Learning to cook, please help

[kiana2015]

I know I probably seem like a right tool but I only learned to cook when I moved out with my DP, I say learned loosely as I am still learning and I'm pretty clueless. Lately I'm having trouble on the days DP is working, he gets home from work around 9pm, this is also when my DD starts to get grumpy before bed so most nights I'm struggling to make dinner and tend to her. I could prepare earlier in the day when I have spare time but struggling to plan how. If I was to make say cottage pie for example, could I make the mince, sauce, veg etc and make the mash, layer it up and stick it in the fridge until later to put in the oven to cook or would it taste horrible? I don't know why but I don't seem to enjoy reheated food, maybe it's just me? Please any advice would be great

I think it would be fine. It wouldn't be reheated. If you made it in one go, you'd make the mash, cook the mince, assemble and bake immediately. All you'd be doing by preparing it earlier in the day is getting to the assembly stage and then baking a bit later.

Other options might be stews or casseroles, which take a long time in the oven or slow cooker so if you did the preparation earlier they would be ready just when you need them in the evening.

Other ideas: baked potatoes with simple fillings; omelettes; pasta with pesto.

Of course you can. Also it is much easier to layer up the mash on top of the meat when they're cold. I'd usually cook the mince, sauce and veg together - although I might do a layer of mashed root veg and a layer of mashed potatoes occasionally.

It would also be perfectly happy in the fridge for 24 hours.

Yes prepping things like cottage pie, lasagne, pies, etc right to to the point where they go into the oven works really well

Other ideas are traybakes - you could chop all the veg, potatoes etc and have them in your roasting tin ready so all you need do is pop your meat on top, drizzle with oil and into the oven.

Marinate meat and fish in advance too, and just whack in oven/air fryer when you are ready and cook some rice to go alongside.

Also worth thinking about casseroles and stews which can be done in the oven on low or in slow cooker if you have one for hours and can just come out when needed as the timings of these are really fluid.

That should be fine, it's not reheating, it's prepping. Do you have a slow cooker?

I make slow cooker 'dump bags' weekly, and they can be stored in the freezer. All you then have to do is pull one out the day before, defrost in the fridge, and then the morning of when you'd like to eat it, tip it all into the slow cooker and leave it alone until dinner time.
Slow Cooker Dump Bags {Freeze and Go Meals}
You don't need to make them as dump bags if you'd rather prep all the ingredients in the morning, and pop them straight into the slow cooker to cook.

No problem at all preparing a cottage pie in advance.

You really need a couple of not trendy cook books. Mary Berry’s cook Now Eat Later is good , and her recipes are properly tested.

I also liked Nigella’s first book How to Eat.

The more you do the easier it will become.

Thank you so much everyone for you help! Also yes I have a slow cooker, I've only ever made curry and stew and struggle thinking of something else but I might have a look online as would actually help me so much!