Instant meals for tired 4 year old not home until 6pm

[Tiredmummy1985]

Inspired by another thread on here about having dinner at the childminders. I have a summer born boy age 4. He goes to after school club until 5.45pn where he gets a snack and does activities. I pick him up and we are home by 6pm, dh home by 6.15pm. I am struggling so much with giving us all dinner and getting him to bed so he has enough sleep, not to mention reading with him :( what are some instant dinners that are child friendly? So far we have fresh pasta and a sauce that takes 10 mins from kettle boiling to table, a stir fry with no meat! See I am failing miserably. He will not eat stew in the slow cooker :( we resort to a happy meal once a week and the rest of the week is a shambles. I feel like I am failing him.

You are not failing! This is very tricky, lots of children struggle with tiredness and eating.

Can you give him something on the way home like fruit or vegetables so that he has something before he falls apart - ideally one of the food groups you would like to serve with dinner, rather than just snacky extras - so protein (baby bel, mini sausages, hard boiled egg, nuts) or vegetables (crudites) - so you have a head start on actual nutrition before it's too late

Then at home, pasta with sauce sounds good, especially if (sorry to be a bore) you have homemade the sauce (can be leftovers) so it is made of real food

Quiche and crudites

omelette

Can you do a batch of smallish baked potatoes one night after he is in bed and then quickly heat one up with beans or something? Or home made chilli or bol if you have any lying about

Don't beat yourself up! It's hard when they are this age.

I have the same problem here.

Noodles with boiled eggs and green beans made in the same water and ham
Peanut butter on toast with chopped banana
Grapes, apples, cheese, cheese biscuits/bread sticks and ham

Four year olds eat less than you might think, so don't worry about smaller portions.

Hmmm...
What about one of them jacket potatoes (heinze I think) with tuna Mayo/cheese and beans/ what ever filling he likes.

Toasties and wedges

You aren't failing at all.
Fresh pasta and a sauce is great - ds also likes ravioli/filled pastas. The 'microwave in the bag from frozen' salmon fillets are great with creme fraiche and peas. Or you could make a sauce the night before to eat the next day.
Ds likes 'chinese soup' which is miso paste, a bit of soy sauce, boiling water, baby sweetcorn, mangetout, shredded carrot, noodles and some meat shredded in (cooked night before or bought cold cooked).
Obv stir fried noodles, or egg fried rice (using cooked packet rice or frozen), and we often have quorn which needs v little cooking.
You can do jacket pots in the slow cooker.
How about a chunky soup you made the night before so you could serve with cheese on toast.

And ds has very happy memories of McDonalds Fridays, so don't stress about that!

Eggs of all kinds: Omelettes, scrambled, poached.

Leftovers from you and DH the night before that can be easily zapped in the microwave or eaten cold: quiche/frittata/shepherds pie etc

Poached egg on toast

Boiled Egg and soldiers

Chicken and sweetcorn/veg soup pre made at the weekend and frozen served over rice or with bread mashed up in it.

Fish cakes that can be made ahead and warmed up when you get home.

I think the likelihood is that you are going to have to prep your DS's evening meal the night before and cook it/warm it up on the day.

You aren't failing at all. Does he have a hot meal at school for lunch? And then a snack at after school club? If do, I wouldn't think he'd need another full on meal, something light and quick would be easiest. So something like beans on toast, scrambled eggs, soup and a sandwich, pasta pesto, picky bits (bits of ham, cheese, crackers, grapes, sliced apple, baby toms) that mean you've got time to sit and chat with him and do his reading before bath and bed. You and your Dh can eat when he's in bed and settled.

Why don't you cook your dinner every night but put a bowl of leftovers in the fridge so the next day all it will take is 5 minutes in the microwave.

Slow cookers are great for spag bols, chillies and joints of meat so you could sort out a chilli in the sc and when you get home shove one of those microwave rice packets in or frozen mash with a joint ect ect.

You're not failing! It's very tricky to manage an exhausted little one at the end of the day.

Although it's lovely to eat together, would it help to give your DS something easy - there are loads of suggestions on this thread - as soon as you get in, then you and DH can eat after he's gone to bed?

It would only be on weekdays and just temporary until he's able to last a bit longer.

Oops - xpost with fieldfare.

We do sandwiches when they have after school club and they've had a hot lunch at school.

Scrambled egg or omelette with peas or broccoli or salad/veg sticks & toast.
Soup (homemade or bought) with a bread roll
Cheese toastie and salad/veg sticks
Beans on toast
Pasta pesto with peas/broccoli (with optional cooked chicken or prawns or salmon - can microwave the salmon for a couple of mins then flake)
Tuna pasta - simmer a tin of tomatoes with some dried herbs while the pasta is cooking then add sweetcorn and tuna right at the end. If you want to boost the veg content then quickly dice a carrot and chuck that in with the pasta for the last few minutes
Egg fried rice - with spring onions, peas and sweetcorn

Do you have a slow cooker OP? You could have something ready when you get in.

The other thing I would try is cooking something for the grownups one night and saving a small portion of it to be reheated the following evening for your ds.

Hey you are not failing him. My quick meals when DD has had a long day and is "starving" consist of things like toast / scrambled eggs / uncle bens express rice / baked beans / pitta bread / houmous / cucumber. All can be done in 3 minutes. Not every meal can be a gourmet feast.

Do you have a freezer? It's v easy to freeze kiddy sized portions when cooking meals, and just takes yen minutes to prepare. Chilli con carne, Moroccan lamb, pasta sauces of all varieties, curries, cassoulet, etc all freeze really well.

Mine tends to get a bagel when he gets home, he doesn't actually want a full dinner. We then eat after they are in bed.

We all eat together as dh has a manual job and is literally starving by the time he gets home. That makes it trickier. Also ds only has school dinners on a Friday, he is dairy intolerant and the school dinners are not very good :( at after school club they get things like jam wraps, beans on toast, cut up fruit and rice cakes.

There are loads of other things you can do in a slow cooker. I do pasta bakes, curries, soups and a load of other things. Is he quite fussy or will he eat most stuff? Also have you tried things like ready cooked chicken strips that you can heat in the microwave and add to the stir fries. Another favourite in our house is tacos with quorn mince. You can do the mince in the microwave, takes about 9 mins, chopped peppers and grated cheese. My ds loves this and it's ready in around 10 mins. I was made up when I found you could do quorn in the micro! It's save me many a time. You could also do chilli with quorn mince and micro rice.

Can you shift your hours at all on some days to get home earlier?

Also can you give him a hot meal for packed lunch - you can get thermos flasks which are good for holding pasta.

I struggled when we had a childminder who didn't give ds a proper meal (he was always hungry as school dinner portions weren't always big enough or included non nutritional fillers like big puddings). We would try and reheat stuff and I also shortened my day a bit so wasn't home too late. Hard though.

Lots of things which you can make at weekend freeze in single portions and then take out of freezer in the morning and microwave easily.

Eg) Fish pie/spaghetti bolognaise/cottage pie/meatballs and pasta

I usually double up recipes when I have got time to cook and freeze individual portions. Then you only have the time it takes to microwave them and rustle up the rice, pasta, jackets etc.

Whoops - cross post!

I have a huge slow cooker and I make double the amount. We had meatballs with potato, carrots, parsnips and broc in slow cooker last night. The leftovers have been made into a pie for tonight's dinner. I'm going to cheat and use micro steam veg as an extra bit. I'm 22 weeks pg with lots of complications and I'm not very well so I'm all for quick meals at the minute. Plus DH has a manual job and could eat his own arms when he gets home!!

M&S kids ready meals or their small adult ready meals - fish pie, chicken hot pot etc

No additives or nasties at all. I make these with some broccoli on the side when ds is home late once in a while.

Gnocchi is great too as it boils in 3 mins!

I sometimes make an 'instant' fish pie. A small piece of fish cooks in 1 minute or there about in the microwave. Then I make a super quick cheese sauce by heating a spoonful of Philadelphia and a few cubes of cheddar for 30 secs. Stir and cook a bit longer if you need. Microwave a small jacket potato to mash and serve with frozen peas. The small quantities speed things up and its one of the few I want meals my DD will eat.