I am about to give up. I HATE cooking dinner. - Page 2

[EviesMom]

Summer is a great time for make ahead cold dishes too. We do a lot of salad, gazpacho soup, pasta salad, and the like.

If I get really busy or exasperated, I make a list of about 7 super fast dinners and let DH know that the next 2-3 weeks will be fast dinners until things calm down. This is usually like: pizza (I buy premade crust and the kids help do toppings, then I put them in the freezer until needed); green salad with cold mock chicken and apples; crockpot/cold soup and grilled cheese; pasta salad; scrambled eggs and toast; frozen gnocchi or ravioli with jarred tomato sauce; falafel (make and freeze) and box flavored couscous. All of these are about 10 minutes to make; no more than 15 tops.

I feed the kids snacks, even while DH is on his way home, because they take longer to eat than the adults do, and this way, they are not underfoot while I prep, they're happily munching cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, etc. DH and I generally have these as our sides to the above types of meals, so I never have to "make" side dishes this way, and they're easy for the kids to choose/prep/put out. Yours are a little younger, so they might not be able to prep.

I was never able to switch my early riser-early to bed child's schedule, so he is still tired right after dinner. We've all gotten used to it.

[InMediasRes]

The reason I can't know when he's going to be home is because he says he's going to be home at one time and then comes home 30 min later. His employer is very flexible, and doesn't care when he comes in as long as he puts in 8 hours, so if the kids have a bad night or whatever, he can sleep in. The problem is that he wants to stay up late and sleep in EVERY morning, which means he comes home at 6 every night. His commute is 5 min, so that's not the issue (although traffic does stall him sometimes).

Really the issue there is that it's so unpredictable. Sometimes he'll go in late, work through lunch, and come home at normal time. Or he might go in early, but get swamped and come home late. Or he'll go in late and come home early just because he wants to and his boss doesn't care as long as his work is done. I'm a pretty organized and routine person, so it drives me crazy! And I just don't feel like I can plan for dinner with the kids as crazy as they are without having any idea if I'm going to have help or not and when he'll be home to eat.

And no, I can't switch my kids to a later schedule either. I've tried. They love waking up at 6 AM.

I've got lots of good ideas on prep ahead stuff. Tonight we're making chicken enchiladas, and I have been working on them off and on all day. I roasted two chickens in the crock at the beginning of the week. After I cleaned them, I put one in the freezer and one is for this and another dinner, plus some for lunches or snacks. I'm mixing up all the filling now and should be able to just roll them up and put them in the oven tonight. And I cut up a bunch of onion while I was working on it this morning that I'll need for another meal. I just need to get this prep ahead thing figured out!

[Grace and Granola]

I really like the pp's idea of starting a crock pot meal or doing some prep in the morning. My kids are definitely more apt to play on their own right after they have breakfast.

[calebsmommy25]

Originally Posted by InMediasRes

The reason I can't know when he's going to be home is because he says he's going to be home at one time and then comes home 30 min later. His employer is very flexible, and doesn't care when he comes in as long as he puts in 8 hours, so if the kids have a bad night or whatever, he can sleep in. The problem is that he wants to stay up late and sleep in EVERY morning, which means he comes home at 6 every night. His commute is 5 min, so that's not the issue (although traffic does stall him sometimes).

Really the issue there is that it's so unpredictable. Sometimes he'll go in late, work through lunch, and come home at normal time. Or he might go in early, but get swamped and come home late. Or he'll go in late and come home early just because he wants to and his boss doesn't care as long as his work is done. I'm a pretty organized and routine person, so it drives me crazy! And I just don't feel like I can plan for dinner with the kids as crazy as they are without having any idea if I'm going to have help or not and when he'll be home to eat.

And no, I can't switch my kids to a later schedule either. I've tried. They love waking up at 6 AM.

I've got lots of good ideas on prep ahead stuff. Tonight we're making chicken enchiladas, and I have been working on them off and on all day. I roasted two chickens in the crock at the beginning of the week. After I cleaned them, I put one in the freezer and one is for this and another dinner, plus some for lunches or snacks. I'm mixing up all the filling now and should be able to just roll them up and put them in the oven tonight. And I cut up a bunch of onion while I was working on it this morning that I'll need for another meal. I just need to get this prep ahead thing figured out!

Yay! Happy to hear you got a head start on some meals Mama! As far as things with your hubby go, I would say, "We are having dinner at 6:00. I would love it if you were here to eat with us, but if you aren't we are eating without you. I like routine, so do our children. Guessing and waiting on you to come home for dinner just isn't working." Your problems more stem from issues with DH, not actually making the meals. Sit down and talk with him. Can you do that? Will it help to convey how much his inconsistent times of arrival are stressing you (and your kids) out? I hope so.

[Messac888]

He can always have cereal and milk. Seriously. We have 4 kids and it's chaos each and every single night when I'm trying to make dinner (as well as every morning, every afternoon, etc- you get the idea, lol). I will often do food prep in the evenings while chatting with the hubby after the kids are in bed. Most makes its way into the deep freezer so I only have to pull out handfulls of whatever I need at the moment I need it. I love cooking (and eating, lol) but am not a huge fan of food prep so to get as much as I can done in one shot is terrific to me. I agree with other people in that he needs to either be home reliably at the same time each night (call when he'll be late, surprise you when he's early) and either way he doesn't get to complain if food isn't ready when he arrives. The world doesn't revolve aroud him regardless of how hungry he is. My DH and I used to have similar squabbles until we switched for a day. I came home at 6:30 (DH works 12 hour days) and asked why dinner wasn't ready and why the house looked like he'd been feeding pigeons on the living room carpet. Needless to say, no more squabbles. We each do the best we can do and if it's not good enough, we don't necessarily have to do better. Sometimes we just need to relax our standards a bit. Good luck.

[Chicky2]

My mom use to have an old comic from the Sunday paper on the fridge. It was a picture of a mom sitting w/her feet up reading a book while the kids were running around like banshees and all crumby and dirty and sticky and laundry everywhere, dirty dishes piled up, etc....The husband walks in and says "What's wrong, what happened?". The wife said she was showing him what she does all day by not doing it, lol.

I use to put my lo in a highchair in the kitchen next to me and would put different things for her/him to play with on the tray. I would keep a pile of little things next to me so that when the lo would toss whatever he/she was playing with on the floor I could just toss something else onto the tray. Ice cubes are great for this! I could get all kinds of prep done this way. Playing in the sink, playing in a pan of dry oatmeal, etc really helped. Then let Daddy clean up the mess after supper!

[marimara]

I agree w/letting dh have a snack. My dh will usually call when he's walking out the door, he has about a 20-30 minute drive. That is when I start cooking, unless it's a special meal or something. I *might* have done a little prep earlier in the day, like taking the meat out of the freezer to thaw ( ) , make a salad, or cook the rice. Other than that, I start cooking when he calls. If he doesn't call home by 5:45, I start cooking then and we eat when it's ready. He eats the leftovers.

If he gets home and I'm still cooking, which is usually the case, he takes over occupying dd, and I finish cooking. If he is whining about how hungry he is, I tell him to eat a salad or have a snack and to stop whining

On a serious note though, I really do strive to have dinner just about finished up when gets home.

Can you dh call 30 min before he leaves? Is that too much too ask? If he doesn't leave when he says and then gets home later, he can still eat his dinner, it just won't be with the family. OR you can feed the kids and you wait to eat with him. Some options.

My dh knows that if can't make it home in a reasonable time frame, or if he doesn't let me know *when* he'll be here, that he'll be eating alone and heating his stuff up in the microwave. He doesn't like that, so he makes it a priority to get home for dinner. Plus I cook his favorites alot to entice him to make it

[calebsmommy25]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

My mom use to have an old comic from the Sunday paper on the fridge. It was a picture of a mom sitting w/her feet up reading a book while the kids were running around like banshees and all crumby and dirty and sticky and laundry everywhere, dirty dishes piled up, etc....The husband walks in and says "What's wrong, what happened?". The wife said she was showing him what she does all day by not doing it, lol.

I use to put my lo in a highchair in the kitchen next to me and would put different things for her/him to play with on the tray. I would keep a pile of little things next to me so that when the lo would toss whatever he/she was playing with on the floor I could just toss something else onto the tray. Ice cubes are great for this! I could get all kinds of prep done this way. Playing in the sink, playing in a pan of dry oatmeal, etc really helped. Then let Daddy clean up the mess after supper!

That is awesome. I need that for my fridge...or maybe I'll just try it.

[greenmansions]

I have similar issues with my kids going crazy if we wait too long for dinner. It has gotten worse in the past two weeks because my DH went back to work and isn't home til 7 or 7:30. Before this he was home for nearly a year laid off, and we all ate dinner early.

I try to feed the kids at about 4:30 pretty religiously and that helps them a lot, but now that dinner has to sit for DH for three more hours it's become kind of a pain and I am trying to figure things out for myself. I seem to be making two dinners now and that is not working for me. But if I get them fed at 4:30 ish, they often sit with us when we eat later on, to have a little more before bed.

To have the kids help me more with prep, I bought plastic zyliss knives so that they can cut up veggies or bread. They are like these: http://www.cookswarehouse.com/Produc...e-182p1772.htm and they cut the veggies well but are not really sharp enough to cut the kids. Your three year old is probably ready for these - my kids have been using them for a couple of years now and they are 4 and 6.