This is for my good friend Katie over at The Graceful Athlete, who is incredible and rocks it out every day.  Incidentally for anyone who’s interested, she does online Barre and fitness classes; she’s very talented and passionate about what she does, you won’t regret checking it out (plus she has an incredible professional background to back it up).

So Katie and I have been discussing healthy snacks, especially during this time; there are good ideas out there, but the underlying theme in our conversation surfaced as how to execute that in our new pandemic universe.

So I’d like to address that how, since there are a ton of websites that can produce “267 million healthy snacks for everyone you love” at a moment’s click.  But none of them tell you –how in the everything holy– you’re going to fit that into your day, so let’s do that.

Things I’ve learned and adjusted to, as a trained cook, during this time:

Ditch the “Meal Plan for the Day” Idea.  Most recipes and websites are set up for planning one singular meal –dinner– for the day.  While cooking a meal from start to finish might work for some during this time, for parents who are currently juggling a bunch of stuff (for thoughts on that read here), stopping the day such as it is now at 4:30 in the afternoon to cook just isn’t realistic anymore.

Our days have now become a pancake flipping act instead of scheduled works of art; maybe we get to work from home for a few hours, constantly pausing to help with math homework, or setting up Zoom, or making sure the new puppy isn’t destroying the loveseat, or making a snack or figuring out lunch or the next activity, or getting a glass of wine to allow ourselves to be ok with more screen time than we’d ever imagined in even the most conservative households; because there is just too damn much on our plate.

So dinner can’t successfully stay in the same rigid routine either.  It has to flex, and we need to flex our approach with it.

If you would like to plan a “nice meal” from start to finish, carve out the time to do it.  Maybe on a weekend (what’s that?) or when both adults are home, or when you’ve set up an activity you know will fill that time so you’re free.  Otherwise…

Maximize your Time.  Most dinners are protein, starch, veg, and fruit right?  So, if your oven is on, what can you throw in there?  Can you bake off some fish for tomorrow while the cauliflower is roasting for tonight?  Can you use the same steamer basket to start with green beans, but then throw in some broccoli after the beans are done since the water is still hot?

What I’m saying is make as many things as possible when you’re in the kitchen, and store them in the fridge.  When dinner comes around the next day(s) you might need to add one element, but you can pull the other two already finished.

Read: Don’t focus on just today.

For example, the other day I pulled some lamb from the freezer and grilled it.  But, I already had sticky rice and three different vegetables in the fridge; I’d purposely cooked off all the veg at once the day before, and that will get me through for at least three days.

It’s not leftover eating, its preparation (and yes, restaurants use this model ALL THE TIME).  Look, if you’ve got young kids at home, how much less stress will it be when he says “mommy please let’s color together,” and you know he really needs that time with you but you’re also like, crap, what are we gonna do for dinner.

If you already have several proteins and veggies cooked off and stored in the fridge then, hey, you’re golden.  Just make it your goal to add one thing.  Easy stuff; manageable stuff.  Rice cooker?  Bomb.  Let the kiddo help you measure the rice and the water, awesome activity!  Kid helping to chop (with kid knives) the veggie you’ll add to the other two items you’re going to pull from the fridge?  Great activity!

Using these things as a learning activity, and also knowing you’re good for dinner?

Read: Way less stress.

For some reason the industry has us convinced we need to cook meals from start to finish at home, in one block of time, and frankly that’s just not how restaurants do it.  It just takes too damn much time.  

So that leads me to the second method:

Prep.  Got 10 minutes free?  Chop something.  Cut up that broccoli head and pop in it a bag (or whatever you prefer).  Kids still finishing breakfast?  Pull the chicken out and put it in a marinade.  Kids outside and enthralled with the sprinkler?  Rinse the rice and pop that rice cooker on.

In a professional restaurant, people prep all day so the cooks can very quickly execute your meal.  You order a pasta dish with veg?  That veg was chopped hours, or may even yesterday(s), ago.  The pasta water is already boiling.  All the cooks do when they get your order is pull from a low boy or specifically sized pans filled with prepped ingredients at their station and finish your dish.*

So be like a restaurant cook– because guess what…  it works!

Prep your stuff and put it in the fridge.  If you want to execute dinner fresh, go for it!  But just be a finisher at that point; grab from stuff you’ve already chopped and prepped.  (Honestly this should be your dinner-making model anyway even non-pandemic, so if you get in the routine now you won’t go back).

Oooooooooo let’s get creative with the new-found prep methods right??  Well……

The Healthy Snack of Least Resistance.  Now isn’t the time to pull crazy-ass healthy snacks on kids because you may have been thinking you wanted to do it for a while and now’s the time!!!!  

Stop.

No, it’s not.  At least, not all at once.  If you’re going to introduce new things, do it slowly.  Right now kids are stress-eating too.  They’re frustrated, they’re happy but kinda bored, they’re lonely.  You may have noticed your child has had a larger appetite recently.  They feel stress too, and shockingly enough, deal with these things the same way we do (looking for comfort foods and activities).

This is a good time to be healthier, but do it slow, and do it with them.  They need to see you eating the same things; consistently.

Strange example, but I don’t care for (American) breakfast food.  I know, but I just don’t.  I usually eat soup or leftover veggies and maybe a protein from the night before.  The thing is, my kid sees this, so when it comes to her eating veggies at dinner I rarely have any kickback.  She does like traditional breakfast food, so it’s not like she’s imitating me during that meal, but she remembers; she’s not the only one eating veg and fruit at only one meal a day.

What I’m saying here is that it doesn’t matter what the healthy snack is we may want to try; it’s who eats it, and who eats it consistently, that matters.  The example of what we have available in our pantry or fridge is more important than what we tell them they should eat.

So if we eat like we want our kids to eat, that’s the norm.  They aren’t separate aliens that require separate snacks.  You may need to modify the foods you eat to meet their needs (more cutting, less spice, etc), but they are just little humans who don’t only need chips to make them happy… despite what they may think.

If we feed them healthy the whole day there is no dinner crisis or drama.  And if they’re tired and just reject dinner, who cares?  They’ve had healthy food the whole day.  Great.  Neat.  Go to bed.  The point being that dinner wasn’t their only source of good food.

Make Coffee.  Hahaha no not really if that’s not your thing, but everyone does have that one thing that if it’s done for the next day, everything else can wait.  For me, it’s having the coffee made.  I can face anything tomorrow, anything that just didn’t work out or I didn’t have the energy to do as long as there is coffee waiting for me when I get up.

Clean up.  I know finding time these days is like trying to hold dry sand; the tighter we hold the more slips through.  But, the aforementioned tips will work 100% better in a clean kitchen (read: it’s hard to take that 10 minutes to prep if the things you need to use are dirty or you have no sink space, you’ll just end up not doing it).

This step, though annoying, is the hidden clincher that enables the other steps work and to truly maximize those 10 minutes when they come around unexpectedly.  There isn’t an easy road here, it’s just getting in the habit of leaving a clean kitchen every time you’re done or after every meal.  Once you start doing it you’ll love it (it’ll be one less stressor staring everyone in the face that needs to be done), and you’ll be able to use your time very efficiently!

So.  Maximize your time, prep, and set an example.

Is it going to work every day?

Nope.

Just try your best, every day.

 

*These cooks I speak of are incredibly, incredibly talented and have crazy mad skills and training.  I am in no way minimizing their abilities, merely trying to highlight that some of the prep things we do at restaurants could be done in the home to minimize stress during these times.

** Photo credit: Rebecca Wood. https://www.rebeccawood.com/recipes/buckwheat-crepes-gluten-and-dairy-free/attachment/flipping-pancakes/