Anonymous
Post 02/18/2024 09:05     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:My kids have activities that have evening hours, and those hours are not the same as each other. When we are all home, probably one night Mon-Fri, we all eat together. Whoever is home around 6-6:30 eats together. No one in my house can wait to eat until after 7, everyone gets hungry. So different combinations of us eat at different times. We are a family of five, and sometimes this is nice so DH and I get to focus on just one or two kids at a time, while kid #2 or #3 is at an activity.

We always eat together at home on Sunday nights, and usually it ends up one or two other nights a week. It's just not possible the other nights. (I have a dancer- so to "prioritize" family dinners would mean she could not do her activity at all based on when classes are held).

I grew up similarly and I managed to have good table manners and the ability to make dinner conversation. And when we do sit down together I am certainly not dealing with cloth napkins!


+1
Anonymous
Post 02/18/2024 09:02     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
I cook 5 nights a week. Sometimes two dishes on one day to last two days. Eating together during the week is impossible due to two teens with different sports and activities schedules. They do the same sport (girl and boy) so practices and games will never be at the same time.

I’m happy they are busy. For a while neither was involved in anything and always home. They are both much happier this way.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 17:51     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No matter if they’re eaten earlier or later, or with one family member at the table or everyone, I still try to make “nice” meals every day. They may not be fancy on busy days, just a soup on the stove, or a hefty salad that sits in the fridge for everyone to help themselves.

I consult the family and the calendar, make a plan for the week and shop for the ingredients over the weekend. Then whoever has the lighter schedule on a given day does the cooking.

I try to keep all that in mind as I plan, especially everyone’s cooking strengths and individual schedules. So if I have to be somewhere on Tuesday, we’ll have something DH enjoys cooking. If everyone is busy, it will be something that can be prepped the night before, or a crockpot meal.


My family would not eat a salad from the fridge and consider that dinner.


Dp- then you are making your salads wrong. A good salad presents the same ingredients as a good plated meal, just in a different form.

Our salads typically are - grilled chicken, mixed greens with extra baby spinach, avocado, shredded broccoli, shredded carrots, sliced almonds or seeds, craisins, tomatoes and cucumbers. Often with a boiled egg white and amazing bread.

How is
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 17:44     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:My tweens have manners. They also have sports practice 3x week in the evenings (differing nights) plus traveling weekends for tournaments. We do the best we can. Some weeks I meal prep, other weeks there is too much take out or easy meals (like quesadillas). But it is more than not we are eating on the fly, including in the car. It is what it is. They are happy and busy. It’s a season of life.


Exact same life here with two club players. I treasure our time in the car and watching them play.

I enjoy cooking and will bulk cook and meal prep on Sundays. Kids love easy healthy stuff like salmon cakes and roasted veggies soup. We are all lovers of poke bowls and salads so I make sure I’ve got healthy proteins ready so they can make dinner if I’m with the other.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 17:40     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:No matter if they’re eaten earlier or later, or with one family member at the table or everyone, I still try to make “nice” meals every day. They may not be fancy on busy days, just a soup on the stove, or a hefty salad that sits in the fridge for everyone to help themselves.

I consult the family and the calendar, make a plan for the week and shop for the ingredients over the weekend. Then whoever has the lighter schedule on a given day does the cooking.

I try to keep all that in mind as I plan, especially everyone’s cooking strengths and individual schedules. So if I have to be somewhere on Tuesday, we’ll have something DH enjoys cooking. If everyone is busy, it will be something that can be prepped the night before, or a crockpot meal.


My family would not eat a salad from the fridge and consider that dinner.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 15:00     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What are nice meals?


To me it's everyone sitting together and having a meal I made at least partly from scratch.


Thanks! I was thinking nice meaning "fancy". I try to cook 3-4 time per week, anything more than 4X is a bonus in my house!
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 14:54     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:Never ever. DH is the cook. If left to my own devices I eat crap. Tonight I'm on my own and am having cookies, rum, and coke - and some almonds.


Same.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 14:53     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Well, I’m a lawyer, so with my schedule tortellini is “a nice meal.”
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 14:00     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:what do you mean by "nice"? what an odd term. I am a successful T3 lawyer. If I have to cook, which isn't often because it wastes my time, I do not cook a "nice" meal. I cook a meal to get it done with.


What is a “successful T3 lawyer?”


😆 I noticed that too. 10/10 trolling attempt
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 13:48     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
My kids have activities that have evening hours, and those hours are not the same as each other. When we are all home, probably one night Mon-Fri, we all eat together. Whoever is home around 6-6:30 eats together. No one in my house can wait to eat until after 7, everyone gets hungry. So different combinations of us eat at different times. We are a family of five, and sometimes this is nice so DH and I get to focus on just one or two kids at a time, while kid #2 or #3 is at an activity.

We always eat together at home on Sunday nights, and usually it ends up one or two other nights a week. It's just not possible the other nights. (I have a dancer- so to "prioritize" family dinners would mean she could not do her activity at all based on when classes are held).

I grew up similarly and I managed to have good table manners and the ability to make dinner conversation. And when we do sit down together I am certainly not dealing with cloth napkins!
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 09:07     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:what do you mean by "nice"? what an odd term. I am a successful T3 lawyer. If I have to cook, which isn't often because it wastes my time, I do not cook a "nice" meal. I cook a meal to get it done with.


What is a “successful T3 lawyer?”
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 09:00     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
We don’t use cloth napkins and often use disposable plates to cut down on dishes.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 08:55     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We sit down to a nice meal 6 nights a week. We prioritize it, because it's important to DH and me - napkins, silverware, kids have manners.


So your kids have no activities after about 6 PM? Parents have no PTA or board meetings, exercise classes, book clubs, etc? Everyone is home for dinner every night?

We sit down together if we can get everyone home at the same time at some point, but it doesn’t always happen. If a full family dinner can’t happen, we try to have each kid sit and eat at the table with at least one parent, if at all possible.


Yes we have nothing usually and always make time to eat together. Its very important to us, more than PTA meetings, exercise classes, book clubs etc.


We have family dinner and activities at night. It's not an either/or...you can do both. Does everyone sit down with a cloth napkin every night of the week? No, but we were all doing that when the kids were younger so now I make a plate and they can enjoy when they get home from their activities.

I agree with the PP...it's a season of life, and I love it.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 08:45     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
I don’t have sports kids, so we eat together almost every night.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2024 08:19     Subject: How much do you cook nice meals?
Anonymous wrote:On average 4 times per week. If everyone is home and not busy we eat it together. Otherwise folks eat separately. Remaining days it’s leftovers/take out/restaurants. We don’t stress over the “niceness” of the meals as much as ensuring everyone is getting healthy food intake regularly and quality time (even if in short burst). I’ve served “nice” meals in the car and Chick-Fil-A at the dinning room table.

I make a plan for the week Saturday or Sunday. If that doesn’t happen the week is almost guaranteed to be an eat out week or quick things because I hate thinking about dinner at 6pm.


This is the key! Plus having a spouse that also is a good cook. We’re both in our 40s and can knock up a nice meal is 20-30 minutes. I am also a crockpot wizard and plan that usually once every week or two.