'm a really good cook, and I bake from scratch as well, and make home pickled veggies too. Plus jam and chutneys.

But I'm not precious about reheated pasta, and if any of my DCs pulled a face about reheated anything they would be welcome to leave it and go hungry.

Bringing up children to expect a life where they are not expected to eat reheated pasta is a disservice to their future partners and their bank balances.

@CloseYourEyesAndSee

Sandwiches are only boring if you use boring sliced bread and one filling. How can sandwiches on delicious bread with several ingredients be boring??

Facrissake, she doesn't want to eat sandwiches, she's said so several times. Read the thread. What's the matter with people?

Huge pan of stew, next day spoon out the chunks put in pie dish sprinkle with grated cheese top with pastry, bake. Yummy two for one. Use ready roll its great stuff. You can top with mash and put cheese on top, cottage pie

What's wrong with being precious? Stupid comment.

@Waspsarearseholes

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

OP is not rude at all. Some of you people are just batshit crazy.

@Orla1970

You say you want organisational tips. First thing I’d suggest is organise your bad attitude and rudeness. People have tried to help you here but all they have got in return is you being rude and dismissive. I couldn’t give a flying fuck what you eat/don’t eat for your lunch but don’t belittle others who are trying to help. Manners is what you are short of. Try making a big pot of those as you badly need them.

Snippy

Urgh I hate cooking. I just can’t be arsed with it. It’s my least fave job I think! 👊🏼🤣

I have no advice - I do it but despise it! I just wanted to say good luck 🤣

@Scienceisnotopinion I'm a family of five and I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner plus any snacks in between. I tend to make the lunch's for all the night before - that if it a school week. Dinner I do a meal plan for the week so I know advance what we are eating.

Invest in a slow cooker for winter type meals, cook in bulk. Then freeze surplus for another day.
For lunch:-
*Use slow cooker to cook any vegetables then zap with hand held mixer add a veg or chicken cube you have soup (easy)
*Beans and toast.
*Toast and grilled cheese.
*Pasta and cheese sauce and veg.
*Baked potatoes heated from previously cooked meals + cold meat. Or cheese.
*Scrambled eggs.
*Chips and eggs or cold meat.
*Sandwiches - anything on them.
*Soup, thick to be filling, even using noodles or pasta, to bulk it out / perhaps with croutons.
*Rice pudding with sultanas or fruit.
*Grilled sausages or bacon on bread.
*Fruit always available.
*Drinks of choice always available
*Always bread and jam available if still hungry.
So many children don’t eat enough and then go to school. In school, the size of lunch is not sometimes enough to fill their tummies.
A good filling healthy breakfast is imperative for our children and grown ups too.
(Rant over)

I do things like a big spag bol which can then have beans, coco and chilli added to it next day to make enough for a bowl of chilli at lunch time with rice or in a tortilla wrap.

Or make a big paella or risotto. Or pasta tray bake with mozzarella, tomatoes, olives and fresh basil.

Or roast a couple of chickens (no effort at all - just rub a bit of herb or spice onto them and stick in the oven.) Let people help themselves to what they want with salad and crusty bread, or shred what's left after you've had roast one night and make a chicken biriyani.

I often roasted a chicken when Dc were teens and just left it in the fridge for them to eat cold or add to noodles or rice they cooked themselves.

I hate cooking everyday too. I have now started batch cooking and freezing a few portions so that I can reheat. Here's a few things that I do.

Korean food is varied with lots of side dishes that can be made and kept in the fridge for a few days and can be had with rice for lunch. maangchi.com has some excellent recipes. I usually make about 3-4 side dishes and with kimchi and rice this makes a pretty filling lunch.

Stirfrys, curries and bakes are easy to make in larger quantities. I usually freeze a portion or two and we eat the rest over a few days.

With regards to pasta I usually made a large quantity of pasta sauce (I like to make a 7 veg pasta sauce and portion it into jars to freeze) and then just have to boil the pasta and add the sauce and cheese on the day.

I like to make sure that we always have two options of food in the fridge. So for example if we have Korean for lunch then we would have pasta for dinner. Then the next day I would cook a stirfry for lunch (with enough for leftovers) and then we would have left over korean food for dinner. The next day it would be the stirfry and then I'd cook a curry.

Hope this helps :)

@mellicauli

Don't let them see the double portions. Serve out half of it into a tupperware container before you call them to table and hide it (in a drawer, under a tea towel, in the boot of the car, in the garage)

This is so true! I was caught several times before I learned that bringing the whole double dish to the table meant the teenagers would just carry on eating until it was gone! I now put the part I am saving in a container to cool in the kitchen before bringing in the half dish

Just to add my husband always fries pasta after boiling it - he fries it with (mozzarella or other) cheese, mushroom, ham, cream, peas, fish, in any combination and it is delicious.

Fried pasta 😝

Welsh rarebit is easy to prepare and filling. All you need is to prepare a mix of grated cheese and chives which you can keep in a tub in the fridge. Or do a couple of macaroni cheese dishes in advance and reheat when they're hungry.

Oh yum, Welsh rarebit is Heaven! I also love mac cheese. Both are tasty and filling.

These threads make me peckish :-).

@CheesyWeez

Just to add my husband always fries pasta after boiling it - he fries it with (mozzarella or other) cheese, mushroom, ham, cream, peas, fish, in any combination and it is delicious.

Fried ? With oil ?

Not sure why you can't just google 'batch cooking' instead of arguing with all and sundry.

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving maybe you can do what I do op only eat one meal a day no idea why I’m still so fat oh yeah that’s the wine and crisps I eat at night

So this may not work for you, but if I was in your position I would do the following:

Sunday dinner, with pork/beef/gammon or two chickens. Roasties, veg, gravy etc.
Monday lunch I would do leftover cold meat with hot homemade wedges (literately 45 minutes in the oven with olive oil and salt), some coleslaw and leftover veg. Or use the leftover meat and veg to make bubble and squeak.
Monday dinner I would make a big BIG batch of bolognese, serve with penne and garlic bread if you have hungry boys that need filled.
Tuesday lunch, leftover bolognese on jacket potatoes
Tuesday dinner, you could use some more of the bolognese to make a lasagne or freeze what's left and do a veggie curry.
Wednesday lunch leftover curry with crusty bread / naan or wraps. A curry wrap is oddly delicious.
Wednesday dinner I would roast a chicken (or two if you have very hungry boys) with bbq or peri peri sauce on it, and make it nando's style with spicy rice or wedges.
Thursday lunch, leftover cold spicy rice with shredded leftover chicken OR mix it all together if there's not much and make a burrito.
Thursday dinner, a big pot of soup that you already make with crusty part baked bread
Friday lunch, leftover soup with the chicken from thursday in a baguette so soup and "sandwich"
Friday night, husband cooks, takeaway or fajitas or fish and new potatoes etc

It can be done, you just really need to plan. Get everyone on board and ask for suggestions before you do the weekly shop, and by the way, I LOVE sandwiches. My favourite food, you can make so many options. I like sandwiches and wraps for this very reason. A roasted joint of meat often makes an amazing sandwich, hot beef and onion is a personal favourite. As is chargrilled veg and cheese.

Also, another idea would be if you could post a list of meals you DO enjoy and eat and we can then tell you how to stretch them and recreate them for lunch the next day to minimise your cooking.

Salads are great if made with new potatoes or crusty bread or cous cous or pasta, all of which you could pre-do the night before.

I notice that OP hasn't been back for almost 2 whole days.

Probably too busy wasting her time cooking to thank people who have - amazingly - carried on giving advice.

@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.

sacrilege!! I could eat sandwiches every meal, every day for the rest of my life if I could!! I challenge myself to see how much I can cram between two slices of bread. Sandwiches are easily my favourite type of food.