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I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving fridge stored foods in an oven for 4-8 hours before having it start cooking. Have you considered trying an instapot?

What time do you usually have dinner? I'd think you guys could whip up a meal in 15-20 minutes once you get home. Pasta dishes, homemade burgers, steak, etc are all pretty quick. The only thing I don't make during the week is chicken because it takes longer to cook.

My answers to your questions are all no.

We both WHO FT and feed LO first and then eat (generally one cooks our dinner while LO eats her dinner). This means that sometimes I am eating dinner in the bathroom while LO gets her bath; but often we still have time to eat together before we start the bedtime routine at 7:30; which isn’t that much later than when it sounds like you start your bedtime routine.

I prep a lot of LO’s food ahead of time. I cook pasta on the weekend which she can have during the week plain or with pasta sauce. I slice up a bunch of veggies she likes; I precook chicken so we can just quickly microwave it as soon as we get home, etc. I also do a bunch of prep for us on Sundays.

For us; there’s a ton that can be cooked and on the table in 20 minutes or less, especially if you prep some ahead of time. I don’t like crockpot meals much either, so we rarely do those and neither of us are big casserole fan so we rarely do that either. It takes 10 minutes to poach fish (and no wait time for an oven or grill to heat up), about the same to pan fry. Steaks and chops are quick cooks too; if you don’t want to wait for oven/grill to heat, cook up in a cast iron skillet. We’ll meal prep on Sunday to chop up whatever veggies and things we can so that dinner is often more “assembly” than cooking. We rarely spend more than 20 minutes cooking these days but basically have from scratch meals every night. Once you get into the routine there is a TON that can be made in a short time.

We have one hour between getting home and bedtime starting, and meal cooking times have to be limited to 20 min (30 max). The kids frequently eat leftovers from earlier in the week once we get home or other healthy foods they like, and the adults eat dinner once it's ready - kids graze on dinner (but they'll have leftovers the next day).

It's not pretty, but it works.

DH and I both WOH. We just make mostly quick meals and do take out at least once a week.

Quick things include - breakfast for dinner, tacos, pasta, salads, baked chicken with veggies, stir fry

@Mrs D: I've tried many meal services and the only one we liked and worked for our family was Gobble. They prep and chop everything for you and the idea is that you have dinner in 15 minutes. I am a good cook and it usually takes me more like 20 but it's still the easiest and fastest I have found. They have items marked as "kid friendly" too when you choose the items.

Another route that is cheaper is Cook Smarts. It's basically a menu planning service and it's super cheap. Each week you pick your menu and you can alter it for gluten or vegan or whatever and then it kicks out a shopping list and recipe sheets and instructions for doing 1 hour of prep work on the weekend if you desire to make cooking faster during the week. It also tries to use the same ingredients in different ways to reduce food waste. Really good service and I've purchased subscriptions as gifts.

Crockpots get a bad rap but it really depends on the recipe. Slow Cooker Revolution from America's Test Kitchen is good, if you want a cookbook to peruse for ideas. That said, the best crockpot recipes are going to use tough cuts of meat - chicken thighs, chuck roast, pork shoulder/butt. The leaner more tender cuts are going to turn to cat food if you cook them 9 hours.

I have about 20-30 minutes each night to make dinner and if I didn't cook it the night before, basically this is what gets me by:

We always have cooked carbs ready. Rice, tortillas, bread, Boboli-type precooked pizza crusts, super al dente pasta tossed in olive oil, tubs of mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes from the store - starches just get nuked. I buy it or prep it on the weekends.

Then it's a matter of getting meat and veg on the table. If I can combine both into a sauce or soup, it's a win for me. Thai chicken coconut curry with a bag of frozen stirfry veg, hamburger stroganoff with mixed frozen veg thrown into the sauce, marinara sauce simmered with frozen chopped spinach and meatballs, sliced up sausages sautéed with peppers and onions, chicken Alfredo with steamed broccoli, fried rice with whatever we got in the fridge, etc.

We generally do a hearty soup, a curry, and a pasta or noodle dish during the week, leftovers 2 nights (and a lunch or two on the weekend). Oh and a pizza night that alternates with a Mexican night. Weekends we eat leftovers and a mishmash of random things. My kids actually like the predictability of the menu and I can tweak whatever recipe we are doing that night so it's different for DH and I.

I always do double duty on things when I can. I usually double any rice or ground meat and freeze it. If we are going to do brinner, then I'll do pancakes on the weekend and make extra and freeze them so all I have to do is nuke sausage and scramble eggs. Pulled pork, taco chicken meat, pot roast, shredded beef, chili - doubled and frozen.

Casseroles I do not find to be time saving unless reheated. So personally if I want a casserole, I bake it then night before after the kids are in bed and just reheat it the next day. Casseroles are meant to be eaten that way anyway so I'm fine with it! Chicken Parmesan casserole, tuna noodle, chicken noodle, shepherd's pie, baked spaghetti, baked ziti - all good reheated.

As you can see I also keep a lot of frozen veg around - all different kinds! But we also eat green salads and DS1 happily eats raw carrots and cucumbers and pickles. (DS2 isn't eating any raw veg sigh). And the kids always get fresh fruit.

Ah--definitely no to leaving stuff in the oven. Also, the maximum amount of time it should be left in the crock pot once it's done cooking before being refrigerated is 2 hours. If you can wing this with your schedule maybe this would work for you. I'd say your husband just needs to get used to the meals (or figure out a solution on his own).

We are very fortunate in that my mom usually preps dinner twice per week when she watches the kids. If my MIL watches the kids sometimes she will feed them or have us join for dinner. On the other nights what works for us (on the rare occasion we have our act together):

Making a big meal Sunday and having leftovers Monday.

Making big meals both Saturday and Sunday so we have leftovers Monday and Tuesday

Burritos with ground turkey. When we're in a pinch canned black beans works great. You can prep cheese and veggies ahead of time.

Pizza with store bought whole wheat crust. We make 2--one with more creative toppings Mags for the adults.

A freezer meal (usually soup)

Broiled chicken, sweet potatoes or rice, veggies

Any type of burger

Tuna sandwiches or pasta

Any pasta variety

Any sandwich variety

Tip: give the kids a snack while you prep. Mine love "appletizers" (literally just apples with a fun name).

As other have said I would not put food in the oven and then have it cook half the day while you're not there. That seems pretty dangerous both because of bacteria and because of the fire hazard.

I get home around 5:15/5:30 and I do maybe 75% of the cooking. DH gets home at 5:30 with the kids most days. Mostly I make meals that can be done in a half hour. We're not big leftovers people, so I tend to cook pretty most nights. We also eat out a fair amount, especially places that have a kids eat free night.

I will also regularly make big batches of things on the weekends with the intention of freezing portions that can be used later. Lately I've done this with baked ziti and with meatballs. We have a vacuum food sealer, so we seal things up and throw them in the freezer. Later we'll pull something out and put it in the fridge to defrost and eat it within a day or 2.

Meals we eat regularly that can be cooked fairly fast:
Pork Chops (pan fried)
Steak (grilled indoors or out)
Chicken cutlets (breaded and pan fried - make a big batch and the 2nd half can be chicken parm)
Salmon with pesto
Tacos
Breakfast (either scrambled eggs or eggs benedict)
Shrimp and tortellini scampi

DH is against crock pot meals and casseroles too. Its hard.

We have a similar set up with him picking up our oldest DD and getting home around 5:35. I get home with the other two around 5:45-6.

He usually cooks something simple consisting of a piece of baked/broiled/grilled meat, a side of instant rice (yes its like $2 per bag but no pot to clean up and its done in 90 seconds) and a frozen vegetable. DH likes to eat with a meat, starch, veggie type of meal.

Our simple other go to meals are:
Eggs and breakfast meat or ham
Tacos/quesadilla/burrito bowl (using left over meat or quickly browning ground beef)
Spaghetti and meat balls
Grilled Cheese and Soup
Kids Chicken nuggets and adults chicken nuggets on a salad.

@ShootingStar: What is the Shrimp meal?

@T.H.O.U.: I sautee shrimp in butter, olive oil and garlic, and I boil pre-made frozen tortellini. If I get fancy, I add some spinach in with the shrimp. Then drain pasta and dump shrimp and scampi sauce onto tortellini. If the shrimp are pre-peeled it takes about 10 minutes to cook everything.

I don't know if this is doable for you but I do a lot of cooking after my daughter goes to bed. I'll make a crockpot/instant pot or even normal meal that will last us for lunch and dinner the following day. Eating reheated food isn't great but it makes our evenings a lot less stressful! I'll also occasionally make something cold (like pasta salad) the night before.

We have a similar dilemma being two WOH parents with two different pick-ups (one kid is in kinder and the other is at a daycare 10 minutes away). Even if you could get over the food safety concerns, I'd be worried about the house catching on fire with food in the oven unattended in the off chance that someone got home later than planned due to traffic or some unforeseen circumstance. We also eat together as a family and have a relatively short window before bed. We do what others have described by making some big bulk dish on Sundays and then eating leftovers 1-2 nights during the week and also freezing some leftovers for another week. On the nights when we aren't having leftovers, we stick to really easy meals like pasta, entree salads, pizza (pizza dough freezes well), marinaded fish (we buy pre-marinated frozen fish from Costco), etc. Of the foods that we make and freeze on Sundays, those include taco meat, chili, enchiladas, quinoa casserole from Skinnytaste, etc. We always do take-out on Friday and Saturday as a treat for making it through the week.

ETA: When I do crockpot meals, I will often put everything in the crockpot except for the meat the night before and then just drop the meat in before I leave and turn it on. Keeps the mornings running a bit more smoothly.

I'd be terrified to have the oven on while I'm not home. What if some grease drips down and catches fire?

We do 99% of our cooking on weekends and warm up the food every evening. Sometimes we also boil noodles to go with dinner. Sometimes I can make something mid-week after they're in bed, but I'm at the mercy of the toddler, and she usually leaves me no time to even pack lunch and brush my hair, never mind cook.

@Mrs D: Weekly meal templates might help mentally.

So if Monday is always curry night, it can be a different curry. Japanese, Thai, Indian, chicken, chickpea, lentil, red bean, yellow, red, green, butter, tikka masala, etc. Tuesday is pasta night, then red sauce and meatballs, chicken Alfredo with broccoli, bacon carbonara with peas, shrimp scampi. Wednesday is burger/sandwich night - turkey burgers with smoked Gouda, beef and bacon with BBQ sauce and bleu cheese, chicken burgers with teriyaki sauce and pineapple, regular cheeseburgers, meatball subs, sausage and peppers, cheesesteaks. Pizza night is BBQ chicken, pepperoni, Hawaiian, etc. Thursday is Asian night - teriyaki, Korean, orange, fried rice, noodles. Friday is meatless - chili, lentil soup, red beans and rice, falafel, egg salad, hummus and dippers and pita. Saturday is soup night, all the soups. Sunday is seafood - panko tilapia, roast salmon, tuna noodle casserole, salmon cakes, tuna melts, spinach and artichoke stuffed sole.

See what I mean?

If you have a template you can mentally know what to think about for a given day. I used to plan our meals monthly that way and then just shop each week.

Also, you can make almost everything with ground meat. Stirfry, pasta, cheesesteaks, whatever. I can feed my family all week with a tray of ground meat and a rotisserie chicken!

And buying bottles of marinades and sauces, especially Asian food, is gonna help make things go way faster.

@Mrs D: A couple quick meal ideas we use frequently during the week...

Tacos (prep everything the night before all we have to do is cook the ground beef and warm up the taco shells- we have also made the taco meat the night before and re-heated)

Breakfast for dinner!

Chicken Caesar salad (we use frozen chicken fingers and make the salad and dressing the night before). I will give my DD veggies and dip if she isn't into the Caesar salad that night

Soup with a panini

Turkey chilli which we put in the crock pot and it cooks while we are out

Homemade pizza - we buy the crusts from the store and get DD to help us put all the toppings on (make these the day before) and then pop in the fridge, take 10 minutes tops, enough time to toss some salad

We also do a garlic shrim dish that is similar to the one mentioned by pp.

I will come back if I think of anymore

My DH gets home with the kids around 5 but can't handle much cooking with two tired and cranky toddlers. I get home just before 6, and we eat right when I get home. We have it down to a pretty consistent weekly rotation. I make one or two meals for during the week on Sunday, and usually at one of those will be a double batch that I freeze to have another week.

Monday - whatever I made on Sunday
Tuesday - something I made on Sunday or something previously frozen
Wed - Mexican (quesadillas with black beans and frozen corn, tacos, or bean and rice burritos)
Thurs - pasta
Fri - frozen pizza or grilled cheese

We deviate occasionally and add in a night of takeout or breakfast for dinner (usually scrambled eggs and toast) when we have busy weekends and I don't have any time for meal prep. Lunches are leftovers, frozen meals from Trader Joe's, or PB&J. I'll usually give the kids frozen veggies or baby carrots with dinner, and fruit or yogurt. It's a boring meal plan, and I miss cooking, but this is the only way that works for us right now.

@Mrs D: for soup: baked potato (you can microwave fresh bacon to top it off) and golden beat Greek lentil.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but one thing I started doing when WOH was buying a rotisserie chicken once a week. My kiddos are fine with it, I can use some of it for chicken curry or something quick like that the next night, and even though I don't LOVE it, I don't mind it with salad so it got us through a night or two.

Sorry, no experience with meal delivery or setting the oven delay!