Tuesday was a big day in my family. Both my husband and I had our convocation ceremonies. Mine for my PhD in Human Nutrition and my husband for his Master’s degree. His ceremony was from 10:00-12:00, so I sat with our boys in the audience. My ceremony was from 3:00-5:00 and my husband sat with our boys in the audience.
In between ceremonies we went out for lunch. The restaurant we went to had three desserts on the menu and I ordered all three for us to share.
I was worried it was going to be a pretty boring day for the boys – and it probably was. But they were great sports about it and didn’t complain (too much!)
What’s for dinner?
Needless to say, by the time we finally got home, I wanted to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible. I don’t think we were THAT hungry, as we had a pretty big lunch and the boys had some snacks during the ceremony, but I still feel this compulsive need to “serve dinner” to cap off the day.
As I already mentioned, this week was not my ideal dinner state, as I didn’t get a chance to do much meal prep on Sunday. Fortunately we had leftover stuffing from the peppers, some cut up watermelon and leftover salad in the fridge. I rounded out the meal with a jar of peanut butter and some rice cakes.
What did they eat?
I have no idea! I didn’t get any photos and I am so late getting this blog post written that I can’t remember.
But, it probably wasn’t much. There were lots of treats and celebratory foods consumed during the day so I don’t remember anyone being that hungry. We probably could have skipped dinner entirely, but I like having dinner because its part of our evening routine (dinner, bath, bed).
I want to tell you its the routine that is good for my kids, but I know it is also a routine that is good for me. It helps all of us get unwound from the day and mentally helps me (and my kids) prepare to get a good nights sleep.
So what?
Busy days, full of celebrations and treat foods may mean that by the time you get home for dinner, you don’t feel like cooking and no one is that hungry anyways.
Depending on your family, you may choose to skip dinner entirely and that’s OK. For us, our evening routine runs off a “dinner, bath, bed” order, so I pulled simple dinner out from the fridge to help us get into that evening routine mindset.
Dinner doesn’t have to be just about nutrition. Dinner can be a way to start unwinding from the day and building in an evening routine. And if today the main goal is just to get those kids (and yourself!) to bed as quickly as possible – by all means, put some fruit, peanut butter and a starch (like rice cakes, or bread) on the table and call it a meal. If you want to be a super, super-star and get all four food groups in – pour glasses of milk! Amazing!
