What do you feed primary kids at 7:30pm after sports club?

[dontsweatthestuff]

DS8 is tall, slim and very active. He does sport twice a week after school. One night he gets home at 7:30pm. He will have beans or egg on toast before training but is starving when he comes back as he's burnt loads of calories but often he is too tired for a big meal so I don't know what to give him. He also needs to fit in a shower before bed.

He often refuses porridge. I do give him cereal/toast but he has that for breakfast plus some days that seems like a lot of bread?

He is always on the go and complains that school dinners are too small. Breakfast is his big meal of the day. He eats loads then.

Have another child who likes different foods so I'm finding these evenings a bit difficult to plan.

He loves beige food and will eat his veg and carbs before the meat (often leaves most of it).

Mine isn't primary any more but when she was (gymnast), she would usually eat more of a main meal before training and then have like yoghurt and fruit, or cereal, or similar afterwards. There were plenty of times she would eat pasta salads etc in the car on the way to training.

Now she's in high school it's a bit easier as she has a little more time at home before training so will eat something like pasta, chilli, curry, stew etc before she goes at about 430 and will take a squares bar in case shes hungry while out then will eat a protein bar, fruit, toast, whatever about 930 or 10 when she gets in.

Carbs.

If he's been active with sports, he's going to be famished at that age. So, pasta with more pasta and less sauce (cold pasta salad, hot ravioli with just a little sauce and filled pasta shapes etc). Or a jacket potato with less filling and more potato. Rice and chili. Fried rice. Chinese noodles with chicken and veg. Burrito with rice filling. Pizza slices with basic toppings.

Make a big thing before you go out to collect him so it's ready for when he gets in. 15 minutes to eat, straight into the shower and bed.

Something like Bolognese with pasta. You can make whole thing including pasta and put his in a dish in fridge. Microwaves easily when home

Mine comes home from an activity one evening a week at about 8:15pm. She has dinner before she leaves and then more dinner when she gets home. If she didn't want round 2 of dinner, then she can have some toast or fruit.

Mine has an early proper dinner before training (tonight it's lasagne) then something quick & easy like scrambled eggs on toast or a wrap when he gets home at 8pm.

What time does the training start? I'd consider giving him his main meal before trainingif you can make it work, and then the beans on toast/eggs when he gets home. Particularly if he's starving when he gets home as school dinners aren't substantial enough. Other things that can work for later snacks are muffins - find a few recipes that are less cupcake-like and include oats/wholemeal flour/vegetables with less sugar etc and that ideally can be frozen so you can do a big batch at a time - or overnight oats (I make some for DS in the morning for him to eat in the afternoon/evening). Or frittata - no one will eat them around here but if they did, I'd definitely go that route. we also keep protein bars (I buy the Be Kind ones - expensive but better quality) or make bars myself and freeze them.

DS is older so he's happy to eat his main meal when he gets back but we regularly do fairly substantial "snacks" beforehand as he often eats very little at school. Things like some kind of fajita in a wrap, or something I can cook in the airfryer and put in a baguette/roll/wrap like a crumbed chicken breast fillet or chunky fish fingers, with some added salad/chopped veg.

When we need to do a quick but filling meal for DD we go with something like:

• Crumpets with scrambled, poached or fried eggs
• Microwave rice with tuna, mayo and sweetcorn
• Microwave plain pasta with cheese, butter, peas and sweetcorn
• Omelette with onion, peppers, mushroom and ham
• soup and toasted cheese sandwich

Following because I have the same situation with my DS. The default after clubs is toast, crumpets or toasted hot cross bun, but not sure they are filling him up enough! He has dinner before he goes out.

Do you do a roast in the week? Make your roast larger.

Whizz veges including lots of onion and garlic in the processor and cook gently. Whizz leftover meat from the roast and gravy. Mix the meat and veges, a tbs of flour and season.

Then it’s just a matter of what to do. Savoury mince on toast (an Australian classic https://www.google.com/search?q=savoury+mince+on+toast+au&rlz=1C9BKJA_enAU811AU811&oq=savoury+mince+on+toast+au&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIGCAMQIRgVMgcIBBAhGJ8F0gEIOTUyN2owajeoAgCwAgA&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1), a dash of Dolmio to make it Italian, some mash over the top, a sheet of pastry cut to size over or to make sausage rolls.

DS could spend an hour in the kitchen each weekend sorting some of this as part of his sport management routine.

Are you suggesting putting leftover roast meat in the blender with some gravy 😱?? And mixing that up with leftover roasted veggies puréed in the blender?? The child in question is 8yo (and even if he were 8 months old …. just no!).

chicken in a wrap
eggs on toast
lentil and ham soup or a variation thereof with whole meal toast

on a bad day, a chip shop trip

Peanut butter sandwich is my go to in circumstances like this. Could have banana/jam/choc spread in it as well. Maybe a smoothie or juice on the side or even some milk/milkshake.

My DD has similar eggs and toast or small pasta meal before club then about 7.30 when she gets home has pudding eg bananas and custard. Bread and butter or cookie pie etc. Her club is too active to eat proper meal before like potatoes and meat or large pasta meal she would feel sick.

DD did a sport when she was young, training was later and an hour drive from home. Thursday night became pizza night. Shoved a pizza in the oven while she had shower and got into pj's. Then tv, sofa and pizza to relax.