Cooking for me and my 4 year old

[Malo314]

My husband works shifts so every other week is just me and my reception age daughter. I'm really struggling to meal plan on these days so was hoping people had some suggestions.

The first issue is my motivation/will power. I do the school run to breakfast club at 8.15, straight to work at 8.30, finish at 3 and straight to school for 3.15. I know I'm lucky that work goes so nicely with school but I am mentally exhausted after being on all day, especially by the time Friday rolls around.

The second issue is that my daughter is really into helping. This is great, but it does make cooking more difficult as I have to keep an eye out for her safety and clean up more mess!

So ideally whatever I make will be quick and easy and contain some veg! But honestly the quick and easy wins over healthy, I know from experience if it's healthy but it's going to involve lots of chopping or standing over pans it ain't going to happen!

Our best "winner" is naan bread pizza as she can chop the toppings and decorate it herself, and she's happy to chuck mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes on. Other, less healthy 'winners' are sausage, mash and beans, ravioli on toast or bagels, cream cheese and grapes, but we can't keep surviving on just these.

Any suggestions?

And please play nice, you might not be best impressed by my efforts, but I'm trying my best, and I do make up for it by making proper home cooked meals when my other half is at home and I'm not doing EVERYTHING myself.

What time do you eat?

Could you prep an oven tray the evening before and would you have time to cook it after school?

I find Rukmini Iyer's recipes fantastic.

Not knocking your efforts at all. Very familiar with a young child's "helpful" contributions

I wish my Reception aged child would eat that much variety! Could you do some family style meals so she can help herself? Maybe tacos/fajitas? Or would she like making quesadillas when she can fill them herself? For a super quick dinner here, we have meat/roasted veggies + pitta bread + hummus.

We eat at 5. Not keen on doing things late in the evening for the following night as she frequently doesn't settle to sleep properly until 8 and I'm pretty much ready for bed by then!

Wraps are a good idea! I'm not sure if she'll eat hummus but I'm happy to give it a go. I know Tesco used to do a pack of mini hummus in 3 flavours so that might tempt her. I think that sounds like a nice idea

I'm going to try enchiladas next week while dad is home so we'll see if that's a winner. I remember from pre baby time that the washing up can be pretty nasty though!

Eggs cook quickly, so even if you need to spend some time chopping veg for a frittata it still only takes 10 mins cooking.
A dippy egg with soldiers (toast and/or capsicum) is still a favourite for my adult DC and takes 5 minutes from front door to plate.
For ways to make 'helping' less messy, have a look at 'I can cook' CBeebies programmes on YouTube or get the book from Amazon. The children use scissors for chopping for example, and the recipes are things like veggie muffins that can be made one day and eaten the next, rather than biscuits and buns like most kids cooking books.

My tip is to eat with her early and then both make dinner for the next evening; something that you can heat up or put together quickly.

I'm a lone parent to a 4 year old. I don't usually cook on week nights, sometimes I'll just get pitas, houmous, veggies and anything else that goes. Or I'll heat something from the freezer. Or all sorts on toast: baked beans/avocado/eggs/houmous + tomato. She can have yogurt and fruit if it's not filling enough, but it usually is.

Some dishes I do cook:
-egg fried rice (using leftover rice from the freezer)
-sausage mash and peas
-fresh fish (cooks really quickly) boiled potatoes and peas
-salmon + broccoli noodles
-sweetcorn fritters

You basically need to think about what cooks quickly. Quick carbs are bread and noodles. Quick protein is fish, prawns, tofu, chopped chicken. Quick veggies are frozen ones!

I love Rukhmini Iyer but the recipes are too sophisticated for my 4 year old's tastes unfortunately.