Planning Time!

I was thrilled with Varina asked me to guest blog this week. Mostly, I hope this weeklong blogging stint will help turn around what is a serious lack of planning meals in our household.

These days, my need to plan meals is greater than it ever has been. My boy/girl twins just turned one, and they are becoming eaters of real food. That means no more picking a store-bought puree from the pantry to feed them (I dabbled in making my own purees but abandoned that effort pretty early on). Without a plan, mealtime can devolve into taking everything out of the fridge and throwing it on the high chair tray to see what they’ll eat. What’s the metaphor, throw everything against the wall and see what sticks? My hope is that having a plan will create a calmer toddler mealtime.

Also, because my husband works late most nights, I am the only adult around at dinnertime. Without a plan in place for my own meal, dinner can easily become the dregs of what was left on the highchair tray: leftover quesadilla, peas, or cheese strips. Ultimately this type of eating is just not good for the psyche.

I figured that it also makes sense to have some sort of coordination between toddler and adult meals. It is easier if the prep for both meals is somewhat the same, for the sake of efficiency and for the sake of feeling less like a short order cook.

Because we are home each day for lunch and dinner, my plan involves both meals.

I apologize if this plan makes your head spin. I’ve bolded the adult dinners, since I assume that is probably what I’ll be blogging about:

We shall see how we do!