Family Dinner

Over the last month I have had several people comment to me that it is impressive that we have a family dinner together most nights.  Not only that, but I cook the family meal.  I wanted to break down both of those statements.

First, family dinner is important to me and Adam.  Both of us grew up having family dinner most every night.  In my family, my dad worked full time and my mom worked part time.  But we had family dinner, except on Thursday nights when my dad worked late.  In Adam’s family both of his parents worked full time, and family dinner was served a bit later, but the whole family ate together.

 In our family, we eat family dinner most nights (Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and most Saturdays).  Most of those nights I cook something, but even when I don’t cook, we eat a frozen pizza together or breakfast for dinner or vegetarian burgers, burgers and hot dogs, but we are at the same table at the same time.  We have made this a priority in our family, however Adam and I are lucky, that we can leave work and be home for dinner, and if need be, we can log back into the workplace from home and work if we need to work.  We have tried to pick activities that don’t have practice during the week day dinner hour (and during the years of Mark playing baseball we skipped family dinner).  It is getting harder and harder to do that as both kids get involved in different activities, however I hope that we continue to have family meals.

 The other part of this equation is that I cook.  I enjoy cooking and I am organized.  I go grocery shopping once a week with my master list broken down by categories (produce, grocery, dairy, deli and frozen).  On most Thursday nights, I sit on the sofa after dinner with my calendar, a piece of paper marked with the days of the week on the left.  I then write on the paper any activities that are happening.  I then sit with my cookbooks and create the menu on the paper with the days of the week.  I write what I am going to cook next to the day of the week (tofu, with a side of asparagus and rice).  Every time I add an item to the menu, I add the ingredients to the grocery list.  How do I decide what to make for dinner?  If it is a Sunday, I can make something that can take over an hour.  On Mondays, Mark must be done with dinner by 7 for his trombone lesson.  Many of my pasta recipes take 30 minutes or less to cook!  I determine what is for dinner by the evening activities. 

I also have many cookbooks, and every time I try a new recipe, I write next to the recipe comments, such as “Delicious” or “DO NOT MAKE AGAIN” or “Adults liked.”  I also have two three ring binders for every recipe that I print out, cut out or am given by someone.  One binder is the “Not Tried” and the other binder is the “Tried and good.”    My rule of thumb is you never need to make a bad dinner twice.  And, it might not be the cook’s fault.  The recipe might not be right for your family. 

 

The other key to family dinner is that the cook doesn't clean up. Adam cleans the dishes and the pots.  He also puts everything in Tupperware.