Quick weekday meals for a fast turnaround

[JoanThursday]

I know this one has been done to death and I've searched and found useful threads on here BUT I need ideas!

My 13yo and 10yo both have clubs after school and, between them, we only have two nights a week where we can eat together. Between them they eat pretty much anything ... but just not at the same time.

Soooo one loves baked beans and jacket spuds; the other hates them. One loves fish, the other won't touch it. One is sick of pesto pasta, the other would eat it until the cows come home. You get the idea.

I refuse to cook three separate meals every day. Its difficult to batch cook because we don't have the room for a big enough freezer.

Hit me with your pre-club hunger busting ideas. Am writing the shopping list and quickly losing enthusiasm!

Frozen prepped veg like onions, peppers, garlic etc speeds up the cooking process and saves time.

I do tend to cook a bit extra and freeze a portion for a leftover night but I know that's not always an option when you have limited freezer space.

Quick pasta sauce with either passata or tinned chopped tomatoes with some garlic, herbs and frozen veg thrown in.

Ham, cheese and veg omelette and salad.

Cook a gammon joint on Sunday if/when you have the oven on for a roast. Thinly slice and reheat on a weekday evening with eggs/pineapple oven chips and quick veg.

Stir fry with quick cook noodles.

Do you have time to prep anything earlier in the day?

Stir fry with noodles/microwave rice
Filled pasta from supermarket with whatever sauce
Veg & halloumi wraps
Soup & cheese toastie/tuna melts
Scrambled eggs on toast

I know you don’t have much freezer space but lots of things will keep for days in the fridge in a sealed container so if you’re doing bolognaise/chilli/stew one evening for example you could do extra to be kept and heated on your busier days. No harm for them to eat the same meal twice a week occasionally.

Naan pizzas
Sesame chicken noodles
Hot dogs
Ham and pea pasta
Quick stroganoff
Tomato and spinach gnocchi
Cheese toastie and tomato soup!

Thanks for the ideas! I really appreciate it. I think the problem stems around the kids not liking the same things rather than a lack of recipes themselves. So many of the quick meals are a problem: eg only one likes eggs, the other won't eat noodles, youngest hates cheese and baked beans, but likes fish, which the eldest won't eat etc etc etc. I need to find quick versions of the meals they will both eat!

Having said that, the quick stroganoff looks to be a winner!

Pasta with a stir in sauce and a tin of tuna or with creme fraiche, cooked salmon and peas

Potato waffles cooked in the toaster, baked beans and fried egg

Soup ( I make a batch at the weekend sometimes), bread and cheese, and a veggies plate (carrots, Peppers, cucumber, celery etc) with dip

Quesadillas made in the frying pan with tortilla wraps and filled with grated cheese, leftover chicken, ham, tuna, tomato puree, herbs and served with salad that can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.

We've got this tomorrow

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pasta-e-fagioli

Everything is chopped in the fridge ready, pasta weighed out etc. I'll shove it on first thing when I go to work and then put sausages in the air fryer for the carnivores to eat alongside

I hear you. We have similar problems.

Chicken burgers work quite well here - either crumbed chicken breasts I cook in the air fryer or a use thin chicken breasts and fry them. Then the accompaniments differ - DD has hers with fries, cucumber and avocado. The rest of us have ours with fries and a proper salad.

Spaghetti bolognaise is one I do a lot. I either cook it at lunch and then it's a big pot on the stove with everyone getting fresh cooked pasta or I do it in the slow cooker. Spaghetti and meatballs is another favourite (and for those who won't eat bolognaise/meatballs - they can have their pasta with pesto?)

"Tacos" doesn't work for DD who won't eat anything with actual flavour but I know lots of families who find this a good choice - and everyone chooses their own extras.

Another one that works if I have time to put it on earlier is chicken tray bakes or a whole roast chicken. I do these with new potatoes and vegetables rather than in the form of anything fancy. The veg can be quickly steamed on demand or I just microwave as needed to heat things up.

Instant pot for
Stew
Rice dishes. We do mexican rice A LOT!
Mashed potato and..

Fried rice. You can use packets of microwave rice (to save having to cook and cool rice) and just chuck whatever you fancy in it.

We have three clubs a week so I have a few go to dishes;
Sweetcorn and chorizo fritters
Bombay potato cakes (we have with poached egg but could do without)
Pan fried Gnocchi with bacon and cherry tomatoes
Leftovers fried rice
Quesadillas

There are two relatively new cookbooks I'm using too which have widened my repertoire for these nights- the new Jamie Oliver One has some great quick ideas, and Persiana Everyday by Sabrina Gayhour is a little bit more lengthy but loads of good ideas.

Do you have an air fryer? Because one thing I use mine for a lot these days is for things like fish cakes or chicken kievs or crumbed chicken/fish. The big benefit is that I can do the veggies and potatoes on the stove and then cook the meat in the air fryer as needed. It's not unusual for me and DS to have fish cakes while DD and DH have something chicken based.

Obviously, not ideal if you want all your food to be cooked from scratch. But it's a helpful option for us when we're all coming in at different times.

Also, I sometimes cook different meals from same ingredients because DD can be fussy. So for example I'll cook a couple of sausages in the air fryer for DD. Meanwhile, I'll use the sausages as a base for a quick pasta sauce for the rest of us. Then cook the pasta. DD will have her sausages with pasta pesto and the rest of us will have the pasta and sauce.

My foster son has clubs/sports activities on 4 evenings and he often has an omelette. He also likes to those meaty steak and kidney puddings in a tin. Remove lid and 3 mins in microwave. I realise no veg but he often munches on carrot sticks as a snack. It is very filling.

Tell them they can take turns choosing the meals. If there are too many they don't like, then tough - they'll have to compromise or stay hungry.

I have 'quick contact ok snacks' in a drawer of the fridge. They aren't a whole meal but can be gulped between engagements and the meal then split.
So, this morning before work I made panini with a cheese and ham stir in pasta sauce, ham, roasted peppers, mozzarella and pesto. Wrapped them individually and left the toastie maker on the side.
There are some home made veg pasties and some hard boiled eggs as well as some bagged salad DD will just eat salad if I don't give something with it).
Also there are microwave cups of soup in the freezer .
Every time I make a 'soft dinner' (something in a sauce) I box up a portion. (Stew and dumplings, chilli and rice etc) so we have one person meals at 5 minutes notice.
It is harder without freezer space, but that means you just offer less choice and be more defined in your offerings.
If one eats baked potato with beans, the other can have potato with cheese without beans: it is still essentially the same meal.

Is it the jacket they don’t like?what about wedges.job cooked.roasted

stir in tomato sauce with pasta and frankfurters is a winner

pastry pizza slice

enchilAdas
sweet and sour
stir fry with rice
sausage and bean casserole
burgers
meatballs
cheese on toast
fish fingers
shepherds or cottage pie
mince tortilla stack cake
pastys
hash
tortilla
frittata
mac and cheese
soup

Soooo one loves baked beans and jacket spuds; the other hates them. One loves fish, the other won't touch it. One is sick of pesto pasta, the other would eat it until the cows come home. You get the idea.

Ha! Do you have my children there, OP? One of mine is a pescatarian and the other less keen on fish which is a pain. But if I choose the rest of the meal wisely I can often do both fish & chicken as a protein as the main part suits both e.g. chicken tray bake & salmon tray bake in same oven..

Successes for quick to assemble for us:

Things in buns - burgers (including breaded chicken or breaded fish), sloppy joes or meatball subs, panini-style etc.

Similar to above, Things in wraps - fajitas, quesadillas etc

Chunky soup-stews e.g. sweetcorn chowder, minestrone with pasta or just random portions of different soups so everyone gets one they like from the freezer, served with toasties or quesadillas.

Also, variations on a pasta theme like the freezer soups - defrost individual tomato sauce or cheese sauce if the other one wants pesto, serve with same veg e.g. broccoli & spinach.