If you are out at church on Sunday morning, how do you cook Sunday lunch?

[blithedance]

This has taxed me all our married life. We are normally out at church between 10am and 12.30pm on a Sunday.

Proper Mothers like my MIL manage to put a Sunday roast on the table withing half an hour of getting home, although the meat does tend to be awfully well cooked. I have bottled out of this and our Sunday lunch is usually homemade soup or beans on toast with a proper meal in the evening. But somehow it doesn't seem right having an evening roast.

What do any other churchgoers do?

Slow cooker.

You can roast anything in it better than you can in the oven, or vary it with caseroles etc.

Stick it on as soon as you get up and come home to domestic goddessery.

My mum used to put the oven on very low with the roast in, and turn it as soon as we got home, potatoes and veg used to be prepared and just need boiling when we got in (or if having roast potatoes par boiled before we left, then put straight in the oven as soon as we got home).

Our church is 1000-1115. DH (i/c roasts) can generally get it sorted by 1.30.
You need a church that finishes earlier basically.

Have a Buddhist DH who can make it while you're out

I start cooking when I get home but it often means that we don't have lunch until 2.30pm but it isn't a big deal for us.

My boys are still fairly young and we tend to have chicken breasts instead of a whole roast chicken because there is a lot less waste and none of us are that keen on leg meat

Either that or a little bit of pork or beef, neither of which take more than an hour to cook.

If you have a big family or have a larger piece of meat for left overs then it isn't really feasible.

I suppose part of the trick is to do as much as possible before hand, e.g. have the potatoes par boiled, the veg all cut up, meat in the fridge but already in the pan to put in the oven.

I would love to know how other people manage to do it and still get it on the table before 2pm though.

Our service is 10.00 - 11.15 ish. I prepare everything beforehand, and one of us (we're in walking distance) slinks out of afterservice coffee to turn the oven on if necessary. Can usually eat by 1.15 ish

Cat- lightbulb moment! Just never got into using the timer I guess - thanks!

DH cooks it, but usually for teatime. (we've alway eaten a Sunday roast around 5ish if we have one).

We don't have a roast if he's at work (often works weekends).