When my kiddo was that age, I worked until 6PM, and H worked until 7PM. I basically just prepared a bunch of stuff on Sunday to have available for quick dinners. Proteins (lentils, black beans, cubed tofu, cubed cheese, chicken sausages, Greek yogurt), cut up fruits and veggies, and something starchy (rice, pasta, quinoa, sweet potato fries). I also kept red sauce, pesto, and hummus in the fridge for dipping or smothering.
Weelicious has a great variety of easy recipes that are kid and adult friendly!
FWIW, dinner is usually her smallest meal of the day. She eats a gigantic lunch, a sizable lunch and usually 5 or 6 bites of dinner.
As she gets older and can eat more table food, you can always save some leftovers each night and nuke them for her when you get home the next day.
It is hard. Being a working parent is HARD.
This is pretty much what I do, after cooking ahead for Monday on Sunday night.
Another fast fix is breakfast for dinner, like eggs with toast or yogurt.
I also keep some pre-prepared stuff on hand just in case of a total scheduling/meal planning fail. DD really likes the Happy Tot meals and the Earths Best frozen mac n' cheese with veggies.
We get home a little after 5 & DD wants me to play with her. H gets home after 5:30. DD gets hungry by 5:45 and is sleepy by 7, so most evenings H&I don't eat until she's in bed.
I don't know if anyone mentioned it already, but if it's not an allergy issue, don't forget fish is an excellent source of protein that flakes apart easily so you don't have to mess with it much. Plus, a fatty cold water fish like wild salmon is one of the best sources of brain-building omega 3 fat.
Also you can find it in a can!
I don't have kids, but the leftovers suggestions seem awesome to me. MH and I feed ourselves that way to save time during the week for chores, so it seems like a good way to feed a kid.
We usually cook some big 'ole honking piece of meat (or an assortment of small pieces of meat) on sunday night (pork loin, pot roast, sausage assortment, a whole chicken, turkey breast, etc) and whip up a monster batch of some cold side that will hold in the fridge for 5 days (since it's summer time - lots of grain salads. Quinoa salad, brown rice salad. Couscous or pasta salad. Or assorted slaw type things) and then we eat that all week. Depending on what the big-batch side is, we supplement with bread or quick steamed veggies (i.e. microwaved) or something similar. It streamlines our weekday evenings really really nicely and would make it easier to feed a cranky toddler (once they're at the point where you can just chop any old food small and hand it over anyway)
She had some watermelon and crackers with hummus tonight. She didn't understand why the cracker felt different, but seemed to enjoy it. It's nice to have that as a protein option.
I hadn't thought of the canned fish. We can give that a shot next week.
Wawa - we always say we're going to do that and never do.
Thank you so much, everyone. I don't have many IRL mom friends, and I genuinely appreciate you all.
Post by 2curlydogs on Jul 19, 2012 20:16:11 GMT -5
I wish B would eat fish. He'll sort of eat tinned tuna if I really hide it. But actually eating baked/grilled/sauteed fish (of any kind)? No. He'll eat shrimp. That's about it.
I made this tonight: tinyurl.com/d65m4sj It's my own hodgepodge recipe cobbled sort of from The Joy of Cooking. I love it cause it's easy to hide veggies in. B is generally a good veggie eater, but if I'm not happy with his weekly intake, I'll do something like this. It's 30 minutes, tops, and just 1 pan to clean. It makes a good alternative to tacos.
That's another thing - I average out what he eats, food-group wise, over the course of a week. Trying to do it over the course of a day will make you a crazy, neurotic mess.