My younger boys are swimming Monday through Thursday from 4:45-6:45pm. This is for our neighborhood summer swim team, a highlight of our last two summers living here. Once public school ends in mid-June, their time will switch to mornings. For the next month, our dinner times as a family will need to adjust as we navigate this schedule. I love sitting out there in the evenings, watching my boys swim, connecting with friends, and enjoying the communal feel of it all. It’s a life-giving joy of our summers. But dinner still needs to happen.
I am trying to take the next few days to compile a list of easy go-to meals. Just because our schedule has changed, I don’t want to give up eating simple, enjoyable meals. It’s too easy to grab pizza or take-out too often, putting a strain on our budget and health. I also don’t want to wear myself out cooking complicated meals that have us eating late at night and with my being grouchy.
See those delicious looking BBQ chicken nachos? Heather at North Ridge Farm inspired me to make those last week. They were easy because I used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It was quick, tasty, filling, and everyone loved it. I made two pans, and this meal will go into our swim season menu rotation. We also made her Tuna Macaroni Salad which she shared with the members of her online community, Hearth & Home. I can always trust her to give good whole-food recipes.
Some of the other meals on my list are Korean Beef Bowl, these delicious grilled pork chops, French Dip Sammies, easy Greek Chicken, Italian Sub Stromboli, Linguine with Clam Sauce, Pesto Pasta, tacos, and a variety of dinner salads like California Grilled Chicken Salad, Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, and Black and Bleu Salad, and Asian Sesame Chicken Salad. I am busy adding to my list, so if you have more ideas for me, let me know. (Small caveat: not an Instant Pot owner nor want to be).
We don’t have to be all-or-nothing people. I tend to be that way. If I can’t fix dinner the way I always do, then I default to frozen, packaged foods or takeout. Or I miss watching swim all together so I can cook the bigger, more time-consuming meals. Instead, I think I can find a middle way where I don’t sacrifice family dinners, and also don’t sacrifice my time and mental health either. I simply needed to make a small pivot on the types of meals I plan during this season. This includes picking meals that others in my family could throw together pretty easily too. Side note: teach your teens how to use the gas grill.
I don’t set the table in this season either. We are using paper plates and paper napkins with real silverware, all piled neatly at the end of our dining room table. I set the meal there once it is prepared, and everyone fixes their own plate and heads out to the back porch to eat. It’s our most delightful Spring practice. We can’t do that in the thick of summer down here because the humidity is stifling, but right now, every night we dine al fresco, barring rain. I am freeing up our clean-up by using paper plates, and that makes our evenings easier too. For everything there is a season.
It’s important to recognize these transitional times during the year, and to learn to use creative problem solving. Transitions are notoriously stressful, but if we plan for them, we can walk through them with greater ease and rest. Tomorrow I will be brainstorming what my weekly routine will look like next week since today is the last day for my kids’ homeschool hybrid academy. Better to make a loose plan now and communicate expectations than have to backpedal later.
Off to make Korean Beef Bowl for us and for a friend,
Aimee
I appreciate this and all your newsletters so very much! You are mentoring me through them in such a way that fits exactly what I need right now. My current go-to quick dinner is quesadillas because you can prep all the fillings early in the day and then make them quickly on the stove top when you get home. With prechopped fruit and some chips and salsa, it's a great outdoor meal.
You're part of Hearth and Home too? How fun! Heather's recipes always seem to go well when I try them. I found some cooked chicken in the freezer the other day and have been trying to figure out what to turn it into, and those chicken nachos sound like a great idea. Something different to get us out of our food rut, which I think we'll all enjoy. :)