Easy meals for after work

[wafflebox]

I've recently started back to work for 3 days a week and I need meal ideas for my 13 month old son for when I get home. I already have some mini fish pies and cottage pies in the freezer, but really what I want and ideas for things he can have with rice or mashed potatoes for example. I'm not really sure what is classed as healthy for little ones as I've always made my own meals and don't know if he can something like a sausage for example?

[matilda s mum]

I batch cook bolognese sauce (either mince beef or mince lamb or quorn) so can be defrosted for a quick dinner with spaghetti, or add kidney beans and chili powder to have with rice, or top with instant mash and cheese.

I batch cook curry too, for instant homemade ready meal - great with microwave rice.

Or a stir fry of salmon or chicken or steak with fast cook noodles and stir friy veg - I get those foil packets of sauce that only cost about 50p each and are thick so can be watered down to go a bit further.

Cold meals good too - I'll cook salmon steaks and roast veg in the oven the night before and refrigerate. Then serve with fresh made cous cous.

Last night we had thin cut minute beef steaks (which my LO loves). Put new potatoes on to boil for 20 mins, in which time i fried a couple of steaks and steamed a fresh cauliflower. Dinner in less than 30 mins from fridge to table.

I always have emergency food in the house too - such as fish in breadcrumbs and oven chip and frozen veg in the freezer.

Those fresh filled pasta things from the supermarket are great too with an emergency jar of sauce (unless you batch cook a tomato or hidden veg sauce and then you can defrost that to go with it instead.

Tonight we are having toad in the hole and veg - you can pre-prepare the batter the night before and leave in the fridge til you need it.

Or there is always beans on toast/ cheese on toast/ scrambled egg on toast, or a combo of all three!

Hope that has helped inspire you a bit xxx

[rachaelmae]

We have egg fried rice with whatever veg i have in..

Pasta dishes with tuna or ham..

Omelette

sausage or fish fingers and mash and peas

pizza/cheesy garlic bread

mash and beans with cheese

HTH

[DrP]

We do many of the above.

I try and keep a stock of stews, casseroles, curries and spag bol in the the freezer, as well as home made fish fingers and chicken dippers.

Egg fried rice with veg is a big fav in our house too. I always keep frozen peas and a few small tins of sweetcorn to hand to add to it so even if I only have a couple of other veg there I always have enough. I just fry off a load of veg, add a couple of beaten eggs then my cooked rice a little stock and a dash of soya sauce.

I find steaming a great way to cook veg. If you don't have a steamer and are cooking some potatoes then just cook them in a bigger saucepan than normal, lob the veg in a metal sieve and place on top so they will be in the steam that comes off the potatoes, then put the lid on. Works really well and you can cook all in one pot.

I found that once my LO was one and was tucking into pretty much anything that I could just give him what I was having. I try and keep the salt content down, so I use baby stock cubes for all my cooking and rarely season anything till it's on the plate - he gets his unseasoned, we do what we like with ours but we are all eating the same thing all the time.