Easy, cook in advance, week night recipes

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My partner has changed jobs and is now having to go into the office more often which means I’m on my own for nursery collection, dinner and bedtime with my toddler 3 nights a week. I really can’t cook on my own with him around, he will drape himself round my legs and want picking up/ playing with.

I’m also working full-time. Please tell me your secrets! How do you manage to get dinner in this scenario? Do you batch cook on weekends? What recipes are great for this? (We’re pescatarian)

I do a mixture of batch cooked and super quick meals. So at the weekend I might do double portions of chilli, spag Bol etc (you could use Quorn mince) then one night we might have something like chicken Kiev and chips, or pizza, which just need putting on a tray, or something like tuna wraps/baguettes, that fresh stuffed pasta etc.

A slow cooker is useful in that scenario, especially as most of the vegetarian slow cooker recipes are just ‘chuck it all in and leave it’ - they don’t require browning of the meat.

Here are some of my best batch cook and freeze recipes:
Fish pie www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/family-meals-easy-fish-pie-recipe
Lasagne www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/roasted-vegetable-and-lentil-lasagne/
Butterbean stew realfood.tesco.com/recipes/butter-bean-and-tomato-stew-with-garlic-bread.html
Bean burgers www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/burgers/veggie-burgers
Sweet potato curry https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sweet-potato-and-chickpea-curry/

look up The Batch Lady on Instagram / website. Completely changed the way I cook! A bit of effort at the weekend will mean you can grab something out if the freezer each night to heat up

I batch cook at the weekend. Last weekend, it was a batch of fishcakes (I also make crispy veg fingers). This week, it'll be something like the butterbean stew above which can either be defrosted and topped with mash and grated cheese or served with rice.

I've tried paninis too - idea is to defrost and make toasties with them to go with home made soup. Hoping they work because they were really easy to shape and bake.

Do you work from home or out of the home? I am at home and quite often spend 30 minutes preparing a meal over lunch that can just be reheated at dinner. Eg, today I'm doing roasted cauliflower with a satay sauce and rice but as I'm rushing around to various kids activities and DH is out, I'm making the sauce a bit later today and will prep the cauliflower and put it in the air fryer ready to go. Then at some point I'll put the rice on and turn on the air fryer, reheat the sauce and 15 minutes later we'll be eating.

Other things I do this sort of thing for regularly include:

Spag bol (leave it simmering on stove while I'm working)
Fajitas - usually just cook the chicken/halloumi as we're about to eat.
Mince and noodles - again, might do the noodles at the end as I'm reheating the mince.
Pasta sauces - usually I'll cook the pasta fresh but if I know we're all eating at different times I'll make the pasta, mix it with the sauce and accept the slightly soggier version when we reheat it.

I've also in the past done a lot of things like crumbed chicken breasts or fish cakes that I can heat up in the air fryer - so all I have to do is boil some vegetables.

Most of this, of course, only works if you're at home during the day!

I used to have a high chair in the kitchen so DC could watch me cook, I'd give them something to do eg veg to wash (even if we weren't actually going to eat that veg, hee hee) or peelings or utensils to play with.

Could give you 10 minutes to get something ready without losing your mind

Thank you!

Do you all have big freezers or do you manage to do this with a small freezer?

@SpaceOP talk to me about your air fryer! I want one but my concerns are:

• I’m not a great cook, if it’s complicated I might end up not using it
• Counter space - we don’t have much of it!

@Cynderella do you have a recipe for the crispy veg fingers? And if you make fish cakes do you cook them before you freeze or just mix raw fish and mashed potato and breadcrumbs and freeze at that point?

I am a big fan of my air fryer because of the convenience and speed.

I have a ninja single drawer one. Most people.like 2 drawers but with v limited space I went with one drawer, that's quite large (not quite big enough for a whole chicken but if I was inclined - I'm not - I could do a poissen in mine).

I find it fantastic as a way to speed up dinner, especially if we are all eating different things or at different times. Eg I might do a crumbed chicken breast fillet and chips for dd while cooking on the stove for the rest of us. In fact, because I use it dor that mostly, I sometimes wish I had an even bigger one - still single drawer but big enough for a whole chicken or so. A friend has a tefal one like that.

I did my cauliflower last night (enough for 2 of us). Sausages for dd the night before and some "roast" potatoes on Monday. That was good asdd won't eat potatoes unless roasted so it was handy - I manages to fit enough in for all of us, used less oil and even with pre boiling it took about 25 minutes. I would do it the traditional way for a "proper" roast dinner but for a Monday night, this was great.

Also, I am starting to think the whole.frawer thing is part of the advantage. I did a small sirloin roast in there a few weeks ago. It was so handy just yanking.out the drawer to check it ans knowing it would get back up to temp super quick.

On a Sunday I generally make a curry. A bolognaise and something like a fajita mix to go in wraps. Lasts for three days in the fridge and just have to cook rice and pasta.

Fish cakes: bag of haddock fillets cooked and flaked and some mash. Season well and mix with grated cheese. Shape with floured hands and freeze on tray for a little while to make them easier to handle. Get a dish of beaten egg and another of breadcrumbs - I mix breadcrumbs with grated cheese.

Veg fingers: I use mash again, mixed with lightly fried chopped onions and peppers. Can also quickly cook some broccoli, cauliflower, green beans etc if you have them. I also use frozen peas and sweetcorn uncooked. Again, combine mash, grated cheese and mash, shape and chill.

Then it's just dipping the cakes or croquettes in egg and then breadcrumbs. I freeze on a tray until solid and then in bags.

I used to keep DC out of the kitchen with a stairgate when too big for a highchair.

I splurged and got a ninja multicooker (15 in 1) about a year ago; it’s amazing and I cook almost everything in it now (DH reckons I should get commission 😂). Saves on multiple appliances, cheaper to run than the oven, and you can do whole meals (eg. Sausage, mash & veg, or rice, fish & veg etc) in one go, so less washing up. Appreciate you’re pescatarian, but for context sausage & mash takes about 13 mins to cook. Also has slow cook, pressure cook and air fry functions (home made chips 😋).

I also do the following:

• 4 week meal plan with 4 corresponding shopping lists so I don’t have to think too much(!)
• meal plan is based on cooking 4 portions (2 adults eating dinner and lunch the next day per recipe)
• batch cook and freeze some meals, especially DS’s favourites (eg. Mac n cheese) to defrost/microwave from frozen
• prep double of a recipe and freeze one lot (large ikea sandwich bags for the win!) ready to slow/pressure cook, AKA dump meals (Pinterest has lots of info, it’s apparently big in the USA)

All of this has helped me feel like feeding us is less of an impossible task 🤣 I also bought the bored of lunch air fryer and slow cooker books which have been great; lots of the recipes are on Instagram too.

Good luck!

How do you do sausage and mash in one go?! @YorkshireWelsh

The multicooker has a steam meals function and a 2 layer rack inside the pot. You put peeled and diced potato in the bottom with a mix of water, milk and butter, then veg on the bottom layer of the rack (I put it in a shallow cake tin) and sausages on the top. Use the steam meals function and it steams and ‘bakes’ (equivalent to oven cook) at the same time. You can turn the sausages mid way as needed. When it’s finished I take the potato out into a bowl to mash and then if the sausage skins look at all pink (sometimes happens with thick ones!) air fry off (2-3min) whilst I’m mashing the potato….you can put some ready made frozen Yorkshires in to air fry then too.
Peas in the microwave, instant gravy….voila!

Get a playpen.

@MariePaperRoses we do have a gate between the playroom and the kitchen but he tries to climb up it and bangs his head on it in frustration 😬

This sounds delicious! Would you please share your recipe? I love satay

What do you do with the mince that goes with the noodles please?

@dumpling123 @coodawoodashooda sorry, I've been offline so didn't see these posts!

The Satay sauce is a cheat, easy version that is basically:

Couple of tablespoons of Thai red curry sauce in a frying pan and let it bubble for a minute or two (add more/less depending on what strength you want). Then add coconut milk - the original recipe calls for only about 1/3 of a can but I am generous and add most of a can! Then add peanut butter (unsweetened) - I take a dessert spoon and add a good three or 4 heaped ones. Add a bit of water if it's too thick. Get that all mixed together and bubbling. Then season with some sugar and soy sauce. I sometimes add a squeeze of lime because I think lime/lemon improves almost everything! Taste and then add a bit more sugar/salt as needed. Done.

My mince/noodles combo is another "cheat" and in no way authentic. I often use two different pans but basically, it's onions sautéed then add garlic and ginger and chilli. Then add pork mince and brown it off.

Then vegetables are a sort of stir fry of matchstick or thin slices of whatever I have but usually tender stem broccoli, baby corn, carrots, cabbage etc. I'm trying to up the vegetable to meat/noodle ratio currently so might try adding more and/or greater variety. I usually do the veg separately (or remove the mince and do in that pan) then bring all together at the end - depending on volume.

I then create a "sauce" usually with just lime juice and soy sauce and might add a bit of water. I've been known to toss in some hoisin if it's lying around and I keep meaning to try gochujang paste too. The meat/veggie combo isn't wet, the "sauce" is just a bit of extra flavour and stops it from being dry.

I usually use straight to wok noodles which I just cook separately or sometimes I use rice noodles that I've just stuck in boiling water.

If you want some great AF recipes have a look at this book, it is brilliant and isn't the usual chips, chicken and fish type recipies.
Slimming Eats made in the Air Fryer by Siobhan Wightman. It is not a slimming book, just goes easy on the oils etc.
If I had to pick one out it would be Garlice Bread Sausage Rolls or maybe General Tso Chicken. Hard to pick one out.😊

@SpaceOP Thank you very much for the satay sauce recipe! Sounds very manageable - am definitely going to try it 😀