When you have/had a newborn and a toddler how do you get dinner on the table?

[sedgieloo]

Just struggling some days, any advice welcome.

Back in the day (blimey only seems 5 minutes) I used to put DS1 in a playpen or in front of CBeebies and DS2 in a swing.

Thanks glitter I am looking out for a swing. I use the sling but sometimes need a break. Also over the stove I am not totally happy having him there in it

DH and I usually took it in turns to cook dinner after toddler in bed and newborn settled. Would then just refrigerate and re-heat the next day for children.

When we had newborn triplets I found it easier to put them all down for nap in the morning, stick my older 2 girls in front of Cbeebies and cook dinner for lunchtime, rather than dinner time - if that makes sense?
Then at dinner time, when I usually found that newborns were crabby and wanted soothing and jiggling, I could just make sandwiches, fruit, cheese etc. for toddler.

Agree there is nothing wrong with snacky teas. Beans on toast, boiled egg solders and fishfingers all went down well.

Wow Kate!!! I feel like a whimp/novice/whiner
All of the above

I can't imagine newborn triplets! And older kids too! Wow.

Ha I do make it sound as though it all went so smoothly..! Triplets are 3 now and it is marginally easier!
Don't worry, there were many a night when my girls had fruit and toast for tea!
Beans on toast is actually a really nutritious meal so I'm happy to give them that once in a while :)

Not in Kate's league! I have 12 mo twins

Repeating a lot of above really- I do a bit of batch cooking for freezer (bolognese sauce, cheese sauce, mild curry, lentil dahl, beef casserole, chicken and leek casserole, fish pie, soups). I cook large quantities and use leftovers the next day (eg roast lamb on sunday, lamb with couscous and ratatouille on monday). I also prep in the morning and use the timer/alarm function on the oven.

Twins eat their main meal at lunchtime, either from last night's leftovers or from the freezer. At teatime they have a very simple meal eg beans on toast, sandwiches, fish fingers, pitta breads with houmous etc, scrambledeggs, omelette, or homemade soup from freezer followed by fruit and yoghurt. DH and I eat when they are in bed (DH usually not home until 730-8 ish).

My dd is 9 months now, and DS is 2 - but I try and cook while she's sleeping in the afternoon so I just have to warm it up, and make something we can have two nights running, like lasagne. I do use the slow cooker too, just prepare while dd and DS are eating breakfast.

I agree with the slow cooker. You can just bung in meat, veg, broth, whatever in the morning (or at night and then put the crock part in the fridge until the next morning) and then just cook it all day. Plus, it makes the house smell good. :)

Anything that be bunged in the oven, so any kind of roast with potatoes. Takes minutes to prep. Just boil broccoli or whatever. You can do that earlier in the day and warm it up in the microwave.
It doesn't matter then when you eat, as sometimes mine were to hungry to wait til 6, so we would eat at 5.30 and the food copes.
Or pasta with salmon, bacon, sausages...

Make loads and freeze it, like shepherds pie, in little ramekins or small trays so easy to pull out and heat. Same for fish pie etc.

Make little crumbles and freeze. Then as above. Puddings can a slice of home made chocolate cake with custard. Just make the cake and it can be had at tea time as well.

The microwave is your friend. And so is a timer:) Always make whatever you are having and give the kids some if you eat later. Don't make different dinners!

Mine like salad which you can prep during the day. and very thick home made soup with breads for dipping. We have little starters like yellow pepper sticks as they can't wait!

Meal plan like mad, down to snacks. My dd always wanted to bf at cooking time, very awkward.

You can make mashed potato early in the day and warm too, plus it will keep for lunchtime next day.

As they get older I put cbbies on and tell them I am cooking, but usually they help by laying the table and doing the drinks.

I saw the wisdom in what my mum used to do:
Roast on Sunday. She alternated beef, pork, chicken and ham and then at some point threw meatloaf into the mix too.
Leftovers on Monday.
Sandwiches and / or soup made from juices from roast or ham bone or Erin soup packet on Tuesday.
Spaghetti bolognese or curried beef on Wednesday (alternating weeks).
Macaroni and cheese on Thursday using leftover spaghetti
or on a curry week, curried rice with veggies and hardboiled eggs and any leftover curry.
Fish on Friday even though she hated fish and the sight and smell of them made her sick. Sometimes fish fingers were served.
Saturday was often rashers, eggs, sausages, plus scones or pancakes for dinner, or sometimes a stew. In summer, a salad with soup and bread, sometimes potato salad.

She managed to crank out a homemade dessert most days and we had lots of veggies with all meals. Dad wanted potatoes with everything .

Although I'm not as organised as she was and I am also a more 'international' cook, I try to make one large meal and then serve leftovers the next day, aiming to cook only about three times a week. I also cook in large batches, especially items like tomato based sauces that I use for all sorts of things. If I make a stew or soup I make double or more and freeze. (All in portions I know I will use in one meal, nothing larger).

I try to use the slow cooker, and get chopping, skinning, etc., done early in the day. I also have a bread machine and use the delay timer to have pizza dough ready to go for soon after returning home or bread fresh when we get up. If you put your dinner ingredients in the slow cooker and leave it in the fridge at night remember to take it out in the morning and turn on the slow cooker before you leave

Best tip I have is make a meal plan at the very least once a week so you are not faced with the drudgery and pressure of answering the 'what's for dinner' question every single morning of your life.
And next best one is do as much as you can in the morning because you don't know what the afternoon will bring or how frazzled you will be by then.
Third tip is get your DH to do stuff like ironing if you iron or take care of something like bathroom deep cleaning once a week. Or if he is home then he can do some cooking.

And TV is your best friend. Do not listen to anyone who says anything else.

When DD3 was small she was very screechy and clingy and annoying to everyone else she used to turn the TV off constantly so I would put her in her back carrier and cook with her strapped onto my back.

Cluster feeding is a hard time to get through but it does pass.

If a hungry DC has a meltdown at a certain time, try giving a protein snack about an hour before the anticipated meltdown. Cheese or drink of milk maybe.

I put the slow cooker on at 2.10 when 'show me show me' comes on to entertain DC2. DC3 is asleep then.

On a bad day I'll chuck a bag of casserole veg in with some stock, chicken (chopped up by the butcher) and a tin of chopped and fried onions. Serve with fresh mashed potato (I buy packs of ready made fresh mash and keep them in the freezer).

I would have turned my nose up at the thought of ready mash and tinned onions a few years ago but they are on my list of sanity savers atm.

Batch cooking bolognaise in the slow cooker (with the lid ajar so it can cook down) is good, I leave it on pretty much all day. Same as above, tins of chopped onions, the only thing I still do fresh is garlic.

I have no great answer but this is the bane of my life. From 4 or 4.30 my 1 yr old is only happy being held and given my total attention. My 5 year old is no trouble but the 1yr old won't even watch TV.

I can feed the kids early (although its a PITA - so much easier if they eat with us and I am only cooking the once). I do the odd slow cooker meal, and loads of simple (ie frozen food!) or pre-prepared food.

This, too, shall pass.

A slow cooker is your friend! When mine were tiny, I bought a slow cooker as I always found I had a few more minutes in the morning than I did at dinner time when kids were tired and hungry.

Cook at lunch time, batch cook at weekends, one pots. I was delighted when i realised you can dump a chicken and veg in a pot = a meal.

Special thanks to mathanxiety and all who posted. I'm doing the big roast today as suggested by maths. With plenty of leftovers to use over next few days. I'm going to go through all the other suggestions to rethink my meal plan for the week build my next grocery order. I think i will buy a slow cooker too. Thanks!!!

sedgie I cook a roast at the weekend and then we have leftovers on Monday, and then I cook a big one pot meal (bolognaise, lamb tagine, casserole or stew of various kinds) on a Tuesday and freeze half. On Wednesday we have whatever I froze the week before. Thursday is freezer tea (fish fingers/pizza etc) or beans on toast.
Friday and Saturday it varies depending on what we are doing over the weekend.

I found when I had a toddler and newborn that cooking had to happen earlier in the day - and then be reheated (or left in a low oven) with jackets or pasta or rice. We almost entirely stopped eating food that has to be cooked immediately before you eat it - so quick pasta dishes that are great when you are working and have no children become a nightmare!

I do think though, that if you are struggling for time then the batch cooking is something that your DH should be doing in the evenings - after you have gone to bed if necessary if you are doing the night wakings. My DH was brilliant at doing this and it really made a difference to the quality of food we ate for those first few months when the baby takes up so much of your time.

Most of my cooking was doable in the mornings. Baby would let me out her down for a short nap, toddler was in a good mood so I'd put the slow cooker on for the evening meal and make lunch and tea. I also had stuff in the freezer that was quick to cook and healthy (eg meatballs and sauce, fish etc).

Use the weekends to batch cook. It's a short period of time - you need to use the time well when your DH is aroun until baby is happier.

Can you eat tea at friends houses? Eat out occasionally?

1. cook at the time in the day when the baby is asleep (and toddler can watch tv if necessary)

2 very simple food - it's ok for standards to slip

1. my H used to cook the evening before for me and then I just had to heat up

1. if the above is completely impossible, put baby in sling and cook then (my dd1 just wouldn't be put down, and had colic from 4-7 every evening so I just cooked with her in the sling. and then handed her to dh the moment he walked in!).

Thanks again for the fantastic responses. I am reading again to rethink how I have cooked in the past. I think cooking twice as much imams freezing or reinventing it the next day will make a big difference. The one pot things I need to master. I've bought a better sling and about to buy a swing. Baby is very cuddly. I'm carting for most naps or the naps are ridiculously short

Dh would help more of an eve but he is a business manager and working shorter days just now to help me at the difficult beginning and end of the children's day. Then he has to work all eve until very late to stay on top. So I can't get him to batch cook of an eve.

Anyway I feel inspired and say thanks!

Some interesting new words there courtesy of my iPhone and my not concentrating!

I have done a simple hot meal at lunch for the toddler, then a lunchbox tea, and dh and I eat later when he is around to help. Otherwise lots of fresh pasta and ready made sauces, gnocchi, and curry made with a ready made sauce and chopped veg, while tv is on, or with toddler in high chair.

Slow cooker is your friend .

I used to do lots of sandwiches and raw veggies for lunch (carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, hummus) when dd1 was 2 and dd2 was newborn. Then when newborn was napping I'd prepare for dinner - chopping veg etc.

As well as batch cooking and freezing I also used the magimix a lot to chop or grate and freeze vegetables (eg onions, celery, leaks, carrots, peppers) and cheese that i could cook with when I didn't have much time. I'm on a diet now and still do this as it's still quicker to cook from already chopped vegetables than order a curry to be delivered!