Monday, June 15, 2015

Dinner Time: This Is How We Do It

Today I am linking up with Ashley and Lori for a little sharing on the topic of the dreaded "DINNER TIME"!
Dinner. I love to eat it but dread cooking it!

I am the baker in the family. My husband is the chef.

I cook Monday through Friday meals - very basic. My husband cooks the good stuff - usually on Sunday nights. Saturday night we typically eat out. We are routine people.

In an effort to make a not so favorite chore as painless as possible, I keep dinner time as simple as possible. The key word for me in remaining sane during the process is PREPARATION. 

Dinner time in my home is bit different now that two of my three children are in college and my youngest is a 5th grader. The 5:00 hour is not quite as chaotic but it still isn't fun.

The weeks that I feel the best about dinner time are the ones where I have planned my meals out over the weekend and shopped on Sunday. I love starting the week with a full refrigerator and a plan. If I don't make it to the grocery store on Sunday the next best thing is knocking it out first thing on Monday morning.
When the kids were little I did a lot of casseroles and crock pot and pasta dishes. I still love all three of those options - I just don't use them quite as often. It is always such a feeling of satisfaction to turn that crock pot on at 9:00 a.m. in the morning and cross that task right off my To Do List. I also love applying foil over a casserole-filled pyrex dish early in the day and putting it in the refrigerator knowing that all I have to do is heat the oven to 350 degrees at dinner time. I especially love making casseroles on a Friday so that we can use leftovers for lunch all weekend.

Due to the fact that my husband and I have slower metabolisms than we used to, my dinner time has been made even more simple by the fact that I keep our Monday through Thursday meals really light and low in calories. We eat a protein and a vegetable and that is it. We eat a lot of baked and grilled chicken. I make turkey balls with ground turkey. Occasionally I bake pork chops or stir fry beef. I add vegetables to each of those and that is our meal. Done!
I always cook enough to pack a lunch for both my husband and me. I love cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and having our lunches for the next day taken care of as well. 

My best dinner time preparing days are those where I have "prepped" early on. Because I dread the 5:00 p.m. hour so much I love the days where I have washed, trimmed and seasoned the meat and vegetables early on. It cuts my work in half and feels less burdensome pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator when all I have left to do is cook them. All of the mess from the prep work is long gone and cleaned up and the only dishes I have to contend with are the ones I will use to cook with which isn't much, typically just a 8-1/2x11 pyrex and a vegetable steamer. 

I know, a protein and a vegetable is kind of boring and blah but it's really all we need and it makes me feel much less guilty about indulging in dessert.
During the summer I stick to the protein and vegetable combination but I make a lot of salads. Taco salads. Greek salads. Caprese salads. Caesar salads. Steak salads.  My 5th grader doesn't always love the mixed salads so I just serve her the greens (with plenty of Ranch dressing) and whatever protein we are having separately. Yes, she would much rather have a Sloppy Joe or pizza but believe me, she gets enough of that, four nights of healthy eating is o.k. for her. My college aged children have come to appreciate the healthier eating when they are home as they too get enough of the "good stuff" when they are on their own.

During the school year, on days that I haven't dinner prepped early on, I use my daughter's homework time which is right after school to start getting things ready. My children have always done their homework at the kitchen table and I have found that dinner prep is a good way for me to be present to them while being productive myself. On days that I haven't prepped early on I just have to suffer through it at 5:00 p.m. Lately I have been making a cup of coffee to enjoy while I cook. It gives me a little boost.

I like to clean as I go when I cook. I like to sit down for dinner with a clean kitchen and an empty dishwasher. Dinner time clean-up is so simple when all we have to do is rinse a few cooking dishes, the dishes we ate off of and stick them in the dishwasher. I use a lot of foil and pan-liners to keep cleaning my cooking dishes to a minimum.

We have always made an effort to eat dinner together as a family. Dinner time is usually around 6:30 p.m. and we begin every meal with a prayer.  I would love to say that the conversation is lively and exciting but often it is not. Often we are all tired and talked out and it is enough just to be together. I have had to learn that this is o.k. because sometimes the silence can feel awkward and it seems like we should be having meaningful and rich conversations about our days. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we just eat.
And then there is dessert. We like ice-cream in our house. Sometimes my dessert is just a cup of tea - but on the nights when I am splurging, you had better believe I am having a double scoop or serving of whatever it is we are having! Dessert is like the reward for making it through the never ending chore of dinner time in my opinion!






3 comments:

  1. I love to clean up as I go too! It's a little tough in this stage of life, but I at least try to rinse everything so all we have to do is put it in the dishwasher. Thank you for linking up with us! I loved reading your post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with the clean-as-you-go routine too!

    ReplyDelete