Cooking for kids / making life easier

[BadlyNeedsMakeover]

I did a search for something unrelated but came across an old thread (2002) about mealtimes being stressful and after all the effort and prep, the dbs throwing it all on the floor, or not eating it etc.

There were lots of answers to the tune of stop putting so much effort in, just give them healthy easy things (bread, ham, cheese, fruit, veg, yogurt etc) without rustling up a domestic goddess meal every time.

This really struck a chord with me as I feel like I spent all my time thinking about meals, planning them, shopping for them and cooking them - also with mixed results from dcs (5yo and 14 mo). I'm pretty fed up with it and also need to start working again soon - freelance, but still - will have less time for domestic goddessness. This thread sort of made me feel that I have permission (stupid, I know) to take an easier route sometimes.

I'm always trying to write a meal plan but then am exhausted just looking at it - all those meals, all that cooking! I feel like I'm either always using db's nap time to cook, or am trying to cook with him hanging off my trouser legs.

I think what I'm after is some sort of balance - ie some more effortful meals and some superquick easy (but still healthy) ones inbetween. Have any of you managed this? Any tips/example plans?

Would be very grateful for any help, I'm pretty fed up with this relentless cooking.

I do a lot of cooking in my slow cooker and then freeze it up, so whenever we're going to be pushed for time for tea, I get out a chilli, bolognaise, casserole etc out of the freezer in the morning, then just do the rice or pasta etc and veg (which I've already peeld and chopped) when we get in. I freeze small portions of mash too which is much quicker to microwave than doing mash from scratch.

Other than that, there's nothing wrong with an omlette, or scrambled egg on toast, pasta in sauce or a sandwich.

I know what you mean. I do lots of batch cooking - so the dc's have homecooked food every day, but I don't actually have to cook it every day iyswim. Lots of things work for this - lasagne, stews, anything in a white or cheese sauce, fish cakes etc. Even mashed potato can be done in big batches, frozen, and reheated. DH and I eat later in the evening - we usually have one reheated freezer meal (chilli or curry or whatever), leftover roast from Sunday one night, salad with something easy like mackerel fillets or feta one night, a stir fry one night etc.

You are doing the right thing cooking healthy stuff from scratch - it is really worth it. Don't let it get you down though, and fishfingers and beans are ok every now and then to give you a break!

Thanks - yes, I think this is what I need to do. More batch cooking and freezing, so they're getting homemade food but I'm not cooking from scratch at every meal, which is what I'm pretty much doing at the moment.

Apart from weekends, I never do anything that takes more than 20 minutes in the kitchen. So we either have something home-cooked from the freezer with some freshly cooked veg, or something really simple like eggs or pasta salad.
I work outside the home but even when I was SAHM it was pretty much the same. I'd rather do things with the children. Plus if I've put less effort it, it's easier to stay calm when they turn their noses up!

The slow cooker has entirely transformed our mealtimes.

I used to be exactly how you described - frazzled, irritable and overworked trying to cook good meals - just to have them rejected and spend 30 minutes clearing up (floor, kitchen, child...).

With the slow cooker, I no longer need to be juggling hot pans and baking trays with 'little helpers' around my ankles. I just walk into the kitchen, ladle it out, and leave it on 'warm' for my DH to help himself later.

I do all the cooking for the day before breakfast. I have to rise a bit earlier, but I find it quite a nice time to get my head together (listening to the radio, cup of coffee, no one yabbering at me).

Meal planning (at least for evening meals) also helps. It's hard at first, but if you don't put pressure on yourself to make the meal plan too 'aspirational', you get into the groove. I have a rough pattern that goes as follows:

Tuesday: Grocery delivery food (i.e. something that comes easy-to-eat from the shop precooked salmon/stir fry/ nice steamed veg)
Wednesday; Some kind of salad (pasta salad/potato salad)
Thursday: Red meat (DH's night with the boys, and he doesn;t eat red meat)
Friday: Curry or Chilli
Saturday: Low prep food like omelette or fish fingers - in case we decide to eat out on the spur of the moment
Sunday: Roast dinner in the slocker
Monday: Wraps or similar to use up left over meat.

My eldest can read now, and enjoys checking out the menu. Sometimes she'll sit down with me on a Monday night and pick something out of her childrens cookbook. This makes the dinner less 'Mummy vs' and more of a collaborative feel.

Batch cook and use the slow cooker allot.
i do more than i need and always freeze a portion. so if i make a bolognaise in the slow cooker, i freeze a third, thats a free meal the following week.

Often do easy teas, scrambled eggs/omlette or toasties.
meal plan every week, and shop for those things (this has cut my food shopping bill by 3/4)

I also use my cookery books. You know, the ones you bought years ago and shove on a shelf and never look at again....i get a different one out each week and choose 3 things out of it a week. keeps it different and fresh and not boring. Although if i find something we all love, i end up cooking it again and again.

Its no chore now, its a fact of my routine which allows me to be organise, ensures we all eat well and healthily and that i dont stand in the kitchen and scratch my head and wonder what can we have for tea tonight???

When you cook spuds or rice, so enough for 2 meals - eg rice with curry then rice salad, Hot spuds then sliced fried spuds ("flat chips" in this house).

Always cook double spag bol or curry and freeze half for another day - bingo, dinner's made!

Keep a stash of 30 mins recipes - pasta dishes, sausage and mash, etc.

Thanks again everyone. (Op again here, under a different name). Kif, that's useful - I definitely need to get a slow cooker and definitely need to start meal planning properly - at the moment, I just feel overwhelmed by it I guess. At the end of the day, when I plan to sit down and plan, I'm shattered and never quite get round to it!

Would also be interested in anyone's best easy teas / 20-30 mins recipes! (Baby is allergic to milk, so no cheesy sauces for him, and 5yo is allergic to fish and nuts, just to further complicate things.)

I have 4 grown-up kids and 2 young dsc. When my 4 were younger we all used to choose one meal a week and then have a roast on Sunday. As I find the whole business of deciding what to eat the biggest chore of all, it completely transformed my life! Admittedly to start with there were some very random choices and a bit of choosing something they new someone else wouldn't like - but it soon settled down into a good routine! If you don't have enough dc for all the days of the week you'll have to improvise!

I've got loads of seasonal and quick meals on my blog (I write about what I do with my organic box each week, and try to post a couple of new recipes each week too).

I have two toddlers and try and do a mixture of group family meals as well as some special ones for DP and me to eat after they are in bed.

Might give you some inspiration

They won't eat it any more (darned peer pressure), but they used to enjoy sardines (the tomato sauce kind) mashed onto some toas, with sliced tomato on top. For the baby, cut into fingers. A bit salty - but oily fish is good.

Minestrone soup is a winner.

Before I discovered my slow cooker, I loved those microwave rice sachets you get. V clingy baby-Ds - it was one of the few hot meals I could fix for my Dd one handed. I still use them now to make egg fried rice (sachet of rice + frozen peas + a few eggs into a hot pan. Season with soy sauce ans sesame oil).