No Stress Mealtime

Unless your thing is being the health nut mama, you probably dread mealtimes.

The books say "...love should pour into your cooking so your children will be filled up with bliss and contentment. Each whole food is a gift your child will cherish. Sugar is poison so if you give it to your kids someone should call social services on you..." I was paraphrasing but you get the idea.

So there is more time for brushing the kids hair.

First of all STOP stressing about meal planning. Set yourself up with a simple weekly plan. Let's begin with the dreaded dinners:

Mondays: Pasta Night

Options: Mac N Cheese, Spaghetti, Alfredo, Lasagna, Manicotti, Pancetta Orchette, Pesto, etc.

The options are endless. Have the kids pick out their favorite noodles at the store. My kids love mini bowties and wheels.

Tuesdays: Mexican Fiesta Night

Options: Tacos, Enchiladas, Mexican Pizza, Loaded Nachos, Fajitas, Tostadas, etc.

The great part about this night is you can use the same ingredients with nearly every recipe:

Refried beans, taco meat, lettuce, torillas, cheese, tomatoes and sour cream.

Wednesdays: Soup Night

Options: Clam Chowder, Chicken Noodle, Tomato, Lobster Bisque, Chicken Tortilla, Veggie, Bean, etc.

Make it as fancy as you want. Add some salad and crusty bread and you have a complete meal.

Thursday: Make Your Own Pizza

Options: Make your own dough or buy the small pre-made ones. The toppings are endless.

We call it "Pie Night" with "messy sauce" (pizza sauce) and "sprinkles" (mozzarella). It is a win with everyone in the family.

Friday: Leftovers

Doesn't matter what day of the week you have leftover night, but make a night of it or food will go to waste.

Saturday: Stir-Fry

Options: PF Changs frozen meals, Chicken Fried Rice, Beef & Broccoli, Schezuan Chicken, or take-out!

Stir-fry is quick and tasty. Throw in all those veggies that are about to go bad and some soy sauce. You can't go wrong.

Sunday: Traditional

Options: Corned beef & cabbage, Pot Roast, Pork Loin, Steaks, BBQ Chicken, etc.

A big meal on sunday with a main dish and sides will at least ensure some leftovers for lunch options during the week. 

Kids love to know what to expect, especially picky eaters. The unknown, even if you know they will love it, is poison to them.  

This meal may not be a nutritional power house,
but it was put together in 3 minutes and there
were no tears from the kids (or me).

So what do you tell your kids when they ask "What's for dinner?"

Kids: I'm hungry.

Me: I'm about to make dinner.

Kids: What, no! I want oatmeal!

Me: Nope, it's Monday - Pasta Night. Do you want to pick the pasta shape and help me cook it? 

Kids: Uh... sure! (Yes a 2 or a 3 year old is a little easier to please with this phrasing than a 12 year old.)

Let's not stop at dinner. I said I was going to help you and I will!

Lunch is another tricky plan. I have to have something the kids can grab and eat because they can't seem to sit still when the sun is directly overhead. The lunch rotation is a little more repetitive, but it is also the meal that the kids neglect the most.

Mondays: PBJ

To make it interesting cut it into shapes... use cookie cutters or scissors.

Tuesdays: Roll-ups

Tortilla or wrap, + veggie cream cheese or hummus, + an option below

Options: Veggie burger, deli meat, veggies, lettuce, spinach, anything else you can think of 

Note: Keep it somewhat thin and spread the cream cheese or hummus over the whole tortilla to get it to stick together. A toddler will probably just like the tortilla + cream cheese.

Wednesdays: Grilled Cheese

Make it extra delicious by spreading pesto on the bread and adding thinly sliced tomatoes

Thursday: Fruit, Cracker, Cheese, & Veggie Tray

Friday-Sunday: Repeat above

I always give a veggie cup and fruit cup with lunch. Usually they will eat half a sandwich and ask for more fruit repeatedly.

Snacks: Keep it simple

Raw Veggies

Fruit

Cheese Sticks

Yogurt

Fruit Pouches

Protein Bars

Veggie Straws

Pretzels

Goldfish crackers

Breakfast for us is our biggest meal of the day and one that we all eat together, even when Daddy only has 10 minutes to spend with us before heading to work. Our meal plan might be a little over the top for families that have to leave very early in the morning. However... DO NOT under estimate the power of eggs. They cook SUPER fast and they are healthy and kids love them. 

We have a big breakfast every morning: Bacon, eggs, oatmeal, bagels, and fruit. 

We have this so dialed in that Kenzie (3 years old) cooks the eggs, Ketcher (2 years old) sets the table, while I make the rest and we have breakfast on the table within 10 minutes or less every morning. I load their plates with a little of everything and they decide what they want more of. 

On the weekend we try and do a pancake breakfast one morning, or some cinnamon rolls for a treat. 

Need variety? The options for eggs are endless... google it. Instead of bacon use sausage, or ham. Add some veggies to the eggs and make omelets. Do whatever you are in the mood for, just keep it simple.

Apple sauce is always a favorite, as long as
it's always served in this exact pouch.
No substitutions FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

I hope I have given you plenty of food for thought... ha ha... okay that was cheesy... I just can't help myself.

Stay tuned for the next segment in simplifying your life. 

20 Childhood Foods from the 80s/90s

If you grew up in the suburbs in the 80s/90s, Goldbergs is a must watch. 25 minutes of remembering what life was like before work, kids, and responsibilities. It was a time we didn't need to work out, we didn't care if our jeans were tight. We ate quickly and rushed out of the house to play "bloody murder" with all the kids in the neighborhood until the street lights came on.

It was a time when we didn't think about "organic" and "local" and checking ingredients on the back of a box. Our moms put on their sensible heels and shoulder pads and went out into the working world while we sat home and fed ourselves. We wouldn't have had it any other way.

Pizza Rolls



Little pockets of fiery heartburn.

Pizza in a tiny bite sized pocket, that is sure to burn your mouth completely. What's the sauce that's in these things? Is there really pepperoni? No one really knows because there doesn't appear to be any recognizable ingredients. The one thing we absolutely know for sure is that you will get raging heartburn 10 minutes after having one if you are older than 25.

 

Ramon Noodles

Maybe you were in high school scarfing these down while watching Animaniacs after school or in college coming home from the bar at 2am, watching a Jay and Silent Bob movie... everyone from the 80s has eaten these. A package of noodles that has zero nutritional value and leaves you starving an hour later, this pantry staple still entices me after all these years because you can't beat $0.30 for a 12 pack.

Bagel Bites

We couldn't get enough pizza in the 80s and with the 90s brought bagel bites! The supreme way to eat pizza while watching late night TV. If you were lucky enough to have the cheese and pepperoni stay on top of the bagel, then you only had to wait 45 minutes for them to cool off so you could take a bite without burning your mouth to the point of blistering. Good times...

Tiny Cereal Boxes

Did you know you could make your own bowl out of them?

When my mom came home from the grocery with these tiny boxes of sugary goodness, I couldn't wait to turn one into a bowl and eat and some breakfast. Except that box of Honey Smacks... nasty.

Hostess Desserts

Nothing says dessert like a twinkie, or a ho-ho, or a cupcake, or a fruit pie. Nothing was better than peeling the chocolate coating off the ho-ho, eating it, and then savoring the cake swirl inside. Mmm...

Tato Skins

Chips are delicious but nothing says healthy like Tato Skins. These hard, salty and disgusting little chips made every parent feel little better about feeding their kid chips.

Funyuns

I could eat a bag of these right now.

A bag of fried onions, sort of. If you were ever friends with me in my childhood, you know how much I loved Funyuns. Sure they tear up the roof of your mouth and you smell like a foot hours after eating them, but they were worth it. 

Bugles

These were much more fun to wear on our fingers than actually eat. The taste was more dusty than tasty... Gag me with a spoon.

Fake Fruit

There was Fruit Rollups, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Wrinkles, Fruit Gushers, and Shark Bites. They came in everything from Garfield, to Ghostbusters, to Ninja Turtles. No sense in buying real fruit when you could just hand out tiny packs of sugar instead.

Chef Boyardee

Scalding hot on the outside, icy on the inside.

I can't limit this to just one product. There was spaghettios, spaghettios with meatballs, ravioli. Then there were smurfs, dinosaurs, pac-man, teenage mutant ninja turtles and tic-tac-toe. Then to top it off they came out with the mini cups... What can't this chubby chef do?

Squeeze-It's

It's a good day when you pop open your He-Man or She-Ra
lunch box and see one of these.

Let's wash down all this sodium rich goodness with a lot of sugar in a really nasty tasting plastic bottle. It's the ultimate BPA packed drink. The taste = subpar, the thirst quench = zero, the fun bottle that made you feel cool = priceless!

Tab or Faygo

Cream soda is heaven in a bottle.

Sure Tab was a huge 80s drink, but in my part of the world there was only one brand of soda to drink and it was Faygo. Orange, grape, redpop, moon mist, cream soda, root beer, cola and so much more.

 

Hi-C juice boxes

Some of the rich kids had Capri-Sun, the rest of us had Hi-C and it was AWESOME. Especially the ecto-cooler flavor which tasted like... well I have no idea, but I'm sure it was tubular.

Kool-Aid

My life wouldn't have been complete without a full jug of Kool-aid in the fridge, and 100 packets of powder in the pantry. I don't know a house that didn't have Kool-aid in hand, all the time in the summer. There's nothing like a giant purple stain surrounding your whole mouth in every single picture from your childhood.

Happy Meals

Remember these transformers? Micky Ds food that
converts into play figures. Double win!

Nothing says a happy child like a happy meal. We didn't want them for the food, we wanted the toys! Of course 80s happy meals consisted of a box you could make into a tiny house or castle, cookies, chocolate milk or soda, gnarly chicken nuggets and a selection of sauces that were tossed for plain old ketchup. Man, to be a kid again...

Let's not forget about the other drive-thru knock off happy meals. My favorite was Arby's because I actually liked their food, but their toys were definitely subpar.

Gum

Why were these squares so giant?
No one needs to chew that much gum at once.

 

We had the BEST gum! Ouch gum that was in the shape of a bandaid, Bubbleyum, Bubble Jug, Doublemint, bubble tape, big chew, and bubblicious which blew the most gigantic bubbles that would get stuck all over your hair and face. Everyone loved gum, like, no duh!

 

Blow Pops!

 

There's gum and then there's gum with sharp bits of sucker all stuck into it. Finding a blow pop in your lunch box was the ultimate in parental lunch packing.

Sour Candy

You only ate these for shock value. Thinking about them made your mouth water, didn't it? I loved anything sour: Tear Jerkers, Cry Baby's, DinaSour Eggs, and the weakest of them all - Sour Patch Kids.

Nuts & Bolts



One final shout out to my favorite 80s food of all time, homemade Chex Mix. In my house it was called Nuts & Bolts and it wasn't made with peanuts or chocolate. It was rad goodness in a crunchy, salty bowl.  I learned how to make this for my kids because sometimes, nostalgia tastes better than healthy.

Share if you want to send some childhood nostalgia to someone in need. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I may have missed some of your favorite 80s/90s food, please remind me and my readers what it was by commenting on facebook or below!

Black Bean Tortilla Soup

This is my toddlers favorite. I add lots of avocado to hers and exclude the cheese and sour cream.

Tortilla Soup with Black Beans

• 1 T olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp chili powder (this is not spicy so don't be scared)
• 2 cans petite diced tomato
• 2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
• 2 cups chicken or veggie broth
• 1 10oz package of frozen corn
• salt and pepper
• crushed tortilla chips (optional)
• salsa (optional)
• avocado (optional)
• sour cream (optional)
• cheese (optional)

In a large sauce pan heat oil over medium heat, cook garlic and chili powder until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes with juice, beans, broth, corn and 1 cup water. Season with salt & pepper.

Bring to boil; reduce to simmer. Add tortilla chips and cook until soft; about 2 mins. Remove from heat and if eating now garnish with any optional ingredient.

If freezing, let cool completely in fridge over night.  Put in gallon size bags and lay flat to freeze.

To reheat:  Let thaw in the fridge for 24 hours. Add to sauce pan and heat on medium until starting to bubble. Turn down to low and let simmer until heated through.  Garnish before eating. 

Dan's toppings:  cheese, sour cream, extra tortilla chips
Amanda's toppings:  tortilla chips, avocado, black bean and corn salsa from Target... yum!

Mexican Burritos

I just made this yesterday and they were great!  As always you can adjust your fillings as needed. 

Mexican Burritos

• 1 box rice-a-roni [I used the one with red beans but any kind works]
• 1 small can sliced black olives
• 1 can corn
• 2 cups Mexican cheese blend
• 12 flour tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• Salsa of any kind

Cook rice-a-roni according package. When its finished add in black olives and corn. Heat through.

Heat up your refried beans so they are easier to spread.

Heat up your tortillas:  Wet a dish towel but ring it out so its just damp. Wrap your stack of tortillas in it.  I recommend doing 6 at a time.  Heat in microwave on high 1 minute.  This will ensure that they are easy to fold.

While your tortillas are heating cut 12 tin foil squares to wrap your burritos.

On the stack of tin foil, put 1 tortilla, spread some refried beans, add your rice mixture, and top with cheese and salsa. Wrap it up.  Sides first then fold top over and then bottom. It may take a few until you get the hang of wrapping them.  Wrap the tin foil around it and let cool.  Continue until all are wrapped. 

Once cooled put in gallon Ziploc bags.

To reheat:  Take off tin foil, wrap in a paper towel. Cook on high in microwave 3 minutes.

For feeding a toddler, I just scoop out all the insides and feed with a spoon. 

Toddler Meals

Here they are... toddler approved:  quick, easy, no fuss meals that can be made in 30 mins and frozen for a few weeks. Tiny fingers can break them apart and they can be heated up in 60 seconds.

No they aren't paleo, gluten free, or super healthy... but your kid will eat them and that's what's important when you only have 5 mins of prep time before a conference call.


PASTA CUPS
*This makes a LOT!  So it will fill 24 cups + a 9x9 casserole dish for tonight's meal.
** Sub 1 jar pasta sauce for all ingredients except pasta and cheese.

• 1 box small shaped pasta
• 2 cans petite diced tomato (or 1 15 oz can)
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 bag Morningstar farms meatless crumbles (or 1 lb ground meat)
• 1 T basil
• 1/2 T oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2-4 cups shredded mozzarella

Make your pasta according to the directions on the box or bag. In sauce pan cook your meat or crumbles. Add your diced tomatoes and tomato paste.  Season the sauce with basil, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder. Cook on low while pasta is cooking. 

Once done rinse your pasta and mix into sauce.  Mix in cheese.  Use foil cups with liners in muffin tins.  Add a scoop of pasta to each cup.  Cook at 350 degrees for 15 mins.  Once cooled put in gallon Ziploc bags and freeze. 

To reheat:  Remove foil muffin cup (leave liner), and cook in microwave on high for 1 minute for 2.  45 seconds for 1. 1 min 30 seconds for 3.

 

MAC CHEESE AND VEGGIE CUPS
*Makes 24 cups if you can resist eating while cooking.  Surprisingly my toddler will eat the veggies out of it first and then the noodles.

• 1 box of your favorite mac n cheese
• 1 cup of frozen veggies

Thaw frozen veggies in microwave while you make your mac n cheese.  Once veggies and mac n cheese are cooked, combine.  Use foil cups with liners in muffin tins.  Add a scoop of pasta/veggie mixture to each cup.  Cook at 350 degrees for 15 mins.  Once cooled put in gallon Ziploc bags and freeze. 

To reheat:  Remove foil muffin cup (leave liner), and cook in microwave on high for about 30 seconds per cup.  So 1 cup = 30 seconds on high, 2 cups = 60 seconds on high.