This is so interesting! I am in a new season of caring for aging parents with declining health while also having teens/college kids with busy schedules at home to also cook for. I have started doubling everything and immediately packaging half up in disposable amazon deli containers to run over to my parents, who live a mile away. I always announce that "meals on wheels" is here:) Caroline, this subscription has been helpful to have some new nutrient dense recipes to break the monotony of cooking so much. The recent fav was the Beef ragout, recipes that can be easily doubled are great!
This was great! Never been prompted to comment before but I had to let you know how much this resonated. Not only was it useful, but so reassuring to know I’m not alone!
So interesting! For years, my wife and I have cooked dinner for 4 so Tha we can eat dinner and have leftovers for lunch. Now we are a family of three and my kid is pretty good about eating what we eat. (It’s not perfect; there’s always cereal!) I’ve gotten even better at stretching leftovers by adding greens and now I prep a breakfast every week too. Always have a plan for 4-5 meals, though we frequently decide the day of which one to cook. About every 3-4 months I also take a day to cook and stock our freezer for when we travel or just need something easy. And I’m pretty good about making a pantry soup in a pinch. Happy cooking!
I have a little notebook where I write down the names of recipes that look good and where I saw them. Every Sunday I sit down with that notebook and several of my 150+ cookbooks. There are only two of us so usually I choose 4 recipes, so we have leftovers plus I don’t cook Fridays. I make a grocery list, and on the back of the list I write what I’m making and the locations of the recipes ( ie this week I bought 2 red peppers and feta to make your shakshuka). I keep all those lists in my notebook.
I loved reading how everyone gets it done in the kitchen!
Something that has helped me the most with 2 kids and both of us working is taking a moment on the weekend to look at our weekly schedule. I then plan our meals around our busy days. I do crock pot before work when I work and my husband will be home later with the kids. I do sheet pans or instant pot if we have some plans and then i pick my 1-2 nights where i have something fancier/fun to cook. Grocery delivery is also a god send! Planning my meals has saved me from wasting groceries. Also…. Utilize the freezer! Big game changer 💕
Two nighters FOR THE WIN! This is what we do and it helps so much. Lunch is usually simple sandwiches - though I’ve been loving mixing the WTC meal plans in for some lunch variety especially.
This is us!! We plan 3 meals that all are 2 nighters and then for lunch we do something separate. My kids do school lunch (mostly) and my husband and I WFH and in the AM normally make a veg/hummus/cheese/meat snack plate for lunch or do reheated soup.
Have you modified any of the meal plans to be 2-night meals? I love the idea of the meal plans but having 5 dinners and some lunches is more than how / what we cook.
I actually found for our family (two women and a 1 year old), most recipes work as two nighters as written. What I do to modify is either cut out a meal from the plan, or roll one meal into the next week. Depending on the plan sometimes I do both. For this reason, I never do meal plans on back to back weeks. Whatever I have left from last week's plan goes into my own "plan" that I make for the next week.
I love, love reading how other people navigate this! My husband and I work hybrid schedules, typically any day of the week one of us is WFH, and that person usually cooks. We grocery shop on Sundays and eat together as a family with our 3- and 5- year old most nights, but have found following a simple weekly formula helps to take the pain out of deciding what to make each night. Mondays are fish (maybe the kids are eating frozen fish sticks), Taco Tuesdays, Wednesday is a pasta/one-pot and Thursdays is something on a sheet pan. On Fridays, we'll take out pizza or go grab an early dinner as a family. We rotate through some favorite recipes for each day, but this makes the week more predictable, which I find helps with our kids being less picky at dinner time, too.
We have a very similar weekly plan and it helps so much! I’ve been making Carl’s slow cook salmon as our Thursday sheet pan dinner with rice and steamed broccoli and it saves me on a very tired night!
This is so interesting to hear how other people approach dinner time. We are a family of 3 (soon to be 4!) and I’ve always been a big meal planner. I usually sit down with a cookbook (often WTC!) and/or recipes I’ve bookmarked on my phone on a Friday night or Saturday morning and do a meal plan. I like to plan 4 meals plus one breakfast item that will work all week.
My husband does dinner 2 nights - usually he wings it day of! - and then we do takeout/eat out 1 night. We always make enough for lunch leftovers so I’ve never planned separate lunches.
Love this post - it’s so fun to hear everyone’s story. My husband is currently in CA for work and I’m in NY and have no idea how to cook for 1 so I’ve been bringing leftovers to work & everyone loves and I send them right to your substack. Ragu was a big hit this week.
I loved needed. But I have to know did you take all 8 prenatals daily!!? It just seems wild!
Just gotta say how much we love your saucy chicken satay bowls in my family. I love cooking brown rice in the Instant Pot (1:1 rice to water ratio, cook for 20 minutes). Aldi’s has precut cabbage and carrot mixture that is perfect for this - I use 2 bags of it - and a full can of coconut milk and any protein (ground pork, beef or turkey work great). You can even brown the meat the night before with an onion and add it to the veggies as you are making it. Thanks for sharing all these great tips and recommendations from others and reminding us we are all not alone in our dinner-making endeavors!
I just went to the recipe index to find this and came up empty handed. Does the recipe have a different title or is this a cookbook recipe and I’m not recalling it in there?
I loved reading about all these different ways to approach getting dinner on the table. I utilize our freezer a ton to prep parts of meals (pasta sauces, meatballs, marinated meats, black beans etc) and then often can pull out something that’s already done to make the actual cooking easier. Last night we had bolognese from the freezer so all I had to do was boil pasta. Not every night works this way but if I can prep and freeze, I do. My husband and son are also happy leftover eaters so we usually can have a meal each week where everyone just picks what they want from leftovers in the fridge.
I found this so interesting and useful for ideas on how my cooking styles and timing may change as my kids get older and afternoons get busier! For now, I related with others on prepping ahead as I can, sticking to 30 minute or less meals during the week, and lots of leftovers mixed in for those busy nights.
Hi Caro and team! Are you guys going to be doing another round up soon? Would love more product recommendations for food, clothing, beauty and skincare etc…
The best guidance I saw here was to have a list of 8-10 meals that are autopilot go-tos for your family - no combing through recipes every day. We do these more intensive meals about 4 nights a week and cook in bulk, genuinely outrageous amounts...e.g. 3 pounds of chicken at a time...and are able to feed our family of 5 and use leftovers for lunches all week. We have a nanny who helps with shopping and food prep which obviously helps immensely (and having our go-to meals means less mental energy for me to outline/delegate when she does the prep).
We have 3 hungry boys, ages 9, 7, and nearly 4, and most of the meals on our menu are "components", where we serve all the bits in the middle of the table. Caro, we love your bowl meals and always add extra chopped veggies, nuts, rice, etc. when we serve, and we always include some "safe foods" that we know the kids will eat. One night, my middle son might only eat the rice from your jerk chicken bowl with a pile of cucumbers on top, but the next week he *may* actually try the jerk chicken.
After dinner my husband and I pack up lunches for the next day or two as we're cleaning up, plus add any further leftovers in the fridge for future component meals.
I love this so much! 2 full-time working parents (out of the house, though fortunately flexible time schedules), and 2 kids (1.5 and 4.5). Just getting started with seasonal sports, so usually one parent is home with the kids around 5 and dinner is at 6. I usually plan 2-3 meals per week that I want to make that I need to consider when grocery shopping. The other nights are easy things - veggies and frozen chicken tenders (either store bought or homemade), meatballs and pasta, burgers, etc. Leaning heavily on the full size garage freezer to have meats and things prepped.
One thing I’ve accepted when I’m trying to do it all is the concept of “pasta Monday” (credit to Naptime Kitchen). I don’t really have one day per week that’s a consistent meal, but I do let us just boil pasta with a veggie one night and not feel guilty about doing easy dinner!
We don’t do separate meals for the kids because it’s too much extra work. Half the time when my 1.5 year old rejects all our dinner items, she gets emergency cheese or yogurt or peanut butter.
Wow, I just want to say that we are all doing the absoloute most all the time, and I'm proud of us.
THIS!!! So so proud of us
Proud of us 👏
This is so interesting! I am in a new season of caring for aging parents with declining health while also having teens/college kids with busy schedules at home to also cook for. I have started doubling everything and immediately packaging half up in disposable amazon deli containers to run over to my parents, who live a mile away. I always announce that "meals on wheels" is here:) Caroline, this subscription has been helpful to have some new nutrient dense recipes to break the monotony of cooking so much. The recent fav was the Beef ragout, recipes that can be easily doubled are great!
This was great! Never been prompted to comment before but I had to let you know how much this resonated. Not only was it useful, but so reassuring to know I’m not alone!
So interesting! For years, my wife and I have cooked dinner for 4 so Tha we can eat dinner and have leftovers for lunch. Now we are a family of three and my kid is pretty good about eating what we eat. (It’s not perfect; there’s always cereal!) I’ve gotten even better at stretching leftovers by adding greens and now I prep a breakfast every week too. Always have a plan for 4-5 meals, though we frequently decide the day of which one to cook. About every 3-4 months I also take a day to cook and stock our freezer for when we travel or just need something easy. And I’m pretty good about making a pantry soup in a pinch. Happy cooking!
I have a little notebook where I write down the names of recipes that look good and where I saw them. Every Sunday I sit down with that notebook and several of my 150+ cookbooks. There are only two of us so usually I choose 4 recipes, so we have leftovers plus I don’t cook Fridays. I make a grocery list, and on the back of the list I write what I’m making and the locations of the recipes ( ie this week I bought 2 red peppers and feta to make your shakshuka). I keep all those lists in my notebook.
I loved reading how everyone gets it done in the kitchen!
Something that has helped me the most with 2 kids and both of us working is taking a moment on the weekend to look at our weekly schedule. I then plan our meals around our busy days. I do crock pot before work when I work and my husband will be home later with the kids. I do sheet pans or instant pot if we have some plans and then i pick my 1-2 nights where i have something fancier/fun to cook. Grocery delivery is also a god send! Planning my meals has saved me from wasting groceries. Also…. Utilize the freezer! Big game changer 💕
Two nighters FOR THE WIN! This is what we do and it helps so much. Lunch is usually simple sandwiches - though I’ve been loving mixing the WTC meal plans in for some lunch variety especially.
This is us!! We plan 3 meals that all are 2 nighters and then for lunch we do something separate. My kids do school lunch (mostly) and my husband and I WFH and in the AM normally make a veg/hummus/cheese/meat snack plate for lunch or do reheated soup.
Have you modified any of the meal plans to be 2-night meals? I love the idea of the meal plans but having 5 dinners and some lunches is more than how / what we cook.
I actually found for our family (two women and a 1 year old), most recipes work as two nighters as written. What I do to modify is either cut out a meal from the plan, or roll one meal into the next week. Depending on the plan sometimes I do both. For this reason, I never do meal plans on back to back weeks. Whatever I have left from last week's plan goes into my own "plan" that I make for the next week.
I love, love reading how other people navigate this! My husband and I work hybrid schedules, typically any day of the week one of us is WFH, and that person usually cooks. We grocery shop on Sundays and eat together as a family with our 3- and 5- year old most nights, but have found following a simple weekly formula helps to take the pain out of deciding what to make each night. Mondays are fish (maybe the kids are eating frozen fish sticks), Taco Tuesdays, Wednesday is a pasta/one-pot and Thursdays is something on a sheet pan. On Fridays, we'll take out pizza or go grab an early dinner as a family. We rotate through some favorite recipes for each day, but this makes the week more predictable, which I find helps with our kids being less picky at dinner time, too.
We have a very similar weekly plan and it helps so much! I’ve been making Carl’s slow cook salmon as our Thursday sheet pan dinner with rice and steamed broccoli and it saves me on a very tired night!
This is so interesting to hear how other people approach dinner time. We are a family of 3 (soon to be 4!) and I’ve always been a big meal planner. I usually sit down with a cookbook (often WTC!) and/or recipes I’ve bookmarked on my phone on a Friday night or Saturday morning and do a meal plan. I like to plan 4 meals plus one breakfast item that will work all week.
My husband does dinner 2 nights - usually he wings it day of! - and then we do takeout/eat out 1 night. We always make enough for lunch leftovers so I’ve never planned separate lunches.
Love this post - it’s so fun to hear everyone’s story. My husband is currently in CA for work and I’m in NY and have no idea how to cook for 1 so I’ve been bringing leftovers to work & everyone loves and I send them right to your substack. Ragu was a big hit this week.
I loved needed. But I have to know did you take all 8 prenatals daily!!? It just seems wild!
I take the one where it's 3x a day!
Just gotta say how much we love your saucy chicken satay bowls in my family. I love cooking brown rice in the Instant Pot (1:1 rice to water ratio, cook for 20 minutes). Aldi’s has precut cabbage and carrot mixture that is perfect for this - I use 2 bags of it - and a full can of coconut milk and any protein (ground pork, beef or turkey work great). You can even brown the meat the night before with an onion and add it to the veggies as you are making it. Thanks for sharing all these great tips and recommendations from others and reminding us we are all not alone in our dinner-making endeavors!
Same- we LOVE that recipe in my house!!
I just went to the recipe index to find this and came up empty handed. Does the recipe have a different title or is this a cookbook recipe and I’m not recalling it in there?
SOUNDS SO GOOD!!!
It’s the first one in this post in the archive section!
Ope! Thanks ☺️ Totally scrolled by that one
I loved reading about all these different ways to approach getting dinner on the table. I utilize our freezer a ton to prep parts of meals (pasta sauces, meatballs, marinated meats, black beans etc) and then often can pull out something that’s already done to make the actual cooking easier. Last night we had bolognese from the freezer so all I had to do was boil pasta. Not every night works this way but if I can prep and freeze, I do. My husband and son are also happy leftover eaters so we usually can have a meal each week where everyone just picks what they want from leftovers in the fridge.
I found this so interesting and useful for ideas on how my cooking styles and timing may change as my kids get older and afternoons get busier! For now, I related with others on prepping ahead as I can, sticking to 30 minute or less meals during the week, and lots of leftovers mixed in for those busy nights.
Hi Caro and team! Are you guys going to be doing another round up soon? Would love more product recommendations for food, clothing, beauty and skincare etc…
The best guidance I saw here was to have a list of 8-10 meals that are autopilot go-tos for your family - no combing through recipes every day. We do these more intensive meals about 4 nights a week and cook in bulk, genuinely outrageous amounts...e.g. 3 pounds of chicken at a time...and are able to feed our family of 5 and use leftovers for lunches all week. We have a nanny who helps with shopping and food prep which obviously helps immensely (and having our go-to meals means less mental energy for me to outline/delegate when she does the prep).
We have 3 hungry boys, ages 9, 7, and nearly 4, and most of the meals on our menu are "components", where we serve all the bits in the middle of the table. Caro, we love your bowl meals and always add extra chopped veggies, nuts, rice, etc. when we serve, and we always include some "safe foods" that we know the kids will eat. One night, my middle son might only eat the rice from your jerk chicken bowl with a pile of cucumbers on top, but the next week he *may* actually try the jerk chicken.
After dinner my husband and I pack up lunches for the next day or two as we're cleaning up, plus add any further leftovers in the fridge for future component meals.
I love this so much! 2 full-time working parents (out of the house, though fortunately flexible time schedules), and 2 kids (1.5 and 4.5). Just getting started with seasonal sports, so usually one parent is home with the kids around 5 and dinner is at 6. I usually plan 2-3 meals per week that I want to make that I need to consider when grocery shopping. The other nights are easy things - veggies and frozen chicken tenders (either store bought or homemade), meatballs and pasta, burgers, etc. Leaning heavily on the full size garage freezer to have meats and things prepped.
One thing I’ve accepted when I’m trying to do it all is the concept of “pasta Monday” (credit to Naptime Kitchen). I don’t really have one day per week that’s a consistent meal, but I do let us just boil pasta with a veggie one night and not feel guilty about doing easy dinner!
We don’t do separate meals for the kids because it’s too much extra work. Half the time when my 1.5 year old rejects all our dinner items, she gets emergency cheese or yogurt or peanut butter.