Meal planning to the rescue
The night before school starts is like New Year’s Eve in my house but with a bedtime. The excitement is palpable: new shoes, new backpacks, new teachers. We are really on our game those first few weeks. It’s the shiny, golden version of my parenting skills — I’m refreshed after summer and ready to tackle the routine.
There’s one routine at our house that rarely falters. Dinner. And eating together is one of life’s true treasures, especially in this age of digital communication and distraction. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, sitting down at the family table (without iPhones and iPads) and looking at the faces of those you love is a deeply gratifying
With the kids heading back to school, the ‘What’s for dinner?’ loop can instill dread. Fear not: We have five throw-together family meals to put on your calendar
act. Of course, it helps when said loved ones aren’t poking each other or bickering, but for the sake of painting a picture, let’s pretend that never happens.
But no matter what the family mood is when it’s time for dinner, a table of well-fed and satiated family members makes for a happy brood. Cooking for me is a physical manifestation of my love. (Of course, if you’re not a fan of cooking, you may feel differently.) Whichever way you approach it, weeknights are crazy busy, and 6 o’clock can appear before you’ve had a chance to blink.
My suggestion: Ease your load by taking 20 minutes on the weekend to make a meal plan. Check the schedules of the people you’re feeding. Is there a midweek football game across town? Do you have a
work dinner one night? Book club? Prepare, and a meal plan can silence the nagging question of, “What should we do for dinner?” on a loop in your head.
I didn’t always operate with a meal plan. I went from living with my husband in San Francisco — within a block of our neighborhood grocer and butcher — to moving to Houston and adjusting to life with three children younger than 5.
During those first years of their toddlerhood, I was operating on fumes. But I had a few tried-and-true tricks up my sleeve that saved us time and again. Dried pasta and a fast homemade marinara, panseared steaks and sautéed mushrooms, slow-cooker carnitas with quick pickled onions. Quick dinners that I could throw together with little effort or prep.
Eventually, though, our afternoons got more hectic. Sports practices, homework, tutors, ballet, carpools. Something had to change, and fast. Meal planning was the salve. Suddenly, I had a bird’s-eye view of my week and actually knew what was going on the table every night.
I’ve saved all my meal-planning notebooks, and it helps to look back and reflect on the successes and failures. Those notebooks are precious to me, and with notes in the margin about birthdays, family visits and sports-season celebrations, they’re a map of our family’s life.
Here’s a sample meal plan to get you started. Even if you’re cooking for one or two, a meal plan will help ease the pressure at the end of the day when your energy stores have been spent. If you’re cooking for yourself, quantities for these can be easily cut in half. In the case of the slow-cooker chicken, stash any extras for a “leftover makeover” dinner of tacos or chicken salad.
There’s nothing like a dinner of delicious leftovers to make you feel like you’re winning at life.