Teaching Your Family to Eat at Home More
For every family there are nights when the kids have after-school activities, or you have a late meeting, for us many soccer games, only to get home late, with an empty fridge, and hungry stomachs that are screaming for food.
Are you prepared or do you eat out?
With some easy planning, and very little cooking times, thank goodness we don’t have to run to a restaurant to eat out every night. Can you imagine the food bill for the month? I don’t know how families do it. And for us, in this stage of life, we save most the eating out for “date nights” for my husband and me. The kids do well making their own dinners anyway, and they like to be creative in the kitchen.
It’s true, as the times we’ve asked our kids to come, they say they’d rather make a nutritious meal at home! I never thought I’d hear those words, so I guess our hard work of “controlling” what goes into each dish, and our teens listening, has paid off.
How to Avoid Eating Out:
1. In the morning, or even the prior weekend, think ahead to what dinner will be and either use the slow cooker, or take meat (or food items) out of the freezer.
2. Prep in advance. Choose a day where you can cook extra foods, or get meals ready for the week.
3. Make extra when you cook; try to get 2-3 meals out of one larger recipe. IE, cook two whole chickens, eat one for dinner, use the other and leftovers for chicken soup with pasta and enchiladas (adding rice and beans).
4. Take advantage of your freezer. Learn which foods freeze well and which don’t.
5. Always keep your pantry stocked. Keep a list in the pantry of food items/dishes to cook using pantry items. Show your kids!
When you save money, and you eat healthy (knowing what you’re putting in), it feels good to be good stewards of our finances and bodies, doesn’t it?
And now that my kids are all teens, one almost 20, I can give myself a little pat on the shoulder (good Mom!) knowing I’ve taught my kids well.
Not perfectly, but well.
What’s your struggle with eating out, or are you disciplined when it comes to home-cooked meals?
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Crockpotting and freezing extras is the key to me always having something ready for dinner and last minute entertaining) anything from spinach dip to mashed potatoes). Disposable tin pans in all sizes and ziplock bags help keep my freezer somewhat organized and makes thawing and reheating really simple. I always write the reheating instructions on the containers so my husband can ‘cook’ dinner sometimes too. I love helpful posts like that that encourage eating at home!
Something I have found that helps me plan our family meals is that I have made a Word document listing out all the main dishes we eat in the fall/winter and all the main dishes we like to eat in the spring/summer. I have a notations by them telling which website the recipe came from or if it is my recipe box just in case hubs is cooking or if I just can’t remember. It makes meal planning so much easier for us.
Our family is very involved in sports, so from the very beginning I would put picnic on the menu board for the nights we were out at games. I still pack picnics and the kids will ask me to pack extras for friends. It does take a bit of prep work…but it is way less expensive and much healthier. Our local restaurant supply store saves me from having too many dishes to clean after the games!!
Oh my, there are times when I acutally think you are listening in on our conversations…… Our kids are grown, married and on their own so we cannot use them as an excuse. My wife and I eat out at least 4 days per week, and it is just because of convenience. Our pantry is FULL, our freezer is FULL, and yet we eat out. It does raise havoc with our budget, and every week week we say, next week we are going to plan better…… and so it goes. We will be taking this task on again tonite when we eat at chez Chipley…… as in at HOME…. thanks for reminding us all that with a little planning we can have amazing meals, keep within our budget and enjoy each others company!
Blessings
Curtis & Sherrie
Hi Sandy,
I’m with you…eating out regularly can be hard on the budget! Those meals out are best reserved for date night or the occasional family dinner.
I try to do as you shared and prepare in advance. With activities and what not, sometimes we eat dinner at different times. Generally, we eat dinner together as a family but there are two nights when my son has an activity right around the dinner hour. I’ll feed my husband first and keep him company. Then, when my son arrives home, I’ll feed him, and both my husband and I will keep him company. Often we’ll have a cup of tea or something like that. We like the family time and encourage conversation to hear about each others day and also give our son plenty of time to chat about what is on his mind/needs help with/etc. I think this is so important – – – for kids to feel that their parents are really present in their lives. That’s what makes family meal time so special.
From a food perspective, I find soups or braised foods great for these nights when dinner is served to different family members at multiple times. Both types of meals are foods are easy to prepare and easy to keep warm…either in a crock-pot or on the stove/in the oven. Adding some bread and a salad can take no time at all.
Also – sometimes, if we all wind up eating quite late, I like to be a little unconventional and make dinner one of two ways…either as breakfast or as a tea time sort of meal. The tea time is the most fun because I just bring some things out of the pantry and fridge laying everything out on the table for my family to help themselves. Usually I’ll have an assortment of crackers, cheeses, olives, cold cuts or left over cold meat, bread – with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping, cornichons (gherkin style pickles) and bread & butter pickles, maybe some hummus or other type of dip, and a few condiments like mustard, mayo, etc….and, if I have it – maybe some pesto. I’ll put on a pot of tea and round up a little something sweet for dessert – can even just be some store bought chocolates – and that’s it. It’s very informal but we really enjoy it. And it doesn’t require any cooking at all – that’s the best part! But it does require – – – like you shared – – – keeping the pantry well stocked.
You have done a great job with your kids and definitely deserve a huge pat on the shoulder! :-) I love reading about how they want to cook healthy! Yes indeed, good job Mama!!!
Have a great day.
Love,
Mary
We are blessed that my husband is able to come home a little early on the evenings that the kids have activities, so we can eat early together. On the nights we had back to back baseball games, I would pack a picnic which is always fun.
This is not only true for busy evenings, but also for Sunday dinner. People wonder how do I cook dinner every Sunday, after all of the church responsibilities I have. Well, just plan ahead…. When we return from church my main dish is cooked and sometime the salad is done. I just make a vegetable and maybe mashed potatoes and have a nice Sunday dinner.
Confessions of a Fast Food Mom here! Last year my goal was to make fast food the exception instead of the rule. I take an hour or so (usually on Sunday) to prep that week’s meals as much as possible. For example, all the ingredients for a crock pot meal go into a gallon size zip-lock bag and into the fridge. Then all I have to do on my way out the door for work is dump the contents in the crock pot and set it on low. That, and having an arsenal of “quick fix” meals ready on hand helps too. I do need to work on the pantry list. It’s in my head, but things get missed that way.
Those days are over for me, trying to feed a family before lessons. But when I was raising my family I always made sure that things were planned out for the week ahead. Sundays was kitchen day where I would make a stew, a lasagne, a soup – something that could be reheated quickly. In the warmer weather, it was some grilled meat and a salad. And there was always the slow cooker. Keeping on a budget and keeping the family eating at home can be done with some forethought and planning. Can’t tell you how many mornings I filled that crock pot at 6:30 AM before heading out to work for the day.
I was having a mini-meltdown this week over the fact that my kids had something scheduled 4 out of the 5 weeknights – going in some cases until almost 7. And, since they’re too young to be carting themselves around – i’m doing it and it started to seriously stress me out. We do the rotisserie chicken thing – grabbing 2, usually turning one into a chicken and rice casserole and the other into soup or something – and we use the crockpot – but i still feel like i’m doing the same thing over and over again (Regardless of how many different things i pin on Pinterest!) I would love some other ideas!! XO-Sheri