Preparing to return to full time work.

[Bookaholic73]

My sister is preparing to return to work full time, after 5 years of not working.
Childcare isn’t an issue, Granddad is taking care of the before/after school and holidays.

She wants to know how to best prepare in regards to food (cooking dinners) and housework.
Her boyfriend is quite hands on, so he will be doing his share too.

Be realistic in terms of meals and eat more simply. If children have cereal or beans on toast for tea sometimes, it's not a disaster. I find batch cooking largely a waste of time - a stir fry or pasta sauce can be made from scratch more quickly than I can reheat a shepherd's pie and prepare separate veg. Sometimes I'll cook a double portion and freeze half, but my preference is just get some easy recipes that can be cooked in 15 mins. I tend to keep a couple of pizzas and a portion of Bolognese in the freezer though.

The weekly schedule is quite important. If you have days when you finish earlier, maybe cook double and serve the second half on a busier night. Reheating from the fridge is quicker and less faffy than defrosting so we embrace eating the same thing 2 nights running.