Melas and a young family

[HappyValleyFan1]

Interested to know how different people do it...

Just had DC2 and shortly going back to work. We always eat together and I cook fresh most nights, obviously I have the time at present as I'm on maternity leave so will generally spend his nap time prepping then cook it all up later which can take some time with a demanding 9 month old.

Always used to cook every night when there was just DC1, DH and I as it was easier to juggle but things are a lot more hectic now. I'll be getting home from work at 5:30 after picking them up from after school club/nursery and the thought of then cooking every single night seems a bit of a nightmare.

Because they're young obvs bedtimes are a bit rigid due to overtiredness etc but eating separately is not something we want to do.

How do you do it? Prep ahead on a Sunday and batch cook then reheat? Pre prepare all ingredients then refrigerate until needed?
Slow cooker is good but no time to prep in the morning. Interested to know how people make it work

Same position - deffo interested in what people do!!

I am always one meal ahead - i cook in the evenings once the chikdren are in bed, ready for the following day. So today i am cooking souo which can be reheated tomorrow. Tomorrow night i will cook a curry which we will heat up on Friday evening. We do microwave rice during the week to speed things up too, but pasta doesn't take too long.

I do a mix of bull cooking and freezing excess, slow cooker and lower expectations.

where I can double up and freeze food for later I do and sometimes try to prepare 2 meals simultaneously.

I have however factored in basic meals, such as scrambled egg on toast for nights that are busy and also lowered expectations/stress by accepting sometimes frozen fish fingers are fine for an evening.

I always used to cook fresh every night. Then I had a 4th baby and I read that it only adds an extra 3 minutes to your cooking time to double what you are making so now I do a lot of batch cooking and I can’t tell you how many times it has saved me!

What I tend to do is every few weeks I cook 10 meals in an hour (from one of the Batch Lady recipe books) and I freeze those meals for busy nights. Then I pick a couple of nights to double whatever recipe I’m making in the week. Last night I made chicken meatballs and doubled it, froze half for another night. Tonight we are having a meal that I froze two weeks ago so I don’t have to cook at all (or clean up - huge bonus!)

I would definitely give batch cooking a try. Since doing it, I very rarely resort to fish fingers/frozen pizzas etc. good luck!

I think a lot is driven by working hours. We have never eaten with our kids during the week - they eat at 6pm, and we eat after they are in bed at around 8:30pm. I've never worked a job where I could regularly be home in time to cook and eat by 6pm. But also, my kids still like fairly plain food - meat/chicken/fish and veg, or pasta, whereas pretty much everything DH and I eat the recipe I begins with chopping up chills and garlic (and we rarely eat pasta or red meat unless in a restaurant for a treat for health reasons). So while family meals may keep working for you once you are back at work, think carefully about whether that's still realistic. Also, when my DC were in nursery, they had a hot meal for lunch and a big afternoon snack of sandwiches and fruit, so they weren't really hungry at dinner time - a boiled egg or baked beans or some soup was all they wanted, whereas DH and I needed our main meal of the day.

I always cook from scratch, but during the week cook almost exclusively dishes that only need 10-15 min prep/cooking. That means lots of fish, as it cools fast. If we are going to eat something that needs longer in the oven, I'll try to get it to prep it while the kids have some TV time between dinner and bath, and pop it in the oven while reading bedtime stories. Look for cookbooks or online for recipes that are advertised as 15 minute meals (Jamie Oliver is one, and the Fast Diet cookbooks have quite a few).

I heard about this and was going to suggest it - what a genius idea!

Meal prep on Sunday - what you can
accept some days meals will be simple meals
things that can be re-heated are always a plus
we use the grill a lot! Lots of grilled chicken breasts, grilled chicken, etc with some pasta / rice and steamed veggies
if you prepare the meat the night before it takes about 15 mins
soups, chilli, bolognese, can all be done on Sunday
you can also get good quality things that just need to pop in the oven- but some of those take time… then again some of those are better the following day (things like pulled pork are nicer re-heated