Keeping meals warm

valentina

Reuse the foil until it's useless, then recycle it with your cans etc

lucylucky

lostinrates wrote: »

That children might need to eat before a bedtime, and preferably with one if not both parents, so cooking the meal, sitting with them and leaving a plate aside for the later parent might be preferable.

As there is only a 15 to 30 minute delay I would think it perfectly practical to eat together slightly later.

OrkneyStar

money_saving_diva wrote: »

If dinner is ready but my dh isn't home yet I plate his dinner up, cover with foil and put it back in the warm oven I have just turned off. He is usually home within 15 to 30 mins of me doing this. He gets it straight out & eats it.
It seems a waste of foil though (although I only use the cheap supermarket value foil for this). I thought about getting a plate cover but they all seem to be for the microwave only. So I would have to leave it on the side with the cover on & then he would have to zap it in the microwave. This seems a waste when the hot oven is sitting there empty.
What does everyone else do? Am I missing something?

Just to say some value foils are not suitable for heating- I know it sounds silly but I bought some a while back it is said not to heat!
TBH I would buy good quality foil and then, as PigPen says, re-use!

lucylucky wrote: »

As there is only a 15 to 30 minute delay I would think it perfectly practical to eat together slightly later.

Not really, for a toddler 15 mins can make a difference- some kids need their bed times kept to etc. Also OP and kids may be hungry so should eat when the food is ready!

Primrose

I'd get a dinner size enamel plate and put it over his food in a warm oven. Enamel is perfectly safe to use in the oven, but not the microwave.
Alternatively, start cooking dinner 15 minutes later and if he gets home on time, he'll have 15 minutes of agreeable anticipation and conversation with you before he gets to eat!

rosie383

But if he is anything like my dh, he wants dinner ready when he comes in, not 15 mins later. He is impatient when he is hungry. In the past we had many arguments about this, especially if it was something that I felt had to be 'finished' off when he came in. Now I make meals that are happy to sit and wait for him, if I know he will be eating later than the rest of us. He gets in from work about 8pm which is too late for the kids to eat. If I am not expecting him to be late, the dinner is made for the time I expect him to be there to eat it, if he is late, for whatever reason, he gets to eat it in whatever state it happens to be in. He says he would prefer this than to have to wait. Fair enough.

lucylucky

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Just to say some value foils are not suitable for heating- I know it sounds silly but I bought some a while back it is said not to heat!
TBH I would buy good quality foil and then, as PigPen says, re-use!

Not really, for a toddler 15 mins can make a difference- some kids need their bed times kept to etc. Also OP and kids may be hungry so should eat when the food is ready! Fair enough, just seems a bit of a palaver for 15 minutes

One of my pet hates is plated up food kept warm in an oven, something I have never done.

OH, very unusually, did this for me the other day.

Vegetables all went in the bin and I made myself something fresh later.

OrkneyStar

rosie383 wrote: »

But if he is anything like my dh, he wants dinner ready when he comes in, not 15 mins later. He is impatient when he is hungry. In the past we had many arguments about this, especially if it was something that I felt had to be 'finished' off when he came in. Now I make meals that are happy to sit and wait for him, if I know he will be eating later than the rest of us. He gets in from work about 8pm which is too late for the kids to eat. If I am not expecting him to be late, the dinner is made for the time I expect him to be there to eat it, if he is late, for whatever reason, he gets to eat it in whatever state it happens to be in. He says he would prefer this than to have to wait. Fair enough.

This makes perfect sense in my world too :T:T:T:T.
DS does not get home late (starts early finishes early) but I would do this too if he did.
Of course some meals are better kept warm/re-heated than others, but we live and learn don't we lol!
At least it is homemade and not a ready meal or McD's!

lucylucky wrote: »

One of my pet hates is plated up food kept warm in an oven, something I have never done.

OH, very unusually, did this for me the other day.

Vegetables all went in the bin and I made myself something fresh later.

Each to their own.
TBH if someone had made me dinner and taken the time to keep it warm for me, I would be very thankful. I don't know if you have (young) kids but often the choice is eat very fast, eat cold or re-heat, as they do seem to take up time at dinner.
As for throwing it in the bin, in a house where every penny counts that is waste to me (if they really were not nice tasting I might have kept them for soup or just ate them anyway!).

SUESMITH_2

i have old aluminium plate cover things that were my mums, don't think you can get them anymore. i don't plate up though. we tend to eat at the same time, or if oh is late i just leave things in the pans and he zaps it in the microwave when he gets in.

lucylucky

OrkneyStar wrote: »

This makes perfect sense in my world too :T:T:T:T.
DS does not get home late (starts early finishes early) but I would do this too if he did.
Of course some meals are better kept warm/re-heated than others, but we live and learn don't we lol!
At least it is homemade and not a ready meal or McD's!

Each to their own.
TBH if someone had made me dinner and taken the time to keep it warm for me, I would be very thankful. I don't know if you have (young) kids but often the choice is eat very fast, eat cold or re-heat, as they do seem to take up time at dinner.
As for throwing it in the bin, in a house where every penny counts that is waste to me (if they really were not nice tasting I might have kept them for soup or just ate them anyway!).

Well although OH had made me dinner I was less than thankful for it as it was rubbish by the time I came to eat it.


As you say each to their own.

meritaten

back in the seventies a device known as a 'hostess trolley' was very popular! you could keep food at serving temp for a few hours in them.
as I remember you could get the full size one or small table top ones with just a couple of warming dishes in the them.
Anyone know if you can still purchase them (probably under a different title now as 'hostess' is a bit unPC)? it would be ideal for the OP!