Can you do OS and work full time too?

With a lot of help and support I should imagine hun, I'm a SAHM but DD2 is starting school in a weeks time and I'm under pressure to find a job. I don't get any help or support at home, they've all seen me acting like superwoman and don't seem to think I could ever use any help.

I know that if I started work I would basically be doing two full time jobs so until they change their ways I am staying put at home.

First of all don't think you've got to change everything overnight, perhaps just pick one thing to start with.

It does take a bit more organisation, and I think the key is planning ahead. I'm still struggling to get the balance right as well but we've managed to make sure the children have mainly home-cooked food. It makes it easier if you can cook and freeze meals in bulk on your day off, or on the days/evenings when you are cooking a meal then cook double the quantity so that you can freeze half for another meal.

Soup is one of our favourites to make and freeze, and also a good way of using up any veg. We freeze it in large empty yoghurt pots (recycling!).

Perhaps start by writing a list of all the things you'd like to change and then pick the one that would be easiest to do, once you've achieved that move onto the next one. That way the whole life-changing thing won't seem so daunting.

I am a single parent working full time in a demanding job and do find I can't do OS all the time. I use the bits that I can fit in. I tend to be better in the winter when I will do some cooking rather than go out for a walk on a dark and cold night.

The little things that I have managed in the past couple of days are: making stewed rhubarb for pudding from the first of my home grown rhubarb. Making coleslaw to go with baked potatoes for tea and getting a pot of soup cooked for tomorrow as I prefer 'day 2' soup.

I also take budget as well as time into consideration as this is fairly tight for me. My local Morrisons makes big reductions on a sunday afternoon, so some things are not worth making price wise. This sunday we had chicken breast in cream, garlic and mushroom sauce (30p), brocolli (10p) and their 'best' bacon and cheese potato croquettes (30p). Prices for meal for two. I couldn't make this for the same price.

I do have fairly frugal habits which are fairly old style such as buying from charity shops and car boot sales, go blackberry picking etc


I do love reading the boards, as its good to get ideas from like minded people.

Oops! What happened there?!

Ahem! As I was saying:

Sunday: Roast chicken, roast potatoes and parsnips, stuffing, mini sausages, gravy, veg. (This is what my kids insist on - I keep mini sausages in the freezer, but it does mean you use less chicken, leaving quite a bit left over for...
Monday : Chicken "curry". You can pick all the meat off the chicken on Sunday and chop it into bits ready for Monday.
(When you're really OS, you can bung the carcase (broken up), and onion, carrot, bayleaf and a kettle full of boiling water into a slow cooker on Sunday night, fish out all the bits on Monday morning, put the stock back in the cooker with a selection of veg, a couple of chopped potatoes and your chicken bits (cut up the night before), turn it on low, go to work and come home to ready-prepared chicken and vegetable soup! But for now...)
Back to the chicken curry: Put one and a half cups of rice and three cups of water in a saucepan with a pinch of salt. Cover and put on to boil.
Meanwhile, chop an onion, and put it to fry gently in a spoonful of oil in a frying pan. When it's soft, add your chopped chicken. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add one tblsp curry powder. Sizzle 2 mins. Add (I know these ingredients sound weird) one sliced banana, one chopped apple, one tablespoon marmelade, one tablespoon any chutney, a few sultanas or almonds or pine kernels, one tablespoon tomato ketchup. Stir (it will be sticky and starting to stick). Add enough water or stock to cover and bring to the boil. Allow it to simmer until the sauce has reduced and thickened. By now your rice should be ready. Drain rice and serve with the "curry".
This is very tasty (honest, my husband is half Indian and he likes it, even if it's not really curry!) and takes 20 minutes from start to finish.
Tuesday Maybe have a non-OS day, but have it planned. You might opt for something semi-prepared, eg breaded fish or chicken kievs or sausages or something, which you could serve with rice left over from Monday (if you cooked a lot); or you could boil a few potatoes to go with whatever it is, mash them and serve half with the meal and refrigerate or freeze the other half for next time.
Wednesday Pasta bolognaise: Put water on to boil for pasta. In a large saucepan, fry 2 onions and 2 grated carrots until soft. Add 2 lots of mince (I don't know how many you're cooking for) and fry until browned. You may want to pour off any excess fat at this point. Then add tomato puree (I use 2 small tins which you can't buy in England - sorry! about 4 tblsps in total maybe??), some mixed herbs, allow to sizzle and then add about 1pt of stock. If you haven't any stock you could crumble an Oxo cube or two over the meat when you add the tomato puree and then just add water. Bring to the boil and simmer quite fiercely. (Purists are shuddering as it should really simmer extremely SLOWLY for an hour - if you've got time, great, but if not, don't worry too much.) Cook double amount of spaghetti, add reduced sauce, and sprinkle with cheese.
NOW, either freeze the leftover half of bolognaise sauce as is and you've got one meal ready made for next week OR put the leftover sauce in an oven dish, top with yesterday's leftover mash and you've got cottage pie ready made for tomorrow (or to freeze for next week).
Thursday Either eat cottage pie (just heat up and add fresh veg) OR you could take yesterday's leftover pasta, mix with a cheese sauce (home made or shop bought if you haven't time), top with grated cheese, bung in the oven for macaroni cheese OR if you didn't use the leftover mash for cottage pie, you could mix it with a tin of flaked tuna and some spring onions for instant home-made fish cakes.
Friday I don't cook on Fridays. Definitely takeaway night. Not at all OS! But you could have my Chinese chicken. Dead easy and delish. Prepare before you go to work (or Thursday night) and just bung in the oven when you get home. Put in a casserole dish: 6 tblsps any wine; 3 tblsps soy sauce; 1 tblsp sugar; 1 tblsp water; 1 tsp mustard. Add to this 8 chicken thighs with skin on (for 4 people) or 16 if you're making double, in which case, have 8 tblsps wine, 4 soy, 2 water, heaped sugar, heaped mustard. Stir to coat chicken. Bung in oven gas 5 for an hour or so, remove lid for half an hour to make chicken crispy. Serve with rice or mash and veg of choice. If you get home by six, you could be eating this by half seven with minimal effort. Plus if you've made double quantity, there's another meal for next week.
Saturday Again, you may choose to be non OS on a Saturday, or you could use this as your opportunity to get ahead. How about tomato sauce, for example, basis of many things?
Heat some oil in a large saucepan. Add 1 chopped onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 grated carrot, 1 chopped stick of celery if you have it (don't worry if not), 1 tin cheapo value chopped tomatoes or chopped tomatoes with herbs or plum tomatoes (whichever is cheapest) - I prefer the chopped ones and they're usually much the same price - plus a few herbs, a bayleaf and some pepper and salt. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer 30 mins. Remove the bayleaf. Liquidise or put in food processor until smooth and thick(ish). You could double, treble or even quadruple these amounts and freeze in convenient sizes for almost instant pasta-based meals, eg:
on its own - tomato sauce and cheese (I know, but kids really like it);
fry an onion, add some chopped bacon, bung in tomato sauce - serve with pasta and cheese;
fry some leeks, add bacon or ham and tomato sauce, stir in pasta, put in oven dish, top with mozzarella and grated cheddar, bung in oven 25 mins;
add to chopped chicken (cooked or raw)
etc. etc.

If you've read this far (well done!) then you'll see I'm really getting at planning your leftovers to save time in the future - it really is worth it. By all means buy ready-made sauces - Patak's curry sauces are great, for example, or some of the pasta bake ones are quite useful - while you're getting going. Or be like me and keep some in the cupboard for when you just can't be bothered! I work full-time, have kids 13 and 9 and cook from scratch 6 days out of 7 most weeks (not Fridays, remember?!). But that's not to say I don't have the odd meal of sausages and oven chips! If you plan your menus, you'll start to find that you can be quite creative about making a meal one day that will provide you with a meal for the following week. Anyway, hope you haven't died of boredom reading this (and I'm sorry I seemed to hit the submit button without meaning to so many times!!).

Best of luck!