Friday, September 19, 2014

Meal-Planning Challenges

Since my main focus is on making dairy-free meals--which has actually become a very easy thing to do now that I'm used to it--and at times vegan or wheat-free meals, there are always challenges that come up, especially with picky eaters in the house and the fact that there are those who don't want vegan all the time or wheat-free all the time.

Life has added a new challenge for me: Crazy family schedules.

My husband is a teacher who coaches the school's outdoor soccer team after school. This means that every day after school except for Friday, he has a practice or a game. He might get home at 5:30--or 7:00.

My daughter has dance class three times a week. It is probably changing to two, fortunately. One day, it starts at 7:15; another at 5:15 (for which she's there for 2 hours); another at 6:00.

Now she has started a part-time job where one day, she starts at 5, another at 5:30, another at 4 and I can't remember the other day's time.

I guess the real challenge at the moment is how to continue our family meal time! It kind of feels like we can't. :( But then there's the aspect that my daughter has to eat supper before her work shift; that will always be before her dad is back from work. Do I make something that she, her brother and I eat fresh and their dad heats up when he gets back? Does she get leftovers and the rest of us eat fresh? Except for dance days, I stay at the studio or nearby, so I need to eat before the others, too. Then there's the possibility of just alternating things...

Combine this craziness with growing evidence that my daughter really needs to go wheat-free but will need a lot of support and guidance to do so... This is all really challenging me at the moment!

Do you have a crazy schedule you need to work around? Are you able to have supper together every day, or do you just have to make things work with the schedule? Have you ever just tossed out all extra activities just to have supper together? (I couldn't do it, even though the thought is there!)

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