Busy parents, this one’s for you. Everybody thinks the new year starts at midnight on December 31, but we know the new year really starts somewhere either just before Labor Day or just after, depending on your school district. No worries! We’re here to help.
First, wine. Congratulate yourself for getting through the summer with kids.
Next, dinner. Hummm. That’s trickier. I find it’s not the cooking of dinner that induces stress (I love that part!), it’s the hour right before when I realize that I haven’t taken anything out to thaw, there’s no pasta in the pantry, or the kids decide they no longer like chicken and I’m about to enter a negotiation involving how many bites must be eaten before dessert (an ice cream sandwich these days) becomes something I might say yes to.
Planning ahead goes a long way toward taking the stress out of dinner. Take a look at my picks for a week of easy kid-friendly dinners. Prepare a shopping list. Pick out the make ahead elements and tick them off the list this weekend. Make-ahead elements can mean the difference between a recipe that takes 45 minutes and a recipe you can actually pull off in 30 minutes, start to finish, which to me anyway, is weeknight dinner nirvana. It’s the ideal.
Start next week knowing that you’ve got this! Kid-friendly recipe faves follow (click photos to go to recipes):
—Robyn Doyon-Aitken
Senior Producer
