I despise cooking, but it’s a necessary evil when you have kids.

You just need to suck it up and try out crock pot meals, meals that can be made and frozen (so kids can just microwave), meals that your kids will eat leftovers. You also need to set up some guidelines on what they can eat for dinner.

OP, can you afford a meal service? You can sign up for 3 meals a week for the evenings you are working. Assign your teens the task of heating up the food. Five days a week is even better.

I think going from never cooking dinner to cooking double batches of food, overseeing food prep on weekends, and meal planning in general is a lot to ask of you, since you work full time and admittedly do not like cooking. I really enjoy cooking and only work part time, and even I get sick of it.

We often do a lot of semi-homemade meals from frozen entrees..

- Costco sells some lovely frozen cauliflower crust pizzas. We add even more protein and lots of veggies (mushrooms, broccoli, peas, peppers, caramelized onions) - to make it an even tastier meal. Serve with a bowl of mixed veggi soup with sausage. Absolutely delicious.

- Another frozen meal that we love is the frozen Chicken yakatori bowl. Microwave in a large glass bowl with a spray of water according to directions. You will need one bowl per person +1. Add Sriracha, chopped minced garlic, chiffonade -spinach and cilantro, chopped - cucumber, green onions, blanched and chopped - red peppers, peas, baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts. Mix well. Sprinkled crushed roasted salted peanuts and some toasted sesame seeds. Yummy.

It’s tough, and most of us have been there.

Cooking is a learned skill, not a natural ability type of artwork the shows make it seem. Find what method of learning works for you. For me it was watching YouTube tutorials and printing out the recipes.

Most dishes use many of the same ingredients (garlic, onion, salt, pepper, rice/pasta/potatoes, and a veg) and can be prepared in under and hour after you have it down. The first few times has a learning curve of course.

What’s interesting is when my kids saw me take cooking, really eating well, seriously, they follow suits. My hs age kids will actually cook themselves decent little meals when they home alone, rather than heating up garbage.

Wegmans is a life saver. They have chicken breast/thighs, pork, lamb, etc all in vacuum sealed containers that are easy to thaw in cold water. I recommend keeping some of those in the fridge/freezer for thrown together meals. They also have stir fry sauces, salsas, and pasta sauces that are pretty good. Once you get that down you can graduate to making your own pasta and Mexican sauces.

None of this fixes your weeknight problem. 8:30 is late to start dinner. I agree with the suggestion of cooking on weekends, or having something around that can be reheated.