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.

Well if DH is in by 6.15pm, I would start tea as soon as I got in, and when DH got in - send him up with a cup of tea to bath shower DS, whilst you finish preparing tea.

That will give you until say 6.30pm to finish making tea/dinner ( and there are quite a lot of things that can be done in that time) and your DS is then ready for bed.

(If he is a messy eater then I would invest in a large apron).

All of mine (including DH) shower before tea...

Is there any chance of finding a childminder, instead of after-school club?
Having a childminder feed my kids before I finish work has saved my sanity over the years.

(Admittedly I was just posting yesterday for ideas, so I'm not sure how much I can say...)

Our childminder gives DC their dinner at our house before DH and I get home, but doesn't cook. So I prep a meal for us all the night before (DD2 is allergic to dairy and egg, which complicates matters), so CM just heats up for DC and then DH heats up for us when we get in.

I got lots of good advice on things which reheat well - including lasagne (non-dairy milks work just fine) shepherds pie, fish pie made with tomato base. I've done fish cakes, sausage casserole, leftover roast.

It means nobody is waiting very long and I get to control the ingredients for DD2. And I fully expect the occasional happy meal/fish & chips/takeaway will creep in now and again

Watching for new ideas!!

I make sure I freeze a couple of dc sized portions every time I cook so in the freezer we have pasta sauce, homemade soup, chilli con carne, bolognaise, shepherds pie etc. I get it out of the freezer in the morning and stick in the fridge. Then takes just a couple of minutes to microwave.

I take snacks to pick up which could be part of meal rather than sweets or biscuits, e.g. Carrot sticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fruit salad etc.

Does your oven have a timer function? mine is a lifesaver and I can put jacket potatoes and other things in before work in the morning and set it to finish 10 minutes after I think we will be home and then set how long I want it to cook for.

I actually leave all kinds of things in there during the day including pasta bakes, cottage pies, lasagnes etc and then it turns itself off when it's done and if it needs to sit for 15 minutes or so it won't spoil. Then I just microwave some of the steam fresh veg and dinner is ready in minutes.

Shepherds pie, cottage pie, lasagne, moussaka, pasta with sauce, stir fry with rice. All cooked in bulk at the weekends and frozen in individual portions (use those plastic takeaway containers).

5 minutes to reheat a portion in the microwave.

I think I must have done this for about ten years!

The only solution I found was to make extra food when cooking for myself and DH and portioning it and popping it in to the freezer. If you do 2 extra portions every night to freeze you quickly build up a good store of nice healthy meals that can just be popped in the micro.

Soup goes down well when they're too tired to chew and a small amount heats up fast. Add toast to dip in it and a chopped up piece of fruit and / or cheese / boiled egg and it's a decent meal.

Fish & peas
Scrambled eggs
Porridge (nutritious)
Check out slimming world - they have a lot of baked bean recipes (I can't stand baked beans but one if my dsis does SW and lives off these baked bean one pot quick dinners).
Soup (make it the night before)
Vegetarian meals can be quick.
Stir fry?

I used to do special fried rice. Boil kettle, boiled water in pan, add jasmine rice. Meanwhile in pan add

...sorry add prawns/bacon bits/chopped veg/eggs. Rice done in 10 minutes. Tip into frying pan, stir, serve.

Salmon and other fish

Omelette with veg

Slow cooker curry. Just heat rice/nans

I'm watching for new ideas too.

I remembered chicken skewers too. Can be eaten hot or cold out of the fridge. On a plate next to some cherry tomatoes and soft cheese.
Croissants take a couple of minutes in the oven.

I agree about M&S children's dinners. I keep a couple in the freezer for when I need something I can just zap and plonk down.

I feel your pain, although it's only at it's worst when DH is a late shift.

We like hot dog butty night, an easy treat for Beavers or swimming lesson nights, can be eaten in front of telly in PJ's if I'm falling apart too.

www.amazon.co.uk/200-Ten-Minute-Meals-Hamlyn-Cookbook/dp/060062529X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447429511&sr=8-1&keywords=200+ten+minute+meals

I bought this book a few weeks ago. It has given me some good ideas/reminders e.g. microwave rice, stir fired with prawns, peas and ham, poaching fish, gnocchi and chorizo.

When I'm organised the slow cooker comes out in the morning and cous cous goes when we come on, by the time shoes and bags are off it's tagine and cous cous.

Also got a halogen oven recently, it's not quite the miracle cure but it heats up to oven temperature almost instantly.

There's no shame in smash or tinned potatoes.

Grilled salmon and broccoli, egg noodles and teriyaki sauce.

Sainsbury's fishcakes and salad go down well with my children.

Cook rice in the morning, let it cool completey, then refrigerate it. In the evening you can fry it in very hot oil in a big pan, add spring onions, a splash of soy sauce, peas, egg and sweetcorn. Hey presto, egg fried rice.

If you make a meatloaf in advance you can heat slices of it and just make mashed potato and a vegetable in the evening to go with it. Serve with ketchup.

Eggy bread is good-you can make it sweet or savoury. Savoury eggy bread with bacon would be nice.

Tortilla pizzas
Fish and mash and peas
slow cooker mince bulk cooked and frozen in smaller portions
dippy egg and toast
muffin with ham, egg and cheese
rice and bits - you can get sachets of rice or do a rice cooker and use the left overs for you and oh
corned beef hash
carbonara
hm soup and bread - use meat but blend it if he doesn't like the texture. I made pea and ham with tinned mushy peas and it was fab. Cooked in slow cooker.
jacket spud and toppings
pate and toast
pilchards and toast

Cook the night before or at the weekend. Most things freeze really well. Then you only have to quickly do some fresh veg to go with it. That's the only way. Maybe aim for home cooked 4/5 times a week and then have ready made pasta aside, baked beans, etc on the other nights.

Mcdonalds on a weekly basis is not great....

Give him crudités to snack on when you get home. He munches on cucumber carrot sugar snaps cherry tomatoes etc while you get dinner ready. Then the vege part is largely taken care of. This works really well with my 2 over the years.

Scrambled eggs on toast takes just a few minutes.

Prepared or brought pasta sauce with pasta - takes the amount of time needed to prepare pasta. I cook broccoli in the same pot as pasta - add with just a few minutes to go.

Beans on toast once a week is fine.

Minestrone soup?

Grilled cheese on toast or toasted sandwiches.

Jamie Oliver does some great things with boneless chicken thighs in his fast supper book. He bashes them thin in waxed paper with seasonings and then they cook super fast.

Fish fingers, potatoes and peas.

Make sausage casserole in the slow cooker. Or jacket potatoes cook well in it.
I make scrambled egg or omelette when we're in a hurry. Or stir fried rice with cooked chicken/ham and frozen veg- stir in soy sauce and an egg for extra flavour.
The Philips air fryer is great for speeding up oven chips and fish fingers etc.
Fish is very quick to pan fry too