Is anyone else in that same boat as me having to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday? (Well my husband helps whenever he can). ME OH MY! It’s an endless cycle of cooking and cleaning with the kids being home 24/7. I wake up in the morning and make breakfast and just as soon I finish washing the dishes and cleaning, I turn around to lunch time, or so it seems. And the same goes for dinner time as well. Pandemic Eating at its best, and its no joke.
Breakfast Time
Since my daughter has virtual learning at 8 am, we try to have her eat something before because the teacher prefers the kids not eating during the classroom. I get that it becomes a distraction sometimes if everyone’s eating and not paying attention. But sometimes I do have her eat a little here and there during class because it’s hard to eat breakfast right when you wake up.
I try to let her sleep until she wakes up herself, unless it gets really close to start time. So breakfast ideas varies. Some day’s it might be an egg, croissant, bagels, muffins, soup, waffles, and toast, and other days might be simples as a doughnut. I try to have various options available for her and my son because they like to have choices.
Lunch Time
Lunch time is a set schedule except for Wednesday’s. Every day my daughter’s lunch time is 12:15 except for Wednesdays (short schedule day). So I need to have lunch prepared for ready to eat since she has 30 minutes to eat and get back for the later part of the school. I want her to get a chance to eat and relax a little before sitting down for school again. Based on what they eat for breakfast, lunch menu can vary.
Sometimes, it could be soup and rice, corn dog, sandwiches, grilled salmon, pasta, tofu, or noodles. It will consist of some type of vegetable and/or fruit to go with them. Menu will change based on what Mommy feels like cooking, but for the most part, it repeats based on what the kids want.
Dinner Time
Dinner time gets interesting because that’s the one meal where we ALL sit down to eat together since my husband will be home. Normally it’s a lot heavier meal than breakfast or lunch. My husband is a meat eater so we have to have some type of a meat to go along with the food.
It can be beef or chicken, rice or pasta, tacos or bread. I cook mostly Asian dishes and my husband is the oven/instant pot user cooking either pre-made meals, or multi cultural dishes. We recently got an air fryer so we tend to use that a lot as well. I’m not a fan of fried food too much, but sometimes we like to add that “crispy” texture to our meals too.
Meal Prep
We used to do meal preps before where I would help my husband prepare our meal for the week, but that only worked for so long. We discovered that trying to eat the same or similar meal everyday got boring for us. Also the food didn’t seem as fresh by the time it got to day 3 or 4 for some reason. We switched it up each week to prep something different but after the first two days, we didn’t enjoy it as much.
Prepping meals was an awesome idea since I didn’t have struggle to think of ideas on what to cook for each meal, but the thought of eating the same thing again and again wasn’t too pleasing. We thought about prepping something different for each day, but if that was the case, then why not cook it each day so it’s more fresh.
Daily or weekly meal ideas are running out so meal suggestions are always appreciated. So if anyone has any simple recipes or ideas, please feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. I would love to hear what other’s prepare for meals. This mama needs a brain break from thinking of what to eat or feed my kids. Something different and fresh would be nice, because this pandemic eating at its best has taken a huge toll.
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I can’t really offer any real advice since we are both retired and don’t have children living with us. But my niece and her husband have had success in prepping meals for the whole week ahead on Sunday. They then package it, store in the fridge, and don’t have to do the work on weeknights when they come home tired from the day. (They’re both in healthcare.)
We order three meals a week from Hello Fresh. A box appears on our doorstep on Tuesday morning with food for three meals that we prepare and eat on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It’s a good way to learn to cook things we might not ordinarily think of cooking, and there’s little waste. (We order Meals for 2.) This might not be feasible for reasons of cost, not finding something the kids will eat, and prep time, but it has worked for us. We do this about one or two times a month.
Thank you for your suggestions. We might try going back to meal prepping. It worked in the beginning for us and then we stopped. So we might go back. Also the hello fresh sounds so great and might be a good idea to try but like you said, it might not be most cost efficient with our kids. =). Do you get to choose what type of food you want for hello fresh?
You sort of get to choose. There are certain meals offered each week. We generally stick with pork and chicken. Some are combinations like a macaroni and meat dish; others are plain meat with a delish topping and then roasted veggies on the side. It does help that it’s delivered to your door, and for busy people like you are, that might be worth a bit extra. Best wishes for working on your dilemma. There’s no one right answer, for sure.