Parents What/When Do You PARENTS Eat?

[lilmisssunshine]

I've seen plenty of conversations about what to feed the kids, especially with long drives and practices that stretch over the dinner hours. I feed my kids dinner in the car, but I struggle to feed myself.

My son has 3 hour practices 30 minutes away from our house. They have a microwave and I'm fairly comfortable eating in their waiting area, but that also requires a commitment to be in there for 30 minutes or so, at which point my younger daughter will also want to eat. Not a huge problem except that she will again want something to eat when brother has his meal in the car. (When daughter comes, I usually try to go places with her -- YMCA, library, playground, etc.)

But then if I wait until we get home, we are jumping right into the bedtime routine stuff and I might not be able to eat dinner until 9:30 or 10. Not gonna lie...there have been nights where I've just popped a big bowl of popcorn for myself.

Most of my favorite healthy foods aren't good foods to eat when driving (need a spoon/fork) and if I am snacking on the way home or something, I don't really feel meal-hungry, but I also feel like I should eat something more because I'll I've had is crackers and a cheese stick or whatever.

Wondering if others have this problem and how you've handled it.

 

[skschlag]

oh yes. I leave my house at 7am and get home at 10pm. There is a brief drive by to pick the boy up, but that is it.

So....

On Sundays, I cook. I make at least 1 breakfast, some kind of bread/muffins, and 2-3 meals. I divide these into individual containers and label them in the refrigerator. When I leave every morning, I take a breakfast, lunch, and dinner for me, and then when D gets home, he packs his cooler with snacks, and a dinner for himself. I do heat it up and eat at the gym. I take little snacks as well. It really is the onyl way I keep from eating junk all the time.....

For your dd, could you do a little snack for one of them, and then the meal for the other? Then you could pack a cooler for her, or let her pack it and decide what she wants (not sure how old she is )

 

[profmom]

It's a little easier now that mine are older, but basically we eat together as a family when she/he/they are done with gym. The crock pot is my bestie from late fall through mid-spring. We don't linger long over meals, but it's nice to have that time even if we're all tired.

If I'm wiped out, I just put perishables away and clean up in the morning. No one has ever died from there being dirty dishes or pots in the sink overnight.

When I grow up, I want to be Skschlag.

 

[skschlag]

When I grow up, I want to be Skschlag.

You say that until you eat your 5th helping of whatever I made that week....lol. This week was pulled pork and baked potatoes, or pot roast and potatoes. Or eggs with veggies and sausage. Or..macaroni and cheese. But, i love hot meals so it works!!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I work various shifts, including overnights. Much like skschlag above, a lot of meal prep is done a head of time. Crockpot is used often. Veggies cut cleaned cut, prepped ready to go,, raw or steamed.

Thermos and cooler are key. And there are plenty of healthy things to eat that don't require a fork and spoon. It does require resetting what one thinks as a "meal". Wraps can be very healthy and options that don't need to be heated can be healthy as well. Roll ups with veggies, cheese, turkey, roast beef. Carrot sticks, celery cucumbers, peppers and mozarella, egg whites filled with hummus. Chicken leg. Thermoses for all so no heating at gym required but can be eaten while at gym or in a parked car before heading off to library and or park. Filled with stews, chili, soup, pasta, dumplings, ravioli.

My daughters practice is 3 hours and the commute is 20-30 mins. And there is no eating in the gym. I come home. And make dinner. Now my husband picks up and they are home by 7:30 so we eat then, she might also be doing homework but we eat then. On nights I work my meals are packed and at work. Theirs just need to be heated or husband is on.

But when practice ran later, I would still come home, husband, stepson and myself would eat and she would eat in the car on the way home. So why not eat with daughter during practice????

 

[CuriousCate]

We still attempt to sort of eat as a family. ODD has practice 4 days (3 weekdays) from 3:30-7:30pm and my YDD has practice until 6:30. My hubs and I stagger pick up after work. So I pick up YDD on the way home and then make a quick dinner. Then DH picks up ODD and we attempt to eat together. If it has been a rough day for one of us or if YDD is super hungry then one parent eats with her and the other eats with ODD. I just have a "thing" about them eating alone.

I wish I could be motivated enough to prep ahead but I'm just not. So instead I opt for super fast prep meals. And we push bed time back to accommodate the late dinners. It isn't ideal, but I really appreciate eating together.

 

[Committed]

I am fortunate enough that I live fairly close to the gym. There is no commute issue. Sometimes, I eat at home with my son if we're extra hungry or DD has a late night practice. At this point, I may bring her something to eat in the car, but that's more of a treat for her.
Otherwise, we eat at about 8:30-8:45, as a family.

 

[skschlag]

Here is a typical fridge after Sunday, of course, this picture is when my label maker was out of labels.......

 

[gymnastmom05]

Crockpot is my friend as well. Our DD (the gymnast) doesn't eat dinner with us on Monday/Wednesday because she doesn't get home until after 9. My husband, DS and I usually have dinner around 8 on those nights(waiting for DS to finish his practices - not gymnastics) and 8:30 when DD has her shorter practices. This week I made Italian Beef and we've eaten it most of the week. My DD east more small portions of something - before gym, on her 10 minutes break during gym and on her way home but not usually a sit down meal. I find I save a lot of money and we eat much better if I plan one or two meals to fix in the crockpot each week. Then when I'm starving and driving around like crazy, I'm not tempted to just run through whatever fast food I see because I know it's already sitting there and waiting for us when we get home. It's also nice because my husband travels so much. My kids eat like birds and nothing frustrates me more than spending my time cooking dinner only to have them barely eat anything. Then I turn around and have a big mess to clean up. The crockpot is much faster to clean than a bunch of pots/pans and messy counters.

 

[flipping_girls]

I try to make a crockpot meal 3 times a week so dinner is ready when my gymnasts get home. I usually make enough to have left overs for days. But on days that I am WAY over left overs (happens to me before the rest of the family rebels) sometimes a RX bar is dinner for me. Not proud of it.. but i guess it could be worse.

 

[mommyof1]

We are fortunate to have two parents and one kid, so daddyof1 picks Tinker Bell up while I get dinner ready. Dinner is served when they walk through the door, which on gym nights is a little before 8:30. We have tried eating dinner while she's at practice and feeding her in the car on the way home, but she doesn't actually eat anything that way and then we have to sit around waiting for her to eat after she gets home. I do a lot of meal prep on the weekends (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, although not to the same extent as skschlag and my fridge doesn't look so perfect!). A weeknight dinner often means heating up one component of the meal while cooking another, heating up something I've frozen and then defrosted in the fridge, or cooking from prechopped ingredients. I don't use the crockpot on weekdays because I don't want to leave a 6-hour recipe in there for 14 hours, so I will make crockpot meals on the weekend to reheat during the week or freeze.

To survive until 8:30, I eat a protein-rich snack before I leave work--usually a cheese stick, yogurt, nuts, trail mix, or a Kind bar. On gym days daddyof1 and I will sometimes have a snack or appetizer before he goes to pick her up. This usually involves cheese.

In OP's situation, I would probably eat at the gym with little sister and then give her a snack while brother eats on the way home. Another option would be to make lunch the main meal of the day and then eat something lighter in the evening. I would also check out the many "meal prep" suggestions on the various recipe blogs. These typically make 4 or 5 complete cold or reheatable meals. Damn Delicious has some good ones, including "copycat Starbucks protein boxes."

 

[Madden3]

We happen to live very close to our gym. But I have long lived 3o minutes or so from many other activities/school etc. So, my input based on that is that if my kid had 3 hour practices 30 minutes from home, I would usually just go home. That is 2 hours at home, and that is when I would cook what I want, and eat and also feed younger child. That way I am fed and able to handle the gymnast's dinner and bedtime without being hungry. Yes it is means an extra hour total in the car, but I actually love to drive so that is not a biggy to me. On the other hand, 3 hours in the gym with my younger child sounds like hell to me. If my younger wanted to eat again in the car, I would just bring a snack for them.

For meal planning in general, we homeschool, and believe it or not that makes meals way more challenging. So this is what I have been doing to make that work:

I agree, make the crock pot your friend. But imo it is hard to find consistently good crockpot meals. I have exactly two meals we currently do in the crockpot (beef stew and BBQ pork) and I alternate them every other week, and each produces enough to have leftovers for another night.

Sunday is my day to make a big dinner that takes time, and I always make enough for two meals.

As you can see my strategy is to make large amounts when I cook and rock the leftovers. This means I cook 3-4 times a week and not 6-7.

I also try to break meal prep into several steps that can be done when there is time the night before, in the am, or over the day.

One of our favorite fall/winter meals is whole baked chicken in the oven. I eventually realized it was almost no more work to make two at once and bake them together. The 2nd chicken makes the base of another meal plus sandwiches for the week.

 

[duyetanh]

BAHAHAHA......I have no idea, it's day to day! I always take care of everyone else in the family, but myself, isn't that what the parent who drives does?
We happen to live nowhere NEAR my dd's gym, lol! What this means is that I lovingly pack a dinner for her 5 nights a week....and I either eat her scraps on the way home after she snarfs down almost all of it, or I end up chewing on a rice cake or some other lovely item from the "food bin" in our car. Apples and rice cakes are awesome, as they help keep me focused and alert on the lonnnng drive in the dark on somewhat sketchy roads. You have to chew a lot.

There is no way, no how that we could wait until we get home. She would be a complete turd, and then she would get to bed WAY too late, and it would become a very vicious cycle. She needs food almost immediately when she gets in that car, and I do not blame her. Making her wait over an hour to get it would be insane (in my child's case-I do realize all children are different). Once every few weeks I cave and buy take out for her, and then yes, I do get myself something that I snarfel (snarfel: inhale rapidly, heh heh) right before I go in and pick her up.

In summer, her practices are during the day. It was SO nice having dinner as a fam 7 nights a week. But the rest of the time, practices are at night, so my main meal is lunch, and it honestly is better for me and my body....I don't like eating after 6, and her practice gets out later than that.

 

[skschlag]

In summer, her practices are during the day. It was SO nice having dinner as a fam 7 nights a week. But the rest of the time, practices are at night, so my main meal is lunch, and it honestly is better for me and my body....I don't like eating after 6, and her practice gets out later than that.

I actually find myself doing that a lot too. Plus I frequently do not get lunch until 1:30, so that helps as well!

 

[Dahlia]

It's a little easier now that mine are older, but basically we eat together as a family when she/he/they are done with gym. The crock pot is my bestie from late fall through mid-spring. We don't linger long over meals, but it's nice to have that time even if we're all tired.

If I'm wiped out, I just put perishables away and clean up in the morning. No one has ever died from there being dirty dishes or pots in the sink overnight.

When I grow up, I want to be Skschlag.

Oh man! I wish I could do that. I leave at 6:30-6:45 am for work. If I don't wash dishes at night, they don't get done - sometimes until the weekend!

Right now is our easier time of year since my other kiddos activities are in the spring. I'm able to come home and make dinner while dd is at gym, we eat, and then she eats when she gets home or in the car (depending on who picks her up).

In the spring, when we have gym and 2 other sports going on for a total of 6 different activities/teams between kids, it's a lot of planning ahead, packing snacks, or quite honestly, eating out. I have food allergies, though, so eating out usually means me not eating or not eating well! I'd love to get more organized and find more magical free time to get things done!

 

[e'smum]

for those of you who do crockpot meals - where do you get your recipes? i am going to start doing crockpot meals. i need ideas my kids will actually eat!

 

[sce]

for those of you who do crockpot meals - where do you get your recipes? i am going to start doing crockpot meals. i need ideas my kids will actually eat!

I get my recipes in lots of places, cookbooks, sometimes I Google, magazines. but there are a few sites I like:
I will link to them on a recipe I use often.
A year of slow cooking
Pasta Fagioli
http://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/2008/10/day-305.html

Skinnytaste (bot all slow cooker recipes but this one is).
Slow cooker buffalo chicken lettuce wraps
http://www.skinnytaste.com/crock-pot-buffalo-chicken-lettuce-wraps/
(Sometimes we use tortillas and lettuce.)

 

[Texasmomof3]

Dh and I eat together before kid pickup time. Ds eats In the car on the way home from diving and dd eats in the car on the way home from gym.

 

[bookworm]

Well I was always a big fan of HoHos and popcorn after I finally got home at 10 PM and sat down to relax....I wasn't much of a "meal eater" for myself during the week but I always made the girls' meals...although there were times when I was waiting the 4+ hours for practice when I buzzed through the drive through at McDonald's for a happy meal just for me......don't ask, don't tell...

 

[sce]

My answer to when I eat depends on the day. If I come home during their activities, I often eat then. If we are all getting home near the same time, we eat together, even if it's late. I do try to take healthy snacks with me when I will be out most of the evening. Otherwise I am tempted to buy junk.