At my wits end with meal planning, please help!

[clare8allthepies]

This week is an absolute nightmare with my partner playing football 3 nights after work and both kids having extra school events as well as the usual club activities. We’re all going to be in and out at different times every night and I cannot work out how to feed everyone all week.

Twice this week I made chilli as it’s an easily made in advance and quick to reheat meal but I don’t want to sicken everyone of it (plus the youngest won’t touch it). I did think about feeding me and the kids early and then buying a ready meal that my partner can just do quickly when he gets back but dont want to be doing that too often. Does anyone have any genius solutions for me?

What was your husband's suggestions?

Can't your husband sort his own dinner out?!

Tagine (chicken, lamb or chickpea) keeps really well in the fridge (the flavours develop) and couscous is so quick and easy to prepare. Alternatively serve with flatbread if you’re really pushed for time.

Quiche - can be eaten hot or cold, and usually reheats fine. I like this very quick recipe realfood.tesco.com/recipes/speedy-quiche-traybake.html

Naan pizzas www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/recipes/naan-bread-pizza - these only need 12-15 mins in the oven, so you can prep and top them and keep them in the fridge on a baking tray until you need them.

Spag bol reheats well and is even quicker to get on the table if you use quick cook pasta www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/255340327

The Batch Lady

insta, Facebook or recipe books

you need to set aside a couple of weekend days to do a batch cooking sessions and assumes you have a big enough freezer to store

but has truly saved my sanity

as she says, batching is being kind to your future self!

Honestly we have cheapo pizzas in the freezer for just this kind of thing. Pizza and a salad for whoever isn't fitting in with the majority meal sitting, job done. Not ideal for every meal but I assume this isn't every night

I wonder how much your husband is worrying about this?

lots of things can go in the slow cooker: beef strew, curry etc etc. Lots of things can just be reheated for the late eater.

it’s hard to say without knowing what you all like.

Does anyone have any genius solutions for me?

taming twins slow cooker meals, she also does dump bags - so you could prepare three dump bags and just have them int he fridge real to go in the slow cooker each morning. Or set a timer for it to come on later and just pop on keep warm for your dp

Then you all eat the same food but at different times

use microwave rice or make rice and microwave portions later on

Ive made her beef enchilada and liked it, chicken enchilada not so much, the beef and broccoli dish is delish, the beef casserole is divine and the sweet and sour chicken is next on my list

Omelettes
One pot slow cooker meals- casseroles, curries, spag Bol mince, soup, Dahl, etc etc. just spoon out and serve with carbs and salad.

Bung a few jacket spuds when you've got the oven on and keep in the fridge for lunches, mash, quick meal.

I discovered this blog for slow cooker recipes a month ago and it’s transformed how our family of 4 (incl very fussy 6 yo) are eating each week. All the recipes seem to turn out very well. Here’s my fave www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-curried-chicken-noodles/

Pesto pasta salad with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella pearls is equally tasty eaten hot or cold.

Veggie curry is quick and safe to reheat and you can make the process easier by serving with microwave rice or naan bread.

Salmon burgers - thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/mary-berry-salmon-and-dill-burger/ These take about 10 mins maximum to actually cook, so you could prepare them in advance and leave on a plate in the fridge.

I made her sweet & sour chicken on the weekend and it was really good!

It’s a bit unclear from your post what exactly your problem is. Nearly everything can be reheated. Or you can cook and freeze in portions. Or you can use frozen things - they are easy to make various portions and in a way they are my magic solution.

In our house it would be something reheated or eating cold ( e.g oven baked drumsticks) plus something fresh cooked ( rice, pasta). Easy salad (some leaves from the bag plus tomato plus cucumber) or frozen vegetables. I’ll focus on DC and then adapt the rest for grown ups.

Thank you for all the advice, its really appreciated. Loads of the meals we often eat such as pasta dishes, chicken sharwarma, wraps and salad, fish and chips, homemade pizza aren’t really things that reheat well. I follow the batch lady, I can’t think why that didn’t occur to me this morning but I was trying to make a shopping list while attempting to get to school on time and just panicked! I’ll check out the taming twins too.

I've been to Tesco and this is the plan for the week so far: tonight I’m going to do sweet and sour chicken balls, fried rice and chow mein for me and the kids and he has a curry ready meal for later on. I’ve got a load of chicken thighs to make a chicken, chorizo and chickpea stew type thing, a big pack of diced beef to make either a regular beef stew or goulash and a big pack of nice sausages which will probably be with mash, veg and gravy. I did think about sausage casserole but I think we might be a bit stewed out by that point! I didn’t get anything for lunches so I’ll have freezer tapas each day to make a bit of room to freeze leftover portions of the above.

As for my partner he doesn’t seem to give 2 shits. When I’ve pointed out before that him coming home late is bloody inconvenient he just shrugs and says ‘cook whatever you want, I’ll just microwave it when I get home’. He thinks this is being helpful but it’s not!

As for my partner he doesn’t seem to give 2 shits. When I’ve pointed out before that him coming home late is bloody inconvenient he just shrugs and says ‘cook whatever you want, I’ll just microwave it when I get home

So just do that? I don't see the issue.

Pasta, the protein element of sharwarma, wraps etc microwave fine and he can just assemble from leftovers. Fish and chips aren't too bad either, and if he has no complaints, then why give it headspace?

Salad obviously is eaten cold, as could pizza, or he could reheat using the frying pan/grill method.

You're overthinking and making too much work/hassle for yourself when it's not needed.

It sounds like you're creating a problem for yourself where there isn't one. If your husband is happy to eat something heated up in the microwave that's a bit soggy / sad because it's not a microwave-suitable food, what's the issue? Let him crack on with that and just cook whatever you would have cooked anyway.

Why should it on you to think about what go feed the family every night though and not him?

I'm going to assume that you are broadly happy with doing all the meal planning and cooking as if you're not, that's a different conversation. But I would absolutely 100% take him at his word - if he doesn't care, then don't worry about whether the food is perfect or reheats well for him.

Things we do on nights like this where everyone is at different points - I had a thread about it too -

Tacos - the shells can be heated in the airfryer in 2 minutes but if you don't have one, assuming you and the DC are eating together, you can heat the oven up for them and he can figure it out.

Fajitas - wraps just get nuked as needed and everything else reheated/kept cold.

Chicken kievs or fishcakes - but I concede this is helpful as we have the air fryer so it's quick.

"no cook" pasta - cook penne and at the very end add a bag of spinach to wilt. Reserve a cup of the cooking liquid. In a bowl mix tub of ricotta, lemon zest, olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper and parmesan cheese. Add this to the cooked pasta and spinach with some of the cooking water and it's done. DH can nuke his when he gets home.

Chicken tray bakes - served with mashed potato and veg. Easily microwaved as needed but do take a bit of time to cook so depends on if you have that time.

Any other pasta dish as really, all can be reheated notwithstanding what Italian chefs will have you believe.

Anything in a sauce works well, curries, stews etc reheat fine

As for my partner he doesn’t seem to give 2 shits. When I’ve pointed out before that him coming home late is bloody inconvenient he just shrugs and says ‘cook whatever you want, I’ll just microwave it when I get home’. He thinks this is being helpful but it’s not!

Why is it not helpful? He doesn't mind reheating whatever you cook, so just cook what suits you and the children and leave a portion for him for later .