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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm the one who suggested stew, and I also saw your post about soup. So, with this stew, you are going to add potatoes. Lots of them. You can either use up the ones you roasted with the chicken, or add more. Also carrots, lots of those, too. Or sweet potato. If you make dumplings the stew will thicken by pulling flour out of the dumplings, but if you make biscuits instead thicken the stew with 1/4 cup of flour mashed into 3 tbs butter, then dropped into the broth. You can also add pasta and beans to the stew for extra oomph. That thickening with potatoes, flour, and beans is what turns a stew into a filling meal rather than the kind of food you and I (middle aged women, no?) prefer to eat.[/quote]

NP here-  I have a question for above poster-  where did you learn how to cook? Seriously curious, not trying to be snarky.  Are these methods you learned from your family growing up or learned from cookbooks or shows? I cook a lot for my family of 4, but I would be overwhelmed doing 3 chickens and peeling the vast quantities of veg prep like carrot and peeling 5 pounds of potatoes??  How did you know how to do the 1/4 cup flour and 3 tbs butter?  It takes me a long time, like 2 hours, to get from start to finish for dinner for husband and 2 elementary kids.  There's no one to help me or watch kids, and I'm trying to make recipes up as I go along as fast as I can. When do people like above prep for so much quantity for larger families?? Where is the time?????? Who's watching the kids????[/quote]

Not PP but two hours for a basic meal for 4 people is ridiculous. 30 minutes is more reasonable. Make meal prep a family activity. Maybe it takes slightly longer but you are together.

Peeling and prepping 5 pounds of potatoes takes maybe 10 minutes, btw. Prepping 3 chickens to roast takes only marginally more time than 1. I could get three chickens from fridge to oven in 5 minutes. Potatoes from bag to perked to cut to pot in 10. A side of say asparagus rinsed and in a pot to steam in two or dried and on a tray with oil and s&p waiting to hit the oven in 4. Plus, by doing things in the right order or ahead of time you minimize the wait.  
For example I might prep the chickens in the am before work and put the pan in the fridge. Peel and cut the potatoes, put in a pot on the stove in water. Cover and leave it.

Toss the chicken  in the oven as soon as I get home. Go change. Turn the potatoes on 20 minutes later. Prep the asparagus. When the chickens come out of the oven (maybe an hourish after I have gotten home) up the temp and toss the asparagus in. It cooks while the chicken rests. A quick gravy, potatoes are mashed, and dinner is done.

Not a lot of active cooking time for stuff like this. Even easier if you have someone getting home earlier who can turn the oven on to preheat, put the stuff in.  Or you can use a crockpot for stews, etc.

But if you don't already know how to cook it's harder to do when you are doing for more people. Start with low expectations. Read cookbooks sometimes when you aren't actively cooking.  It's a skill and a science, in some ways. [/quote]

It's easy to cook fast with meat as the main course, but cooking veggies fast is time consuming!  Impressed that you can peel potatoes for 4 in only 10 minutes ...  The quick veggie route seems to be using a pressure cooker for beans, but I'm scared of pressure cookers  :oops:  [/quote]

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