Dinner ?

sarahann1941

I love all of your meal plans.  My question is, How do you find time to cook?  I leave work at 4:45ish and after my commute I get home usually around 5:30 -5:45.  Evie is starving by 6pm on the dot so usually we feed her.  Then we play with her until bathtime 7:30ish.  We usually don't sit down for dinner until she's in bed (after 8pm)

I can't figure out when in that time frame I can make dinner.  I want to eventually get to a point where we sit down and eat dinner with her but I can't figure out when I can cook.  I don't want to give up the play time I have with her in the evenings to cook but that seems like the only time.

HELP!

IndyWife06

I'm in the same boat.  Nick is starving when we get home so I just give him something.  Then I don't want to spend the hour and half we have with him cooking and eating so we either eat something super simple or just wait.  The only way I can really figure out to have real family meals is if I cook in the crock pot or we have leftovers.  I need more hours in the day!!!!!

MrsJMB

Freezer cooking helps us a ton.  Really.  And the crockpot is a huge time saver.  Maddy's hungry when we get home at 6, so she gets some sort of snack usually or she helps me cook.

IU_baby

We do bathtime at 7:30 as well, but DH usually doesn't get home until 6:30 or later.  I do most of the bath/pjs/book/bedtime stuff myself while Ryan is getting dinner started.  We often eat at 8:30 or so. 

We still feed Tyson a separate meal from us (around 6pm) because he refuses to eat most everything we eat. 

 

lemen99

Freeze, freeze, freeze.

I'm not a huge fan of "freezer meals" in the traditional sense (think, lasagna), but you can freeze so much.

I cook 2 family packs of grilled chicken for example and freeze the grilled chicken in portions of 2.  Then, we can have grilled chicken salad one night, or buffalo chicken wraps, or something.

I freeze chilli, anything I made in the crockpot, soup, make lots of taco meat and freeze, you name it.

fruitcakes

We're on a similar time frame.  I try to pick really simple meals and often let Olivia run around in the living room/kitchen while I'm cooking.  If she's hungry, she'll start eating in her high chair while I'm finishing up.  Or if Jake's home, that's his one-on-one time with her, then he cleans up the dishes while I play or give her a bath.

I also prep as much as I can the night before, browning meat, measuring ingredients, cutting veggies, etc.  If I can't do that, I'll at least put out all of the ingredients I need in the pan that I'm going to cook it, right next to the stove and all of the refrigerated items together on a shelf in the fridge. 

 

sarahann1941

fruitcakes:

I also prep as much as I can the night before, browning meat, measuring ingredients, cutting veggies, etc.  If I can't do that, I'll at least put out all of the ingredients I need in the pan that I'm going to cook it, right next to the stove and all of the refrigerated items together on a shelf in the fridge. 

I never thought about doing half the work the night before.  That may work for us a little better.  Whoever isn't doing the bedtime routine for the night can finish the cooking, then we can sit down and eat together.  I just miss that end of the day re cap time with Scott that we used to have eating dinner together.  We've gotten into a bad habit of not doing "family" meals anymore.

indyamy07

I also do freezer cooking, but I have been cooking more and leaving those for a really busy night.  I let it thaw the night before, or do as much prep  the night before.  I get home at 4, so I have a little more time to get it ready, but I have Luke playing iwth me while Im finishing things up.  He has a cabinet with several plastic bowls, spoons etc that he has been allowed to play with while Im cooking.  We all eat at 6 when DH gets home. 

fruitcakes

sarahann1941:

fruitcakes:

I also prep as much as I can the night before, browning meat, measuring ingredients, cutting veggies, etc.  If I can't do that, I'll at least put out all of the ingredients I need in the pan that I'm going to cook it, right next to the stove and all of the refrigerated items together on a shelf in the fridge. 

I never thought about doing half the work the night before.  That may work for us a little better.  Whoever isn't doing the bedtime routine for the night can finish the cooking, then we can sit down and eat together.  I just miss that end of the day re cap time with Scott that we used to have eating dinner together.  We've gotten into a bad habit of not doing "family" meals anymore.

We're in the same boat.  I found that if I didn't prep, it was too easy to just grab take-out or cook a frozen pizza.  We'd end up eating in front of the TV and not really get the opportunity to talk.  

Though it's not traditional play-time, I can still talk to Olivia while she's rummaging around in cabinets or I put music on and we dance.  I also put together her daycare meals while I'm cooking so it's one less thing that I have to do after she goes to sleep.

.

gizmo909

I've started doing the freezer cooking as well.  I took one day where all I did was cook all day while someone watched Zander and I made up an entire month of meals.  I absolutely love it.  We have home cooked meals every night and I don't feel like I'm cooking.  Plus, everything is in throw away dishes so that decreases the dishes.  Not all of our meals are casserole type dishes either.  We have a casserole type dish maybe once a week.  There's really a lot of variety you can do with freezer cooking so you don't feel like you're eating lasagna and chicken and rice casserole every day.

Val&B0604

fruitcakes:

I also prep as much as I can the night before, browning meat, measuring ingredients, cutting veggies, etc.  If I can't do that, I'll at least put out all of the ingredients I need in the pan that I'm going to cook it, right next to the stove and all of the refrigerated items together on a shelf in the fridge. 

 

I find this makes a big difference.  Say if I'm making butter chicken tomorrow, I'd do the marinade tonight while I'm cooking dinner and get the onion chopped and ready to go, then tomorrow I can get it going and while it simmers the 40 min or however long it's supposed to I can get stuff ready for the next night.  

Another thing that helps me make meals and waste less food, is prepping fruits and veggies before I put them into the fridge right after I bring them home.   

amstep

We are still figuring out our routine with 2 boys now, but usually we take turns.  One night DH cooks and I play/entertain, then we switch the next.  It is soooo helpful to have a hubs that cooks!  Plus, whoever isn't cooking and the boys hang out in the playroom, which is connected to the kitchen, so we're all there together. 

manda429

sarahann1941:

fruitcakes:

I also prep as much as I can the night before, browning meat, measuring ingredients, cutting veggies, etc.  If I can't do that, I'll at least put out all of the ingredients I need in the pan that I'm going to cook it, right next to the stove and all of the refrigerated items together on a shelf in the fridge. 

I never thought about doing half the work the night before.  That may work for us a little better.  Whoever isn't doing the bedtime routine for the night can finish the cooking, then we can sit down and eat together.  I just miss that end of the day re cap time with Scott that we used to have eating dinner together.  We've gotten into a bad habit of not doing "family" meals anymore.

this is what I do.  Most of the time, I only have about 15 mintues to make dinner, so anything that takes longer (rice, noodles, etc) I do the night before.  We eat dinner together at 6:30, although I will start jake earlier if he is crabby. Plus, I cook enough for 2 days, so the 2nd day is always leftovers. 

In the winter, I'll switch over to crockpot meals.  I'll prep after Jake goes to bed and in the morning just put everything in the crock pot before I go to work.

Ask me how things are after baby girl arrives though, lol