When do you cook?

[ballardlm]

We've been in survival mods here for a while and I am ready to get out : ) I want to start preparing healthy meals for my family but I'm not sure how to work in the time commitment. I need to cook breakfast, lunch, dinner, and have at least 2 snacks daily for my toddler. So when do you cook? I though about doing a big baking day twice a month on Saturdays to have all baked good prepared ahead of time. I could prep dinner during naptime but that admittedly takes away from my rest time. I need a plan or it won't get done. Thanks for any ideas! Oh, and for the record I have a baby and a toddler, not much help : ) but the toddler does like to be in the kitchen with me.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Breakfast is cooked about 8:00. I run early, then come back and make something. If I make pancakes or muffins or something I cook two batches and freeze some for later. Lunch is usually leftovers or soup or something really quick. Dinner is often crock potted which I start with breakfast. I do the double thing. If I'm cooking from scratch I make it about 3-4 and warm it when we're going to eat. I have to pick my kids up about 5:15 from BGC and we often have events in the evening so dinner has to be ready at 5:30 for it all to work.

[momofkhm]

Why do you have to cook breakfast and lunch? Breakfast varies around here and my kids are all older and get their own, but I never cooked breakfast on a daily basis. When we all got up at close to the same time, we'd have breakfast about 7. Lunch is usually about 11. Might sound early, but it is 4 hours. Then a snack somewhere between 3 and 4. Dinner about 5:30/6. Lunch was sandwiches or leftovers. Snacks varied through the years. I start to cook dinner about 4:30.

[Parrothead]

Do you need to cook breakfast and lunch? I don't know what your family's dietary needs are so if you have to then you have to. Around here breakfast and lunch are not cooked unless we have a free weekend. Normally breakfast is toast and/or a hard boiled egg, organic instant oatmeal or cold cereal, or fruit and cheese. Sometimes we will have a bagel.

 

Lunch is generally a sandwich, soup, salad or most often left over dinner from the night before. During the day food prep takes 5 minutes per meal.

[regentrude]

We do not cook breakfast. I cook lunch if I am home fro lunch, and then we eat sandwiches/salad for dinner. Or we eat sandwiches/salad for lunch if I'm at work, and I cook for dinner. Weekday dinner cooking never takes more than 20 minutes hands-on time.

Cooking three meals a day? No way.

[AdventureMoms]

I have two toddlers and a preschooler so I definitely hear you on having more hindrance than help in the kitchen!

 

I do not cook 3x a day. Otherwise I'd be posting from a psychiatric hospital. And I like to cook! But the mess and the helpers and.... yeah. Once a day, tops.

 

FWIW, we are mostly grain-free, that may affect things. The kids have a slice of bread occasionally, but that is store bought. Just about everything else is homemade.

 

So, breakfast:

I try to do a big breakfast once a week and freeze pancakes or something. I also scramble a dozen eggs once or twice a week and we warm those up as needed. Sometimes I'll cook a lb of bacon and we'll have that too.

 

Lunch:

Dinner leftovers, mostly. Sometimes the kids have something like veggies and cheese if they're being picky.

 

Dinner:

I cook a real from-a-recipe meal a couple of times a week. When I do this I cook in big batches and freeze the rest. The other nights we eat stuff frozen from previous weeks or something simple like chicken, veggies, and a sauce thrown together. ie beef+peppers+guac = mexican night. chicken+peppers+coconut milk & curry paste = thai night. Once a week I cook a large batch of generic chicken (salt, pepper, garlic) and sometimes a batch of ground beef to use for those nights and for lunches when we don't have leftovers. This also works well for the kids if we're cooking something we know they won't eat (usuallly they eat what the adults eat though). I also pre-cook a batch of a few veggies (the type varies). I keep frozen veggies on hand too. I always have something to toss in with the meat to make a dinner. It takes me an hour or two once a week to do the pre-cook stuff (meat, veggies, eggs, sauces, mayo, etc), sometimes a little more if I have a lot of veggies to chop. I try to avoid veggies that take a lot of prep or use frozen versions.

 

Lots of planned leftovers is really the key! If you have to cook each meal seperately you'll get behind so fast...

[AdventureMoms]

Oh and I do not cook snacks. Snacks are veggies (peppers and carrots usually) or fruit (apples, pears, or bananas), or possibly cheese. Or some combination of those. If I bake soemthing snacky it's usually only when company is coming, and that is less than once a month.

[KungFuPanda]

For us, breakfast is usually eggs and toast. Those cook so fast it's barely cooking. Fruit is great any time because you don't have to cook it :-) Lunch is generally something easy like leftovers or sandwiches. Dinner is the meal I really cook. I'm most successful when I know in the morning what dinner will be. I teach on Mon and Tues evenings, so those meals NEED to be planned out and I'll get them started early in the day so I'm just finishing at dinner time. Thurs is co-op, so that's the best crock-pot day. Weds and Fri are best for baking round here.

 

My family balks at leftovers for dinner, but I can do planned leftovers and repurpose them as something else, or freeze and serve another week. I DO have older kids, so I'm not really getting interrupted anymore. It gets soooo much easier.

[chepyl]

Most days, we do breakfast on our own. We have cereal, frozen breakfast burritos, or smoothies for quick breakfasts. Today we had sausage and pancakes, but we have nothing to do.

 

Lunch, we do planned overs (as my mom calls them :) ). Kids make their own pbj, chicken nuggets, and fruit. Some days I make MAC n cheese, or grilled cheese. DH and I make beans and rice some days.

 

I do crock pot dinners 3 days a week. Otherwise, I have some basic quick meals DH or I can throw together. Once a week I cook fancy, time consuming yumminess. Yesterday, it was Fajitas, last week lasagna.

 

Snacks are granola, fruit, appleaauce, carrots, cheese sticks. Anything ready to eat.

 

Eating healthy does not require cooking three meals a day.

[*Lulu*]

Breakfast:

 

3x a week I serve oatmeal with something mixed in (I mix it up for the whole week ahead of time)

2x a week I serve baked goods that were baked on one of the 2 bake days I have each month

1x a week I serve a hot breakfast

1x a week I let the kids eat cereal while DH and I sleep in, we eat a power bar when we get up

 

 

Dinner:

 

5x a week I serve leftovers, bread, fruit and cheese, or sandwiches

1x a week I serve a hot meal cooked in the crockpot (we are gone all morning and lunch is waiting when we arrive home)

1x a week I quadruple a meal (we eat that day, put back some for lunches, and freeze the rest)

 

 

Supper:

 

2x a week I serve leftovers or soup (the nights we ate a larger meal for Dinner)

5x a week I serve a meal that can be put together in less than 30 minutes of my time (either from the meals in the freezer or something easy like quesadillas or soup and sandwiches)

 

 

 

[UmMusa]

Ever since I made the monthly meal plan, I have been able to use my time more wisely. For example, I know that tomorrow I'm making a ground beef dish. I get it out of the freezer the night before. Then, during the breakfast/morning rush, if I have a few minutes I chop the onion and green pepper to sautee with the beef. I either put those aside, or if I end up with 5 more minutes I'll go ahead and brown the onions and meat. Then I put it in the fridge till I can get back to it, most likely around 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon.

 

Recenly I seem to be "free" from 3-4, so that's when I get all dinner food ready. Assemble food, chop salad fixings, load dishwasher from breakfast/lunch and get ready. I'm often out in the afternoons, so when the family gets back home around 6 or 7 the food is ready.

 

Kids have cold cereal or toast/bagel for breakfast.

Lunches are pasta tossed with pesto or jarred sauce, peanut butter/jellly, cheese sandwiches, or leftovers.

Snacks are cut veggies or cut fruits, nuts, cheese and crackers, drinkable yogurt. Easy stuff.

 

Also, OP, cut yourself some slack. Your children's ages make daily tasks very difficult. Just keep it simple. You could just make a big pot or rice, steam veggies and call it a meal. Give them fruit and boiled eggs for snacks (or meals!) Don't try to cook so much (like big meals needing time) with so many little ones needing your energy.

[ballardlm]

Thanks for the great ideas!