What to feed everyone when they're out more than they're in?

notechno

I'm not sure if this should really be in Old Style, but as I don't want to go down the convenience food/ready meals route I thought this might be the best place.

After 25 yrs of having at least one child around, I suddenly (and it is sudden, it's completely changed in a matter of wks) find myself rattling around the house on my own. My youngest has just left school, and whilst he'll be off to college in Sept, he's not really around in the way he used to be. I still need to eat, and he needs to eat when he comes in later on in the evening, but I'm confused now over what to cook. In my heart I still want to make roast dinners, spag bol, pasta dishes, but I have to be honest and admit this is no longer reqd.

Left to his own devices, he'd eat a bowl of cereal or a jam butty when he comes in, and I don't want this. I want there to be a supply of healthy food which can be easily warmed up, but without all the frills of a meat-and-two-veg kind of meal, or the sad unfulfilled promise of convenience food. Oh, and ideally, something I could eat myself .......... any ideas? How have others managed in these in-between children/empty nest stages?

whitewing

Have you got time for proper cooked breakfasts? Then you could have lighter stuff in the evenings.

My DH will eat anything rice or pasta based that is left in a casserole dish so you could do normal meals for 4, eat one, leave one in the fridge and freeze two?

mandragora_2

I manage by making ourselves (OH and me) what we fancy, doing a third plate, wrapping some cling film on it and sticking it in the fridge. Two days out of three, the food goes, so that's as often as I do it - no new meal cooked if last night's is still in the fridge. He's now in his mid-twenties, been away to uni and come back, and it seems to work for us. I used to agonise about it, but it didn't get me anywhere. He's away at the moment house-sitting for a friend, and has come home this weekend, for love of us, naturally, but also for love of a comfy bed; the washing machine; a dog-hair free house. He also ate dinner before heading out again .

They know which side their bread's buttered,once they have to fend on their own, so I really just would cook for yourself and let him work the rest out by himself. It took me a year to realise this, and my husband, God love him, still worries himself about what the offspring will eat, and when, and I can honestly say that that is the only issue that causes any tension at home regarding food, as my OH will insist on trying to cook our son's meal for him when he comes home from a late shift the second he walks through the door.

Puddleglum

I make "reddy" meals by cooking an extra portion than required at the time and putting it in a takeaway container and storing it in the freezer. When it is needed, it gets defrosted and heated up in the microwave.

DS is living off of these this weekend, looking after the house while the rest of us are away. I also use them as lunches at work and for times when the house is turning into a transport caf.

pigpen

pasta meals can all be reheated..

Mine just help themselves to pizza or oven food if there is nothing to reheat.. but there is usually mince and veg, veggies etc to eat!

cutestkids

I just make a meal as normal plate it up and those who are in eat then, the others are cling filmed and they can reheat in the microwave when they come in