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!

@Scienceisnotopinion

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

Anything can be cooked in big quantities. 🤷‍♀️

In your shoes, I would buy a bigger freezer! That way you can batch cook things like bolognese, chilli, curries, etc, and then fill the freezer with them. You only have to cook the carbs like pasta, rice, mash, etc on the day.

Do you plan your meals for the week? I find this helps me to work out what I'm cooking, if DP is on a late shift and needs a packed dinner, etc.

When we occasionally do have hot lunch, it will be things like omelette, toasties, peppered mackerel salad, chicken and halloumi wraps, and Caesar salads. Would your family eat any of those things, or are they set on having meat and two veg, twice a day, sort of folk?

Some people have different work and studying hours and patterns, some people even(gasp!!) dont leave in the Uk and have a different(double gasp!!) way of life! I know, unbelievable

Batchcook some homemade veggie burgers once a week and then all you have to do is heat them up and throw some salad with them and a bun.

For lunch i mean

@Plumtree391

Doesn't anyone go to work or school?

Was just wondering that too.

@Funnylittlefloozie

In your shoes, I would buy a bigger freezer! That way you can batch cook things like bolognese, chilli, curries, etc, and then fill the freezer with them. You only have to cook the carbs like pasta, rice, mash, etc on the day.

Do you plan your meals for the week? I find this helps me to work out what I'm cooking, if DP is on a late shift and needs a packed dinner, etc.

When we occasionally do have hot lunch, it will be things like omelette, toasties, peppered mackerel salad, chicken and halloumi wraps, and Caesar salads. Would your family eat any of those things, or are they set on having meat and two veg, twice a day, sort of folk?

Those are good ideas, we eat most things, even tho kids arent super keen on egg heavy meals such as omelette. A bigger freezer would be so good, unfortunately i do not have the space at the moment. I try to meal plan but am not organised enough to keep it up, defo need to try and do it again, thank you.

@Scienceisnotopinion it was actually me who said people don't have time or money to cook everything from scratch. Not @Milkbottlelegs.

I actually cooked my kids and I breakfast from scratch. Tea will be cooked from scratch too as well. But for lunch, we have a quick bleurgh lunch on toast.

@Scienceisnotopinion

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

Ah I get you. You're looking for fancy lunches in keeping with your family's classy tastes.

You’re fed up of cooking twice a day…

But you say you also like cooking from scratch and look down on sandwiches/beans on toast/spaghetti hoops…

My solution is that you keep cooking twice a day, and whenever it annoys you, you can go back to this thread and feel smug about not feeding your family “processed crap” or “boring sandwiches”

I would eat salads but feel its not too filling especially for growing boys. But might give it a try

Chilli's, curry's, pasta sauces, lasagne, make double or triple portions, they all improve after a day or so, and even freeze well.

I am not talking about some people, i am asking for ideas that work for MY family. If you want to eat beans on toast every day knock yourself out. I can cook from scratch so I do! But things like pasta for example is not so nice re heated so was asking for ideas. Some people take everything personally.

Well you know what YOUR family eat so cook more of the same.

YOU have given a reason why every suggestion won't work for YOUR family.

Scrambled egg on toast
Beans on toast
Toasties with various fillings
Pasta salad and cold roasted veg
Salad and fish/chicken
Make a vat of chilli/curry/bolgnoaise/dhal etc etc and serve with bread
Beans on toast
Omelette
Frittata
Have sandwiches every third day
Sautéed martyr on toast seems you dish of choice OP if I'm being honest
And some processed foods in an otherwise healthy diet so you don't spend your whole life cooking is fine

So we have one cooked meal a day.

Lunch (whether kids are on holiday or DH is home or both) is always a cold, self-assemble meal + optional soup.

For that I keep in the fridge a combination of the following:

• Humous
• Tarama
• lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado, celery
• assorted cheeses in box
• paté, ham
• cold potatoes for salad
• bread
• cold vegetables from previous meal to make a salad - eg broccoli + cashews, roast courgettes, curried cauliflower etc
• coleslaw/waldorf salad
• falafel
• cold roast chicken (I roast a stuffed chicken, then slice it and store the slices in separate freezer in bags to defrost one at a time (to avoid processed meat)

• soup I batch cook and freeze in pots.

@Scienceisnotopinion

Some people have different work and studying hours and patterns, some people even(gasp!!) dont leave in the Uk and have a different(double gasp!!) way of life! I know, unbelievable

Your other posts mentions school and four children with a fifth on the way so surely it’s only weekends you cook twice anyway?

"I dont mind cooking, so dont need no cook ideas."

but... the thread is literally titled: "Fed up of cooking twice a day!"

You can surely see where this may have gone awry Op

wasp hope you feel better now at making fun of people. Spaghetti hoops is something very much part of british food culture isnt it? Other countries/cultures don t eat them and manage to survive, without being sneered at

Chili con carne in a slow cooker if you have one. I wouldn’t want to have the same thing for lunch and dinner though. I’d rather have the same for lunch for two days.

MN magic chicken

@GoodbyePorpoiseSpit

"I dont mind cooking, so dont need no cook ideas."

but... the thread is literally titled: "Fed up of cooking twice a day!"

You can surely see where this may have gone awry Op

If people could read they would see that no where i asked for no cook ideas, more for organisational tips.

Think about things that can be made into other things.
Chilli either meat or vegetarian for dinner then use the leftovers to make quesadillas or serve over potato wedges for lunch.

Curry for dinner with leftovers made into a biriyani for lunch.

Tagine with cous cous for dinner make extra cous cous and add roast vegetables for lunch

Beef stew can be turned into leftover stew risotto or add potatoes and make a pie.

Make and freeze a load of pasties, sausage rolls for lunches.

Meatballs or falafels can be used in lots of variations and can be made easily in bulk and frozen.

Cooking a big joint of meat like a ham also gives loads of options for leftovers.

The Batch Lady has loads of ideas for bulk cooking. I think with a family of big eaters you need to be strict and portion up your extra's for the fridge or freezer before serving the portion you want for lunch or dinner.

Why don’t you just make bigger quantities of whatever you’re currently making? I don’t get the issue?

I refuse to cook twice a day. We don’t eat any processed foods other than mayo-type sauces. I do buy deli food. So, lunches for us are assembled from the fridge, which always contains:

• some kind of steamed vegetables leftover from a previous dinner
• some kind of carbohydrate: rice leftover from a dinner, quinoa I’ve cooked earlier in the week, cold lentils
• half a dozen cheeses!
• boiled eggs
• leftover roasted chicken or beef or sliced ham
• odds and sods of ratatouille or pasta sauce or casserole or stew leftover from earlier in the week

There’s always bread and plain yogurt and fruit and raw veggies like carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes.

So lunch consists of putting together a bowl or plate of whatever you want from the above. Dollop of dressing. Priority goes to whatever needs finishing first. Nobody cooks, everybody eats health and 90% home cooked food, nobody goes hungry, there’s always enough food, and never any wastage (which I abhor).

You just need to spend more time thinking about the contents of your fridge, and less time doing/cooking

I've never known anyone post a thread and then shoot down absolutely everyone's ideas like this. People are suggesting all sorts and you are being incredibly patronising about their help.

I make my own baked beans. From scratch. But I have a great big chest freezer because I live in a big house. I wouldn't dream of living in a small house like you.

Also - in cupboard -

• tuna, sweetcorn
• flagolet, broad beans, canellini beans for salads
• stuffed vine leaves
• Odysea gigantes beans (Greek beans in tomato sauce)