Having time to cook for Shabbos and work?

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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, Fast Days, and other Days of Note

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Beingreal

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 8:51 am

When do you do it? At night?? Having a hard time finding time to do everything...

Elfrida

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 9:01 am

You cook Thursday evening. Cook in bulk and freeze, so you are never having to cook a full meal, because each week some of it comes out of the freezer.

Cut salads on Shabbos instead of having them made in advance.

Some vegetable side dishes can be cooked in the crockpot. Switch it on before you leave for work, and they will be ready when you get home. Then you can put them in another container and rinse the crockpot out for the chulent.

allthingsblue

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 9:07 am

I cook and freeze soup, challah, main dishes and kugel.

Cholent and salads get made Friday morning or later afternoon.

ra_mom

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 9:30 am

Break down your menu, dish by dish, work backwards and create a list that way.

For me that means that by Tuesday I need my list fully done, by Wednesday shopping needs to be done and one thing cooked (the item that needs time on the stove), and by Thursday the cooking done.

I find that what works is to make one big thing each week, enough for 4 weeks. And then switch off each week so only busy with one big thing. One week chicken soup, one week noodles. One week soak cholent beans... And freeze enough for 4 weeks. Then start the rotation again.

amother

Stonewash

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 9:49 am

Every Sunday I make one freezable thing in 4x quantities. So one week is 4 yerushalmi kugels. One is 4 potato kugels. One is 4 batches of meat borekas/ meat pies. One is 4 batches of deli roll etc. Freeze and retrieve as needed.

Challah and dips are l bought. Dessert is either bought or baked Thursday night.

My Fridays are very reliant on the fact that my husband works from home on Friday and can shuttle things in and out of oven, but I'll right alternatives.

Before I leave for work Friday morning I :
Put up chicken soup (or do it Sunday). I freeze leftovers so it's not every week.
Prepare fish and put it in oven to bake (can be done Thursday night)
Prepare chicken for my husband to put in oven about an hour before I get home. (or if you get home more than 2 hours before shabbos, you put it in when you get home)

When I get home on Friday I :
Defrost challah, kugel, dessert, Shabbos day food (occasionally I make fresh baked schnitzel instead).
Open any bags for salad that need opening.
Grab a bag of frozen veggies from the freezer, season and toss in the oven.
Boil some eggs (skip this if short on time)
Season soup and pull knaidalach out of the freezer and plop in the soup.

chocolate moose

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 12:24 pm

get a shabbos cooking buddy to share the cooking. one week she makes soup and you make fish, for example, then the next week you switch. share everything!

amother

Iris

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 12:45 pm

I do a little bit every night and freeze so it's not overwhelming. Wednesday and Thursday night I make the things I can't freeze. I also don't make tons of different foods.

Sunday - challah (not every week)
Monday- bake
Tuesday- usually nothing
Wednesday- kugel, side dishes
Thursday- cholent, fish, chicken
Fri- put up soup before I leave to work. On longer Fridays I make the chicken on Friday.

Beingreal

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 12:50 pm

Thank you everyone for all the advice! What time do you go to bed at night? Do you let the food cool down??

imaima

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 12:54 pm

Answer would differ greatly depending on stage in life and available resources.

I always had to go with the flow and readjust.

amother

Stonewash

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 1:08 pm

Beingreal wrote:

Thank you everyone for all the advice! What time do you go to bed at night? Do you let the food cool down??

I have minimal energy at night. The most I'll do is put something in the oven while I prepare dinner , so it's done early enough for my husband to put away when he goes to bed, or baked goods that can sit out all night

twolilgirlies

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 1:34 pm

ra_mom wrote:

Freeze chulent beans? That’s a new one and cool! You just pour out the water and freeze in containers?

ra_mom

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 1:48 pm

twolilgirlies wrote:

Freeze chulent beans? That’s a new one and cool! You just pour out the water and freeze in containers?

I soak 2 bags of mixed cholent beans in an 8 quart pot filled halfway with water. Let it sit covered on the counter for 12-15 hours. Pour into colander in the sink and rinse and drain very well. Separate into 4 of the quart size Ziplocs. Squeeze out all air and zip. Freeze.

Or you can do a quick hot soak for 1 hour. Your choice.

Chickensoupprof

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 1:53 pm

Freeze indeed kugels, soup and challos and also sometimes cakes/brownies. Mostly I do the meat dish on Friday self. When Shabbos going in early I just put everything out on erev shabbos and lay it on the blech.

sky

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 1:57 pm

If I want to bake it’s earlier In week.

When I go to sleep Thursday night everything is 100% ready to put on flame or in oven.

I’ve started preparing cholent beans and barley with spices for a few weeks and loving that. Just add potato’s and onions and put on flame

I have a cleaning lady Thursday. I put out all veggies with peelers and knives (no onions) snd she peels everything. It takes her much faster then me and makes my prep so much easier.

Cooking one week for 4 is great for smaller family. But at this point we eat 8 qt pot of soup, 5 lb potato kugel, family peach chicken every week. It doesn’t make sense to cook week to week right now.

Use frozen veggies for sides. Like frozen green beans with frozen sautéed onion cubes. Or broccoli, cauliflower.

amother

Stoneblue

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 2:29 pm

Honestly, I'm a serious believer in the concept of a ten minute shabbos prep. Thursday night or Friday morning, my husband does the shopping. Friday afternoon, I throw together matzo balls and soup, put a gefilte fish up, make some garlic spaghetti (or something equally as easy like yellow rice), prep chicken cutlets for frying. My husband then swaps with me and fries the schnitzel, puts up a chulent (we add in eggs for shabbos day egg salad and half of a potato kugel from the store). Keep the other half of potato kugel for Friday night. So our meal is usually soup Friday night, store bought challah, rice/pasta side, schnitzel, kugel and store bought desert. Shabbos day is deli, chulent, potato kugel, egg salad, gefilte fish, and a meat salad. Done. It's honestly not hard to do and no one feels deprived.

amother

DarkMagenta

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 2:50 pm

Elfrida wrote:

This. You never make one dessert, you always make 2-4 a d freeze. Same for soup and freeze able side dishes and appetizers. And despite the fact that my friends w f/t help.like to tell me how beautiful it is to bake your challah on Friday, you DON'T Ever. You bake on a weekday and you bake a lot so you can freeze it too.
Bonus tip- supper on challah night is a yummy thick vegetable soup and fresh challah. My kids love it.

amother

Stone

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 3:01 pm

I'm going to suggest a different route - I survive doing things very simply
- make a pan with chicken and potatoes for you main dish
- roast string beans or other vegetable that you can buy pre cut
- don't make any kugels
- fruit or bought ice cream / ices
- buy challah
- make large chicken soup to last about 4 weeks

That's how survive. I work full time and am exhausted in the evening. I much prefer getting the house cleaned, dishes washed, table set on Thursday night. If I find time for anything it's to bake Challah because it something my whole family really enjoys.

I have older kids at home so one makes potato kugel (I never make it) and one usually bakes. Otherwise I will buy cookies.

amother

Steelblue

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 3:29 pm

If you’re working full time dh might need to help.

Mommy1:)

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 3:30 pm

it's difficult OP, I feel your pain! Here's how we survive...

Chores list for the kids when they come home friday afternoon (in pictures so kids of all ages can participate)

prep food for baking in 9x13 pans the night before, put them in the fridge. I work from home now, so I put them in the oven in the afternoon... but when I didn't work from home, I would throw them in the oven when I got home from work on Friday afternoon.

Challah - frozen dough from the store. If I've got time and energy and freezer space on Sunday then sometimes I'll make challah for a month or so at a time and freeze.

The golden rule: If it takes more than 5-10 minutes of prep to make a full 9x13 pan, we don't do it.

And one more rule - no guilt, no comparing to the meals other people have.

That's how we do it Smile

andrea levy

Sun, Oct 10 2021, 7:38 pm

When Shabbat is early we cook starting Wednesday night. We take out stuff to thaw in fridge Tuesday. Sous vide helps a lot.

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