Preparing food when both work?...,

[Scottish mum]

Hi girls looking for some advice and maybe some tips!

My lo is 18 months old and has a varied diet. He will try whatever you give him which is great. I know the main thing is he us eating but.... I often feel so guilty! My oh and I both work demanding jobs and when we come home after work 9 times out of 10 lo won't eat with us. If we are off then we try eat together. If we are off lo will get what we have which is home made food like pasta, stews, risotto. But if we are working he usually gets what's in the house like fish fingers, veg, beans, quiche, baked potatoes and I can't help feel guilty : ( I feel he should be eating home made healthy meals all the time.

How do you working mummy's do it and do you have any tips? Should I pull my finger out and bulk cook when I'm off? X

 

[joeyjo]

I don't work but I have 2 already and number 3 on the way. I don't like to do a lot of cooking on a day to day basis so...

I fill my freezer - why make a cottage pie when I could do 2 or 3, or use the mince mix and add herbs and tomatoes to make bolognese or beans & spice to make a chilli? I freeze some as family portions and some as individual.
I bulk buy chicken breasts and chop/marinate it before freezing so I have some ready to defrost & grill, some diced to add to a carbonara, some in strips ready for fajitas. (I also freeze sliced onion and pepper strips for fajitas which work well cooked straight from the freezer)
I make soup - gazpacho, leek & pot, spinach and blue cheese, spiced butternut squash, carrot & coriander - again I freeze some in family packs and some in individual.
I have healthier ready meal options too - scrambled eggs, with broccoli from the freezer, smoked salmon & feta was today's popular tea for the boys. Quiche and tomato salad goes down well. Filled pasta with home
Made blended veg sauce (from freezer) is also a fave. Baked potato & beans or tuna or pasta sauce - I tend to bake a batch of potatoes and then warm them in the microwave for a few meals!
Pasta with peas, chorizo and an egg broken over it and cooked lightly

I don't think some convenience food is an issue, especially not in the UK but here in Spain most of it needs deep frying! We don't have much choice in convenience food and it is much saltier and stuck in the 1970s; the only thing I really buy is filled pasta and a carbonara sauce jar, baked beans and fish fingers if I can find reasonable oven bake ones. I wouldn't dream of buying curries or lasagnes etc here but would
In the uk.

 

[Noodlebear]

Stalking, we struggle with this.

 

[Mrs Mc]

I work part time so on days Im off, I make double what we're having and freeze half. Then on work days I can pull out a meal from the previous week or two.
I very rarely make only enough food for one meal, and tend to try and get two meals out of it. Or at least enough for the girls to have a second meal of it on a Friday night. (we tend to have a cheeky take away when they've gone to bed).

 

[xannekex]

I work full time and we both get home usually after the children have had dinner, I try to cook extra of whatever me and dh are having so that the children can have this the following day.
I try to have a few things in the freezer too but I'm rubbish at remembering to take them out to defrost!

 

[george83]

When my lo was younger I would freeze things and use those. As he's got older I tend to put him out a meal the same as us except he'll eat it the following evening

 

[Loui1001]

I'm on maternity leave at the minute but when I was working I used to try and do as much as I could in advance, such as batch cooking at the weekend or putting a casserole in the slow cooker for the next evening. I also would have cooked larger amounts and made 2 meals from it, or cooked a massive pot of mince and split it to make bolognaise and cottage pie.

 

[Kay_Baby]

I tend to make extra and freeze it or do something easy like omelette, pasta and sauce or jacket potato.

I find just cooking a little extra from our meal and leaving it in the fridge for tomorrow is no extra work.

 

[Scottish mum]

It's great to hear how you all go about it! Thanks all for posting. I will welcome any meal ideas. If I buy mince I'll split it for pasta and chilli and make burgers. Think I'll try cook more and put his in the fridge for the following day. I've cooked pasta for his nursery tomorrow and added spinach, tomatoes and aubergine he's then going to have a baked potatoe with cheese and beans n salad. X