How to feed the family quickly before evening activities?

[pinkginforthewin]

I've been a stay at home parent for 12 years, since my eldest was 2yo. I'm now taking on some part time work one or two evenings a week. That, combined with taking kids to sports things some evenings, means I'm potentially going to be out of the house Mon-Fri from 4:30 most days.

Trying to squeeze in teatime is my issue. I'm not quite looking for recipes, but more methods to get tea on the table by 4pm at the latest. I am out 3:25-3:40 on school run. I'm thinking:

• pasta I can cook in advance and warm up
• get oven food prepped before I leave, switch oven on at 3:25 and put food in when I get back from school run
• use the slow cooker more so I can time stuff to be ready for 4pm

I'm just wondering if there's any obvious easy hacks that other people in this position do? We don't have an air fryer and haven't wanted one up till now - is it a game changer or not? We are a family of 5 so would need a big one I think.

Thank you :)

Another one saying give them a substantial snack e.g. a sandwich at 4pm then do family dinner at 7ish. This could be something left in the slow cooker, a quick meal like fresh pasta or something your husband could sort- couldn’t he stick a pasta bake you’ve made earlier or some jacket potatoes or similar in the oven when he gets home?

I’m in a similar situation my younger 3 all do a lot of sport. Most evenings we are on a really tight turn around after school. Sometimes we ended up eating really early but it works better for us. I’ve been looking into nutrition for teens who do sport and a huge thing is them being under fuelled so we have a proper meal early and either a large healthy snack later or an extra portion of dinner. Eating early means im not standing on the side lines with my tummy rumbling too.

Slow cooker is great for stews/curries etc….
I quite often cook a joint of meat before school pick up and leave it rest wrapped in foil. I have potatoes roasted in the airfrier. I get in give them ten minutes in airfrier to crisp up when I get in, Yorkshires in the other compartment and veg cooking on the hob.
I make and freeze pasta sauce so that’s a quick tea.
I buy the itsu ready made ramen and add cooked chicken, veg and noodles to it ready in ten minutes.

I have this one night a week between after-school childcare and clubs- 30min turnaround to cook and then to eat. I do things like beans on toast, omelettes, cold pasta/rice salads, batch cook bolognese/chilli in advance so just reheating, use oven timer for baked potatoes, picky plates with microwave rice. Not sure if that gives you any ideas.

Chopped cooked chicken with onions and peppers.
flatbread
tzatziki