Are you a supermum? I need your help to organise my meals!

[hobnob57]

At risk of outing myself as a slovenly mother, I really need your help...
We are a working family. I have to bring work home in the evenings too. We do struggle generally with being imaginitive with meals and have a tendency to eat the same things for a couple of days on the trot if portions allow, to give us a night off cooking. And the same things week in, week out.

I've just bought a new toddler recipe book to give me inspiration for inclusive family meals and am balking at the meal planner. I thought it was just an Annabel Karmel phenomenon that one is meant to spend all day every day shopping for fresh ingredients and cooking up gourmet delights, but this book (which is written by dieticians and has much more achievable recipes in general) still has loads of recipes which can take an hour or more to prepare, and with such a wide variety of ingredients over the week.

Am I alone in feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to ensure my toddler has a snowball's chance of eating a properly balanced diet? Does everyone else except me have time to make up a mammoth weekly shopping list tailored to specific meals and have brain space left to think about what the leftovers may be and what to do with them so that it all doesn't turn into an expensive waste of food? Do all the other toddlers out there get wonderfully lavish diets?

I'm looking for sympathy, I suppose - that, or an almighty kick up the arse (but please tell me how you manage it!). And ideas on how to do a family tea as soon after 5pm as possible, when we get in the door at 4:50 would be gratefully received!

Message withdrawn

Doing grand thanks Christiana, although just got AF back and having weird pains. Other than that we are all fine.

DD really needs food before 5:30, so at the moment I heat up individual portions of frozen bolognaise as you suggested, egg soldiers & veg, or whatever else I can think of /have prepared. But it's not that varied, and heavily reliant on frozen veg. DH and I eat later - he cooks while I do bath & bed. We are both generally shattered when we get in, but DD obviously wants her mummy and daddy time and is quite demanding. We would much rather zonk on the sofa with a cup of tea for half an hour's down time before thinking about the kitchen. We want to get into a routine where DH's cook time is actually for the next day, and we can eat together when we get in which may help to perk us up a bit, as well as give us energy for the bedtime routine which can be a real physical trial (not because DD is a nightmare, just in terms of finding an ounce of energy to enjoy it).

Hi ,

I also batch cook as does my dh on our days off and have cottage pie,fish pie,fishcakes,vegetable lasagne,moussaka,chilli,home made pizza bases in the freezer which I get out the night before when working.

My youngest ds is 2 and likes all of these.We never make just one of these dishes but always cook double with one to eat and one for the freezer.

Also do chicken thigh/breast roasted in a hot oven for 25 minutes with rosemary and garlic and olive oil and griddled salmon with spaghetti and peas with lemon juice.Stir frys quick as well with egg fried rice and mix of fresh and frozen veg.

Jacket potato in the microwave with cheese or beans,omlette for us and eggy bread for ds,sausages and mash are quick meals.We have pasta with pesto and peppers or with cheese grated in with some bacon and peas added.

We also have risotto quite alot (butternut squash,asparagus ,chicken and pea)- although it does take 20/25 mins to cook it is easy just stirring and is a good comfort food.

We eat together by doing this and probably eat more 'nursery type' food than dh and I would do by ourselves but we have Friday nights as our eating alone later 'grown up meal night' .

I think we eat well and I work full time but it definately needs time just to sit down and menu plan to ensure it is varied with red meat,chicken,mince,fish and vegetarian meals.You also need to do a few weeks at a time to make sure you aren't just eating the same things all the time and getting bored.

Meal planning makes you look at the weekly food to ensure it looks balanced and helps me do a quick online shop and it does make it easier during the week.It makes sure you have very little waste.

The 'Dinner Lady' cook book is good for basic food recipes which children like.

Who looks after your dd during the day? Does she eat well?

I only ask because my ds 2.3 months attends full day nursery which has fresh hot lunches cooked on site with a tea in the afternoon. I can tell from his contact book that he eats well. At home, I just give him a cut down version of what dh and I eat eg plain rice with sausage or pasta or bread, just so he has something to eat at the table. He may or may not eat it.

In other words, we don't cook specially for him.

I'm not a supermum by any stretch of the imagination! Also totally struggling with this particular problem, but for slightly different reasons:
DH works away, and I work ft with a 14mo. I pick him up, and have a couple of hours in which to play or prepare an elaborate and impressive meal for both of us. I prefer to spend the time playing, so he gets a lot of jarred food. Plus he's usually whingey if I'm preparing food and he's hungry. But as with blueshoes he does get decent homecooked food at nursery or my Mum's house.

I do sometimes do batches of things and cook in advance etc, but I might have the answer for you, hobnob!

The Kitchen Revolution. Ta daaaaa!

A friend swears by it, and I'm dying for it...but only when they do a vegetarian version! They plan your menu for a week, but re-use stuff and you don't have to buy random expensive items (eg spices) to use once then moulder in the cupboard. Sounds perfect for me because I'm not a creative cook, and basically need the prescribed method. I'm also quite OCD and that really appeals to that side of me!

p.s. just to stress, I don't 'manage it' (any of what you describe!) but I aspire to it...

I totally sympathise, I am a crap cook and have no aptitude for it at all. I'm just no good at getting organised enough to have all the ingredients in and the time to make it.

Tend not to think about tea until about 5pm

I know one mum who has a weekly meal planner so she knows exactly what to get when she goes shopping. Says it cuts her bills too. Keep meaning to try it.

I have one cook book that is brilliant - students veggie cookbook by carolyn humphries. It is full of easy, cheap, stock-cupboard meals that are healthy too. Instead of complicated recipes full of weird ingredients that you just don't keep in, they are simple, good meals that take almost no time.

I'm not a foody, so I just wish I could by bags of dried food that is 100% nutritionally balanced like you can for cats! That would suit me fine...

Ooooh but one thing I forgot - slow cooker!

You bung everything in in the morning and by 5ish it is ready to eat.

I buy bags of frozen chunky veg and add som new potatoes, half a cup of boullion or other stock, and pile a bag of frozen quorn pieces (again, veggie, but sure you could do the same with chicken etc) and leave it on all day. It's like a pot roast. Takes literally 5 mins to prepare and gives a really nice home cooked meal ready when you come home.

Slow cookers are genius - the only challenge is remembering to put them on in the morning!

This is my biggest challenge too as a busy mum of three kids under seven. Sorry to be depressing but there is no secret - if you want to cook from scratch it's hard graft and you need to be really organised. Buy online from supermarket and top up when you can. If you can eat altogether as a family then you only have to prepare one meal each night. Cook double quantities of anything you can and freeze. Try doing your cooking mainly at the weekend and only reheat previously cooked meals on weekday nights or else cook super speedy things like pasta. Consider cooking escalopes of chicken or pork as they cook very quickly or stir fries. My kids love low sodium soy sauce for stir fries. Homemade rocket pesto with pasta on its own or with chicken or salmon is our quickest homemade meal. For the pesto zap a bag of rocket, olive oil, lemon juice and half a bag of pine nuts in food processor while you cook the pasta. I recommend giving your toddler crudites eg sticks of carrot and celery with tomato ketchup and mayonnaise dip to keep them going while you cook. I have also recently learnt to preprepare bags of chicken strips in breadcrumbs in freezer to cook in oven with oven chips for kids in half an hour on return from work.Good luck.

Hi

All of the above is fantastic and I try to do a lot of what people have said.

I cook for 2 dc, dm and dgm and dh and me each day and it has to be ready for 5pm. I've found that I do a long list of meals for the month once a month and then have a list of what i need each week. I try to buy extra on things like pies or fish fingers or something I know that I can freeze and use up over the month and the menu does change occasionally.

Slow cookers are great and also Jacket Potatoes work really well, especially if you can set your timer on your oven. No work involved really. Once a week it's really helpful to have nothing to do and hardly any washing up.

Spend perhaps 1 afternoon a month on making up batches of sauces and soups.

Don't forget you can do roasts in the slow cooker as well as casseroles and soups. Lots of options.

Pancakes with different fillings. You can also use pancake batter for toad in the hole, yorkshire puds ( do a large one and fill with veg and gravy), and fritters. We do Sweetcorn fritters mostly with an added tin of sweetcorn but you can add anything you like sweet or savoury.

I love doing a monthly order and knowing what I'm cooking, saves money and I can plan to do special meals on certain nights and easy meals when I know we're most busy or DH is cooking. He likes to know to so he can look up recipes and think of extra puddings.

Just as an idea over the next few weeks we are having the following:
Macaroni Cheese
Halibut, potatoes and veg
Fish Pie
Jacket Potato
Swedish Meatballs and Mash
Chicken and Garlic soup
ham & cheese macaroni
tagliatelli & salmon
Cod
Pasta Soup
Fish cakes
spinach & 3 cheese canneloni
spag bol
toad in the hole
chicken & sweetcorn soup
fish pasta bake
pizza
jacket potatoes
fish & chips
lasagne
potato, leek & bacon soup
corned beef hash
roast chicken
paella
tuna & pasta bake
cauliflower cheese

Good luck and most of it does come down to planning and doing as much as you can before you go to work or the night before. If your oven has a timer it's really handy.