- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Working Moms
Can we talk dinner?
I'm wondering how dinner works in your house. Right now it is such a struggle for me to get dinner on the table every night. I get home from work with DD close to 6 and try to eat by 6:30. More times than not, I get home and start trying to pull something together. We rarely eat the same thing. I may have a LeanPocket, while DD has veggies, raviolis, a piece of cheese and raisins. Not exactly what I think of when I think dinner, but I'm trying to get her to have all (or most of) the food groups.
I've tried working on a menu on Sunday and doing the grocery shopping that day, is this what you guys do? I am looking at Menus4Moms, but everything I've seen on there kinda turns me off. I've tried freezer cooking, and that seemed to work the best so far, but it is so hard to get motivated to spend a night planning, 1/2 day shopping and an entire day cooking.
So, what works for you?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Can we talk dinner?
We might put together a rough idea of dinners for the week, but we rarely follow it.
Usually whoever gets home first will just start throwing something together. And we keep frozen fish sticks and other easy stuff on hand for DS for the nights when we're just too exhausted to cook.
DH gets home with DS around 5:30, I get home around 5:45. We try to eat as close to 6 as possible. DH usually starts throwing something together for me and him (usually something frozen or boxed) while I get DS a Gerber Graduates meal microwaved and to him. DH and I eat as DS is finishing his meal.......if we're eating something that we're ok with him having, we'll give him some (if not, he gets an applesauce or something).
At this point, there's not much else we can do. There really isn't enough time for us to make healthy dinners for all three of us, so we buy the Graduates to ensure that at least DS is getting a decent meal.
Once DS is old enough to wait a little longer for dinner, things might change.
Well, DS isn't eating solid foods yet, so it's a little easier for me. But I am exhausted and hungry after work, so I try to make it easier on myself. And DH hates to cook, so it's all me (he does clean up everything, which I hate doing, so it works out for us).
I do a lot on Sundays and I try to make things that will give us leftovers to eat for another night or two. I have started making a casserole on Sunday night. I'll either cook it that night, or pop it in Monday night when we get home. You can also do this with chili or soup. We can eat it when I make it, plus it freezes well. Last week, I cooked two quiche--we ate one, and the other one went into the freezer. I use allrecipes.com for ideas.
There's lots of good crockpot recipes.
I also have a couple of recipes that I know I can make quickly with ingredients on hand--tacos, pasta with jarred marinara and italian sausage, stir fry (with frozen vegetables). I make large batches of rice at a time and freeze it in individual servings, then microwave them for about 3 minutes to serve. We do breakfast for dinner because omelets or scrambled eggs are easy. We sometimes just do grilled cheese with tomato soup.
Even though it's more expensive, I buy stuff that is convenient for me. Bags of veggies that you can pop the whole bag in the microwave and steam. They're pretty good and at least we get some veggies. Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. We keep omaha steaks products in the freezer. They're individually wrapped meats (steaks, pork chops) and you can also get things like twice baked potatoes. We throw a couple of those on the george foreman and microwave the side dishes. It's really good and seems fancy, but doesn't take much effort. They can be expensive, but you can sometimes get good package deals and my MIL often buys us those as a gift, so it works out great. They also make frozen burgers and hot dogs that are good and kids would like them.
make some sort of stew on sun (half to serve for dinner on mon, and half frozen for the following week). i love to cook and wish i had more time so sundays are fun for me. dh watches dd while i cook.
make a staple dinner one of those days (for us, it's chix w/ gravy and rice. super easy recipe: dump chix thighs into a casserole dish w/ a packet of lipton onion soup + one can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. bake 1 hour in 350 degree oven) since it only takes 2-3 mins. to prep, i get to play w/ dd while dinner is baking.
heat up a frozen dinner (usually stew from the week before)
crockpot dinner one day a week, which again req's very little prep time. i like to scan the what's cooking board for new recipes, and the ladies there are super helpful.
so that takes care of 4 days of the week. our family usually eat out fri-sun.
other tips: frozen veggies steam easily and req's very little prep. i always have eggs, bread, pasta and sauces on hand for those lazy days.
DS is not eating table foods yet but when it comes to making healthy meals this works for us:
When I go grocery shopping I season all the meats and freeze them. So for instance, if I buy a bag of wings I would season all wings and individually package by days and freeze. Same for all other meats.
So when I get home, I put the meat to defrost either in hot water or microwave and for the sides I make a boxed rice/potatoes or something quick. For veggies, I do the frozen veggies. Entire meal takes about 40 mins or less.