Is this going to kill us all?

[HolidayDjinn]

DH is flapping.

On busy days when no one is going to be home until 18:30 I sometimes make up a tray bake and put the oven on timer so it will be ready just as we walk in the door. The ingredients come out the fridge about 6am and oven comes on about 17:45 so that’s nearly 12 hours at room temp. Today’s has no raw meat but does have chorizo. Sometimes I do sausages. Have done chicken thighs before. I feel like this is probably fine but DH is convinced we will contract food poisoning. NB his worries don’t come with an offer to sort dinner.

I don't know anyone who is so starving that they need to eat the moment they take their coat off. Not usually, anyway.

If these dinners are only now and again (not every day) why don't you shove something in the oven that will take 20 mins to heat up or cook?

OR you could put jacket spuds in on the timer and they would be ready by the time you came home.

OR instead of raw chicken, you could make a veggie curry or a veggie lasagne and they could be in the oven ready to heat up on the timer.

OR you could make all of the above or a casserole and heat it in the microwave when you come home.

Plenty of other options.

Go veggie

Can you add meals to your dcs childcare option? A Childminder who serves dinner is a life saver.

Then you can just do bath, play, bedtime with the kids when you get in, put the tray bake in the oven 30mins before dc go to bed, so you and dh can sit and eat together once they are in bed.

I would leave it all marinating in the fridge then put it in the oven when I got home.

not meat out for that long i woldnt-chorizo and things like that maybe but definitely not chicken

I'm usually fairly relaxed about many food related things - as in I trust my senses quite often rather than BBE dates, that kind of thing - but I wouldn't fancy doing it your way OP.

I'm only agreeing with pp I know, but prep the stuff and get the oven preheating, then just pop the tray in as you're through the door. Who wants to eat the second they're through the door anyway?! I've never known any kids who can't actually wait another 20 minutes for dinner. And if they're bothered, then just explain the situation (not sure of ages of kids).

Or just literally do what you're doing, but without meat (I agree chorizo is fine).

I'm not fan of slow cooker food either really. I've got a searing one, so I can 'cook' properly with it, and caramelise stuff before the slow cooking bit etc. but it never tastes as good as something that's had some attention on a hob or oven. But it is useful, obviously.

It's a really solvable problem I think OP.

Some meals that take less than five minutes to prepare:

Puy lentils in packets can be heated up in two minutes- the "French" ones in Aldi have a nice herby flavour. Hot smoked salmon you can eat straight out of the packet. Broccoli and peas can be steamed in a few minutes in the microwave. Then assemble - puy lentils, veg, salmon on top, blob of Greek , yogurt, squirt of sriracha. Really tasty and quick.

Stir-fries (with ready prepared veg making it even quicker). Use straight to wok noodles or rice sachets.

Ramen - miso soup, ready noodles, any veg that is easy to cook - microwave for a couple of minutes then add cooked chicken, prawns, tofu etc at the end and sriracha or chilli flakes.

Loads of things here on the table in less than 30 minutes:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/30-minute-meal-recipes

Another option is batch cooking and freezing then heating it up when you come through the door.

Or just wait a little longer for the roasted meat/veg to cook and have a quick starter while you wait, something like veg sticks and houmous.

I'm 100% with you @HolidayDjinn. Slow cookers are just the worst. I would do this as the room is cold anyway. Not during the height of summer of course.

Not good. Sausage meat especially.,

Can’t believe that people are worried about having the oven on when you’re not in the house!

You aren't doing it right. You don't need to add water with meat (depending on the dish)

Sounds like you’re keen to continue risking poisoning your kids, and you’ve chosen a useless man, so good luck with that 😄

Do the people saying they’d eat dodgy meat not know anything about food hygiene, or the illnesses they’d be risking eating this shit?

Loads of countries where raw meat is out of the fridge for longer periods and in warmer temperatures. Never had an issue.- NEVER? What peer reviewed journal is that from? Surely you wouldn’t be making shit up and giving dangerous ‘advice’?

Do you do all the cooking? Why?

Sounds like a potential perfect storm for food poisoning.
People have hit on both leaving the oven on while unattended, and leaving the food sitting all day at room temperature.
Another factor is the time it takes for the food to go between room temperature and fully cooked.
Time is the most crucial part of the picture here. You need to factor in the time it takes for the oven to heat up, gradually getting warmer while the food sits in there. It's not as though the oven is instantly hot when turned on.
Think of the things that (common pathogenic) bacteria need: optimum temperature - human body temp is ideal so quite a big range above and below that number will see proliferation; they need moisture - which, outwith the meat source, is provided by your veg; & they need time.
Time to reproduce, which increases the liklihood of them being present in high enough numbers to cause problems & produce the toxins that PPs have talked about.

Not a great idea to leave raw meat sitting at room temperature for 12 hours. And presumably when your oven timer kicks in, it takes a while the oven to actually come up to cooking temperature as well.

If you want to eat oven-cooked dishes as soon as you get home, maybe just stick to meat-free stuff (apart from stuff like chorizo which can be safely left out).

I agree, wouldn’t touch this if it contained raw meat. But OP I know how lovely it is to come into something cooked. What about cooking stuff in the slow cooker and then finishing in the oven when you get back (topping with cheese/ breadcrumbs), or doing it the night before and then leaving in the fridge so all you have to do is heat it up when you get back (20 mins to set the table and get changed and it’ll be done).

could you stick to veggie food on the days you're doing this? and avoid rice

Here are some veggie tray bakes which would be a lot safer:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetarian-traybake-recipes

And here is a nice article explaining why slow cooker food might be considered "bland and watery". It's not a reason not to buy one per se, and the article acknowledges that slow cookers offer unparalleled convenience, but it's helpful if your focus is purely on achieving the best possible food quality

www.seriouseats.com/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers

Oh, and I would avoid lifting something out of the freezer in the morning & putting it in the oven to be cooked for you arriving home.
Meat may not have completely defrosted in that time.

In fact the above article addresses lots of points which have been raised in this thread, e.g. the risks of leaving the oven on all day vs. the risks of leaving the slow cooker on all day

Me? I'm team pressure cooker, all the way

It's a very good article and explains why I find slow cooker food to taste like it's come out of a tin. A pale imitation of the real thing.

When using a slow cooker I very rarely add much liquid...if stock is needed it's made with minimal amount.
I even cook gammon ham/ meat joints and add no liquid at all.

Could you not add your meat frozen? So chicken breast in straight from the freezer so it’s then defrosting throughout the day (therefore staying chilled) and then ready to cook by 5pm?

I do this regularly and have done for years with things that don't work in a slower cooker like lasagne. I think you need to check properly cooked before eating but otherwise it feels relatively low risk.