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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just back at work after mat leave with baby #2. When we just had one kid and could divide and conquer getting dinner on the table was not as challenging but now that we have two who need to be put to bed at roughly the same time I just can’t figure out how to make it work. Sometimes I used to prep dinner in the morning but I don’t have time to do that since DH leaves for work pretty early and I am alone with two kids.

DH and I get home from work around 6:30pm and bedtime routine for the baby starts at 7pm, then bedtime for older kid starts at 7:30pm. So best case I can start cooking at 8pm but honestly I am too exhausted and don’t love eating so late.

What do others do?[/quote]

OP, what time do your kids wake up?  Can you put them to bed a bit later so you have more time with them at home/time to eat before bedtime.  Not sure how old #1 is but I give you credit getting your kids to bed so quickly and efficiently.  I read about a lot of parents on here that can do that but I don't know a one that doesn't have a horror show putting their kids to bed especially after they are 2.5/3 years old with them pushing boundaries and wanting one more story and getting out of bed and needing mom or dad hugs etc etc.  Last night my 4 year finally fell asleep at 11 pm.  Insane right?  Outlier yes, but still not crazy in my circles.  I only bring that up because you may want to consider eating first and all together so you have one clean up etc because things get a tad tougher before they get easier.  You also may want to consider trying to amend your schedule.  After we had our second, my husband started to go in earlier so he could leave at 4:30 to get home before 6 to get start moving things along at hole while I picked up the kids that are by my job.

As far as food, cook on the weekend and just reheat.  Make things that you can get lots of meals out of like lasagnas or trays of ziti or large cuts of roasted meat and then change up the sides to try to make the meal a bit different.  Switch from making mashed potatoes from scratch to microwaved ones...stuff like that.  Make a huge amount of stir fry.  Do things in a slow cooker.

Another thing that I would suggest that may be wildly unpopular is, for the most part, don't make your kids special dinners.  Make one meal and have that be that.  Why do extra work.  While naturally people like what they like and don't like what they don't like, to a certain extent picky eaters are made not born. Kids are only going to eat chicken nuggets if that is all the get. [/quote]

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