Fast Family Dinner? Plan, Prepare and Participate

I have shared the panic of returning home after a long day with two hungry, tired and screaming little children. The fastest solution I have come up with is an egg and soldiers. For those of you who have never called this dish by that name, you probably know it as a soft-boiled egg with toast cut into strips for dipping in the yolk. To make it even more nutritious, I serve it with tomato segments, but I add those two the plates after the kids have shoved in the first mouthfuls and calmed down.

This meal takes me about 7 minutes to make and it’s the fastest one I know. There are other fast family dinners, an American professor of dietetics wants working parents to know.

Marjorie Fitch-Hilgenberg, associate professor of dietetics at the University of Arkansas, says that working parents and their children can sit down to a healthy dinner within 20 minutes of arriving home. All you need to do, she maintains, is follow the 3 Ps: Plan, Prepare and Participate.

“With a little planning, advance preparation and family participation, it’s as easy to make a healthy, satisfying dinner than to pick up a pizza – not to mention faster and cheaper,” Fitch-Hilgenberg says.

Plan

Plan your menus and make a list before you shop for the week. If you cook a chicken or roast on Sunday, plan to use the leftovers for lunch or dinner on Monday. Canned and frozen basics, like beans, should always be on hand. They are processed so quickly that they often contain more nutrients than “fresh” fruit and vegetables that are picked green before being shipped to local fruit markets and placed in the grocery stores.

“Think about making your life easier up front,” Fitch-Hilgenberg advises. “Having the right supplies and a sketched-out plan for the week gets you started.”

Preparation

As soon as you get home from the grocery story, wash and separate cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce and other greens. Carrots, celery and cucumbers can also be cleaned, chopped and stored in containers so that they’re ready to cook with or munch on.

Fitch-Hilgenberg also recommends dividing packages of meat, poultry and fish into meal-sized portions before freezing.

“You and the kids can munch on carrot sticks while you assemble supper, and it’s easy to transform carrot sticks into diced carrots. On the days you’re eating on the run, there’s something everyone can grab, washed and waiting in a little tub,” Fitch-Hilgenberg says.

Participation

Kids should be helping to prepare meals. If you’re working at the stove, a younger child can tear up lettuce leaves for the salad while an older child sets the table or cuts up a pepper or tomatoes.

“When other family members participate in meal preparation, there’s the added value of giving everyone some responsibility for their own well-being,” Fitch-Hilgenberg says.

A Recipe

We eat something like Fitch-Hilgenberg’s recipe for spinach quesadillas fairly often:

“Begin by thawing a package of frozen spinach. Once it has thawed, squeeze out all the water until the spinach is as close to dry as possible. This task is particularly fun for young children. Mix the spinach with shredded cheese, using about as much cheese as there is spinach. At this point the quesadilla filling can be refrigerated for later or can be spooned into the center of a tortilla. Fold the tortilla and, if you’d like, add salsa. Fold or roll the tortilla and microwave until the cheese melts. Eat!”