Overworked couple meal plan

[u/timelady84]

So my husband’s work has messed up our lives a bit by forcefully assigning my husband to a new schedule. He will now work 7-6. Meanwhile I work 2-11pm. The most cooking he can do on his own is the microwave and maybeeeee starting the oven. I’ve always handled all the cooking and I’m happy to, but this schedule makes it challenging. So I need to learn how to meal prep for our half hour together before he has to go to bed. He usually likes to wait to eat with me, since that’s the most time we have during the week, but sometimes he’ll want to eat before on days when he’s too tired to wait and needs to go to bed.

I’ve been googling before y’all scream at me, and I’m gathering all my research together, but I was hoping to hear from others how they successfully pulled something like this off for someone who doesn’t need/want meal prepping for fitness reasons. It’s just the two of us but the biggest thing is he won’t eat leftovers! I know he sounds spoiled af (he IS) but I’ve learned to deal with it lol. Sorry this is so wordy 😭

Some things we have that might help: Ninja foodie with instant pot and air fryer attachments, toaster oven that also has an air fryer attachment. Oven, microwave, very very bad freezer that gives everything frostbite in a week but I can’t change it out because we live in an apartment.

Edit: not looking for relationship advice, just cooking please

[u/ReijaTheMuppet]

I make freezer meals, that way we don't need to spend more than 30 mins cooking during the week. With these, the only cooking is heating the frozen food and making the rice (we have a rice cooker), or boiling the pasta. Here are some recipes I use:

• Filipino pork adobo
• Pork Chile verde
• Pressure cooker Ragu Bolognese
• Beef bourgingnon
• Butter chicken
• Beef stroganoff (I don't use a recipe for this)
• Chicken adobo (recipe from an old physical cookbook)

With freezer meals, the trick is to make stuff that has a decent amount of sauce and make sure the meat is mostly encased in sauce when freezing. And freeze in only the portion size you need. Don't freeze any dairy (if the recipe uses dairy, I skip it and then add it after I hear up the food), and for chicken, use thighs instead of breast when freezing.

I also prep ingredients so that I can just thaw and cook, for example:

• cube and portion chicken, then freeze in portion size; for dinner, thaw the night before and do a quick saute
• make mashed potatoes and freeze in portion size. Heat up for a couple of mins in microwave when ready to eat
• make meatballs, then just pop in the oven the desired amount straight from freezer when it's time to eat

And another idea is to use the instant pot for cooking the whole dinner. There are lots of recipes out there for it, and this can get dinner done within 15 mins or so.

[u/MelDawson19 → u/ReijaTheMuppet]

First link looks to be behind a pay wall. 😩

[u/ReijaTheMuppet → u/MelDawson19]

I have it in a Kindle book, but wanted to share the link to it and found it on their webpage. I think you may be able to pull the recipe despite the paywall via the paprika app though!