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If your DH/partner comes home from work late, how do you deal with dinner?


ILiveInFlipFlops
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My DH doesn't usually get home from work until 8:30 or so. The kids and I eat late, but not THAT late. So I'm essentially preparing a second meal for my DH, because I'm taking everything back out and reheating food and making a salad, etc. The man leaves gets his own breakfast, leaves the house at 8, and gets home at 8:30 (long day, long drive), so I feel like he deserves a hot meal on the table when he gets home, but this is getting to be overwhelming to me--especially because by 8:30, we've already eaten dinner, I've cleared up, and we're in downtime mode, and then I have to pop up and quick prep/reheat/actually cook another full meal while also moving the kids toward bed at the same time. 

 

I'm not really willing to tell him to reheat his own food, and sometimes we have things that just aren't going to reheat well, like burgers, so I try to make him another, fresh burger, but that means another pan, more dishes, more mess that I've already cleaned up, etc. 

 

Does anyone have any creative solutions for dealing with this? Any quick tips that I'm missing? 

 

Thanks!

 

ETA: We don't have a microwave, which adds a layer of complexity. And my kids are 9 and 12, but pushing their dinner back until 9 p.m. doesn't work for the rest of the family.

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I just prep everything at once and reheat what needs to be reheated, even if it isn't at its peak of deliciousness that way. For example, I prep the salad and put the leftovers in a ziploc. I reheat the burger and so forth. It may not be at its best that way, but it is better than me starting over. It is a happy medium.

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Is there any reason you and the kids can't have a snack at dinner time and then eat with him when he gets home?  Maybe have smaller portions since it's late?  (I can't see a sig if you have one so don't know the ages of your kids, so this might not be workable if they are going to bed soon after 8:30.)   Or, if that doesn't work, why clean everything up right after you and the kids eat?  Save the bulk of the dinner dishes to do after he eats, maybe?   Could you also adjust your kids' schedule so they can go to bed a little later and get up later?   (Don't know if your kids go to school or are otherwise on an early schedule.)

 

My husband sometimes has odd hours.  If he is going to be late we just wait, or have a snack. But my kids are older and it's easier. 

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Cold dinner on week nights, warm dinner only on weekends when all can eat together.

or prepare warm week night dinners that reheat easily and do not require extra work. Soups/ sauces are easy. Prep the salad when you prep the main meal and just add the dressing when he gets home. I don't see why reheating a meal from an hour ago must be time consuming - you do have a microwave, or not? So, 2 minutes microwave should do the trick.

I am not sure what you mean by "getting everything out again". We simply leave pots with food on the stove and only refrigerate meat if it's more than two hours.

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Oh yes, extra info might be helpful. We do not have a microwave, and we have no room for one. It's never been a problem before, but now that I'm reheating every night, I'm kind of missing it!  We do have a toaster oven, and that works fine, but of course I can't just throw a regular plate in there, so there's another dish to wash.

 

I can't feed the kids dinner any later than 7:00 (and even that's pushing it) because then they're not going to sleep until 10/11, and then they want to sleep until 9/10 a.m., then school doesn't start until 11, and that doesn't work with other activities we have, and everyone feels like we spend all day long doing school and that leads to misery all around. I really aim to feed them at 6, because experience has shown that later than that and everyone is unhappy. Plus, many nights I use after-dinner time to do my own paid work, and if I don't start until 10 p.m., I'm fast asleep with my chin on my chest, and it never gets done. 

 

If I finish cooking at 6:00, that means food is sitting on our nice, warm stovetop for over two hours, and I'm not comfortable with that. 

 

By getting everything out again, I guess I mean I'm having to set a place at the table all over again, getting out dishes/a glass/utensils a second time (whereas everything would normally come out all at once the first time), etc. If I haven't cleaned up the (very small, with very limited counterspace) kitchen yet, then I have no surface space to work on. If I HAVE cleaned the kitchen, then I'm making more dirty dishes with reheating, and then loading them into the dishwasher again, when I've already done all that once before.

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I think it's sweet of you to do all that for your DH.

 

Personally, I would put out that much effort for DH's late dinner maybe once or twice a year.  DH gets home late, we've already eaten and the food's away.  He can reheat his own food and put his own dishes away.  By the time DH gets home, it's all about bedtime and usually he misses a lot of dinner time and dinner food. 

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Just make his plate when you make yours and have it all ready to go into the microwave. This way you're just hitting a few buttons. Of course, you'll need a salad plate for cold foods, but that's no big deal. Zap, put on the table, clear to the dishwasher, done. Maybe you and the kids can have dessert or cocoa with him. If you don't like micro heating, get creative with your crockpot or keep-warm setting on your oven.

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Ugh, sounds like it is just a bad situation. Some seasons are like that. We are going through a difficult season for other reasons. We have a very tough situation that can't be overcome for now. It is what it is. It is only a season. Hopefully, you will get through this and eventually get to a better situation with more kitchen space *or* earlier nights for your dh.

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ETA: We don't have a microwave, which adds a layer of complexity. And my kids are 9 and 12, but pushing their dinner back until 9 p.m. doesn't work for the rest of the family.

 

That's your problem.  Go buy a microwave.  Then you can make him up a plate when you and the kids eat and he can pop the plate in the microwave when he's ready.

 

Totally worth $50.

 

ETA: If you reallllly don't have room for it, ditch the toaster oven.  The microwave is a much better appliance for what you need.  Or put the microwave in a non-traditional spot (dining room, porch, living room, whatever).  I know it might feel like "I don't want a MICROWAVE in my living room!"....but do you really want to do dinner twice a day?

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He gets reheated food.  That is just the way it is.  I make him a plate but will separate side into little oven/microwave safe bowls so they can be heated as much as needed and placed on the plate.  Little toppings like shredded cheese/scallions are in mini zip bags or little bowls and left off potatoes so they can be put on fresh.  If it is something like steak, I will under cook it a bit so when it is reheated, it isn't over cooked. 

 

 

We don't use the micro to reheat dinner type foods much.  It is much tastier to use the oven and it really only takes 20 minutes or so, since the food is cooked already.  

 

If the veggies aren't great to reheat, he may get something different like frozen corn that heats quick.  I will leave a bowl on the counter, from when I make dinner, so it is thawed out by the time he gets home to heat it up.

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My mom used to keep a plate of food covered in foil to stay warm in the oven for us when we had evening activities.  I sometimes do the same for DH if he is going to be late, although now that the kids are older we are more likely just to stay up late and eat with him.  Sometime times I make crock pot meals and then I just put it on warm when it is done cooking.  It is quick to just dish it up when he gets home.

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No warming drawer. My entire kitchen is ancient and ridiculously designed and drives me crazy, but we have no money to do anything but deal with it for right now  :banghead:

 

It never occurred to me, but yes, I can make his salad (our usual side) when I make ours and just pop a lid on it. That's great. And we'll definitely be having more soups as the weather gets colder, those are good. No one here likes anything I have ever made from the crockpot, so I don't even bother with it anymore. We eat fairly low-carb, so I don't make casseroles or anything like that. For example, tonight's dinner will be grilled sirloin and asparagus on the side. He doesn't mind the asparagus at room temperature, but he'll want the sirloin heated up.

 

You really don't think it's kind of cold to be like, "Hey, I know you were just gone for 12 hours, but we're watching a movie here, so go ahead and make your own dinner"? I would love for him to deal with his own food, but it just feels like something I should be doing for him. (Not as a general principle or anything, just based on how I feel our division of labor plays out.)

 

I know I missed a bunch of replies. Going back to read them now!

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That gives me an idea, would something like this work?

 

http://www.crock-pot.com/specialty/for-lunch/SCCPLC200-PK-NP.html

 

Huh. Yeah, actually, it might! I mean, I could also probably use my actual crockpot on its keep-warm setting, but A) it's huge and takes up so much counter space, and B ) would that dry food, like burgers or steak, out? Or encourage bacterial growth if used for a few hours? I guess not, if people are bringing their lunches to work or school in it. 

 

I'm going to need to look into that...

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I fix him a plate when we eat, set it aside and warm it up in the oven when he is on his way home. He has different shifts on different days so sometimes he is home at 5 and sometimes 8-9 and sometimes close to midnight. I also portion leftovers into containers for him to grab from the fridge to take for lunch. If it's a crockpot thing, I leave it on warm.

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My dh gets home at 11:30 at night three nights a week.

 

On those nights dinner can usually be reheated on the stove or is good served cold. I make a *lot* of soup. My dh's favorite meal in the world is beef stew.

 

Taco meat can be reheated on the stove and if we have that I usually put a plate of veggies for them in the fridge with some plastic wrap. Pasta can also be reheated on the stove. On Wednesdays dinner is usually a chicken from Costco. A lot of times I make chicken salad from it and he prefers that to just a hunk of chicken anyways. We eat sandwiches pretty often for dinner, my family just really likes sandwiches. *L My dh won't eat salad but he does like taco salad, that is good cold.

 

I would save burgers, steak, and things that don't reheat well for weekends.

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You really don't think it's kind of cold to be like, "Hey, I know you were just gone for 12 hours, but we're watching a movie here, so go ahead and make your own dinner"? I would love for him to deal with his own food, but it just feels like something I should be doing for him. (Not as a general principle or anything, just based on how I feel our division of labor plays out.)

 

I know I missed a bunch of replies. Going back to read them now!

No, I don't think it is cold to have him reheat his own dinner. I am assuming he is a capable adult. If you pack his food so he can just pop it in the toaster oven what is the big deal?

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No warming drawer. My entire kitchen is ancient and ridiculously designed and drives me crazy, but we have no money to do anything but deal with it for right now  :banghead:

 

It never occurred to me, but yes, I can make his salad (our usual side) when I make ours and just pop a lid on it. That's great. And we'll definitely be having more soups as the weather gets colder, those are good. No one here likes anything I have ever made from the crockpot, so I don't even bother with it anymore. We eat fairly low-carb, so I don't make casseroles or anything like that. For example, tonight's dinner will be grilled sirloin and asparagus on the side. He doesn't mind the asparagus at room temperature, but he'll want the sirloin heated up.

 

You really don't think it's kind of cold to be like, "Hey, I know you were just gone for 12 hours, but we're watching a movie here, so go ahead and make your own dinner"? I would love for him to deal with his own food, but it just feels like something I should be doing for him. (Not as a general principle or anything, just based on how I feel our division of labor plays out.)

 

I know I missed a bunch of replies. Going back to read them now!

 

I don't think it's any "colder" than him being away at dinner time.  Yeah- I know, times are tough, he works hard...  but the fact is, *he* is the one not home for dinner for whatever the reason.  It's not going to be easy pretending he has a regular Fred Flinstone slide-down-the-dinosaur-when-they-ring-the-bird job where he's home at 5:30 when the fact is, he just doesn't. If you don't have a "9-5" schedule, you can't force it.

 

 

 

your options are:

1. he finds work closer to home

2. He moves the family closer to work

3. He goes in to work earlier to be home at dinner time

4. the family waits and eats dinner with him

5. he packs/buys/somehow eats dinner before he leaves work, avoiding the need to have dinner at home

6. leftovers get heated up quickly and efficiently when he gets home

7. an alternate meal is planned for him- he has a cold salad with the cold meat from dinner on the salad, soup is in the crockpot or on low on the stove, or a sandwich/wrap is waiting for him

 

Have you asked him what *he* wants? Does he want the big full meal at the nicely set table?  Would he prefer a sandwich on a paper plate in the family room while he watches the movie with the kids?

 

What about flipping your schedule?  Have the BIG DEAL Family Dinner be breakfast- you said he leaves at 8? Make a big breakfast every day, or 2-3 days/week. Let dinner be simpler. Start the day with Happy Family Time, rather than stressing over it at the end of the day. Make breakfast casseroles, breakfast burritos, toaster waffles, even cereal or smoothies- but let that be the family meal.

 

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My husband used to come home most nights after we had eaten (after 8). I always made him a plate and put it in the microwave. He heated it up when he got home. Salad I prepped in a ziploc or plate in the fridge. My husband it always thrilled to come home to a real meal, he never minded it not being fresh. 

 

My suggestion-- get a microwave.  ;)

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I always just a portion aside for DH, then he can warm it when he gets home. I prep salad veggies at the beinning of the week, so it can just be tossed together and dressed at any time.

I would really reallky invest in a microwave!

 

As a side note, DH may have been gone all day working, but I've been home all day working. I teach, I plan, I self educate, I clean, I take care of the animals, I cook 2 if not 3 meals a day most days. By 830 I am done! I don't find it at all unreasonable for him to warm up his own dinner.

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We don't microwave and DH has 2 nights a week where he comes home after kiddos are in bed. I can not make them stay up that late. We also limit carbs, so no pasta/casseroles. I do cook in the afternoons and often leave it wrapped (the pot) in a towel and on the stove. Salad is prepped in a bowl with a lid then dressing (usually olive oil/lemon juice) added upon arrival.

I simply heat up once he arrives and he has his salad while waiting. I do clean up the kitchen, but leave out things needed for his meal.

I really think it matters in the types of meal you choose. Something like steak would be only for weekends here. (You can do a whole steak meal in a crockpot, just FYI)

I do roasted chicken in a crockpot with sweet potatoes and a side of veges/salad. Or various stews with a salad. Sometimes stuffed cabbage.

I guess I do use my crockpot a lot. Tonight is one of Dh's late nights and we are having BBQ chicken, baked beans and coleslaw.

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Microwave! Must get one! Now!

 

When dh had a crazy schedule like that he'd just warm his food in the microwave. He didn't mind doing it himself. That's just how it was for us at that time.

 

Perhaps you should ask your dh what parts of the evening are important to him. Maybe it's having a nice hot dinner. Maybe it's not. Maybe he'd rather, as a pp mentioned upthread, have something simple so he can spend a few minutes with the family before bedtime. Maybe he needs time alone to decompress from his day. A nice chat could help you figure these things out.

 

I hope you find something that works for your family. :grouphug:

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Meal planning can help.  What dinners that work with your diet and that everyone likes would reheat easily?  I agree that the oven or toaster oven can work to reheat food--you just need longer than the microwave, and may need to tweak which foods should be covered or moistened and which ones can just be reheated in an open container.

 

Also ask him what his favorite dinners are, and what works for him in terms of reheating and leftovers.  You might find he loves leftover sirloin over salad ;)  Then make lovely, hot dinners on the weekends when everyone can enjoy together.

 

Maybe the kids keep watching the movie on weeknights, and you join dh for a cup of tea or glass of wine?  That sounds heavenly to me, actually, to have adult time together before the bedtime shuffle.

 

Amy

 

 

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My husband works very strange hours. Some nights he gets home from his regular M-F job at 7, 7:30 or 8, some nights he has a rehearsal or performance with his band and he can get home anywhere between 10pm and 3am the next morning. On nights he gets home at 7, we wait and eat with him when he gets here. Any later than that then we eat without him. I will either keep things warm in the oven for himm, or put together a casserole dish or pie pan covered with foil in the fridge for him to warm in the oven (or the microwave-depends on what it is, and obviously not the metal containers.) I almost always have salad available, too, because we all eat that and he loves it. If he gets home in the wee hours, he might just have a can of pineapple with a yogurt, or cereal and call it a night. He doesn't expect me to get everything out all over again for him when he gets home late, but I often will because I love him and want him to have a decent meal and feel that he is cared for after a long day. It is a hassle dirtying up the kitchen if I've cleaned it up already, I get that. I've been doing it for almost 20 years, but I have come to feel that it shows love and honor to make sure my husband feels cared for, even if it's just reheating some leftovers and dirtying up the kitchen again. (Some, or most actually, nights I don't bother with more than rinsing and stacking until after he's eaten.)

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It depends on the meal.  Hamburgers are gross heated up, so I make fresh.  Come to think of it, most meat reheated is pretty yucky.  And cooked vegetables are yucky heated up.  We do salads a few times a week, which makes for very simple leftovers.  Soups are simple as well.  Oh yea, spaghetti and tacos are pretty quick as well.  I did not have a microwave for a very long time, so I adapted to heating things on the stove.  My SO comes home anytime from 6pm all the way to midnight, if he is not out traveling for the week.  I figure after a week or more on the road, the easiest thing I can do is make sure he has a hot meal occasionally (minus salad nights obviously).  We aren't typical though.  We see each other so little, that I take advantage when he is home to give him a proper meal.    We do save the dishes for morning if it is a late, late night supper.  I know how crappy making leftovers can be from my single and living with my sister days, so I try to accommodate him.  I will say, there have been nights he comes home at 9pm, we start the grill, make dinner and hang out.  (I don't always eat with the kids, especially if I know he is coming home.)

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We eat without him.

 

If he is coming home that late, he takes his lunch AND dinner with him.   He will then take tonight's dinner for his dinner tomorrow night.

 

About 5 months of the year he works too late to come home for dinner (he is an accountant.)

 

Dawn

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I think that is really sweet of you to want to cook him a fresh dinner. 
 

But, honestly, I would have a cold plate and a hot plate for him and serve them when you're serving everyone else. Then cover the hot plate with foil and put it in the oven on warm. Put the cold plate in the fridge with plastic over it or something. Then when he gets home, all he has to do is take the plates out of the oven and the fridge. 

 

IMO, microwaves are disgusting, so I like to try to find different solutions.

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No warming drawer. My entire kitchen is ancient and ridiculously designed and drives me crazy, but we have no money to do anything but deal with it for right now :banghead:

 

It never occurred to me, but yes, I can make his salad (our usual side) when I make ours and just pop a lid on it. That's great. And we'll definitely be having more soups as the weather gets colder, those are good. No one here likes anything I have ever made from the crockpot, so I don't even bother with it anymore. We eat fairly low-carb, so I don't make casseroles or anything like that. For example, tonight's dinner will be grilled sirloin and asparagus on the side. He doesn't mind the asparagus at room temperature, but he'll want the sirloin heated up.

 

You really don't think it's kind of cold to be like, "Hey, I know you were just gone for 12 hours, but we're watching a movie here, so go ahead and make your own dinner"? I would love for him to deal with his own food, but it just feels like something I should be doing for him. (Not as a general principle or anything, just based on how I feel our division of labor plays out.)

 

I know I missed a bunch of replies. Going back to read them now!

Ok. I'd make his sirloin very rare and then warm it up with the sides.

 

You don't need a warming drawer to keep a warm plate ready. For most anything I can cover the plate with foil, set the oven to a low temp and we're good.

 

My husband is happy enough that I cook that I don't wager it's an issue that his plate's in the oven and not on the table. Sometimes I will hold my plate too and set the table for us if he's getting home after the boys bedtime (8:30). Sometimes though he finds his plate hot and his wife passed out on the couch, best intentions to stay up late for him thwarted by a need for sleep. He's survived.

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Food is a big deal to this guy. I could eat a bowl of cereal for dinner or room temperature burger for dinner most nights, but to him, it's not a meal unless there's meat and a vegetable and it's hot and saucy. If he could have his way, he'd come home to a quiet living room where he could eat a hot, fresh meal and not have to deal with bedtime (he's in sales and talks and negotiates with people all day long, so when he gets home he needs to decompress). 

 

He would heat his own meal up occasionally, and he would tell me not to worry about it, but having a hot meal ready for him when he gets home really makes him feel cared for. I guess I think that since he's his working his tail off so I can stay home with the kids, it's on me to do that for him (that's just me and our dynamic, it doesn't reflect how I think anyone else should do it!). And given how hard he's working right now (commission-only job in a down market), I don't feel like I do as much during the day as he does (we're pretty relaxed around here right now, though that won't be the case in a few weeks), so I feel like he deserves this. He used to be home by 7-7:30 most nights, and we did wait for him for dinner then, but 8:30-9:00 is too late, especially when he still needs to change, use the bathroom, put his stuff away, etc. 

 

The kids and I will often watch a movie or TV show with dinner, so I don't usually set a traditional table. It never occurred to me to still set a place setting for him when I take out all our other stuff! I can cut and prep his food and put it in a Pyrex either in the toaster oven or the crock, and then just turn it on when I know he's close to home. I think I need a slightly bigger Pyrex than I currently have, but that should work, even if I need to pop it in the fridge and then move it to toaster oven (and then I have my loaf pan back for baking). I think I can see a few other tweaks I can make too.

 

He's still not home and it's 9:00 now *sigh* I'm going to go slice and heat his meat and asparagus now.

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You really don't think it's kind of cold to be like, "Hey, I know you were just gone for 12 hours, but we're watching a movie here, so go ahead and make your own dinner"? I would love for him to deal with his own food, but it just feels like something I should be doing for him. (Not as a general principle or anything, just based on how I feel our division of labor plays out.)

 

 

 

No, I don't.

I mean, sure, it's a nice thing to get up and redo everything if that's what makes you happy, but it doesn't sound like it's making you happy.  I'm guessing YOU were pretty busy for those 12 hours too and you made dinner once already!

 

We don't have a microwave, either.  Hasn't been a problem.

Though dh would often grab dinner out b/c he didn't like to wait until 8:30, either.

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OK, here's a question. If I put a plate in a warm oven for two hours, won't it be really dry and unpalatable by the time he's ready to eat it? 

Add moisture. Put a little of the cooking juices over the meat. Add milk and butter to mashed potatoes. (Or have butter for him to add.) Put a little lemon juice on a green vegetable. Olive oil on a root vegetable. Ect. ect. 

 

Have extra gravy or whatever for him to add as he eats. (Keep it hot in the oven too. Thin with broth.)

 

It's not going to be perfect. It just won't be when he is getting home so late. But it will be just fine. Staying sane is important too. 

 

Has he specifically told you that it bothers him if you don't cook him a separate dinner when he gets home? Or is that what you suspect he thinks? If he hasn't said anything, you could be having a lot of anxiety over something that he's okay with. Maybe you could have coffee together and discuss it.

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For what it's worth, I don't like making my husband deal with his dinner when he gets home, either. He doesn't work 12-hour days, usually, but he has some health issues that mean he is pretty much fried by the time he gets home. If dinner becomes too much work for him, he will usually opt not to eat at all. 

 

In our situation, it's not him that isn't home at dinner time, but me. Up until recently, one kid or the other (or sometimes both) had activities outside the house at least a few nights a week. My daughter has now moved out, and my son is living on campus, but I now work a part-time job that has me away from the house three or four evenings a week. 

 

We do have a microwave, which helps. I also use my crock pot/rice cooker combo fairly regularly. Yesterday, dinner was curried lentils with basmati. I left the rice warming in the cooker, but the lentils had to be reheated in the microwave for a few minutes. If I had a separate rice cooker and crock pot, that would have eliminated a step for him.

 

Meals I do that do not depend on those include things like smothered burritos and/or Mexican-inspired casseroles, both of which can be cooked ahead and left, covered in foil, in the oven on warm for a couple of hours. I do the same thing with twice-baked potatoes, which my husband considers a meal if they are smothered in melted cheddar cheese and accompanied by a tomato and onion salad left in the 'fridge. I also sometimes do baked pastas, which can also survive some time sitting in the oven on the warm setting, as long as they have plenty of sauce to keep them moist.

 

When the weather is warm, I sometimes make up a plate of pre-sliced sandwich fixings to leave in the 'fridge and make sure there's some good sandwich bread. Another favorite is Asian-style peanut-sesame noodles, which are eaten cold and require no more work than dishing them out onto a plate.

 

I do get it. And I don't think it's odd that you would want to make sure your husband has a nice meal when he gets home from long days away. 

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Dh comes home at 11:30 at night 5 nights a week.  He heats up his own dinner.  Most of the time he takes it down to his den and eats it there in front of the t.v. while I go to bed.  If for some reason we don't have leftovers (which occasionally happens with a 17 year old boy) he grabs a frozen dinner and makes that.  It's just the way it is for us right now.  We show our love and appreciation and family ties other ways.  

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Do you mean a pop up toaster or a mini oven? My grandmother never had a microwave and heated everything up in her toaster oven. She used tiny pie tins, but the small Pyrex would work. They make divided dishes too. I'd refrigerate and reheat rather than leave it heating, both for taste and so as not to bake the whole house in summer!

 

Costco usually has a set of glass storage dishes in smaller sizes.

 

Maybe you could snack with the kids on Fridays and make a nice meal for two that night?

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We did this for quite a few years.  We also didn't have a microwave for a lot of the time.  The kids and I would eat earlier....DH preferred to eat alone when he came in that late, and have some quietness. 

 

So I'd make meals that would keep warm well (I'd leave burgers etc for the weekends when we can eat them altogether), plate his portion up, and invert another plate over the top of it.  Then put the plate on top of a pot half full of water set at a simmer on the stove top.  Even if he got home quite late, the meal was beautifully warm, moist, and took no more effort from me, than to take it off the pot, and place it on the table (on a cork mat, as it will be very hot).  The pot and his plate could wait to be washed until the morning, or the pot can be easily wiped out right there and then.

 

 

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The Pyrex in the toaster oven will work great. I loved our toaster oven for heating up small meals, I got rid of it because we didn't use it often enough to keep it, but it was great for that purpose!  

 

One thing to think of, is keeping extra veggies that are a quick heat-and-eat style, just to fill in the plate if you have something more complicated that won't hold over.  I use frozen veggies so I can just scoop out enough for one person.  

 

 

 

 

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I would be more concerned about not havng family meal time than I would be about the exact content of the meal.

 

Could you start cooking a hot breakfast? Then everyone could have one nice meal together. If you packed him a good lunch, I would feel less guilty then about a warmed up dinner.

 

I simply could not be cooking and cleaning at 8:30 or 9:00. I get too tired and my feet hurt. I just could not manage it nightly. I would try to do better breakfasts, pack a good lunch, and let dinner be a warmed plate. Then on his days off, I would do something nicer.

 

But honestly, I would probably figure out how to do a microwave even if it had to be in a hallway or the living room. Heck, can you put one in a garage?

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Pyrex dishes with lids are your new best friends!  They come in a variety of sizes- all of which fit in a toaster oven just fine.  When you plate up your dinners, serve your DH into his Pyrex.  Pop the lids on and store in the fridge.

 

Ask him to start sending you a text when he leaves work.  That would be your daily signal to move the Pyrex from the fridge to the toaster oven- obviously ditching the plastic lid on the way. 

 

My DH works very late hours during construction season.  There is no way I would ever hold dinner for him- I also am not interested in eating with him that late in the day.   By the time he gets home from work, all he's thinking about is getting the food in his belly as quickly as possible so he can shower and crawl into bed.   We don't microwave and have no intention of doing so.  When we have a meal that needs to be hot- we use the toaster oven method.   When I am meal planning I do take into consideration what would not re-heat so well and save those things for the weekends.  

 

Yes, he works hard, and he does appreciate when I put forth extra effort for dinner for him, but he also appreciates me, and he knows that by the end of the day I'm exhausted, and he would never expect me to prepare a second meal every day. 

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I missed the no microwave part. Why don't you get an oven-safe plate that fits in your toaster oven? Make his plate when you put away the food. Have him call when he's on his way so you have twenty minutes to get it hot. It's no more effort than the microwave plan, you just need more time. DO warn him that his plate is hot :-)

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When I expect that my DH will be home late, I make sure to prepare something that heats up well, or have something cold.  So for those days:  Crock pot/one pot meals minimizes the mess.  Another things are BLTs, salads, soups with hearty bread, sheppards pie, spaghetti and meat sauce. 

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