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 🤦‍♀️

Yup see my Beany-bung-it-in tortilla wraps above.

I probably need to admit defeat and get the slow cooker back out! I did use it a lot over winter when baby was tiny, but then got a bit bored of everything being stew consistency.
One night a week it might be a good option between other things though.

Make it work to only cook one meal.

Either cook early and reheat yours later

Or

Cook after the kids have gone to bed and the kids get that reheated for the next day.

Or

Batch cook at the weekend and freeze. One of you take the kids for a few hours and the other can do a bunch of batch cook meals.

Or

Some combination of all of these.

You can't cook two full meals a day with everything else you need to do so stop trying to.

Can you do a big batch cook when DH is home to entertain the kids and freeze? things like bolognese, chilli, curry all freeze well take them out in the morning and cook up
Pasta/rice at time for eating. Cooking loads once a month to load the freezer

Fajitas & tacos are good quick meals and I just buy a bag of pre cut salad stuff if I'm in a rush or can't be bothered chopping much.
Soup is another good, easy healthy meal if it would fill you.
Part baked rollls and a big bowl of soup is one of my favourite teas

Alternatively could DH take on cooking a couple of nights a week just to give you a night off

@Cinocino babies seem to love stew though, so that might help with the one meal for everyone system! Btw if your toddler is fussy, we have had a lot of success with chili con carne, using all different kinds of tinned beans - ours treats all different beans as legitimate food rather than just insisting on baked beans. For the weaning baby, we just squash the beans with the back of a spoon so they're not choking hazards.

(the bean husks in the poo are a little bit horrifying, to be fair)

Well, at risk of being unpopular, there's more than pizza that cooks easily in the oven. Frozen croquettes, waffles, hash browns... breaded cod fillets, breaded chicken, kievs, my fav recently is a salmon & dill parcel from Tesco.
Also as above, pasta with sauce, filled pasta/tortellini from the chilled section mixed with a drop of butter and a garlic baguette, also very handy. Quiche. If you can find time to have a good look in the freezer aisle and the fresh chilled section you can do reasonably decent food quickly.

The problem is toddler prefers more of a lunch for dinner, so it’s a well balanced meal but rarely hot. More of a snack plate with a protein, a carb and fruit or veg.
Homemade pancakes, peanut butter on Greek yogurt and carrots with cucumber would be their ‘dinner’.
Then baby has a variation of that or I’ve started to build up baby portions of left overs in the freezer.

Then the toddlers dinner is much easier to prep with her at my feet and baby in arms.

I was going to say this.
When you have a patch of time make several things and freeze them.
salads, pastas, fajitas, chilli, nachos, curry ( from a jar!) all fairly low prep.

What’s your beef with chicken breasts when other meat based products have also been mentioned…..including beef funnily enough

I used to use my slow cooker most days.
Other ideas pasta, jackets, chicken or fish with seasoning and microwave rice and veg

Omelettes take about 5 minutes, add some salad from a bag and either toast or microwave wild rice to add veg and a carb.

In the early years, eggs were a godsend.

At the weekend when you’re cooking easier as dh is home, start upping the portions and freezing the leftovers for later in the week, then alternativinf between leftovers, slow cooker meals and easy stuff like chicken and veg being shoved in the oven type thing

@violetcuriosity I think the others are right, eventually you'll be able to cook 'the meal' when baby is having that one long

This is probably the main problem really! A month or so of rubbish naps or having to be out for a nap and then there’s hardly any break at home during the day in order to get on with anything or prep.

Hopefully a short lived phase 🤞

I never made separate foods for the kids, we just all ate the same thing but without the salt and pureed when they were little. Their dad would come home a couple of hours after we had eated but he just reheated the food. We never ate as early as 4pm (more like 6/6.30) but I don't see why you can't just heat it up for you too later on.

If you are already cooking healthy dinners for the toddler I don't understand why you can't just cook more of the same thing. It must be a lot better for you than frozen pizza.

Also M and S do good packs of stir fry veg and wok noodles that are soft and heat in minutes. You can start by putting some cubed lamb or chicken pieces ( even these can be got pre-prepared) in the wok then when it’s nearly cooked add the veg and noodles, which both take a few minutes.

For me cutting out the prep stage and keeping it to one pot to wash helped with a quick meal.

What does toddler have for lunch? The same sort of thing? Or is she at nursery at all? From what you've said, I'd probably try to gradually transition toddler onto eating more 'main meal' type foods as one day you'll want everyone eating the same anyway. Is there any chance you could make the hot meal at lunchtime and give it to her (and baby) then, when you're less tired, then heat it up for your own dinner later?

Whack a Camembert in the oven, serve with a torn up baguette, onion/fig chutney, some salad leaves and a load of crudités on the side which can be given to the kids at their earlier dinner. A dollop of pâté too, nice glass of red and you’re good to go!

Or I find supermarket stir-fry kits v easy with some egg noodles thrown in at the last minute. It’s about 10% more effort than pizza in my opinion, and has the added benefit of protein and veg.

You should see if you can get a copy of the Rukmini Iyer "roasting tin" books. Stick it all in a tin, pop it in the oven, hey presto! Some are a little more involved (e.g. adding things part way through the cooking time), but some are really straight forward - do a little chopping and mixing, then into the oven.

Or, cook things that can be reheated easily (most things can). E.g. bolognaise, slow cooker meals etc.

• Jacket potato with various fillings
• fresh pasta/fresh gnocchi (it takes about 3-4mins to cook) drain then stir in some pesto and serve with salad
• pittas, hummus and veggie sticks
• soup with good hunks of bread
• cheese on toast
• beans on toast
• spag Bol / chillie takes a bit longer but can be batch cooked for a couple of meals

you May also want to check out some simple traybake recipes online. Something you can Chuck in one pan and forget about for 20-40mins depending on what you’ve chucked in

im looking forward to seeing other suggestions ☺️

Yes! I have the vegetarian one of these and it’s ace!

Unlike most on here I always did something separate for kids and just all ate the same on the weekend. Dietary requirements just meant it was less faff than trying to make some things veggie, some meat based etc.

We would: cook extra and freeze, batch cook, or once DP got in he would do bedtime and I would cook unhampered. Add in a few freezer meals/ easy salads or soups

Why anyone cooks different meals for kids / adults baffles me, we've never done that. Just make one dinner that kids eat earlier, and adults eat later. In cooler weather, do a chili, curry, pasta sauce, in summer make a salad and have with chicken/fish/halloumi and pitta breads. Frozen pizzas are incredibly unhealthy, surely you want better for you and your kids health. If you're going for freezer food, there's much healthier options like fishcakes, decent chicken kievs etc, that you can have with salad and vegetables.

Tray bakes? Pack of pre-chopped Mediterranean veg with chicken/fish/halloumi

If you need additional carbs look at micro rice sachets or microwave new potatoes (they come in a pack with herb butter)

Stuffed pasta cooks in around 5 mins -
Add pesto, grated cheese and pre-packed salad

Fish cakes with micro new pots and prepacked salad

Quiche with chips and prepacked salad

This is a short phase and you will move on but it's useful to have a few quick /cook themselves meals anyway .

I feel you pain especially with a fussy child. I found doing dump bags in my freezer the best thing ever I would spend a few hours on a Sunday making them and then put them in the freezer and just chuck them in the slow cooker the day I needed them that way me and dp had a good meal and I just did the kids meal earlier

I never made separate "adult meals" just make one thing that works for your toddler and parents- you can adapt slightly like add more spices at the end etc.
I used to just blend some for the baby too

When ours were little DH's hours were quite unpredictable so I made dinner by about 5.30-6pm and if he was home he'd eat with us and if not I'd eat with the children and he'd stick his in the microwave later.