18 May 2010

What's for Dinner?

Confession: I'm having trouble with dinner. More often than not Adam and I scramble around the kitchen cutting up fruits, veggies, and cheese, and feeding them to our daughter. But that's not dinner, that's a snack. In fact, she eats the same snack-like things almost every day: cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, crackers, yogurt, bananas. Sometimes we'll throw in some pizza or burger for good measure.

Another confession: I eat almost the same thing every day. So should I be concerned that Lily isn't getting the full spectrum of dinner options?

Before going to the grocery store, I try to make a schedule of what we'll eat each night to take the guesswork out of the 5 o'clock scramble. The trouble I'm having stems from Adam working a lot. A whole lot. Like he hasn't eaten with us most nights last week or this week. My usual routine when he's gone involves eating a bowl of cereal or cutting up some cheese and fruit or making a salad. These aren't the best options for Lily (and they aren't really dinner either).

So I'm wondering, how do you handle dinner when you have a little person to feed and just yourself? Any suggestions for easy, kid-friendly dinners are welcome.

7 comments:

johanna said...

pasta, linds [i see some on lily's plate!] my niece & nephew always loved smaller bites of pasta from whatever meal we made, with whatever sauce we chose. [mini bagels & cream cheese; peanut butter [provided there are no allergies] on a spoon or bread were also favorites.] xoxo

MGBR said...

I have no advice, except perhaps to make peace with it. We lived that way, as a family of 3, for several years.

bethany said...

sounds just like us. we find ourselves at 4:15, staring blankly at each other, trying to figure out what we are eating in an hour. It has resulted in way too many trips to Wegmans.

We used to sit down and plan our meals for the entire week, buy everything that we needed all at once and then try to stick with what we planned. But then sometimes I wouldn't want what we were supposed to have, so I would come up with something different at the last minute. And then we just got sloppy all together once Carter arrived. I haven't planned dinner in forever.

If you figure it out, let me know! I'd love to know the secret :)

Christine said...

Obviously I'm not a mom yet, but I don't see what's wrong with it, either, as long as she enjoys eating the food and it's good, real food. That's my two cents :)

Lindsay said...

All of this is good, and all of this has shown me that chaos and random-ess are not bad. We are trying to embrace the chaos, and appreciate all the advice here.All of which will be incorporated.

Thank you all very, very much!

Sophia said...

Do you have a slow cooker?
i don't use mine all the time but when I do actually think ahead (like the night before, which isn't often) I take out a piece of meat.
Beef, pork, even chicken, and I put it in...obviously, depending on which of those things I choose, the seasoning varies..but it is soooo easy and great to know I have something 'ready' even though I am outside with the kids at 4pm or whatever. Plus it could still be warm when Adam comes home from work, too :)
If you like pork, try pulled pork in the slow cooker...so easy (i can email you the recipe if you want) and it's great as a leftover too...

sidenote- all of the foods Lily has there are great foods! And remember little kids have tiny belly's so even if it doesn't look like dinner, it could be dinner, for her.

kate o. said...

i'll echo others here and say that she looks like she's eating pretty well.

my boys love beans and lentils. open a can (or cook some)and toss them on her tray. pintos, black beans, canellini. cheap and healthy.

i used to hate planning out meals but now love that when i do it i don't have to think at all about what to cook. beautiful. and it totally helped with the budget, too.