Meal Help for when Mom isn't at home

[ancestry]

May is a crazy month for me. I will be traveling for work for 8 (consecutive) nights/8 days. Then I am doing to Disney with just DH for five nights/6 days.

When I am traveling for work DH will be home with the four kids (19 year old, 15 year old, and 8 year old twins). When DH and I are gone my 19 year old (almost 20 year old) will be the one in charge and handling the rest of the kids.

I'm worried about meals when I am gone. No one else in the house likes to cook much and during the work trip DH will be taking his finals for his college semester meaning his free time will be very limited.

If I don't come up with a food plan, I know from past history that DH and then DD will completely and totally BLOW our food budget for the month. When I've traveled before DH, not having time to cook, will stop at the grocery store every night for prepared foods (i.e. pizza, sandwiches, roasted chicken, etc.). When he does this he spends about $40 each day which of course totally destroys our food budget.

I'm at a loss about what to do. Freezer space is limited considering there will be five people (three of whom are basically adults and eat a lot) who need to eat dinner each night.

Any ideas?!?!?

 

[lizabu]

Sounds like you need easy to prepare foods. You can make a few casseroles and things ahead or you can buy things like frozen cabbage rolls and lasagna. All they have to do is pop it in the oven. Canned stews and soups might help and maybe things like hamburger helper.

 

[Sadie22]

You can make and freeze things like chili and taco filling. I like to use stackable containers, but if you are truly short on freezer space you can use zippered freezer bags. Freeze the filled bags lying flat on a baking sheet and then stack the frozen bags or set them on end like books. You can also freeze lasagna, manicotti, and mini meatloaves. Other items I keep in the freezer are chicken tenders, salmon fillets, and chicken breasts. One easy recipe is to thaw a couple of breasts, add sliced potatoes, carrots, and onions, wrap in foil, and bake for about 30 minutes.

Don't forget to attach labels with cooking instructions. Then leave menus for the family left behind.

 

[moongirl]

When this happens in our family, I usually go to Costco and get some easy-to-make meals. These will cost more than we usually spend for a week's worth of groceries, but a lot less than eating out.

I often buy:
1) a pre-made pizza or two - these are huge and one feeds our family easily
2) chicken floutas - just bake and serve
3) lentils and naan - again, just heat the lentils and bread and serve
4) chili in cans
5) frozen lasagna
6) rotisserie chicken - I usually take this off the bone and shred it and leave the ingredients for an easy casserole (sour cream, cream of chicken soup, 1 Tbs. poppy seeds - top with one sleeve of Ritz crackers crushed and added to 1/4 c. butter - bake 350 for 30 minutes)

These can be eaten with canned or frozen vegetables heated up.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Since freezer space is limited, you might want to plan things out with DH/DD, and come up with reasonable menus ahead of time. Then figure out which days someone could go shopping, and make specific lists. For example, you might have a bag of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer--decide which day to eat them, then make sure there's Caeser salad mix in the fridge for that day. Any leftover chicken could go in quesadillas the following day. You could do a similar thing with spaghetti and meatballs one day, then meatball subs the next. A pot of chili one day, then chili and cheese over nachos the next. You see how I'm going here. Not necessarily cheapest/healthiest, but fairly tasty and pretty easy on your substitute chefs.

I would also make sure the house is stocked with easy go-to stuff, like canned soup and cereal.

I think it can be done, and I bet your family would appreciate you taking the time in advance to help plan this. If they know what to do, you can somewhat avoid the "Oh, crap, pizza again!" syndrome. And save yoru budget some. Not to mention, your family can come through this and be proud that they were able to take care of themselves.

 

[Gigi22]

OP, could you rehearse some of the meals you want your family to have with them? Also, could you consider purchasing some groceries that are a bit more processed (grated cheese and so on) than you would normally use to help them get meals together fast?
Get your DH and your two oldest in the kitchen for about 10-15 min. of really simple cooking. For example, purchasing flatbreads/pita/pre-cooked pizza crusts adding prepared pizza sauce, sliced or shredded cheese, pepperoni, quickly cutting up some pizza-friendly veggies to add on--and that's pizza. They could also make breakfast for dinner, and add a bagged salad. Chili con carne is a real quickie--cut up an onion, saute onion and hamburger, add a can of tomatoes, a can of kidney beans, and whatever spices your family likes--serve with rolls, salad.

 

[kimara]

I suggest "letting" them practice making some quick meals while you are still around. This will help them understand how easy and quick it can be. Plus, it will give you a few nights off from family cook duty.

 

[ancestry]

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!

DH and DD and especially DS can all cook. They just won't. It isn't that they can't or don't know how, it is that they are either too busy (85% of the time) or well, frankly, lazy (about 15% of the time). Last time I had to travel and left them with the ingredients to make easy meals with they didn't do it and opted for prepared foods/drive through which isn't healthy or budget friendly.

I can get them to heat up or reheat prepared foods (either my own or store bought) but cooking won't happen (maybe one or two nights but certainly not all the time I am gone which is nearly two weeks).

DD and DH did ask that I make chili and chicken noodle soup and freeze them. I didn't think they would eat those at this time of the year as normally they only want that in the cold months (November-March). I believe I can find space in the freeze for those.

I might be able to squeeze in a lasagna as well that they could just pop into the oven.

Again thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

When I've gone out of town I stock up on fast/easy to fix meals. Not the greatest/healthiest variety...but better than eating out constantly!

Dinners~

Sloppy joes/tater tots
Chicken nuggets/fries
Tacos
Hot dogs/mac&cheese
spaghetti/garlic bread/salad
hamburgers/chips
take out pizza...gives them a night off from cooking!

I made up the sloppy joes, taco meat and spag sauce/meatballs ahead of time and froze it. All they had to do was reheat it. I made the hamburger patties ahead of time...so just defrost and cook/grill.

Lunches~

Lunchmeat
pb&j
grilled cheese/tomato soup

Breakfast~

cereal/fruit/yogurt


Buy a big stack of paper plates so theres less clean up for everyone! Have plenty of fruit/veggies already cut up in the fridge ready to grab and serve. Bagged salad they can just toss in a bowl.

 

[scrapquitler]

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!

DH and DD and especially DS can all cook. They just won't. It isn't that they can't or don't know how, it is that they are either too busy (85% of the time) or well, frankly, lazy (about 15% of the time). Last time I had to travel and left them with the ingredients to make easy meals with they didn't do it and opted for prepared foods/drive through which isn't healthy or budget friendly.

Teach them how to use the crock pot. Show them how to make pulled pork BBQ for sandwiches on hard rolls. Put a couple things in the freezer then buy some easy to prepare foods like burgers/steaks/hotdogs/chicken breasts that they can cook on the grill and pair with salads (you can even pre-make macaroni or potato salads ahead of time for this). Have lots of coldcuts on hand so they can make sandwiches, Show them how to make simple things like ziti with sauce and meatballs (you can pre-make the sauce and meatballs or they can use jar sauce and frozen meatballs), grab a couple of the pre-made pizzas from walmart or aldi that they just stick in the oven.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Mom and work traveler here. I spend time on Sundays when I'm able to pre-cooking things for the week. Even when I do manage to fly home on the same day often times it's way past dinner time when I arrive. I boil eggs, I pre-cut snacking veggies, I cut up fruit, I make a new batch of ranch dressing, I prepare a crockpot meal (to be placed in the crockpot Monday morning - dinner on Monday and leftovers the rest of the week), I cook various pastas and bag them in the fridge, I grill chicken breast tenders, I buy single servings of favorite yogurts, I make a batch of olive oil and sea salt popcorn and bag it in individual servings, I make a giant bag of home-blended trail mix with walnuts, roasted unsalted almonds, dried cherries, and dried unsweetened coconut, etc.

I wouldn't worry so much about giant meals... just make it really easy for them to grab ingredients to throw together and snack healthfully.

 

[seashoreCM]

Canned vegetables anyone? No need to skin and chop and cut and slice and dice, just empty into a saucepan and heat it up.

Portion out the chicken breasts, ground beef, etc. before freezing. You don't want DH to thaw it all out, take what he wants, then refreeze the rest, repeating each night or so. (It is perfectly okay for him to go to his workshop and get a saw to cut off what he wants for the evening without thawing it all first. Use a cold chisel or screwdriver together with a hammer to separate frozen hot dogs.)

 

[JoiseyMom]

I went away to Florida for 10 days and left DH home with DD14 and DS9. The 2 weeks before I left I froze leftovers. I made meatballs, and froze 1/2, roast beef, crock pot chicken, etc. I had about 5 meals with instructions for DD and what to sides to serve and how to heat it etc. I did have the freezer space though. I did this more for convienence. DH did great, and only used 2 of my meals. They only ate out on the nights when we ususally did take out.

Maybe have a conversation with them about the budget and that they need to cook??

 

[brymolmom]

Great oppotunity for your ds and maybe dh too to get a good dose of dinner responsibility. Drives me crazy when young adults have no clue how to even put a simple meal together - so this is actually a great thing.

Just put a menu in place when you're gone...with (if necessary) simple directions/recipes for them to follow. The 15 year old can help too - you could even assign specific tasks/food items to each. SOmething like:

Day 1:
Frozen meatball sandwiches (take meatballs out of freezer, put sauce into saucepan, add appropriate number of meatballs, let simmer for 1 hour; Put on the sub rolls, top with shredded Mozz cheese, put in oven on low setting (250) for about 5 minutes - watch to be sure the cheese isn't burning)
grapes
salad

Day 2:
Cook frozen turkey burgers either on Grill or if he'd be more comfortable - on a pan in the oven (set on 375 for about 15 minutes). Put on rolls.
pasta salad (premade found in frig)
strawberries

Day 3:
PIZZA takeout (make this one the one before his biggest exam with the least amount of time)

And so on...just make sure the 15 and 8 year olds know that cleanup is all their responsibility as he has exams to be prepping for. And be sure to explain that you expect takeout (and will pay for it) only on specified nights, unless a true 'emergency' happens.

I would jump at this opportunity and would only let them order in once or twice - make up a menu for the rest. Ask him to help make the menu if he wants (if he might want to add pasta one night if he's more comfortable with it) and just tell him you will do the shopping (or make a shopping list and make it their responsibility the first day if you're leaving a credit card).

They'll handle it fine! It's amazing what young adults will do when given the chance...we do too much for them usually!