To make frozen pizza every night?

[Cinocino]

Yes, I think that’s an obvious yet. But between cooking healthy meals and snacks for toddler and freshly weaning baby I’m spent at the end of the day and running out of ideas and energy for adult dinners.
Dinners have to be separate during the week as kids eat about 4:30/5pm but DH doesn’t get in from work until 7:30.

What are your go to 1 step more than shoving a pizza in but incredibly low effort dinners?
Im struggling to have the time to plan out meals, do them on the food shop and then cook the meals in the evening at the minute due to sheer exhaustion of waking up a lot at night and the mental exhaustion of a whingey baby and toddler.

I’ll probably start this and not be able to read it for ages due to said high maintenance baby 🤦‍♀️

It only takes 10 minutes to boil some spaghetti up and while you're doing that warm some sauce up and bung it on, maybe chop some chorizo and stick that in too.

Or I've just discovered only takes about 10 minutes to make a chickpea salad and while I'm doing that I can cook a chicken breast in the air fryer to go with it.

Just Google quick easy meals.

Can’t you cook up a main dinner early which the toddler eats early and you and DH then eat later? Or is the little one eating different things to you?

Several tins of mixed chilli-spiced beans + tin tomatoes + some frozen grilled veg., make a lovely chilli or topping for jacket potatoes. Serve with grated cheese. Very quick!

As soon mine wasn’t weaning I just made one meal, if it had to be reheated so be it.

I would do this - I have a toddler and a weaning baby, and I'm just cooking normal meals but without salt so the baby can eat them too. We can all eat together, but if we couldn't, we're having things like stews and mild curries and it would be easy enough to reheat them later and add a bit more seasoning. Or if it's something like pasta I'd probably reheat the sauce but cook pasta fresh later.

You make something for you and the kids to eat and then DH warms his up later.

Lots of pasta sauces are very quick, or a vegetable stir fry or something.

I do get that it feels a massive chore at the end of the day, but frozen pizza every night is alot of salt, which isn’t good for little ones (or you).

Just make one meal - weaning doesn't mean different things. We weaned straight onto what we usually eat, just prepared some of the veg slightly differently where needed.

Keep DH's in the pot/on the tray etc so it can be reheated if needs be, or both of yours if you prefer to eat later too.

You could batch cook, too, but I never nailed that. I think it's either something you're great at, that really appeals to you, or you're not - it wasn't for me.

PS: my baby naps the longest in the morning, so that's mostly when I cook. That's why it tends to be things like stews that benefit from sitting around then being heated up.

It’s just an incredibly difficult stage at the minute with the baby being needy and then the toddler being tired and whingey on top. Splitting attention and trying to cook a fuller meal at 4pm them is just a logistical nightmare! Always ends in the baby sat on the floor screaming and me hitting mental overload so I try to do something for them that will suit 2 y and 7m old together but slightly tweaked and then deal with ours later. But by the time later comes I’ve done bath, 2 bedtimes and then it’s after 7:30 and cooking something more mealy seems like a mountain of a task when I’m ready for bed too!

At the weekend we all eat together when DH and I can split cooking or watching the kids.

I would eat with the kids because it’s important for them to be eating a “family dinner” with a parent from early on to learn how to sit together and eat together- not DH’s fault he misses it due to work but I wouldn’t be doing a children v adults divide.

Rub some spice on a couple of chicken breasts and stick them in the oven, packet of Uncle Ben's rice in the microwave and some veg in the steamer.

Above but with fish instead of chicken.

Chop up a load of veg plus potatoes, sprinkle over some olive oil and roast in the oven for a tasty veggie dinner.

I like frozen pizza but it would get tired after a few days!

I sit with them at the table anyway and have a snack but if I had ‘dinner’ at 4pm I would still need dinner later so it’s the same situation really.
Plus DH and I already are ships in the night due to the age of the kids with different bedtimes, often different beds and different wake times that’s it’s often our only window of time together for days.

Yes, a lot of food you make for toddler can just be upsized for adults. You can always add a few extras too.

My "easy" meals are usually things like fried steak/chops with new potatoes and steamed veg. takes almost zero effort and cooks in 10 minutes.

Pasta with basic sauces are also easy and don't need to take hours. If you want to do something with tomato, keep some mini tubs of cream cheese or creme fraiche in the fridge - great way to quickly remove the acidity of tomatoes without having to simmer for hours.

When I had babies, I also relied a lot on those ready meals that go in the oven - so not things like spaghetti carbanara that goes in the microwave and is probably full of UPF and calories, but things I'd get like prewrapped chicken breast with a few beans or some kind of pre-marindaded fish with some rice - in oven for 20 minutes and all I had to do was make some couscous or boil some potatoes alongside or steam some veg, depending on what it was

A slow cooker is useful here, I know in the summer it may seem like everything is too hot and hearty but it means you can bung stuff in in the morning when you have more headspace.

Some ideas:

Pulled pork which takes 5 mins to serve with wraps and salad
5 bean chilli
Normal chilli
Bolognese can then bung some pasta on
Sausage casserole with orzo

Or bung burgers or chicken in the oven and serve with whatever veg/salad you like.

Yes I’ve done something similar. Pot on hob: slice an onion finely and just bung in. Bung in tin of kidney or mixed beans, bung in tin of chopped tomatoes, bung in spices and chilli and bring to boil ( or until onion is clear). Then to thicken add sufficient scoops out of a tin of refried beans to give a creamier texture ( not at the beginning as it will catch more easily). Bring to heat. Bung spoonful on tortilla wraps with a sprinkle of grated cheese ( you can even buy it grated) and I add a few slices of fresh avocado. But you literally stand there opening tins and “ bunging it in.” And it’s quite healthy! You could use on toast or potatoes as well. I don’t think beans go well on pasta though.

An air fryer will be your friend. Throw a couple of chicken breasts in and they will cook in pretty much the same time as a frozen pizza

Then add one of those pouches of rice or steamed veg that you put in the microwave
Or with some fresh salad or coleslaw?

Also if DH is around at the weekend can you or him not batch cook a few things (slow cooker is great for this)? Means that you have your own “ready meals” for during the week

My 10 minute can’t be arsed dinner is spaghetti carbonara. You can frazzle the pancetta, beat the eggs and grate the Parmesan in the time it takes to cook the spaghetti. Or leek and cheese orzotto which is just sauté leeks in butter, add orzo pasta and chicken stock then grated cheese when pasta is cooked. Add salad. Alternatively Cook and Charlie Bighams have some excellent options. At your stage of life though, I would make something for all of us and either serve ours later or save the children a helping for the next day.

Couldn’t you cook for you and dh in the evening and take two kid portions out and the kids have it the next day warmed up? You could remove their before extra seasoning etc, that way you aren’t have meltdowns while try to cook a separate dinner for the kids.

Dinners have to be separate during the week as kids eat about 4:30/5pm but DH doesn’t get in from work until 7:30.

We just make a big pot of food that can get reheated. Curries, dhal, lasagne, fish pie, shepherd's pie, aubergine parmigiana.

What are you feeding the toddler? Reheat that later for you and DH?

Chicken breasts are the answer to everything on mumsnet. What if you’re vegetarian? Can anyone suggest an alternative?

I think the others are right, eventually you'll be able to cook 'the meal' when baby is having that one long nap and they can eat then you both can eat later. In the short term, eating pizza every night is fine, do what you need to do. Just remember, this is another hard phase that will pass.

Batch cook at the weekend

Make a massive simple salad and stick it in the fridge with cling film or in tuppaware, it will be good for several days.

Then a variety of things that you can do quickly and grab a handful of salad to chuck on the side.

Jacket potato (microwave) and beans.
A pack of cheese tortellini, just boil.
Pizza once a week.
Grab the handful of salad.

Cook plain pasta and rice ahead of time and portion and freeze it. Sometimes microwaving a small frozen tub of pasta and chucking it on a plate feels easier than boiling it etc. Grate some cheese over when heated, handful of salad. Chop some ham over it, handful of salad.

I would recommend a slow cooker, an air fryer and a soup maker, oh and a rice maker. The reason being you can put your ingredients in and just leave it, no having to keep an eye on them which makes a huge difference when you are tied up with other things.