Full time working mums - evening meals 😬🫣

Please can anyone else who’s gone back to work full time tell me how on earth you manage to eat healthy nice evening meals?! 🤦‍♀️ I do the 7:30am morning drop off on my way to a 40 mile work commute. Finish work then the 5pm pick up and get home with my boy by 5:30pm. My priority is to always feed him his dinner first (currently freezer of baby meal prep).Then it’s 6:30 and I have to decide between cooking myself and partner dinner or playing with my boy who I haven’t seen all day, before his 7pm bath then bed routine. My partner works split shifts out at 6am and home at 7/8pm. So I’ve always tried to have him a nice plate on the microwave for when he gets home. This week bless he’s had nothing! This week for tea I ended up having tinned soup or toast. I’ve had no veg all week! Do any of you have any tips as I feel so overwhelmed after just 1 week 😔

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Batch cooking and reheating portions either from frozen or from the fridge mainly, or using the slow cooker to have a meal we can plate up when we’re home. Very quick dinners like stir fry, fresh pasta and a sauce, or I whack something into the oven and then do bedtime routine so it’s ready for when the children are both asleep-one pan dishes, pasta bake etc.

I'm doing the nursery drop off for 8am, pick up 5 30, home for 6, bedtime starts at 6.30. My little one has her dinner at nursery, I give her a snack if she needs one and then i make my dinner once she's gone to bed. If it's bad night for her sleeping, I find something quick and easy to eat. We had a rough 2 weeks just before Christmas and I was at the point when it was choosing between eating and sleeping. It is what it is

Slow cooker is probably the easiest option. You can also batch prepare the ingredients into freezer bags, take one out the night before to defrost and empty into the slow cooker in the morning. There’s loads of recipes on TikTok and insta, and you can take a portion out for your little boys tea too so you’re not making different meals.

Thanks everyone,… I going to try better planning this week! I’ve also said let’s order the weekly food delivery as I think I’ll explode to do a food shop after work, and hate doing those chores at weekends now that’s my special time with my baby x

Yes definitely order online! I physically can’t stand food shopping anymore, I get so overstimulated 😅 We get Ocado delivered as there’s never any substitutes which means we don’t have to go running to other shops finding stuff that hasn’t come. It’s not as expensive as everyone makes out, it actually works out cheaper for us to shop there!

If I were you, I would serve a snack to the kids and do actual dinner at 6:30. If I’m doing a skillet meal, I’ll serve some fruit to keep the kids occupied while I’m cooking, and do something quick like pasta with veggies, stir fry, taco meat or breakfast for dinner. Or do an easy oven meal - something you can just throw in the oven with minimal prep such as chicken or sausage with baby carrots or precut veggies. If I’m not feeling cooking at all, I make microwaveable frozen meatballs or chicken nuggets served with microwaveable or toaster frozen veggies.

I do meal prep the night before (it’s the only way it works for us) so when I get home I only have to put it in the oven xx

Slow cooker meals!!