So much fucking cooking. How to not go insane?

[Monstersincq]

I absolutely love to cook. But it's sucking the life out of me at the moment. Mostly because it's hot I suppose. But now it's holidays I'm meal planning 14 meals a week and I'm just looking at that thinking how much time in the kitchen that is for me. I work, have a baby (and multiple older children) and am finding that even though I think I'm a really efficient cook I seem to be doing pretty much nothing but. Anyone got any tips (beyond 'bung a chicken in the oven' and batch cook)? Efficiency advice maybe, or quick recipes?

No ideas, but I feel your pain! I'm heavily pregnant, have two children, and I've just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I am losing patience with cooking fast x

I know you don’t want bung a chicken in the oven or batch cook but...
I’d be looking to make things that will do more than one meal.
E.g make a chilli, serve with rice one night and in tacos another, on jackets another (freeze if 3x in a week is over kill!)
Double up when you cook pasta turn half into a pasta bake or tuna pasta salad for next day.
Tagine with cous cous one day, double your cous cous and do stuffed peppers the next.
Serving fish with new potatoes and peas, double potatoes and peas and make fritata the next.
Chicken with roasted veg, double veg, puff pastry tart with roasted veg and mozzarella the next night.
Cooking a piece of gammon always yields loads of meals.

Lunch keep simple some form of bread (pita, bagel, wraps sandwich etc) with filling and salad. (Boil enough eggs to last a few days, big bowl of tuna mayo etc).

Cheat if necessary!

Buy a cooked chicken and some salad, cheating but why not?

You don't need 14 cooked meals a week for a start. Lunches can be simple, cold bits.
How old are the DC? I stopped making lunches when DC were big enough to make themselves something, even if it's just toast and fruit. Just keep the fridge full.

Substantial salads and things which cook quickly are all that I can bear in this weather:

-salade Nicoise
-soba salad with sautéed aubergine and mango
-pasta tossed with fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella

• grilled fish, steamed veg, and a grain

-corn, cucumber, and tomato salad with grilled prawns

• quesadillas with a fresh salsa and guacamole
• steaks with a veg side and salad

-thai style steak salad with papaya and rice noodles (no cooking - just needs to be soaked!)

• omelettes with a side salad

I also make loads of platters of crudités dips, charcuterie, cheese, breads, fruits - great for lunches

Do you really have to meal plan every lunch? Can they not have pitta and hummus or cheese rolls?

I feel your pain, I have been known to set myself impossibly high standards with regard to the freshness/healthiness of our meals and then stress myself out trying to achieve it.

This is controversial on MN but I would let go of the need to cook from scratch every meal, and give yourself a few days off with things like fresh filled ravioli/tortellini, ready made quiche or pie, prepared fishcakes or prepped traybakes that just go in the oven. I know processed food is stuff of the devil for many on MN but honestly as part of an otherwise balanced diet, and with fresh veg added it won't do any harm.

Alternatively in this hot weather we've been having a lot of salad based meals, which for us works as an 'assemble your own' from a green salad, cold meats (either leftovers from a weekend roast or bought in), cheese, bread and sometimes some ready-prepped salad stuff like coleslaw, grain-based salad like couscous or lentil salad or a potato salad. Minimal effort, no need for the oven and not too unhealthy and you can vary the components so you can have it several days in a row without feeling too same-y.

Finally I feel a lot more positive about cooking when I have some new/different/interesting recipes to try rather than doing the same old things on rotation. Not always easy when you have differing needs/preferences to accommodate but I browse recipe threads on here and BBCGoodFood etc. for inspiration!

Lots of good advice thank you. And agreed that it feels much better when you're cooking something you find interesting and delicious.

Re the lunch thing. It's still prep though isn't it? Hummus pitta and crudités; chop veg, wash up all the stuff. And I still need to have a vague plan for these to make sure there is stuff in for lunches and laying out that detailed a plan does my head in! DC all 5 and under and even though they do lots of helping me cook I don't think they're old enough to do their own thing.

Any way whinge whinge whinge! I will take heed of all this good advice I promise. Shop bought stuff once a week, low key lunches, things to keep myself interested.

Could you do two sandwich fillings to last for a couple of days? Egg mayo, chicken salad, etc. Grated cheese, tuna mayo.

I know it's a pest with the boards, knives etc ad nauseum

Frozen chopped onions are the way forward!

Ditto things like frozen broccoli, such a time saver.

How many children are you catering for? I think you definitely need to go simpler on the lunches and save your real "cooking" efforts for dinner.

I don't do "batch cooking" as in proper meal preparation and planning, but I do cane the hell out of leftovers. Lunches are often a motley collection of odds and ends left over from various other meals with everyone helping themselves.

Sliced bread or rolls makes sandwiches a lot easier. Or do oatcakes and biscuits. I have a cheeseboard with a glass cover so that I can just get it in and out of the fridge, no setting out and packing away of cheeses required. Cherry or plum tomatoes don't require chopping, unlike big tomatoes. Make salad dressing in bulk.

It also sounds like the real nightmare is the washing up. Any chance of fitting in a dishwasher...? They really are a lifesaver with that number of children to prepare meals for multiple times a day - I could cope with the chopping etc, but not the endless washing up afterwards.

Don't meal plan lunches beyond having a decent selection of easy to prep stuff in - eggs, salad veg, cold meat, cheese, pasta (with something easy like pesto), different bread products, yoghurt, fruit etc. Not the weather for it, but in the winter I may plan to make a soup or something like that too, but nothing onerous. Then it's just 7 meals to think of and more manageable IMO.

I often make the DC a packed lunch for the next day when I'm making their tea. That way, it's all done together and there is only one lot of dishwashing, wiping the surfaces etc to do. Sometimes we'll go out & eat it, other times it will just be eaten at home. The DC have never questioned it.

4 DC all under 6 so difficult
To get them to make their own, although they do help a lot in the kitchen.

I find if I don't meal plan to the letter there is so much waste. EG if I got a bunch of stuff in like hummus etc it might end up getting half eaten and chucked.

I should do cheese and cracker type stuff more often but what about DH? He'd never eat that. I know he should make his own but he'd just make himself an oven pizza or something and then all the DC would be like why aren't I having that!? (I know that's ok every so often but the school lunches are crap enough I want to make sure they eat well as much as I can plus convenience food is £££)

If your husband doesn't want the cheese cracker stuff then why doesn't he cook what is acceptable for everyone?

beans on toast for lunch. or Sandwich!

I try to plan in leftovers to save cooking and too much washing up for at least one night of the week. Also one pot dishes are a god send...we’re all currently obsessed with oven baked risotto! Trying one pot spaghetti dish I saw in eat well for less this week too.

Try planning for only two or three lunches in a week...makes planning much easier and no harm in a bit of repetition if evening meals are a bit more varied. This week our lunches are either cheese, buttered crackers, cucumber sticks, grapes and a yogurt or ham sandwiches, strawberries/apple and a yogurt. Also every couple of weeks chicken nuggets or fish fingers and chips out of the freezer with beans or frozen peas is very easy and not too much faff! Be kind to yourself you are busy and doing your best!

Last week I cooked a large ham in the slow cooker. Literally shoved it in with a splash of water. I froze half the meat, diced, for another time. The rest was used:
On the day with a potato salad and green salad
With cheese sauce a couple if days after
Sliced in rolls with mustard for lunch the next day.

If you can grit your teeth and cook loads of bolognese sauce and freeze portions, you have lots of options:
Defrost and reheat as pasta sauce
Serve with baked potato as chilli by adding chilli flakes before reheating
Make some cheese sauce (make gobble and freeze half! ) layer in a dish with soaked lasagne sheets to make lasagne
Roll up tortillas filled with bolognese, pop in a dish, cover with cheese and mixed sliced peppers (frozen ready chopped)

Once a week we have a ready meal- I look for reduced yellow stickers and freeze.
Once a week we have an oven meal eg chicken kievs, chips and beans.

Other easy meals are baked potatoes with cheese and salad, boiled egg and soldiers, cooked meats with salad and crudités with bread and butter, spaghetti hoops on toast.

OP - I think the trade off here is variety but at the expense of you going stir crazy (which I assume is happening, hence you posting).
Growing up, a recurring lunch in our house was eggs (scrambled, fried, poached, quick omelette), beans (saute some onion with some cumin/smoked paprika etc before you chuck the beans in to cook), with either a slice of toast or hash browns or something.
You can easily do variations of this (aka brunch type meals), for 5/6 of you, for lunch or dinner! :)