Getting dinner on the table night after night is a big challenge in any family. When you're managing multiples, meals can be pure chaos. Not only do you have multiple mouths to feed, but you need to feed them fast, economically, nutritionally, and well, they have to like it too!
Families with twinfants or more can barely find their way to the microwave. Toddler multiples are notoriously picky. Older kids can be bottomless pits. We can all use some strategies for simplifying supper. Here are some ideas to ease the mealtime madness and help you get dinner done without pulling double duty.
What a Crock
A crockpot can make life easier. Most main dish crockpot recipes allow you to slow cook your food all day. Combine the ingredients in the crock early in the day, plug it in, and let it do the work. This is particularly easy if your multiples allow you some quiet time in the morning. But, if they keep you on your toes from dawn to dusk, consider assembling the recipe the night before and storing it in the refrigerator. Then just turn it on the next day.
By George, I Think We've Got It!
I don't know if George Foreman has any multiples in his brood, but he sure knows how to cut corners in the kitchen. The George Foreman grill may seem to be another infomercial overglorified gadget, but it's actually pretty handy for quick-fix dinners that are also kid friendly as well as healthy. Chicken, steaks and burgers cook in minutes, and also try the GF grill for breakfast favorites like hash brown potato patties, eggs and french toast sticks.
Make the Investment
Investment cooking, also known as bulk cooking, freezer cooking or once-a-month cooking, is particularly useful for parents of multiples who are accustomed to doing double duty. Instead of preparing one recipe of a dish, say lasagna, you prepare four and freeze three of them to eat later. And since you're cooking the ground beef for it, cook some extra to freeze for tacos. Get the idea?
There are lots of ways to approach the concept; some are complicated and require one day per month devoted to cooking. Other practitioners recommend just doubling or quadrupling a dish that you are making anyway. However you accompliish it, this cooking method is efficient and economical. Freezing even one extra meal means a night off from cooking -- without the expense of ordering out.
A Beginner's Guide to Once-A-Month Cooking
Buddy Up
One sure way to ease the dinner dilemma is to have someone else do the cooking. Although hiring a personal chef would be nice, it's not always financially possible. Instead, find a cooking buddy perhaps a neighbor, another mom of multiples or a family friend. Choose someone with about the same size family, and someone with tastes similar to your own. Then switch off cooking duties one night a week. For example, on Tuesday, you prepare meatloaf with all the trimmings. Make enough for the other family, then deliver a ready-to-eat dinner to them. On Thursday nights, the other family returns the favor by dropping off a casserole, salad and homemade bread. It's not much more work to cook for an extra family -- assuming they don't have sextuplets! And you'll look forward to having a ready made meal one night a week.
Co-op Cooking: Save Time, Money and the Family Dinner Hour
Casserole Recipes, perfect for sharing
Read on for my own personal solution to managing mealtimes ...
How do you manage mealtimes? Talk about it on the message board.
