Hellobee Boards

I cook when I get home. We usually eat by 7 or 7:30 because I've got to prep and cook. Mr. Jacks cleans while I'm cooking and preps nighttime bottles. The hardest part is getting Lala to play on her own while I cook, because she just wants to hang out with me when I get home.

What about using a day on the weekend to do most of the prep work for the week?

When I was working, we'd make a big batch (or two) or soup on the weekend, then freeze into individual portions, and use it either for lunches or quick dinners later on in the week. You can also pre-chop all your veggies for dinner, either freeze them or just refrigerate them chopped (if you'll be using them soon). That's a quick, easy, stir fry.

Same with rice, if you eat it with stir fry or whatever, you can pre-make your rice and freeze it. Pre-make beans, and freeze them.

Some of my favorite QUICK meals:
burritos - hamburger, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, avocado

healthy hamburger helper - http://thenourishingcook.com/the-new-hamburger-helper/

Pre-made turkey wild rice burgers (we pre-made them, then froze them in foil and just cooked up nice and quick one night)

Taco salad - just assemble all the ingredients

Spinach Quinoa Feta salad - http://www.closetcooking.com/2010/03/spinach-and-feta-quinoa-salad.html

classic spaghetti, sometimes with trader joes vodka sauce! The nights I'm really stretched for time, I use the premade sauces from Trader Joes - they are soo good.

and of course the crock pot like you mentioned - they're lifesavers!

Sigh. I don't know how we are going to be able to do it. We won't really be able to afford to eat out once she is here. I struggle now with cooking at night and she's not here yet. I think pasta might become a staple again. I try to plan meals out but it's difficult. Some nights, you just aren't feeling what's planned out!

@Coco Bee had some good suggestions.

Like you, I'm really hoping to be able to make something work with work so I can leave at 4 instead of 5. I can't imagine getting home at 5:45 or 6 or later with daycare pickup and then figuring out dinner, plus bedtime.

Sorry I'm no help, just commiserating.

We had this problem when we were both working and there weren't any kids to contend with! What worked for us was for me to set aside some time on Sunday afternoon and prep stuff, like chicken breasts in apricot mustard sauce and pop them into a small casserole dish and cover with foil. I'd put a post it note on top for what day it was to be eaten, the oven temp and time, so "Mon/350/20 mins" or whatever. I'd also put down the side dish, so we'd know what veggies and carbs went with it.

Now that I am at home I still don't have oodles of time to prep dinner, so I still do the Sunday prep sessions, otherwise we'd be eating a lot of frozen pizza...which have their time and place, don't get me wrong!

@mrs. wagon: I cook two large meals on Sunday that we eat for four days so that covers most of the week and then I'll cook a few other simpler meals on other days to get us through the rest of the week. I also freeze some of the food that I cook so I might defrost something as well.

I pick up my DD at 5, home by 5:30, and then she needs to eat the second we come in the door so I heat up a small portion for her. DH is never home so I have her in bed by 6:30 and eat with him between 7-8 when he gets home.

It makes me sad to be missing out on family time to do the shopping and cooking on Sundays but it makes the work week SO much easier and I am not stressing out about feeding the LO something nutritious because I always have something now.

Quick meals girl! Rotisserie chickens are a huge hit for us or pasta we can boil quick and heat up a quick leftover sauce. Grill a quick steak and microwave veggie sides!

Granted, DD is older and her bedtime's not til 8 but we share the cooking duties. So one of us cooks while the other has DD duty and we try to have dinner on the table before 7 after getting home at 5.
LO is due in 3 weeks so I'm sure we'll be revamping the schedule.

We eat a lot of homemade pizza! My husband makes the dough and you can freeze it to use later, but you could also buy pre-made dough. Grate the mozzarella, cut up some veggies, and it's pretty quick! Not very healthy though...

I would get home around 4:45, give Mavrick a small snack and start prepping dinner.... we usually eat around 6ish, then when he's done we bath (6:45-7ish), then play/watch movie then bed.

I sometimes feed him leftovers from the night before when my dinner takes to long. but planning your meals helps enormously.

I get home around 6:30 and my husband gets home at 7. My mom watches my LO every day so she usually prepares whatever we're having for dinner that night and then I just finish the cooking after she leaves. Unfortunately we end up eating dinner late (around 7:30) and my son goes down to bed at 8:30. It works for us though!

Not a working mom yet, but we will continue to cook after LO, so I’ve given it some thought. I think dividing up tasks in the kitchen is probably very helpful. Also, prepping as much as your can in advance.

Stir-fry is super quick. Use leftover rice and either prep fresh veggies the night before, or use a frozen stir-fry mix. Use leftover meat, or cook up your meat for the stir-fry the night before (although cooking the meat only adds a few minutes total). It takes like 10 minutes to make, especially once you get a feeling for how much sauces to use and don’t need to premeasured.

I’d try to stay away from frozen things you need to reheat in a oven, since it takes time to pre-heat an oven + cooking time. Broiled or pan seared fish takes only minutes to cook, throw together a salad in the time it takes the fish to cook (or steam up some veggies).

Roast a whole chicken over the weekend, and make homemade chicken salad subs with the leftovers (premake chicken salad and just throw onto bread when you get home), or chicken tacos.

Rice/quinoa/farro takes about 20-25 minutes to cook in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. Have your grain premeasured and set out so as soon as you walk in the door you can dump it and water into the rice cooker and turn it on. While that cooks, cook up meat/veggies on the stove top, or grill your meat on the BBQ.

Marinade chicken and steaks the night before, fire up the grill as soon as you get home and cook quickly.

Pasta salad is great the next day, as is cole slaw. You could cook up a bunch of burger patties and then just reheat in the oven or microwave each night, toast buns and have with baked beans or cole slaw made ahead.

Try different sauces with pasta – spicy olive oil, pesto, spicy red sauce, more traditional red sauce. In the time it takes pasta to cook, you can cook up Italian sausages or burger to add to the sauce.

I am on mat leave right now, but when I was working with DD1, we loved going to a meal prep place to have good, mostly made meals in the freezer. So on days when I knew I wouldn't be able to pull something together, I would grab one of those to defrost through the night/day and then cook right when I got home. It worked really well for us, and we were home at 5 dinner at 6 bed at 7. It was still a struggle though, that's for sure!