Takeaways every night !

[Lookwhostalking25]

I am sure I will be absolutely jumped on
but I just cannot get the hang of sorting dinner out 😂😂🙈
single mum of 3 ( baby and 2 primary school kids, one of which is disabled ) widowed nearly a year now.
I can juggle about everything else but food I struggled before returning back to work but wasn’t too bad but since returning I just haven’t managed it.
today was day 14 of takeouts after going back to work 2 weeks ago 😂😂
please send me tips because I’m sure the kids will come accustomed very shortly to take our lives haha !

Meal plan before you do the shop or you are likely to have a mishmash of ingredients which don't actually make meals.

I've found the best way for me to meal plan is to list the protein, the carb and then about 3 veg with each meal. So mine might start with
Pre cooked chicken, baby potatoes, peas, carrots, courgette
Beef steak, rice noodles, peppers, spring onions, broccoli, garlic paste

I also list desserts which are often yoghurt, berries or tinned fruit (I get either the ones in juice or water).

100% this. Well done OP, I'm in awe of you!

Agree that maybe some super quick dinners might help. I wouldn't be aiming for perfection either at this point, just an improvement on takeaways will do!

• Oven ready food: quiche, chicken goujons, decent quality pies, chicken Kiev etc.
• pasta and jarred sauce or pesto
• eggs / beans / cheese on toast
• jacket potato with cheese and beans or tuna etc

I usually fall back on my slow cooker when I'm knackered, and cheat as much as I need to so I will buy 1kg of beef mince fry it and chuck in slow cooker. A bag of frozen sofrito and a bag of frozen peppers go in with it, and I squeeze a couple of cartons of passata in with a beef stock cube and sone garlic pureee and herbs - makes an approximate bolognese that'll feed a family for 3+ nights.

Fantastic.

See I don’t think it’s unhealthy 😂🙈 we eat alot of healthy takeaways 😭😂😂 but yes it’s very expensive !

Now it's getting warmer think about easy quick cold options for tea too. Picnic tea of chopped fruit & veg and tuna sandwich is a perfectly good option ( esp if your kids are eating a substantial lunch at school? )

That’s actually a good idea

Can I ask how you're learning to cook? I could do with brushing up on my skills and making dinners more interesting!

Don't mean to hijack the thread!

Well said.

Might you be better with ready meals than takeaways? Cheaper and probably healthier.

How old are the kids OP?
If they're old enough to follow instructions without being a danger to themselves, it may be worth trying to rebrand a couple of meals a week as quality time with each of them (eg Tina helps to cook on a Tuesday and Timmy helps cook on a Thursday). Get them to help open packets, chop things up, measure things etc, which might be helpful for you in terms of both motivation and finding recipes

Some simple meals that you could try are:

• Oven tray bakes - chopped veg, some kind of protein and seasoning on an oven tray and just shoved in for about half an hour - my favourites are salmon with new potatoes and green veg, paprika chicken with sweet potato and peppers, and honey mustard pork chops with potatoes and green beans.
• Fajitas
• fake-aways -try to recreate whatever you get as a takeaway at home, loads of recipes online
• Picky plates - chopped fruit, veg, a dip, some kind of protein (cooked hot or cold), and a carb. These are ideal for summer too, and if you go for stuff like carrot and cucumber sticks with ham, cheese and crackers they don't require much prep

Takeaway food will usually have quite a lot of added salt, msg etc so rarely as healthy as it sounds. Salmon and potatoes can be done in about 15 minutes in air fryer or you can add a ride pouch that takes 2 mins to take that time down more which also minimises washing up. Also very easy to microwave or air fry some veg: you can get pre cut roasting veg both fresh and frozen. A very quick and simple meal. I imagine that costs a fortune from a takeaway! Pasta salad is a good one, or coming in to summer salads with boiled eggs (you can cook a load, they last a while in the fridge), some plain pasta or potato salad, salad veg, coleslaw etc cold meats or a pre cooked chicken, pitta or crusty bread, olives. I'm a single parent with 2 jobs and we have a pony and a dog so always looking for quick easy meals and like you trying to avoid beige. BBQ wise we've got very good at cheats bbq - get the thin chipolata sausages. Most supermarkets do them in their posh range so they are really very nice and because thin cook very quickly without cremating on outside. Pre cooked chicken thighs, drumsticks because you get the bbq flavour without worrying about raw chicken, slice up some halloumi, bbqs in minutes, grill some pitta breads on bow, also ready in minutes. Add bagged salad, olives, some hummus and tzatziki. Delicious and all ready in no time. Aldi have some fantastic steam bags of prawns - ready in a couple of minutes in microwave. one is a thai green curry. to this we add rice, could be normal or a micro pouch and some form of breqd - chapati, naan, pitta etc and depending on time will add some green beans and baby corn. this meal is ready in around 5 mins. they other version they do is a creamy pesto that is nice with pasta, garkic breqd and bagged salad. Ready in 10 mins or less of you use fresh pasta and the pouches have really simple ingredients so pretty healthy. We also do a cheats roast - pre cooked chicken or if a bit more time i'll chuck one in the airfryer, pre cut roast pots (fresh not frozen) asda and tesco do nice beef dripping ones. pre cut mixed veg - again tesco do some really nice trays/pouches of prepped roasting or micro veg. frozen yorkshires, ready made cauli cheese, bisto gravy. Obviously more pricey than making everything from scratch but still cheaper, nicer and likely healthier then takeaways and washing up is minimised. Fajitas are very quick. buying pre cut chicken often costs the same as fillets so saves time. you can also buy pre cut onion and pepper cheaply. Soup is good. If you have time to make a batch then great but otherwise we buy the fresh soup pots then chuck some part baked rolls in air fryer then have with butter and cheese. Pasta and Pesto with salad - 10 mins. Filled fresh tortellini pasta - 5 mins. This is all off the top of my head. Im sure i'll think of more. We do sometimes have ready meals too although find the portions small

People keep suggesting this sort of thing but is it actually available in practice? I have never seen such a service advertised, known anyone use it or know anyone who does it as a job.

But if this is what the OP wants, then Cook is probably effectively providing it on a commercial scale as all their food is 'real cooking' rather than processed factory food.

I'm not sure if the take aways would be able to do this - but could you ask any of them to supply some veg ready to cook or a number of veg side dishes that you could serve with a protein and a carb over a couple of days?

It would be more expensive than buying a from the supermarket but cheaper than than a full takeaway.

Yes you’ll find people who will do it. Pop an advert into your local newsagent/ church/ library saying home cook needed for a few hrs a week. You’ll get responses!! Lots of perfectly good home cooks will reply

I don't think OP needs someone to prep the food. It's possible to buy pre chopped veg in any supermarket, along with say chicken fillets in a marinade that just need popping in the oven.

The issue - I think- is knowing what to order food wise, and making that part of the weekly routine. Even if she did get some sort of home chef, the ingredients would still need buying and the food heating up.

Op it might be worth getting yourself a couple of basic recipe books for inspiration, I'm not the worlds best cook by any stretch and had to learn the basics but once you learn one recipe it gets much easier to learn another.

For example learning how to make a bolognaise you can then make spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carni, lasagna etc.

Once you can make a cheese sauce you can make fish pie, cheesy pasta, carbonara etc.

You can buy frozen packs of veg that you stick in the microwave and takes 2 mins to cook.

Cook is good stuff but the problem is that I think over a month ( and possibly a week even, depending how many dishes you bought) you would end up paying far more than £100 surplus. It’s really quite pricey if you are buying more than a few items.

With the best will in the world, sausage casserole home-cooked is not healthier than eating a healthy take-away, I should imagine the salt/fat levels are higher in the home-cooked food.

Ditto Gousto/Hello Fresh, one reason the Gousto food tastes so nice is it is full of salt and flavourings, lovely but not necessarily healthy.

I would carry on getting the take-aways or the healthier side of ready meals for a while yet, at least 3-4 times a week, with lots of fruit, bagged salad and pre-chopped veggies.

Then on the other days, give them fruit/snack on coming out of school, and once home, have pre-prepared carbs (rice bags, preprep mashed potato, baby potatoes, nice bread), protein (anything people like from sliced meat, preprep salmon, bean salad, different cheeses like goats cheese, feta salad) and some bagged salad/toms or steamed veg.

I think a lot of people assume cooking from scratch is always healthier, but this depends on whether you include a lot of cheap meats (nuggets, sausages) and add salt yourself. Some ready-meals aren't great, but Lidl do some really good high protein ones with complex carbs that are good.

I would not get up on Sat or Sun with a baby and two children and batch cook for any money. Your life is exhausting enough. I struggle as a lone parent to cook after a day doing the school runs/dealing with ill-health of kids, working f/t and getting in at 6 and being knackered. It's one of the worst bits of the day, so make it very very easy for yourself. Also, friends may help out -if anyone offers to 'help', ask them to cook something, I had a lot of support around meals in the early month or two of my husband dying and it helped a lot.

Op - if you are spending 1000 on takeaways - wld you consider getting help at home with cooking?

Could someone come to your house or deliver cooked meals? You cld spend 200 a week on home help and get some nice meals plus maybe learn how to make the meals yourself?

Another suggestion is to take this slowly - so decide that once a week you will cook - I cook while my kids are in the house - believe me my range is limited - but knowing maybe 2 home cooked meals really does make a differnce.

The two things I make a lot are spag bol/ chilli - it's the same recipe! if your kids are good eaters you can add stuff - black beans and avacado / cheese to chili and wraps.

the recipe I do is just buy a big pile of red peppers and tomotas - chop up, cook, chuck in some tinned tomato / garlic/onion stock - then use a stick blender (I do this as my kids are v fussy - so it hides the veg.

I keep a big pot of this sauce and mix it with minced beef either for chili with rice or spag bol.

I promise I am seriously disoragniased but I just make this over and over - it becomes 2nd nature - also can use it for pizza toppings.

rather than try to fix the entire week - pick one recipe a week to change?

I think it depends on the quality of the sausages you buy. If you're buying cheap crappy ones then I agree, but good quality sausages would be healthier IMO. At least you know what you're putting in your casserole.

I do think some people here are missing the point that - it is absolutely not better for your kids to replace really varied interesting well cooked take away with nuggets!

To be honest, I have been really biting my tongue ( or finger!) about some of the suggestions for home cooked meals. I did query one poster who prefaced her suggestions with a diatribe about eating takeaways as I felt that was fair game.

But vastlyoverrated is absolutely right: there is no inherent nutritional merit in home-cooked food just because it took you more effort. It might solve the financial aspect but I don’t think op is wanting to save at the expense of eating less well generally. I would try focusing on quality pre-prepared proteins op and don’t stress about providing simple, uncooked meals, with lots of salad, crudités, houmous etc and fresh fruit esp as we head into summer.

Yes, if you cook a low salt fish stew or lentil casserole from scratch you are going to end up with loads of healthy nutrients at a reasonable price. But I’d honestly rather give my children my time than faff about making a not very healthy meal “ from scratch.” My aunt used to buy cheap sausage meat and pastry and make sausage rolls “ from scratch.” They were greasy and low on nutrition but she somehow felt extremely virtuous for not grabbing one from Greggs.

Sausages and nuggets, high quality or not, are UPFs and I can certainly think of plenty of healthier takeaway options.

But the OP is looking for a way to stop having takeaways every night, and she's a knackered single mum of 3. Not how to avoid UPF and processed food at all costs.

Not every conversation on here needs to come back to UPFs and whether someone is a food angel or not.

Sometimes it can be, like in this instance, us collectively recognising a Mum who is up against it and giving her some down to earth advice rather than advising her on how to be perfect. Her dishing up fish fingers, potato waffles and peas one night a week and getting the sense of relief she's not had to order a takeaway is a good thing not a bad one.

I think being a lone parent with a baby and two other children means any meals cannot take much time, you don't have someone else to hold the baby or mind the other kids whilst you cook for 45 min when you get in at 6pm, and you don't have weekends 'off' EOW, again, who minds the other two kids if you batch cook when the baby is sleeping, there is no-one else, and it's just relentless.

It's all about the quick wins IMO!

Price-wise, bagged salad, cooked chicken and some new potatoes in the microwave or a bag of rice is going to be much cheaper and take 5 min.

Do you have a friend who has offered to help out but you don't know what to ask them to do? Often friends feel helpless when someone is widowed young and want to help- getting them in on bringing over a meal every now and again is a good thing to ask them to do (or hold baby).

Has anyone made you aware of this amazing charity Op?

https://www.home-start.org.uk/Pages/Category/things-we-can-help-with