Issue #5 - The Surprising Dinner Time Hack That Will Change Your Evenings
In the beginning of December, after reading a particular book, we made this one simple change in our weekly dinner habit and it changed everything.
The first thing I need to tell you, before we get into it, is that historically, I am not the chef in our family. Since the very first day I met my husband some 16-ish years ago, he’s been the cook and an excellent one at that.
It has only been the last few months, that I have been more consistently cooking in the kitchen. My husband rarely gets home before 7PM and for him to start making dinner at 7PM is just a real mad dash to the parental finish line - bedtime. And with two kids who need to start bedtime routines by 7:30 if we all want to keep our sanity, it just wasn’t working.
Now you might be thinking, “okay, Casey so your genius tip is that you started cooking dinner?” NOPE. That’s not the tea but it was an important prologue to it.
The second part of this problem was that even though I wouldn’t consider my kids picky eaters, there was so much resistance at dinner time. I chalked it to kids being kids and “everything’s a phase!”.
BUT! Enter the book Simplicity Parenting, which was excellent and inspired me to implement some small changes in our family life that made a truly MAJOR impact.
Also, my favorite part of this one thing is that it’s not just for families with kids. This is something you can do on your own, as a couple, etc and you will also feel the stress of dinner time evaporate.
Here’s the non-groundbreaking tip:
Create a predictable and consistent weekly menu.
Sounds so simple, let’s dig a little deeper…
When I write it out now, it seems like such an obvious tip but here’s why we’ve never tried this before. My husband and I love food. The thought of eating the same menu every week is just my own personal (extremely privileged) hell. Food is so much more than just fuel for us. Eating the same exact meals week after week would just hurt our souls.
It wasn’t until I read about it through a different lens in the Simplicity Parenting book. The general common thread of this parenting book is to eliminate as many “decisions” for our kids (and for us as parents) to simplify our daily living. There’s also a huge emphasis on the impact of spending more quality time as a family once you simplify which I loved and aligned so much with our family’s core values.
Having a predictable and consistent food menu for kids increases their feelings of stability at home and decreases stress around not knowing what’s happening next, aka what’s for dinner.
What I didn’t expect when we tried this was how much it would decrease the stress for us, the parents, too. Grocery shopping is less stressful and unpredictable. Cooking and meal times have gone smoother. And my kids are not as resistant to sitting down to eat dinner because they know what’s on the table.
Here’s what it looks like for us:
The weekend menu is definitely the kids’ favorite and they get the most excited for it which we love - makes weekends extra enjoyable for us all. It’s funny if you had told me we’d be making the same recipe every week this summer, I’d never believed you but we have literally (aside from the holiday weeks last year) made the same salmon recipe (sharing it below!) every week since we first made it in October. Maybe we will deviate at some point but not anytime soon.
Two key things that are important for making this work for us:
1. We try and keep the chicken recipe something we know the kids already love but we rotate and obviously sometimes we try something new but I try to keep it in a “safe” realm for them.
2. It’s also so, so important to me that our kids continue to be open to and have exposure to new foods and food textures so we are using that crockpot recipe Friday as our one day where we are trying something new.
What I love about coming up with a predictable weekly menu is that it’s so easily adaptable to your preferences and your situations. Maybe Tuesdays and Thursdays for your family are take-out nights. Maybe Taco Tuesday is big in your house. Maybe on Sundays, everyone has their part in making dinner so everyone feels involved and that’s your version of predictability and consistency.
I’d be so curious to hear if you already do something similar or what you might want to try yourself. So hit up the comment section below and share your tips and ideas with the group :)
In other news…
🍽️ SALMON RECIPE WE MAKE EVERY SINGLE WEEK! It’s based off this recipe I found on Pinterest but I’ve had to make some hacks for it as we’ve made it more and more.
Ingredients:
Salmon filet - we get the giant (like as in half a fish) from Costco. Cut it in half and freeze the other half for the next week.
3-4 large potatoes
Asparagus. Or green beans. Or Spinach. Or Broccoli. Or whatever we have lol
1 lemon
Herbs. Dried or fresh. (Typically I do herbs de provence and dried dill)
Butter
Capers
3 TB of olive oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a small bowl, mix 3 TB of olive oil, herbs, capers, zest and juice of one lemon, salt and pepper.
Wash, pat dry and cut potatoes. I dice them into one inch chunks so they don’t take forever to get crispy.
Season potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, fresh or powdered garlic.
*IMPORTANT* Place potatoes on a metal sheet. I was cooking them in glass for a few weeks and they took forever and that’s when my husband lovingly gave me the tip that metal will heat faster and therefore cook faster.
Cook potatoes in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Flipping potatoes half way through.
Once the potatoes have been in the oven for about 20 minutes, I will pour the olive oil, herbs and lemon mixture over the salmon in a ceramic dish and pop that in the oven.
Once the salmon has been in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, take it out. Place asparagus over the salmon as well as a could of knob of butter. Put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until salmon is cooked to your preference.
Serve and enjoy!
QUICK TIP: If your salmon has skin on it, it may take more like 30-35 minutes. If it doesn’t have skin I find 20-25 minutes is perfect :)
🎧 Podcasts I’ve listened to and loved recently:
Tim Ferris interviews Greg McKewon while they both were on walks!
TSC: Him and Her, Bert Kriescher absolutely loved how real and honest he was on this! SO good.
Shameless Plug Time!
🎧 A new episode of my podcast The Mom Whine is out today. You can listen on Spotify here. We really just shoot the shit in this episode with a focus covering the Kyte Baby Parental Leave drama that happened last week. We cover Casey's non-alcoholic wine that is a glorified apple cider, Justin Timberlake, vaccines, high school (lol), and taking your kid to the dentist. Hit play on this episode if you're craving a mom hang but your kids are home sick and you're stuck at home
💼 Need help with your small business? Book a consulting hour with me to review your website copy, help you create a 90 day Instagram content calendar, outline your newest email sales funnel or create a product launch plan for you.
📷 Maternity! Newborn! And fresh family portraits - oh my! My spring calendar is open for family photo sessions (my favorite as a mom of almost 3!) and I can’t wait to make beautiful photos and memories with you this year.
See you next week, same place, same time!
Casey