Dinnertime Ya'll

Dinnertime, the time of the day where you spend a little time as a family, most nights, and share a yummy meal. If your household is anything like mine, you are probably incharge of the meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. If you are lucky enough to have a husband that takes his turn or does all this for your family, get the eff outta here. Just kidding! You can forward him this post and make sure you give him a little extra lovin' tonight, you are a lucky girl! Daddy Wolfe has no idea what he is doing when it comes to cooking, baking, or grocery shopping. Mama Wolfe does it and mostly enjoys it! That has not come without many years of getting it wrong. The back story here is that when I was single mom I had nothing better to do when I returned home from work than cook with my baby cub (I had no friends) so naturally I got good at it. When daddy Wolfe came back around he learned this quickly and it became a standard in our home for this to be my job. Way to go right? I won him over with cooking and baking and now it never stops because I am feeding 4 mouths. Two of those mouths are picky, I am not trying anything new, mouths. Nothing better than cooking a meal and hearing "this is gross". In this blog I will share some of my tips and tricks to make dinnertime a time to enjoy again, the food and the prep work!

The menu. In my home we have a simple sign in the kitchen that says "Whats for dinner mommy?". It has a spot for Monday thru Friday, we call weekends TBA. I change this sign on Sundays which is also when I make my shopping list and meal list for the week. We have a rule that every family member gets a week to pick whats for dinner, Ali cub has not joined this rotation yet but we will work her in once she starts requesting a meal that does not include cheese. So week 1 is daddy, then Ava, followed by mommy, then we start over. This is our way of minimizing the complaining about new and different meals. When it is daddy's turn and we have lasagna, my kids least favorite, we can say "it is not your week to pick, it is daddys, next week we can have your favorites and daddy will not complain". It does not always work but it has done with trick for many meals. We have a good selection of cook books and we also use Pinterest, see my page for ones we have tried. Sometimes we will throw themes into the mix for fun, we have done Pinterest weeks, Pioneer Women Month, fried food month, finger food fun, and my favorite grill it month!

The shopping list. Easiest done following making your meal plan. I use an app called Wunderlist, I am obsessed! It makes my to-do lists so much easier. I used to be a coupon queen and I would base my shopping list based on what was on sale and what I had coupons for. Here is what I found, I always spent more than my weekly budget and had more pantry food than I needed. So my coupon game now is to make my list then go through my coupons and pull out what I have that is also on my list. I use Kroger Plus so I get my fuel points and that makes up for my lack of coupons. Where ever you shop make sure you sign up for their rewards program and update your profile. Most stores now use your frequent purchases to auto send you paper coupons. This way you get what you purchase the most. Our family of 4 sets aside $80 a week for the grocery. If I have a light week, I push it into next weeks budget. I tend to find that Ava's week is a cheap week, where daddy Wolfe's week pulls me over budget.

The cooking, and meal prep that is. I do all my shopping on Mondays, and when I unload the car I leave out anything for the week that would need cut, chopped, or marinaded. Then I use mason jars to store all my pre-cut veggies, onions, and things like that. This makes dinner making go a little faster of course. Our rule is that baby cub sets the table, the older sibling carries the dishes to the tables and Ali cub moves them around to each place setting. Then they can help help with cooking. If your pack is like mine, dinner isn't dinner without some "I don't like chicken pot pie, this is gross". Our standard rule is you have to take the amount old you are in bites before you can leave the table, you"re 7 you must try 7 bites of the main course.

Leftovers. Some meals tend to yield just enough and some leave loads of leftovers. We do not tend to eat leftovers as fast as we need to so I freeze alot of left overs into single or double meals. I buy foil and plastic pans at the dollar store, use a permanent marker to include both the contents and reheating instructions. When dinner is complete I dish out a tub or two for daddy Wolfe's lunches and the rest goes into the freezer.These are available for when I go out of town, or for my brother-in-law to steal when he is in town! I also want to remind you those dishes you made will still be there after bed so if you cannot get to them right away, don"t stress! If you can, make your man wash them!

Meals are where my family tends to find a break in our day to laugh and share stories of your days. We enjoy cooking healthy meals to fuel our body and making conversation to feed our heart. I hope you can find this time for your family too.

Until next time, keep mommin'

xoxo