September is here, the summer holidays are over and suddenly we’re back to school, work, clubs, activities and all the usual routines.

And with that comes the return of a question that somehow arrives every single day.

What’s for dinner?

The 5pm problem isn’t always that we don’t have time to cook. Sometimes it’s that we haven’t decided what we’re cooking, haven’t got everything we need, or realise far too late that the chicken we were planning to use is still firmly frozen!

Let me help you make dinner times a little easier with Thermomix. Plan when you can, get ahead when you can, and know how to wing it when the plan inevitably goes out of the window.

Beat the 5pm Problem

A little planning helps, but so does knowing a few Thermomix tricks for when things don’t quite go to plan.

• Plan a few meals in Cookidoo – add them to My Week and let Cookidoo pull the ingredients into your shopping list.
• Double up when it makes sense – if you’re making something freezer-friendly, make enough for another meal.
• Freeze useful basics – sauces, doughs and portions of leftovers can all give you a head start another day.
• Make what you’ve run out of – no icing sugar? Mill granulated sugar. No breadcrumbs? Blitz some bread. Lots of everyday basics can be made in seconds.
• Search by what you’ve got – type an ingredient into Cookidoo rather than starting with a recipe. That lonely courgette or tin of chickpeas might just solve dinner.
• Think ingredients, not recipes – vegetables can become soup, odds and ends can top a pizza and a few basic ingredients can become fresh flatbreads.

Sometimes beating the 5pm problem is about being organised. Sometimes it’s simply knowing how to wing it!

Featured Recipes

Recipes for Solving the 5pm Problem

Plan It

The easiest way to solve the 5pm problem is to decide what’s for dinner before 5pm arrives.

Spend a few minutes in Cookidoo(opens in new tab) – Thermomix’s recipe platform –  choosing three or four meals for the week and add them to My Week. You don’t need every meal mapped out – just knowing that Tuesday is Cottage Pie and Thursday is Chilli Con Carne takes away the decision when you’re tired, hungry and trying to get everyone fed.

Try:
Cottage Pie(opens in new tab)
Chilli Con Carne(opens in new tab)
Bolognese Sauce(opens in new tab)

Batch It

Batch cooking doesn’t have to mean spending Sunday afternoon filling the freezer with a month’s worth of dinners.

Sometimes it’s simply making more while you’re already cooking. Double a sauce and freeze half, make enough soup for tomorrow’s lunch, or prepare something useful now that will make another meal quicker later.

You’re doing the work once – but helping yourself out twice.

Try:
Tomato Pasta Sauce(opens in new tab)
Vegetable Soup(opens in new tab)
Quick Bread Rolls(opens in new tab)

Wing It

And then there are the days when you haven’t planned, there’s nothing useful in the freezer and the fridge contains a slightly random collection of food.

This is when your Thermomix really earns its place in the kitchen.

Think about what you have, rather than what you’re missing. Vegetables can become soup. Tinned tomatoes can become a sauce. Flour and yoghurt can become quick flatbreads. Pizza dough gives you somewhere to use those random bits of cheese, vegetables and cooked meat.

Search Cookidoo using the ingredient you need to use up and see what you can make from it.

Try:
Quick Flatbreads(opens in new tab)
Pizza Dough(opens in new tab)
Tomato Risotto(opens in new tab)

Plan when you can. Prep when you can. Wing it when you can’t.