Family Meals: Let’s Dish!

This is what keeps us healthy, nourished, and (sort of) sane:

1. Planning ahead (but being ready to improvise)
During COVID, we have groceries delivered (or do contact free pick up). My mom has cancer, and we take every opportunity to limit exposure. Since I no longer dart into stores or pop over to a neighbor’s kitchen for a missing ingredient, I’ve stepped up meal planning.

I always had a general idea of what I was going to prepare throughout the week, but I never actually wrote out a meal plan. (I’m sincerely impressed by those who do.) Our weekday meals were driven by after school practices, evening obligations, and overall level of commitment to the tentative plan, which wavered when hit with scheduling snafus and workweek exhaustion.

We aren’t going as many places, but we have different demands and new needs. On Saturdays, I take a look at what we have on hand, choose what I’ll make in the week ahead, jot down a list of what’s missing, and place an order for Sunday delivery or pick up.

One night is reserved for leftovers, curbside pickup, or delivery. For us, there is no shame in the occasional Pizza Hut contact free delivery. A slice of medium thin crust pepperoni pizza is 21 carbs (committed to memory due to frequent dosing).

Before the pandemic, we didn’t have pizza often because Ellie ate it with friends at birthday parties, youth activities, hang outs, and the occasional school pizza party. It was easy to cut back at home so that she could enjoy it out. Now, it’s a family favorite typically enjoyed with an episode of Young Sheldon. (Yay for everyone who remembers eating pizza and faithfully watching “must see” sitcoms Thursday nights in the 80s and 90s. We’re embracing the tradition.)

2. Eating meals together
Studies indicate that families reap enormous emotional benefits when they eat together. Breaking bread together can improve kids’ behavior, foster better self-esteem, and more. I certainly hope these findings play out over time. It seems like an awesome parenting hack (all of those positive, promising developments for an hour of visiting around the table each night)!

In our house, when we consistently eat together, we communicate better, eat more nutritiously (making more deliberate food choices), and just enjoy the downtime without distraction.

3. Getting (willing) family members involved in meal planning and preparation
This increases the odds that home-cooked meals are appealing to all and keeps daily cooking duties from falling squarely on one person. The more engaged (and proud) Ellie is of her cooking contributions, the more likely she is to enjoy healthy eating. There’s little to no whining or complaining when everyone has input, offering both a say and a hand in what we eat. Winner-winner chicken dinner (literally).

4. Creating a playbook of favorite meals (carb counts included)
We try lots of recipes from friends, magazines, Pinterest, Food Network, etc. Only our favorites become keepers. We print hard copies, adding them to a binder for quick, easy reference. After successfully calculating carbs per serving, we jot down the carb count and have a new “go to” in our playbook.

Dishing it Up Disney Style has themed recipes, simple ingredients, and easy-to-follow directions that encourage the youngest of chefs to help with meal prep!

Lightening up
We’re always looking for ways to create balance without banishing foods. We adopted a strategy of downsizing—not eliminating—less healthy items from the pantry. We place healthy snacks within sight and try to keep a stash of cut-up carrots or bowl of cherry tomatoes on hand (and toward the front of the fridge). We balance less-healthy entrees (aka, chicken tenders) with bowls of veggies, making it easier to just take a small portion of the entrée and extra helpings of the healthy sides.

Ellie can eat anything, and we want to normalize someone with T1D enjoying sweet treats. But, even without her diagnosis, we’d want to encourage good habits, nutritious eating, and a healthy relationship with food.

Keeping at least one emergency meal in the freezer
Game changer. Blindsided by the client email or group project? Troubleshooting tech issues? Our time gets hijacked even when we’re working and learning from home during the pandemic. It helps to have a meal in the freezer ready to heat and serve. When you run out of backups, make a double batch of your next meal and freeze the extra. Casseroles, soups, and cooked meats can be frozen for up to three months, which brings us full circle to tip #1 (planning ahead but being ready to improvise).

A few of our favorite cookbooks (with carb counts):