[MomToTwoBoys]

My DH will be commuting on Sunday afternoons to Edmonton and will not be coming home until Friday nights. With him not being here for a minimum of five meals, it's going from making enough food to feed six to enough food to feed three (well, four if you count DS12 as being two).

With it being the four of us for Saturdays and Sundays (and maybe Friday nights, if he gets off of work early enough), my meal plan is being thrown out of the window until we can all be together again.

If you're experiencing a large shift in the amount of meals being prepared or the size of such meals, how long does it take you to come up with a plan that's balanced and filling?

 

[Darlene]

I'd go with kid favs and that's usually easy stuff. Any leftovers of their favs they are often happy to eat for lunch too. You can make what you have planned for the most part & freeze the leftovers for another night.
When Dad wasn't around we sometimes took a vote and had some fun combinations for dinner too.

 

[MomToTwoBoys]

See, that's what I was thinking. The kids like really, really simple meals. It's stuff like mac n cheese with hot dogs on a bun, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken fingers with french fries and coleslaw, etc. I'm just concerned about switching to that kind of diet, especially with me being at home.

If we're looking to cut costs and keep the kids healthy, I might start incorporating more fruits and vegetables into their diet in ways that they don't realize.

I already try to make them lunches that are healthy for them. I guess we can save certain meals for when DH is home and give the kids something simple (considering I'll be the only parental unit here during the week).