ste_noni | Cooking and Eating Better

I originally posted this on my blog, but since I rarely get comments there, I thought I'd re-post here as well:

One of the things I love about moving is that it's sort of like New Year's on steroids. You get to fashion your new life from scratch and decide what you don't like about your current life and try to fix it. I'm very excited about Ft. Carson's running trails, for example, and our plan to get my parents' tandem and a Burley and start riding more with the kids.

But the thing I want to fix the most is our dinner eating situation. I want everyone to get healthy dinners in under an hour (prep and eating). I want dinner to be enjoyable and not stressful. I want to eat food that has not been highly processed (i.e. meals in bags, frozen food, etc.) Now, I get almost no comments on this blog, and that's fine, but I'm really looking for input this time around. So, here are the pertinent facts:

1. Joe is a much better cook than me but he can't guarantee that he will be home at dinner time.

2. I enjoy cooking, but don't like it when I'm feeling stressed by tired/crying kids, etc.

3. I suspect that a portion of the solution to this issue lies in planning meals in advance and grocery shopping over the weekend. I think I can do that, but I'd love any tips about making it actually happen or helping me plan out meals.

4. I'm philosophically opposed to making two meals or feeding my kids a diet of McNuggets and frozen fish sticks. However, Ellie, who used to love everything, has reached that three year old stage where she wants to eat pasta, pizza, and fruit. Most of the time, even if we are having chicken, which she likes, she wants plain, baked chicken with no yucky spices, grill marks, or sauces. Well, I don't want to eat that. I don't want to do a lot of work to make dinner for me, Frisco, and Ellie, especially if Ellie won't eat it. There's not a lot of enjoyment to sitting down and eating with the kids at this point in their lives. Joe can't always be home though when the kids need to eat. I guess what I'm getting at is that if it's just me and the kids eating early, I'm tempted to make macaroni and cheese. They like it, I can survive, and Joe can fend for himself later. If I make a meal for Joe and I, it seems they won't eat it. So, while I don't like the idea of cooking two meals, maybe we need to eat later, after they are asleep? For a while? I don't know.

So, send me all your ideas, links, meal-planning suggestions, and so on so I can start things off well when we finally get to Colorado.

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Our house policy is, if you don't like what I'm cooking, you can have a) any leftover plain pasta that might be in the fridge or b) a peanut butter sandwich. We also require taste-testing for new things; the backup plan is mostly used at this point for things Casper honestly doesn't like (like, for some reason, quesadillas!) and we do. It was used more regularly during picky phases.

One thing that helps us with the meal planning is making a list of the things we can make quickly and easily and that we mostly like, kept on the fridge. Then when we are planning for the week we can check the list and realize, oh, we haven't made Indian Turkey in a long time, let's do that. We tend to have a couple things we eat nearly every week (right now, boboli pizza crust with canned olives, and black bean quesadillas, for which we now buy an extra avocado because Dillo eats a whole one). A lot of our recipes we have the ingredients memorized, but until you get to that stage write the cookbook and page number next to the thing on your list.

Our top 4 cookbooks are: Moosewood Cooks at Home (veggie, lots of stews with canned beans, mostly very fast but sometimes a lot of chopping), Whole Foods cookbook (healthy, not as fast), Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian cooking, Joy of Cooking.

I am an utter failure at actually planning meals, so instead I tend to shop for tried and true staples that are easy to fix and nutritious, like chicken, fish, pasta, rice, beans, etc. Then come dinner time I can cook whatever looks good and fits the time constraints. (DH is rarely home in time to cook.)

My answer to the problem you note above of how to accommodate toddler tastebuds and parental boredom at the same time is to sometimes make a sauce for DH and me. So for instance I pan fry chicken breasts for everyone and then make a pan sauce for whoever wants it (ie the parents) to go on the side. Or two bowls of pasta, one with butter, one with sauce. I always make a salad for me but for the kids I serve plain carrots and cucumber or whatever. I figure that way the kids see what we're eating and try it if they like, but aren't tempted to abandon the meal because it has one icky element.

I have been saved by the increasing selection of frozen veggies I keep in the fridge.

Paired with any decent sort of easily grilled/broiled meat or fish and it's something easy.

I let the kids choose the menu two days a week. If they want mac & cheese or plain noodles, we go with that. The rest of the time, they need to make a choice from what we have or, like flea's kids, left over pasta or peanut butter sandwiches.

We also do things like cut up a cheese plate with fruit or cut up a tomato or carrots or crunching. Or a bagged salad with some dressing.

Even though I'm home all day, I am usually exhausted by evening and HATE cooking dinner. But Christopher doesn't get home until nearly six most nights and if we wait until then to start dinner, we're doomed and cranky.

to sum up:

Simple grilled or broiled meat or fish with microwave steamed veggies, sometimes with a salad or beans/pasta/rice side.

Or a pasta dish like penne canned sauce or with a simple garlic butter sauce (you can always add canned crab or clams or even fresh scallops) with a salad.

We try to limit eating out or ordering take out to one night a week.

Kids get two nights to choose the menu.

Some nights, it's just tacos or sandwiches or frozen pizza which is ok, too!

Good luck!

It might help if Joe could make something on Sunday night that would last through the week. A lasagna or a stew or a fresh pasta sauce that you could simply reheat and serve with different sides to vary it.

I wind up cooking a few simple things that I can modify for Emmett (finicky, unadventurous), JZ (vegetarian), Matilda (toddler taste) and me (meat eating adult palate).

One staple is making quesadilla. From the same set-up I can make everybody a slightly different dish that appeals to them. Emmett likes his with a slice of ham, Matilda just wants it cheesy, JZ gets sour cream and beans and olives and salsa, I toss in leftover chicken and salsa.

Pasta is similar where I'll have a small pot to keep one sauce completely veggie for JZ with some added mushrooms or olives, and I'll top it with ricotta. For Emmett I'll add a few broiled sausages (typically some fancy but affordable Aidell's Chicken and Apple sausages). Matilda gets a simple bowl of noodles with either butter and fresh parmesan, or just the red sauce.

Aidell's chicken sausages are totally made of win. I love the jalepeno ones. SO NUMMY. I slice them and toss them in with fresh spinach, heavy cream, diced tomatoes (usually canned unless I can get good fresh ones), garlic, basil, and whole wheat penne pasta. Bake it topped with mozzarella. NOM NOM NOM.

For meal planning I do Once a Month Cooking (http://christianmomma.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/extreme-meal-planning/). It works wonders and I have so much more time on my hands after the 2 days that I spend cooking. This gets rid of the I don't have time to cook so lets get fast food thing.

As far as picky eating goes, Christopher is the same way and I just don't cater to it. I make dinner and there's usually at least one thing on the plate that I know for sure he'll eat. If he chooses not to eat then that's it until breakfast. There are some nights where he won't eat and other's where he cleans his plate. You control what goes on the plate and they control what goes in their mouths. When kids get hungry enough they will sit down and eat.

Emeline went through that phase and I finally went the way of my parents - you'l eat it when you're hungry. One meal gets made. That's it. If Em honestly tries it (at least 5 good sized bites) and doesn't like it, then she can have a pbj. Beyond that, she either eats or doesn't. But she does have to stay at the table and be nice and not play with her food until Joe and I are finished. Usually, she ends up eating.

OTOH, I am lucky in that she LOVES vegetables. So usually if she doesn't like the protein in the meal, she'll fill up on those and I feel less guilty.

If you can get Ellie to eat pasta with a tomato sauce, make a huge sauce (or have Joe do it) and freeze it in meal sized portions. It's easy enough to defrost on a night when you don't have the time or energy and you can hide tons of veg in it like spinach or ground up carrots or zucchini. Freezing soups are good for lazy nights too. You can make some quick grilled cheeses if you want something on the side.

I also make fritatta's a lot when I'm tired. They're quick and easy, and you can put anything you have on hand in them.

Cooking and Eating Better

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