I'm sure I could've done better than cocopops for emergency dinner - what can I feed the DCs when we have 'nothing in the house'?

[cuddlymanatee]

Really really tight this month. DD is ill so a pretty housebound day (am on my own with 3DCs while DH works away).

Dinner was late anyway, at nearly 7pm, and it was ham and cheese on toast with baked beans for those who wanted. Lasts bit of bread (used the 'heels'), ham and cheese. Some carrots, grapes and yogurts in the fridge. Lunch was tuna pasta with our last tuna and pasta. You get the idea.

Could've gone to the supermarket with a credit card during the day but hadn't as knew we had the makings of an acceptable dinner.

DS2 knocked his drink all over his plate. I tried to make it not a huge deal but was thinking oh shit, I don't know what else to give him.

In the end he ate a bowlful of baked beans (the water had got in them but was easily poured off), and DD shared her toast with him and we had coco pops for 'pudding'. I'd hidden the box in the cupboard for a 'special occasion' but hey.

The DCs seemed cheerful enough with it and I am going to drag them to the supermarket tomorrow no matter what, but I was thinking, I should've been able to pull something 'better' out of the situation.

I've scoured the cupboards and we have stuff like baked beans, tinned tomatoes, chicken stock. If I'd had more time/warning I could've made pancakes perhaps but we were so late to eat already. I thought about scrambled egg but we only had the one egg and I wasn't trying to make a big drama for the DCs.

I wondered if anyone had any suggestions for really quick 'emergency food' - bread in the freezer would've made more toast in short order, for example.

Don't be hard on yourself - it was a one off, it was late so not the best time to start cooking something new. Honestly. Hope the £ situation improves soon. And remember, some kids never get a decent meal, it's a packet of crisps every night if anything.

Pasta and tinned tomatoes + cheese
Jacket potato and beans/cheese/whatever
Puddings - tinned fruit

• yoghurt

But can't see any reason nutritionally why coco pops is any worse than many other things you could have had for pudding. Don't beat yourself up over it :)

jacket potato in microwave, cheese and beans

pasta, pesto, peas (and cheese if you have it)

occasionally my DC have had 'breakfast tea' - ie a large bowl of cereal! As a very occasional one-off after a culinary disaster or a very late return home it has done gthem no harm at all, so cocoa pops for pudding under the same circumstamces sounds fine to me

Crazy tapas. Don't go together, but cover all the food groups.

Cheese and pineapple on sticks, eggs are definitely a good emergency thing, boil and slice, chop up dregs of fruit bowl, crackers, yogurts, chopped up carrot batons, chop the roots off sprouted potatoes, mash.

Don't beat yourself up about it, they ate and didn't go to bed hungry.

What they ate doesn't matter so much for one night.

It was fine as a one off!

One bare-cupboard day when we were going on holiday DD had buttered crackers and peas for breakfast and for her packed lunch en route we had to pack her cubes of cheese... and peas. It really doesn't matter unless it's every day.

The children will think it was brilliant. Pancakes don't take a long time to cook but at least you can have them for breakfast

I'd have said pasta with whatever else was around, but you'd posted that you'd used the last of the pasta. Tinned stuff is best for long-lasting backup. So (value range if money's tight) tins of macaroni cheese or spag bol, and tinned fruit for pudding. Just microwave/open tin.

I don't blame you for not wanting to start cooking something else at that point and I see absolutely nothing wrong with coco pops for pudding.

I have produced similar when lovingly created home cooked meals hurriedly thrown together dinners for DSS have gone wrong and it has been a couple of days until payday

It isn't like you're doing it every day!

Thankyou :)

I think it was just the late hour and the not being able to think of anything - if I have warning I am okay at making something out of nothing but my mind was just a blank. Poor DS

I do 'stuffed potatoes' a lot which are baked potatoes halved and with the potato mixed with whatever's around like chopped ham/sweetcorn/etc and then back in the oven for a bit, they love them.

I will get a big bag of oats too as they love oaty muffins and porridge and it's filling.

Just felt so crap and panicky. You're right though, cocopops aren't SO bad are they :)

Pasta with a beaten egg stirred into hot drained pasta and bits of ham-sort of carbonara
You can make a smashing Tuscan tomato soup with stale bread garlic and tinned tomatoes.
coco pops pudding sounds lovely for dc

Oh and if I ask dd what she wants for tea and it was going to be a cupboard tea, she would get ceral if that's what she really wanted.

As the other posters have said, don't feel bad. It's not like it's a nightly thing ! We sometimes have a 'can't be bothered dinner' and just have cereal or something on toast.

I always makes sure we have things like crumpets, muffins, those 'pasta in a packet' things (most places have them 2 for £1), just make sure you have a pint of milk to make them with ! Also things like noodles, and then have a couple of tins of fruit and some 'value' yoghurt for a bit of pudding. Soup and a roll is also good, get some of the 'part-bake' bread or rolls and keep in the freezer ?

Jacket potatoes are good, also just potatoes and some cheese mixed in with some baked beans or spaghetti make a good meal. (A bit of tuna or ham sprinked on top is also nice).

What about toasted sandwiches too ? Get a huge block of cheap cheese and then you can have cheese and beans, cheese and tomato, cheese and marmite, whatever. Maybe a few chips on the side ?

If you want to include veg, try to get either a bag of frozen to put with a meal, or get some carrots and peppers and other bits, and cut into thick juliennes, and keep in the freezer for those emergency nights ? Only annoying when you forget to defrost if you want to have them raw !

Don't know if any of this is of any help, I guess it depends what your family like to eat !

What's annoying though is I have found stuff like a tin of artichoke hearts and roasted peppers in oil at the back of the cupboard - need to use it up somehow, not sure what I was thinking when I bought them, must've been years ago as things have been tight for a while. Artichoke hearts in a tin ffs!

Oh and mirin and thai fish sauce. Unused!

Pancakes for breakfast it is, they'll be delighted :)

Oh and I have a confession....I have a box of cocoa pops tgat are hidden just for me

Eggy bread! Take an egg - or two if you have them. Beat in a bit of milk. Soak bread (crusts) for few mins and fry.

Serve with tom ketchup for mains and icing sugar for pudding!

I always have tomatoes/beans in so if we get to a point where we are skint or have no gas we have tomatoes on toast or beans on toast!
dont be so hard on yourself

If I was to tell my DCs that you've been feeding yours cocopops for dinner, I would bet their reaction would not be "poor DS"

Wait, so they had ham and cheese on toast, baked beans, grapes, carrots, yoghurt and cocopops, yes?

I'm not sure what you're beating yourself about? That it wasn't a hot meal? That doesn't matter at all from nutritional point of view, and anyway they had it for lunch.

And cocopops or biscuits or whatever-same thing, really. Don't they add some vitamins to the cereal? See, nutritionally superior pudding

A lot of children are really happy with a big bowl of buttered pasta (throw in some frozen peas or carrots at the end of cooking). Peanut butter is a great staple to have (protein and satiating fat). When I was self-catering at Uni. my Dad told me to never be without whole wheat bread, peanut butter and oranges. You can do PB sandwiches (sliced banana is a nice addition), glass of milk and fruit / carrots and let the children have a picnic on the floor. j

Not to worry, OP. Hope things improve soon X.

My children regularly have cereal and milk for pudding. Didn't think there was any problem with it, it's a lot more filling and nutritious than some of the rubbish they could eat.

I always buy shedloads of yellow-stickered bread products: croissants, bagels, paninis and the like and stick them in the freezer for emergency occasions. Also, DH often goes to the cornershop Tesco last thing on a Sunday night 'for a forage' as he puts it - we end up with all sorts of discounted random-osity that I keep in the freezer for unexpected occasions.

And you know what? Wat really, really annoys me is people saying :'oh, don't worry, it was just one off' as if what you served was a poor meal.

It wasn't and I'm sure kids enjoyed it. It doesn't always have to be a slice of meat with mash and three veg.

winny they had cheese and ham on toast and baked beans - DS2 spilt his drink on his which meant he ended up with mostly baked beans and a tiny bit of DD's (he's a slower eater than the others and they'd mostly finished theirs).

They had tuna pasta, carrot sticks and some grapes/yog during the day.

I think it was the blind panic really of being so pressed for time and not being able to think of anything to give him. He was really upset and throwing away the sodden toast made me feel crap. I feel a lot better for this thread though :)

YY to what winny says.

I read some of the food threads on here sometimes and I think it's a bloody miracle my DC have been kept alive.

I think it's important that we eat together as a family, I think it's important that they have enough to eat and that they get a good combination of foods from all food groups. But if I've got a tired-out 5 y.o who fills his boots with beans on toast an apple and a banana, I'm not going to get upset that I haven't made a haricot and root vegetable bake and a fresh fruit salad.

I would have LOVED Coco Pops for tea as a kid! Seriously, what you did was perfectly fine - it's not every day and you obviously do a good job of thinking about your kids meals.

Can you make a white sauce? (Just need a bit of butter, flour and milk). You can then add absolutely anything you have in the fridge to make a sauce for pasta. I do this a lot. Additional ingredients might be: cheese and bacon; mushrooms and carrots (I grate the carrot in); philadelphia and tomatoes; spinach etc. It is WAY more cost effective to do this than buy jars of pasta sauce.

Second the peanut butter on toast/ sandwiches thing, with banana is yummy. Love the picnic idea too.

Jacket potato and beans / whatever is around always good in our house too.

You can freeze almost anything you know, so if you ever have veggies that might end up being thrown away cook/part cook and freeze. This helps to sort out emergency food but is also a good way of avoiding food waste and saving pennies. I found this guide from a quick google but there are probably better ones around. www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/Storing_the_Surplus_Freezing.php