Ah yes, the evening meal. A time when the family comes together at the table and shares food, and talks- well in the eldest 3’s cases shout (annoyingly! why don’t kids talk at a normal level?). In our family dinner time is very important- not particularly because of the food itself but because its a time when the family can sit together and talk about whats gone on in everybody’s day. However, well at dinner time you eat. And the question is what?
Call me old school but I am not going to make different dinners for me & my husband and then another for the kids- they will eat what we do or go hungry. That being said, I’m not going to make something I know they don’t like on purpose and won’t make things very spicy either. I hear about parents who have separate dinners than their kids, and don’t eat with them either. Firstly, the must get expensive. At the moment I have 3 kids eating proper food, 2 adults and a baby who has just started proper foods. If the 3 had a different meal completely that would get so expensive. Plus sometimes I can’t be bothered to cook on given day let alone cook twice. Don’t get me wrong we sometimes give our kids slightly different foods. For example, when my husband and I maybe have Young’s Gastro Fish ( super yummy) the kids will get fish fingers- they enjoy it more and its easier on the wallet. However, all other parts of the meal would be the same- the pots, veg, rice maybe, whatever- it would be the same.
The problem I have is that I feel like I cook the same things all the time. ( though my list is increasing) And so I have recently started an adventure, I am at least once a week or once every 2 weeks to try an new recipe. Please don’t think I slave anyway at pinterest perfect own grown, super organic, everything made from scratch, take ya half an hour to understand the recipe let alone cook it.It can be something as simple as trying a pre-seasonsed peri peri chicken from Aldi that we haven’t had before- was really nice would recommend it only was £3.75 or something like that.. Normally my dinners take around 45 min to cook including prep time.
Tonight was new recipe night. I saw it in the free magazine asda have at the checkouts and I tried it. Husband really liked it, I wasn’t 100% convinced, kids it was ok. Gnocchi with ricotta cheese, spinach and asparagus. ( the face my 4 year old pulled when I explained ricotta was a cheese was one of confusion. Probably to what would be my late mum’s French horror, to them cheese (often) means cheddar. Something I don’t understand, as I think we expose them to quite a variety of cheeses…)
I meal plan for the week. Meal prep? No thanks, I like my Sundays to be filled with relaxing, being with family and church. I don’t want to be cooking for any longer than I need to for that day. Generally I do a weeks food shop on a Friday for the coming week. It’s on that Friday that I work out what we are going to eat for the week, Including if we are going to my in-laws house for the evening- that way I’m not often cooking and don’t need to buy that day’s dinner. We have found this saves A LOT of money. As I can buy all the ingredients for each meal on one day, plus other bits for the week like cereal. It also means I don’t have to go to the shops again in big way, maybe only for milk? I get more time through out the week that way and my 2 year old isn’t stuck in the trolly so much. I just have to think about 6 meals in advance… that my friends is long.