Dinner with Kids!

Dinner with kids. Enough said! Some nights I feel like I have it all figured out and I’m winning at family meals.  Other nights, I feel completely frustrated and I’m ready to feed them sandwiches for the rest of their lives.

I have gone through periods where I decide to completely cater to their needs.  When this happens, we end up eating pretty bland, simple food.   I quickly lose my joy preparing meals, but the girls are happy and well fed.  Thankfully, my husband Larry is pretty easy going, and is just happy to eat anything! Other times, I cook meals I know Larry and I will enjoy. We end up being well fed but dinner isn’t nearly as enjoyable because the girls are complaining and end up eating a hard-boiled egg, veggie sticks, and a rice cake sandwich, our “go to” dinner when they have tried what I cooked but don’t like it.

After a lot of trial and error, I finally realized that compromise works best for our family. The girls choose one or two meals a week that they are excited about. The other times I choose the meals and end up modifying the girls’ dinners. My goal is to not cook two separate meals but to use the same ingredients to create slightly varied dishes.

Tonight, for example, I made chicken noodle soup. I started with two pots, a small one and a big one. In the big pot, I sautéed chicken, onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, carrots, and peas. In the small pot, I sautéed chicken, carrots, and peas. I added bone broth at the end to both the pots. In a third pot, I cooked millet rice ramen noodles so they wouldn’t get soggy as leftovers.  I then added the noodles straight to the appropriate bowls as well as the broth, chicken and veggies. The girls also enjoy a spoon or two of hummus to their broth which quickly dissolves and adds a mild flavor they love. Larry and I add hot sauce for added spice to ours. This way everyone is happy. This method requires one extra pot but little extra effort and everyone enjoys mealtime!

Here are a couple other dinners I adjusted to help please the four of us.  The first picture is a bowl of cauliflower rice with chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, peas, and cashews drizzled with a stir fry sauce. The plate is rice, chicken, peas and broccoli.  The second picture is a bowl of carrot noodles, chicken, broccoli, scallions, cashews, and pickled cabbage.  The plate is brown rice pasta with pesto (in case my girls didn’t like the carrot noodles since this was the first time I offered them), broccoli, chicken, and carrot noodles.

For now, this method works for my family.  For the most part, all of our plates get cleaned each night and we are all happy and well fed!