logistical puzzle of cooking for everyone
sanfrantigger
>>>>> It's not more effort to cook differently for everyonein the family, but it's a different kind of logistical puzzle than what most
moms are raised to. <<<<<
I would like some tips on how to cook differently for everyone in the family. I looked at this link for ideas: http://sandradodd.com/eating/dinner
My kids are still very young (two children under 5), so I still need to *be present* with them a lot. If I'm not present, they'll end up fighting while I cook--or even while preparing a monkey platter.
Can you please share your experience cooking something for everyone when the children were little? Thanks!
Meredith
As much as possible, bring food prep where your kids are. It could help to re-arrange the home so that more of what the kids like to do is close to where you're preparing food. It could help to plan messy kid-activities for times when you're going to be doing messy food things, so you can all be making a mess in the kitchen together (and then clean up one big mess rather than several messes). It could also help to involve kids more with food prep, if they're interested. Some kids loooooove to help with food.
It can also help to relax into some prepared foods. I don't know how much time you spend on cooking - there have been times in the past when I liked to do a lot of things from scratch and I found that I also got my ego tied up in that to an extent, so that when I wasn't really Wanting to cook so much I still felt like I Should. It took an effort to get past that feeling that I wasn't as good a mom if I wasn't cooking from scratch.
Can you prepare foods While they're eating? That means getting at least one meal/snack ahead of their hunger. The advantage of having food ready before people are hungry is they're more likely to make thoughtful food decisions - it's hard to be thoughtful when you're ravenous! So getting ahead helps in that regard, too.
It can also help to slim down other household tasks as much as you can - such as dishwashing. That might involve using some disposable plates and utensils, or cutting down on the number of dishes so you're never overwhelmed with dishwashing... or alternately getting even More dishes so you always have the dishwasher running And still have clean dishes.
---Meredith
It can also help to relax into some prepared foods. I don't know how much time you spend on cooking - there have been times in the past when I liked to do a lot of things from scratch and I found that I also got my ego tied up in that to an extent, so that when I wasn't really Wanting to cook so much I still felt like I Should. It took an effort to get past that feeling that I wasn't as good a mom if I wasn't cooking from scratch.
>>they'll end up fighting while I cook--or even while preparing a monkey platter*************
Can you prepare foods While they're eating? That means getting at least one meal/snack ahead of their hunger. The advantage of having food ready before people are hungry is they're more likely to make thoughtful food decisions - it's hard to be thoughtful when you're ravenous! So getting ahead helps in that regard, too.
It can also help to slim down other household tasks as much as you can - such as dishwashing. That might involve using some disposable plates and utensils, or cutting down on the number of dishes so you're never overwhelmed with dishwashing... or alternately getting even More dishes so you always have the dishwasher running And still have clean dishes.
---Meredith