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 🤦‍♀️

Just cook one meal and reheat later, why cook twice?

Things like curries can always be given a little more kick when you reheat

Ideally eat with your kids, it's not a good habit for children to eat separately

To be fair toddler isn’t fussy, they have a main meal for lunch most of the week in nursery and for dinner on the weekends. It’s just easier in the evening to do more of a lunch style than try to cook a main meal at that time with the kids at this age!

I absolutely hate cooking but have worked out a few easy meals

noodles with stir fry veg chuck soy sauce on it - throw in some frozen prawns etc

I have learnt how to make a very veg heavy bolagnsae sauce for my fussy kids - that I also use to make chili and rice with wraps. I make a vat of this sauce! just loads of veg blended up and cooked - tomatos, fresh tomatos as well, carrots, lots of peppers - I make so much of it, usually have some in the fridge - then I just chuck mince in it

I also keep tubs of chili/ pasta sauce in the freezer

honestly - frozen pizza is not good for you - I would just work out 5 basic meals and rotate. its boring as hell I agree

Because as mentioned there’s rarely a point in the day when I have the time to cook a main meal until after 7:30pm.

Feta cheese and spinach omelette is delicious. I would buy a good quality chicken and put in slow cooker on low . I put on for 7h. It so moist. Frozen veg and roasts in airfryer- yummy. Toddler could have same

Roast chicken with baguette/frozen wedges/sweet potato fries and salad (pre made if you want).

Rub a spice rub with butter onto chicken skin, shove in oven. Air fry sweet potatoes. Place salad on table.

2 mins of effort for a yummy meal that isn’t ultra processed

But for quick "adult" meals think about buying ready made mash, get a microwave steamer for veg and pan fry beef or lamb steaks, chicken breast, all takes less time than cooking a frozen pizza. Or stir fry veg and salmon with ginger, sesame and soy with a pouch of rice again 10 minutes.

Can you cook later in the evening after DH gets home (or he can!) and reheat leftovers the following day for the kids?

A Camembert with baked baguette and wine was a lazy meal dinner staple in the winter! Maybe I need to give into the rubbish weather and add it back into the rotation.

Use the slow cooker differently. Not endless stews in the summer. Use it to slow cook meat or fish (and serve with baby potatoes or microwave rice). Or make a sauce for pasta (and freeze half for another day). Risotto is relatively simple in a slow cooker - especially if you use frozen/pre-chopped onion. I do jacket potatoes in the slow cooker (then top with beans or coleslaw or whatever). The roasting tin books are great - especially if you can prepare the tin earlier in the day and just switch the oven on later. Frozen peas are quick to cook. Tinned sweetcorn is even quicker. If funds allow, those steamer packs of mixed vegetables look appealing and microwave quickly, or bagged salad if you have time to rinse and spin dry.

I liked to start the evening meal off in a moment of calm in the early afternoon. Then get through toddler tea, the witching hour and bedtime and hurrah (!) sit down for a pretty much ready to eat evening meal. Was a relief, but also a tiny thrill of competence. This is a short phase of life and do what you need to get through it - but I can't imagine frozen pizza every single day being much of a joy.

Make extra of whatever you have on the weekend and then you have 2 meals ready to warm up in the week.

You can make pasta with sauce and veggies in the time it takes to cook the pasta. You could have jacket potatoes, cheese, beans and salad one night. Those stir fry meal deals are good. Veg, noodles and sauce all ready in less than 10 minutes.

Ideally save some leftovers from your evening meal for the kids to have the next day (for lunch or dinner) some of the time.

Is also suggest come the autumn embracing the slow cooker, load it up in the morning when things are more settled (or use the electronic baby sitter for 15 minutes), peel any potatoes, prep veg etc and leave in water then later it's quicker to cook

To the people who don’t get exaggerating for effect/ humour, I don’t actually eat pizza 5 nights a week. I thought it that was obviously but apparently not.

I was after suggestions that weren’t pizza for the nights you have been screamed at all day and can’t be arsed and want a 3 minute prep dinner, like sticking a pizza in and simply cutting it up.

Salmon or any other fresh fish in airfryer- skin side at top. Pouch wholegrain rice mixed with frozen veg and chopped stir fried courgettes. Mustard or bearnaise sauce as condiments

Totally empathise @Cinocino. It’s a hard stage particularly with two. My eldest was so needy. I wouldn’t have been able to cook while they were awake if my husband isn’t there. I was so tired and I didnt feel up to batch cooking as if I had time to do that, I would have had a nap instead.

Life is a bit easier now that youngest is over one.

What I found was that we were eating terribly and that was also making me even more tired.

My go to quick dinners were things that didn’t involve more than one pot so I didn’t have to wash those aswell.

• spinach omlette with whole grain bread
• Fried rice made with microwave rice. Just stir fry any veg, any meat and chuck the rice in
• Pasta boiled with frozen veggies and sauce stirred in

I agree op and st the moment lunch style is fine for an evening meal. Mine are a bit older but one was feeling a bit poorly the other day when it was hot and I actually just cut up watermelon, nectarine, berries, cherries etc and served with Greek yoghurt and chopped nuts. Nutrition-wise your body doesn’t mind if breakfast is served in the evening!

STuff that you can put in the oven and forget...so traybakes. Sausage and veg, chicken thighs and veg, veg and then put salmon fillets on top.

We go through phases of eating hot smoked salmon, grain pouches and m&s side salads or micro veg.

Put a bit extra in the oven if it's on - so roasted veg then you can make that into pasta sauce easily.

Sautee stir fry veg plus frozen prawns with a stir in sauce and then bung in some fresh noodles. 5 mins.

To the people who meal prep on the weekends, does that ever get less depressing?
The thought of using my “break” when DH has the kids to cook Tuesdays dinner just sounds utterly grim. Using it to clean the bathroom is bad enough.

Our go-to lazy meal is veggie burgers (can of course be substituted with some kind of frozen meat or fish) & potato croquettes or wedges in the oven. While it's in the oven, boil some frozen peas or mixed veg. Takes 15-20 minutes and next to no effort. We always make sure we have these things in the freezer, so never requires a separate trip to the shops.

Second lazy meal is tortellini, pesto, mix with some cherry tomatoes, olives, ruccolo or spinach, and whatever cheese (grated, or bits of feta) is at hand.

Heard u can make jacket potatoes in.slow cooker. I.use mine to.stew fruit with a bit of cinnamon. Toddler could have that too

I would rather do a quick meal at the time personally. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Fresh fruit and yoghurt will actually have more nutrition than a hot pizza.

We do a lot of 'easy' meals - noodle (the wok-ready ones) stir-fries with veggies and salmon cooked in the air fryer; pasta with pesto; pasta bakes; jacket potatoes and beans/tuna/coleslaw; curry; chilli. I have an air fryer and a rice cooker which make my life a lot easier as you can just chuck stuff into both and it gets on with it while you're doing other stuff. Air fryers are also great for making chips from scratch.

Another vote for pesto.