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.
