How to make dinner time easier

I always get asked, once parents have the 2nd child, what time is best to do dinner and when do I do it.

It just depends what works best for your family. Many parents with one child tend to have dinner after the baby or child goes to bed, since it's easiest to feed the child early and have a dinner date after the child goes to bed. But once the 2nd child comes into play, life changes. Routine needs to change sometimes. Sometimes it easier feeding the baby early and then sitting down with the toddler or younger child and have a family meal. Sometimes the other parent doesn't get home till after 6pm, so maybe switching bath time around and bathing the children before the other parent gets home. Baths can create a calming affect to calm the kids down just before dinner, just an idea. Every family does it differently, but at some point its important to have a family meal together. Once the baby starts eating real food, it will become easier to sit down as a family and have a family meal together. If hard to do during the week nights, if one parent gets home late, then start to have family meals on the weekends. If one parent gets home early enough, have the other parent take kids out back or play a game till dinner is ready.

The 4-7pm hour in any household is no where near calm and quiet. These hours usually consist of the older children activities, getting out of the house for a quick outing before dinner to get energy out of them, it may consist of one last nap for the baby, meltdowns because at least one child is hungry, meltdowns because at least one child is tired, or a witching hour for the baby, and in the midst of all of this, we are supposed to get dinner ready? Easy right?! No.

But I can tell you what has made it easier for me. Two things. One, meal planning. Every weekend, I plan out 6 meals for the week. This app called the Food Planner has made my life so much easier. I can add my groceries on my phone, my meals and it saves them. So if you get a new phone, all you have to do is log back in with your user name and password, and all your groceries and meals are saved. You can even add recipes, but I haven't taken it that far yet. 5-6 meals can be overwhelming, so just try planning 3 meals. Everyone can think of 3 meals. Over time, the app will save each meal and then over a period of 30 days, you will have a few weeks of meals saved so all you have to do is tap the meal what sounds good that week. If you are a paper planner, there are so many free printable meal planners out there online or can order a pad of paper meal planner that you can stick on side of fridge or desk.

The second thing that made the dinner prep easier, is since having a meal plan, I take out what meat I am going to prep for dinner if frozen and defrost in the am. If I have a time in the morning or afternoon, I chop any veggies, salad or items that can be prepped ahead of time. In the afternoon, I sometimes pre-cook 3/4 of the way through part of the meal that can be cooked ahead. Or sometimes, I prep as much as I can the night before if I know the next day is going to be a crazy day. All of this may seem overwhelming and too thought out, but once you have a meal plan for the week or for a few days, its easy just to look at the list and cook what ever is the plan for the night, no matter if it sounds good or not, its already thought out. Change days if it doesn't sound good for that night and pick Wednesday meal for Monday night meal instead.

Some other helpful tips for meal planning with little ones and making meal time easier...

• If you have an older child that doesn't nap, give them a job to do during meal prep. Have them use a child knife to help cut if old enough. They can help marinated the meat or veggies, or help spin the salad. Or put them on a stepping stool and have them wash the dishes you dirtied during meal prep (or dishes left over from the day).
• Have dinner at a reasonable time. If you have a child that tends to melt down around dinner time and you have a late dinner, maybe move dinner time up. Also, if you have a child that doesn't eat much dinner, make sure they don't have a snack after 4pm (or 330pm) to make sure they are hungry enough for dinner.
• If you have a witching baby around dinner time, maybe try to eat dinner outside with the fresh air (if light enough outside). You will have to see what works best, but you could try having the witching baby sit in an infant seat while you have dinner, and see if that is enough entertainment to distract the witching baby. Another way, is wearing the witching baby in a sling during dinner. Or just switch between the others at dinner holding the baby while the other one eats, its a small phase of the newborn stage with a witching baby, which there is an end.
• If you just have a bad day and not going to have time to get to the meal you planned, take out is always an easy option. And tomorrow, just do the meal you were going to do tonight.
• If you ever are cooking taco meat, soup, meatballs, chili, fajitas, any crockpot recipe or something similar that is easy to make extra, do so and put one in the freezer in a freezer ziplock. Freezer meals are great for that day you know your day is going to be a busy one and you don't have the time to prep, or even cook for that matter, grab it out of the freezer the night before or morning of and put it in the crockpot.

So no matter how you look at it, dinner prep hour(s) is no where near easy. But having a meal plan for the week and prepping in the morning or afternoon makes this hour a lot easier with kids. Also, check out some family friendly recipes I contribute on a Mommy Chic blog to help with meal planning.

Happy cooking,

Tiffany