Weekday Suppers - MENUS? PLANNING? HELP!!!

Active Poster Joined: Mar 02 2008 Posts: 99

I have 3 little kids and find it so stressful everyday to make dinner, as each kid is so picky and cranky at that time and then I make a seperate dinner for dh and since I never plan, its just SO STRESSFUL!
any TRIED and TRUE idea of menus, planning, etc are welcome!

Well, I find that having a type of food designated for each day of the week and making a weekly (for me because I shop weekly according to the sales papers the stores send out each week) menu on Mot"Sh or Sunday. For example, Monday is chicken, Tuesday is beans, Wednesday is fish, Thursday is Soup, Sunday is Shabbos leftovers (if you are that lucky!). Always make something based each day's foods so you have a schedule. As fot the timing of meal preparation, can you prep/make the dinner the night before or in the morning -- crockpots are wonderful for that and I make at least one or two meals a week in it.

Now, as for the part about picky eaters and a separate meal for your husband, I cannot help you. I have taught everyone in my family that 95% of the food I make is to be eaten and 100% must be tried. I make healthy food since the beginning and they like it. My kids cheer for beans and rice with tortilla chips/tortillas. Most of my friends do have this dilemma and I feel for them. If there is something someone really hates, then I let them have just a drop of it, but they have to have some. Everyone's tastes can change with time. I do not (other than for allergies - in our family, peanut, wheat, egg, and milk in two different people!) make multiple things to eat. Too many dishes, too much work, too much waste.

I wish you lots of hatzlacha!
Yael

I try to clean my chicken and meats at the beginning of the week, place them in 9x13 pans, and stack them in the freezer.
Then I make sauces, also at the beginning of the week, and place them in containers in the fridge. (Even the picky eaters usually like these.)
That way I can just pull out a pan from the freezer, pour a sauce over it, and place it in the oven.
I also do side dishes in the oven alongside the main dish.
No pots, no mess. And I can tend to whatever needs to be done, while the meal is baking.

Posted: Sat, Aug 22 2009, 10:18 pm Post subject:

I try to have french toast and cheese latkes frozen in the freezer all the time, for when a kid doesn't want what I made for supper. Also, try not to make dinner time the main meal. you will soon enough get exhausted to catering for three appetites.
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