ideas on when to cook?

[kavitha]

so dh and i work from home and we share a job. i work from 9-1pm, he works from 1-5pm.

we take turns, he cooks for a week, then i cook for a week. We eat raw for breakfast and dinner, fruit and salad and smoothies, so no need to cook there.

i would like to make one cooked meal every day, to be ready around 1:30pm. I can work in the afternoon on the weeks that I cook.

Any tips on when i can cook? I used to make stuff that would take me 2 hours or so plus clean up before dd......now it's really hard to think about being with her and cooking....

how do you do it? i was thinking about prepping everything (chopping, washing) the night before after she goes to sleep.......any other tips?

[Satori]

I tend to spend 1-2 days a week cooking the entire weeks meals (from scratch). Is that an option? I don't see how you wouldn't have time to cook every day with such a light schedule.

[melissel]

Someone here on MDC (can't recall who) said she cooks dinner each night after the kids go to bed, and then reheats the next day. I've been meaning to give that a shot myself, if I can ever get these kids in bed early enough : Maybe that might work, at least occasionally?

[BetsyS]

I am not the night owl that most folks on MDC seem to be. When the baby goes to bed at 7, I veg out for the rest of the evening.... But, I am up with him about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. I'm also a SAHM, so my schedule is a little different.

I prep stuff early in the morning. At that time of day, ds is really happy to bounce in his johnny jump up or sit in his high chair with cheerios. I cut up anything that needs to be, brown meat, make casseroles, whatever needs to happen.

Then, around 3:30, I start thinking about supper. We eat at 5:30, so that we eat together before the baby goes to bed. I do find that I have to give myself a lot longer to put supper together than before a baby--I didn't used to get interrupted to nurse, to change a diaper, to encourage playing with a different toy...you know. So, for a meal that used to take 30 minutes, I give myself an hour. That way, with the interruptions, it's no big deal.