Meal planning, going from SAHM to working

[Findingthisweekhard]

I start a new job next week after 5 years at home and I’m worrying about meals. I’ll be wfh 2 days and 2 days about an hour commute. I imagine on my office days I won’t have time or energy for meals we’d usually have. The slow cooker seems ideal but we don’t like stew type meals, especially coming in to summer.
any suggestions how I can make my life a bit easier? Not particularly fussy but 3 dcs have a milk allergy (fairly good at sorting alternatives but things like halloumi burgers aren’t so easy to adapt!)

Depending on finances, I find one of the quickest and easiest meals to make at end of day is something like a fried steak/chop/chicken breast /salmon served with boiled new potatoes and veg.

Option 2 is pasta - some kind of pasta sauce cooked while pasta cooks.

Tray bakes are good and easy but do require the time to cook so might be good options for WFH days.

I find the freezer is my friend on office days. I tend make double when I cook at weekends and put half away, and slowly I have built up a good stash of meals. At the moment I have risottos, paella. various vegetable and meat curries, a bean chilli, pasta sauces, and a lasagne. In winter is would be more soups and stews. I take out a meal in the morning and dinner is quick to reheat and all I need to do is boil pasta/rice.

You need the batch lady. Go to her website

How about meal boxes? Have used hello fresh/gousto/green chef.
They all have good new customer offers.
I usually get 3 meals a week from them then just need to cook one meal a week which can be leftovers from the weekend, then Fridays we have something easy like pizza.

Other tips...jacket potatoes cooked the night before then heated in microwave with all different fillings for people to help themselves, batch cook pasta sauces, leftover chicken from a roast in a stir fry. Frozen veg straight from the freezer with a tin of chickpeas and pouches of rice or noodles.

Yes freezer is your friend. In the summer salads / stir fry etc would be great for office days x

I am in a similar situation and I find that the key is getting up an hour early and preparing for dinner (mentally and actually!)

So I make sure the eveningmeal is planned in my head, I prep any veg or meat, Iay out plates and cutlery on the dining table (we eat breakfast in the kitchen). If we are having pasta I make sure it’s sitting in a saucepan ready to be submerged in hot water on the hob etc.

So then when I walk in the door I’m often turning on the grill/oven/kettle before I take off my coat.

Then after I wash my hands the grill/oven/kettle is ready and I can start cooking all that prepared food.

It massively takes the stress and panic out of getting the meal ready.

Is there a partner ? If so divide the work. Slow cooker on office days. Tray bake style on WFH.

So OP is going back to work, but ALSO has to get up an hour earlier because she needs to keep doing all the things she was already doing and getting less sleep is the way to make it better for her?

I appreciate you mean well but I find this sort of response so sad. At the very least, suggest her and her DP alternate getting up earlier to do this.

You just need simple meals and also, realistically, probably need to move dinner later to accommodate the new routine. Dh and I both work and honestly, I don't find it any more challenging to cook. Even if I had a day off, like on the weekends, I'm not using it to prep dinner for the evening. I start cooking every night at 6-7 ish and we eat 7-8 ish. I don't batch cook or use a slow cooker or any of that, but I do plan in a few simpler easy to cook meals a week that can be slotted in when a night is looking particularly dicey - like one dc need to go to Scouts or one of us is working late or something else is happening.

Creamy pasta of some sort with green veg or salad/garlic bread
Eggs (any style) with bacon/sausages, hash browns, toast, fresh fruit
Jackets with salad
Quesadillas with salad (salad is quick and easy!)
Store bought quiche with green veg
Oven fish and chips - salmon with wedges (can cook in air fryer), peas/mushy peas

Most of the above are just whacking one bit of it in to cook or are just generally quick cooking, then salad or steamed veg (also quick) on the side. None of these really need more than 30 minutes cooking.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I always find meal boxes quite time consuming.

DH works 13 hour shifts on a 4 on 4 off rota, so realistically half the week it’s just me and 4 young dcs. My 1 year old goes to bed at 6:15 which I’ll push back if I have to as otherwise I’m only going to have 45 mins to cook, eat, bath and bed her.

i appreciate the getting up early comments but mornings are so stressful getting everyone up, fed, dressed (including me!) and to childcare for 7:30 I think my day would start at 4 if I needed to factor in dinner prep too!

Then plan to do the four days he is on. Do not take on more than half . That drives me nuts why are women always doing 75
% of the work?

So four days, two in office, slow cooker recipes. Prep everything the night before so it it just needs transferring from bowl, fridge to slow cooker. On the two office days salmon, chicken etc some veg, pesto with rice or baked potato.

Keep it simple. Have stand by options e.g. omelettes ready salads, pasta pesto.

Do the DC get a decent lunch at school/ nursery? If so there is no shame in giving them a sandwich or something on toast for tea. Obviously you may not be so keen if they’ve already had sandwiches for lunch. When mine were little that’s pretty much what we always did and DH and I would both have something more substantial from the work canteen and something lighter at dinner time. There was very little actual cooking in an evening.

Husband can do some batch cooking on his days off.
try to make things that involve cooking once and then using leftovers the next day
easy meals such as eggs, beans, toast or jacket potatoes with fillings are quick to do.

We try to get ahead on the weekend by batch cooking. This weekend we had chicken curry. Made double so froze that for another time. And used a spare portion on the curry sauce for a midweek soup - you can bulk it up with precooked rice or lentils, or serve with a naan. So three nights sorted from one cooking session.

We do similar with an Italian hunters chicken dish. Make double to freeze and use a spare portion of sauce as a soup base or as a pasta sauce.

What system will your partner be using on his 50 percent of meal prep days?

Sorry just seen he's 4 on 4 off, in which case he can do all the meal prep on an off day and you can reheat.

Can you list, for yourself, the normal meals you make and batch cook?

pulled pork in the slow cooker, great for summer as not stew like and really versatile. I use it for 3 days worth of meals and doesn’t feel like you are having the same thing. We like it in a roll with coleslaw, wedges and corn on the cob. And then have loaded nachos, a rice bowl, quesadillas, with mashed potatoes and broccoli etc.

i use the taming twins recipe https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-pulled-pork/

pulled pork sounds perfect! I’ve added that to my early morning grocery order for tomorrow before my first day!

DH does do meals when he can but because his shift pattern is 8 days he’s never on/off the same days and we always have a grocery delivery Monday morning ready for lunches. So if he isn’t off until Thursday it gets tricky

So four days in every 8 DH does the cooking?

Not at the moment as he does all the kids after school activities on his off days currently.
He does always prep breakfasts and lunches for me and him for 4 days a week which he will continue

Do you mind eating the same evening meal for two days in a row? Recently we've saved on costs and time by making large pans of staple dishes - lasagne, bolognese, pasta bake, beef stroganoff, curries - and we'll eat it for two nights before portioning off the rest and freezing. It's saved loads of time and money, it sounds simple but has been really effective. Obviously you can do the same for one evening and freeze the rest if you have the space.

We'll get him sorting dinner on his off days. The reduction of the mental load will be a great advantage to you. Going back is tough every tiny thing less gives you the best chance for you to eventually carve some well earned me time.

Sit down together work on it together have it up on the fridge. The reality is making the meal is easy it's the head space time that is the killer.

I know you didn't ask but also consider a couple of plans for when kids are sick etc. Having plans really stops the panic of trying to balance work and home. Best of luck tomorrow.