Din-spiration Part 3
These are a few of the hurdles we are dealing with for getting family dinners up and running.
#1- Schedule. I have mentioned that Mark plays football, so he is at practice every day until 6 p.m. (home around 7). Assuming Mark is the only one who has an evening activity and we have no other obligations that evening, it is doable. But this school year started with a flurry of "other obligations"!
#2- What to eat. I prefer no meat. In my ideal world we would all be vegan, but no one in my family is completely on board with that. The up side is that my family loves most of the vegan dishes I make, but they like meat too.
#3- Gluten Free. My daughter can not have any gluten. It is always a bummer if she calls and asks if she can stop by for dinner and we are already making pasta (we have started keeping gluten free pasta on hand), but even the meatballs I make have gluten in them.
To address #1- my motto is "just do it". It does not have to be pretty. Just making the habit of planning, prepping, making, and eating a meal at home is considered a success.
To address #2- I eat what my family eats, but try to have plenty of the non-meat items to so that I can minimize the meat (I just don't love it). I have decided to give on this one for now- my hope is to wean us off of eating so much meat. Some meals, like a taco bar, are easier for this type of thing. I can load the bar with beans and veggies and SOME chicken. Every seems happy that way. (If you want inspiration for not eating meat go to http://www.cowspiracy.com/ and watch the movie on Netflix- I just watched so am still mulling it over...)
To address #3- I am planning a few gluten free meals in to our rotation. Dinner is pretty easy for this. Just last night, Erin popped in on her way home from a trip and was able to put together a nice plate from our Sunday leftovers. It does take some work- I try to make the whole meal gluten free because it is really easy to forget and cross contaminate.
Our feature meal from last week was meatball sliders:
We caved when we had some little visitors. We have not figured out how, at our old ages, to corral three little ones plus visit with another son-in-law and his two little ones and make dinner. But there were lots of sweet snuggles to go around and that's better than any dinner.
My next project will be to create some freezer meals for these occasions!!
On the menu for this week:
Orange Chicken with Broccoli (Against All Grain)
Spagetti with Shallots and Brussel Sprouts (Dinner the Playbook)
Leftovers with roasted chicken, orange chicken, and spagetti.
#1- Schedule. I have mentioned that Mark plays football, so he is at practice every day until 6 p.m. (home around 7). Assuming Mark is the only one who has an evening activity and we have no other obligations that evening, it is doable. But this school year started with a flurry of "other obligations"!
#2- What to eat. I prefer no meat. In my ideal world we would all be vegan, but no one in my family is completely on board with that. The up side is that my family loves most of the vegan dishes I make, but they like meat too.
#3- Gluten Free. My daughter can not have any gluten. It is always a bummer if she calls and asks if she can stop by for dinner and we are already making pasta (we have started keeping gluten free pasta on hand), but even the meatballs I make have gluten in them.
To address #1- my motto is "just do it". It does not have to be pretty. Just making the habit of planning, prepping, making, and eating a meal at home is considered a success.
To address #2- I eat what my family eats, but try to have plenty of the non-meat items to so that I can minimize the meat (I just don't love it). I have decided to give on this one for now- my hope is to wean us off of eating so much meat. Some meals, like a taco bar, are easier for this type of thing. I can load the bar with beans and veggies and SOME chicken. Every seems happy that way. (If you want inspiration for not eating meat go to http://www.cowspiracy.com/ and watch the movie on Netflix- I just watched so am still mulling it over...)
To address #3- I am planning a few gluten free meals in to our rotation. Dinner is pretty easy for this. Just last night, Erin popped in on her way home from a trip and was able to put together a nice plate from our Sunday leftovers. It does take some work- I try to make the whole meal gluten free because it is really easy to forget and cross contaminate.
Our feature meal from last week was meatball sliders:
My boys said that they are "amazing!".
No way to get around it- this is an all gluten and meat dish.
We had some fun with breakfast- make a depression on the bread, butter the edge and sprinkle cheese, crack egg in the middle, sprinkle bacon, bake in toaster oven or oven til you like the way it looks.
Pioneer Woman's Herb Roasted Chicken was on our list as well. This one is easy to fill in with lots of carrots and red potatoes in the pan.
Pancakes and sausage were a go-to this week. I had a "book club" (yes! I joined a real life book club!), so Frank held on to eating at home by making pancakes (not out of a box).
We caved when we had some little visitors. We have not figured out how, at our old ages, to corral three little ones plus visit with another son-in-law and his two little ones and make dinner. But there were lots of sweet snuggles to go around and that's better than any dinner.
My next project will be to create some freezer meals for these occasions!!
Have I introduced Baby Athena yet?! Is she not just the "sweetest and the best"?
I know it's dark but there is my #55 at the end of the game (look close- 4th in from left).
On the menu for this week:
Orange Chicken with Broccoli (Against All Grain)
Spagetti with Shallots and Brussel Sprouts (Dinner the Playbook)
Leftovers with roasted chicken, orange chicken, and spagetti.
I've tried to watch my carbs and cut out most sugars. I can't go totally free anything or else I turn into this big, nasty witch. No one wants one of those for their mama ;) I can't do those kinds of meals all the time, but two out of three in my day is not bad. You have a good game plan going. And my goodness! You have the most adorable grand babies EVER!
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