Need help with Dinner time! - crockpot, cook in advance idea

I didn't know where to post this, but figured that this might be a good place.

After school/camp is hard. My kids need me to referee, give out water or snacks, run activities, and I have to make/serve dinner.

When I make dinner around 4-5, the kids are going crazy and I'm feeling rushed, so it's not a good fit. Also, half the time it's not cooked enough.

When I make in a crock pot, for some reason, dinner is never cooked and I end up serving it the night after and serving bread with sauce and cheese for the kids, when I have wonderful half cooked foods nearby.

After a day where I spent all day cooking (I'm a sahm), I put it all away until dinner and I was so proud of the healthy, filling dinner I made. Well, I made half raw salmon, half cooked soup (the peas were still hard) and yummy rice.

I need help making dinner in advance so that it's ready when we want to eat. Some can be to heat up quickly in case we're out right up until dinner, some can be in a crock pot. I just need help, any!

TIA! (Anon because I've been complaining about this lately)

I put my crockpot dinners on at 8:00am and they work out well. Sometimes when I put it up at 8, I set the timer to turn it on at 10 so that certain dinners don't overcook.

What time do you put your crockpot dinners up?

Can you start to put them up at 8?

Or can you cook them on HIGH for half the amount of time as the recipe calls for on LOW so that they are ready on time?
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Really Awesome Mom!

I don't do a lot of advance cooking--- just a lot of EASY cooking. Tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays from 4 to 5 or 5:30 I go to therapy with my kiddos---- I cook when we get home.

like chicken and potatoes. chicken takes 2 minutes to toss in the oven. potatoes take 2 minutes to toss into a pot on the stove or 2 seconds to toss the baking kind into the microwave. I don't count cooking time as time spent in the kitchen---- PREP time is what I count---- if chicken is cooking for an hour but I'm playing with the kids that whole time, so what if it takes an hour.

spaghetti and meat sauce---- I have to stir the meat for about 5 minutes. Even MY kids can entertain themselves for 5 minutes (usually by watching me cook and asking endless questions). Add sauce-- throw pasta in a pot. boom.

pancakes---- 1 minute to mix batter, 4 minutes to cook.

this week with no meat we've been doing mac and cheese, pancakes, tonight was eggs and salad (ok the salad took 3 minutes to make and the eggs took another 4 minutes--- so that took 7 minutes),

Anything that requires more than 10 minutes of prep time waits for Friday morning that I have designated as cooking time (I work at home).

We also do a lot of rice (2 minutes prep time--- a few seconds at a time to go back and stir).

I'm not a huge crock pot fan but we use it for cholent every shabbos.

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8518

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8518

Senior Member Joined: Jul 26 2010 Posts: 194

I sometimes put up a crockpot as late as 1:30 or even 2 on high and its done by 5 or 5:30 when the kiddos eat.
I've also put it up in the morning really early on low all day. never found it overcooked. the chicken just keeps getting softer.
when I was working I would put up supper 4ish which was ready for when dh got home -7 or 8. the kids always got yesterdays leftovers. they don't know they're leftovers cuz they didn't get it yesterday. it only worked if I set it up in the begining of the week though.
also if u do any baked dish ( think chicken n potatoes or rice why not just pop into the oven at 3 and then will be ready when they come in.

mimisinger---- cooking time isn't time I spend in the kitchen--- JUST prep time. It doesn't take long to put chicken in the oven at all--- so then it takes an hour to cook and I'm WITH my kids for that hour--- I might check it once.

So how does it not take 2 minutes to PREP (not COOK) a chicken? I put water in the pan, toss some paprika and pepper on top, and toss it in the oven. boom.

Yeah we eat between 5:30 and 6:30. I give them a snack when they get home from school or camp at 4:00. If we're going straight from school/camp to therapy (Tuesdays we have anxiety therapy at 4, Thursdays we have speech therapy at 4:15, and we're trying to put the outreach therapy on either mondays or wednesdays right now then I snack them at 5 or so and FEED them at 6 or 6:30.

we got home at 5:45 tonight and I was JUST about to boil water for pasta (what--- 2 minutes of prep and 12 minutes of cooking time?)---- when I decided to send hubby out for a pizza. so we ate pizza at 6:15. I made salad from 6:15 to 6:16 while the kids were already washed and motzied--- one minute to throw some lettuce onto everyone's plates, cut an avacado and a pepper and squirt the dressing. Smile

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Sometimes what I do for soup made in a crockpot is I'll leave it on low from as early as I can in the morning (typically around 7:30 or 8) and then the second I get home turn it on high for another hour. I find that this helps make the soup thicker and more "done", if that makes sense.

What I try to do (if I have time) is make 2 dinners at once, if I'm prepping anyway -- one quick one for the oven for that night, and while I'm prepping that, putting all the similar ingredients in the crock pot. For example, if Im making chicken and potatoes and onions, I'll put the same thing in the crock pot and just put BBQ sauce or different veggies afterwards (bag of baby carrots, celery, etc) so it's not the SAME dish, but it's the same ingredients and I put it in the fridge overnight and stick it in the crockpot in the morning.

Also, anything that is freezable, I double. It's only me and my husband now, so we don't need a full chicken, so I split it into 2 pans, and freeze one and cook the other, so to save time another night I just defrost the already prepped chicken in the morning and pop in the oven. I also do this with soup -- I make a monster pot of soup and freeze double portions.

Also, if you're getting uneven cooking, is it possible your crockpot is broken?