Dinners

[anewme]

Just wondering if......

. you make dinners in bulk
. make the dinner while the kids are school.
. use the slow cooker
. manage to cook while four kids are asking for help with their homework and the baby screaming for a feed. ( yes that is my house on badly planed days :o)

[bgbgbb]

Yes, to the first 3 questions although the stairguard to the kitchen is locked when cooking. I cannot profess to helping with homework whilst cooking, but definitely do so after dinner.:flowerz:

[Starlet]

Yes to all of the above! lol

[mummyof5]

Yeah, I have to say I have done/do all of the above too, lol.

[LuvMy4Babes]

With the homework thing, I make the kids do it pretty much as soon as they walk in the door from school so it's out the way. In saying that, quite often we have sports or other after school activities on so that doesn't always work out.

I don't really cook in bulk, except for a few dishes ie. spaghetti bol, that type of thing when I'm making it I make a double lot and freeze one.

I try to pre-prepare as much as possible while the 3 older kids are at school and my youngest is either happily playing or having his afternoon sleep. It makes a huge difference to how my afternoons/evenings go!

[sja]

Yes to the first three.

Most freezer-friendly meals I try and make an extra one for the freezer. Sometimes I'll get and extra 2 or 3 for the freezer - I love those days. And it's sad how excited I can be throughout the day knowing that I don't have to cook dinner :laughing: And I freeze all my baking too - pikelets, muffins, slice, cakes - you name it, I freeze it.

I try and either cook dinner during the day when the kids are happily playing, or are napping, or at least do all the prep - like chop veg and meat.

I love my slow cooker. I use it all the time. Sometimes I even cook the food on the stove (like meatballs) and then transfer to the slow cooker to simmer for the afternoon. And I use it a lot to defrost my bulk freezer meals - I just pop the meal in the slow cooker in the afternoon and put it on low, and by dinner it's all hot and ready to go.

My oldest is just going into pre-primary this year, so no real homework yet. Kindy homework (teacher was giving my DD extension work as she was already reading and DD was actually asking for extra stuff to do :rolleyes:) was done after school. Although I do often cook while the older 3 are sitting at the kitchen table drawing and the baby is on the floor banging pots and pans. I have been known to stand at the stove, holding a breastfeeding bub in one hand and cooking dinner with the other hand (with bub under a tea towel to avoid splatters). Thank goodness bubs is now having bottles!

[Just Add Water]

I freeze as much as possible but apart from the odd day of cooking I do it as I go. If I'm making a pasta bake, spag bol or anything like that that can be frozen I'll make a big batch and freeze the extra lots. Same with baking. I figure if I'm in the mood to do it I'll do a lot and off it goes to the freezer.

Our kids do their homework when they're home from school and are generally playing and winding down when I start dinner at about five. Our kitchen is connected to our family room where the kids dvds all are so quite often they'll sit in there and watch tele or play a game with each other (they love board games :)). Have had experience with a baby as yet (am step mum to 3, youngest was 18 months when I stepped in) so not quite sure how I'll go then.

Have been looking into a slow cooker of late though.... never thought of using it for my frozen meals - great idea!!

[MummyCharmzy]

Yes I make in bulk
Sometimes I cook while they're at school but not veryoften
I very rarely use the slowcooker
and no I dont cook while helping with homework cos I have very bad placenta brain atm and could potentially burn down the house if I tried to do that :P