Going to have to get orgonised!!

[Jelly Baby]

In relation to food!
Have always had the same routine and been fine but come May when the twins start i can see all hell breaking loose..some nights i will have my 2 mindees and dd to feed and to sit them down too but they wont eat as have diff times to us (polish)

Today for example was a typical day..holidays or not it is always a rush. I had mindee and we set off to the zoo..after that we had a picnic. Came back nipped to the bank and library, got home and got bikes/scooters etc together and walked up to dh and had a walk through the woods home.
Got in and the girls had a water fight outside..sorted the bunny..meanwhile it ended up being 4.45pm..dad comes at 6pm and i had promised sausages, mash, cauli cheese, yorkshire puds, peas!! so i rushed to it and had nothing ready as usual and fed them just in time..although it is a rush i coped and dont really mind as she is old enough to be left really for a short period so usually ok but when 2 x 1.5 yr olds are running round it will be a diff story!

So being new to the freezing down stuff how many of you batch cook and freeze ready to stick in the oven?
I can only think of the normal..spag bol, lasagne, minds really gone blank as to what to cook!! have to do this 2 days per week so not too bad but has to be done for my sanity! Ideas please!
Thanks

[mushpea]

I dont batch cook but i do use the slow cooker a lot, i find you can bung most things in there in the morning., stews, caseroles, spaggeti bolognase which gets turned in to lasagne the next night, chilli, curry, shepherds pie, then i do stuff which is just oven cook like fishfingers with frozen potato things like smileys,or simple things like pasta with a ready (home) made sauce. i feed them all at the same time and if the parents arent happy with these times then they can feed them at home. its bad enough cooking for them and then us everynight yet alone seperate times for mindees.

[green puppy]

I cook lunch and tea for my 3 mindees, they are between 22 mths and 2.5 years. I don't like to cook from frozen so we have various meals that don't take long. Lunches- soups, omelette, sandwiches, toasted sandwiches, wraps, home made pizza, pasta. Tea is similar- fish pie, shepards pie, pasta dishes with different meats/ fish and sauces. I make my own sauces so you could batch cook those and re-heat, jacket potatoes, sausages and mash, rice,fish/meat and veg, beans on toast, scrambled eggs on toast. Luckily my 3 sleep at the same time so I can make the tea ready to reheat later. But most things only take 15 or 20 mins to make and I can leave cooking so don't constantly need to be in the kitchen. I do this 5 days a week.

[snufflepuff]

I dont have mindees for tea at the moment but i often freeze portions of meals for my son. Fish pie, spag bol, cottage pie, stews, chilli, cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese.....oops im hungry now! I find it so much easier when i can just put something in the oven and leave it- otherwise he is in the kitchen with me fiddling with the knobs on the oven etc. So jacket potatoes are a winner too. I plan on doing the same when i have mindees for tea, so i dont have to spend too much time cooking.

[singlewiththree]

I often feed mindees for lunch what we had for tea the night before, tomorrow they are having chicken casserole. If we had something that they can't have such as pizza then I do toasted wraps or jacket potato and beans for lunch instead. Mindees are 1 and 2 years old.

[crazyhazy]

I'm not feeding any mindees yet but I always have veggy tomato pasta sauce in my freezer in portions for my own girls, they have it in various guises, on it's own with pasta or rice, or with chicken/fish/sausage added in. On a disorganised week they can have it at least twice, but that's ok cos it's good for them and they love it! Omelettes also feature when we're in a rush cos they're so quick. The only things I tend to batch cook are the pasta sauce and spag bol, but quite often I will keep a portion of whatever we've had for dinner for theirs the following day.

[Chell]

Another slow cooker fan here. I tend to prepare food and put it in the slow cooker ready to switch on the next morning. Other times I prepare something quickly before or just after the school run and out that in the slow cooker.

We have a 3.5l slow cooker but it tends to be enough for us all and to freeze extra portions.

[ZoeAlli]

When I was providing food, I tended to make a little extra of what we were having and the mindees would have it for lunch the following day. Like singlewith three said the meals we had that couldn't be used the following day I made sandwiches, sausage rolls from the bakers or quick easy cook meals.