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!

Chilli. You can make a huge pot, freeze it in portion sized tuppaware. I usually get at least 8 portions from a pot, but my pot isn't that big.

What do you mean you can't reheat pasta

Bang it in the oven for 15 minutes and cover with foil so it doesn't dry out

OP, I often cook enough to last us all lunch and dinner for two days 🤣

Big pot of curry, big pot of spag Bol, big lasagne.m, big aubergine parmigiana, big pot of spaghetti arrabiata with chicken, but pot of vegetarian chilli.

So I’ll use 4 chicken breasts or 1kg of lamb mince, 3 large aubergines etc.

Could you eat the pasta cold the next day for lunch, rather than heat it up? Or does it have to be two hot meals? I love taking a cold pasta lunch to work and always make extra for this reason.

My family don’t really want sandwiches either. We sometimes make home made sausage rolls for lunch (pre rolled puff pastry and sausages), dh makes soup, toasted pitta pockets, cous cous with roasted veg and we do have a toasted sandwich maker which is nice every so often.
Then we tend to eat a more substantial evening meal (home cooked).

You make a rod for your own back by being picky. Assuming they are old enough to, let your kids make their own lunch. Cook double portions for dinner so that there are leftovers for lunch the next day. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to eat processed foods or rely on takeaways but you make your own life harder by not having cold lunches.

I get the not reheating pasta thing tbh aside from lasagne it's never very nice. We tend have it cold or just keep the extra sauce and cook fresh pasta.

We eat similar foods to you but I couldn't face cooking twice a day so I batch cook massive amounts and freeze in portions so soups, chilli con carne, meatballs, curry, lasagne meat sauce and then just assemble with cheese sauce, cottage pie (can be made with potatoes already on top, pulled chicken or pork, stew etc. I tend to cook enough at one time for 2 or 3 meals and then freeze. I cook when I have the time and not when I need so there's always something in the freezer to be taken out in the morning. We tend to do soups, baked potatoes, toasties, leftovers etc for lunches. It cuts down on the actual time spent cooking but there's always a home cooked meal at night. I would invest in the tupperware dishes with the lid as they are excellent for the freezer.

Pasta sauce.

@userxx

Beans on toast is my favourite food. Done and dusted in 3 minutes.

Life's too short to be fannying around cooking.

I remember my home economics teacher extolling the virtues of beans on wheaten bread/toast. She promoted it as a nutritious meal.

I love cooking and try to cook from scratch but nothing wrong with easy meals sometimes. We often have poached eggs with avocado on bread, beans on toast, bacon butties etc when at home.

OP I'm picking you up as being quite precious.

@TheVolturi

Last week dh had covid so was home each day for lunch, he was a bit 🙄 that the lunch offer was still a sandwich the same as he'd take to work. We have 3 dc and I do not cook for lunch, only for dinner. No one needs more than one hot meal a day.

Did you tell him to make his own?! Covid or not, I couldn’t stand my partner being “a bit 🙄” that I wasn’t cooking him a hot lunch. FGS.

Is one of your household saying to you that they will only eat certain types of food and must have a hot meal twice a day? Otherwise, why on Earth would you do this. I too would be fed up with cooking two hot meals a day. I would tackle the root cause of the problem

You said "growing boys" - so still school aged? My suggestion to make your life easier is to get them to have school dinners. They can take a packed lunch if they would rather have a sandwich, but it will be easier and they will have a range to chose from.

Then its just you and your dh coming home at lunchtime, I would therefore go with the suggestion of making extra for each dinner for a month and freeze in "home made ready meals" portions. Throw in microwave, ready quickly. You are only having to cook one meal.

Are you home and not working while they all are? If not, then I'd suggest that you can all take turns, and make one of the meals per day someone else's problem.

@theThreeofWeevils

Pot noodle can be very liberating.

😂

I was apppalled recently when my 8 year old picked up Koka noodles and begged me to get them for her. Apparently DHs mother gave them to her. I ended up buying them but gave out about how unhealthy they were etc. She made them during the week and we all tucked in. I'd forgotten I used to love them when I shared an apartment with a girl who lived on them. Nasty, dirty things! 😂

@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.

I think the same soup for lunch and dinner sounds pretty boring too.

Ok

Potato wedges are easy. Just slice up potatoes with skins on. Toss in olive oil, paprika and seasoning. Roast.

Serve with hummus, veg sticks, avocado etc.

Greek salad with pita chips

Courgetti with pesto

Prawn cocktail (Marie rose dressing is v easy) with avocado and toast

@MargosKaftan

You said "growing boys" - so still school aged? My suggestion to make your life easier is to get them to have school dinners. They can take a packed lunch if they would rather have a sandwich, but it will be easier and they will have a range to chose from.

Then its just you and your dh coming home at lunchtime, I would therefore go with the suggestion of making extra for each dinner for a month and freeze in "home made ready meals" portions. Throw in microwave, ready quickly. You are only having to cook one meal.

Where we are kids come home for lunch, there isnt school lunches or packed lunches option

I remember my home economics teacher extolling the virtues of beans on wheaten bread/toast. She promoted it as a nutritious meal.

I love cooking and try to cook from scratch but nothing wrong with easy meals sometimes. We often have poached eggs with avocado on bread, beans on toast, bacon butties etc when at home

OP I'm picking you up as being quite precious

I think we had the same home ec teacher.
They weren't wrong , it's a fabulous meal( if you like it and I do not)
She used to say the same for fish and chips and versions of eggs on toast. Avocado wasnt a thing in the 70/80s but I'm sure if it had been then the virtues would have been extolled.

I quite like cooking but tend to only bother with from scratch at weekends when I have more time.
And most times if there are leftovers neverhappensmysonisagreedybugger-- then we take to work for lunch or I freeze for the days I'm only feeding myself.

Eating the same variety of soup twice a day really is not a good way to nourish you our your family. You need to eat a wider range of food to get a balanced diet.

@Scienceisnotopinion

milkbottleleg as said we are not sandwich people, no need to argue. Not everyone eats the same.

That's true, but the "sandwich at lunch time, cooking in the evening" people aren't the ones complaining, you are. You've done it your way and it's not working well, is it?

Your posts are coming across as a stealth bost about how healthily you feed your family, with none of that convenience food crap.

We have sandwiches / toasties / leftovers or occasionally homemade soup at lunchtime. I rarely make anything special but also have a variety of nice fillings available.
About five nights a week I cook something really tasty from scratch, but maybe one or two nights we have something simpler eg jacket potatoes with baked beans, pasta with bought pesto, supermarket pizza, filled pasta shapes or maybe some kind of burger / veggie burger from the freezer with some veggies.

Children have to come home to lunch? So they expect a parent to be at home full-time? Do the children have to be picked up, fed and then dropped off again? I feel I'm in a time-warp

Oh god no school lunches, terrible situation, you have sympathies.

Do think the best plan is to buy tupperware and make extra of whatever your dinner in each night, so you can freeze 4/5 portions (label them carefully!) and reheat at lunch with limited effort. It really isn't much faff to make 2x the pasta sauce or curry. The trick with pasta is to coat it in the sauce before freezing so when microwaving it doesn't all dry out.

And definitely be kind to yourself and do 2 days a week with sandwiches or wraps.

How old are the dcs, if old enough they can make their own, why isnt your dh doing some of the meals?