I have been implementing my new cooking plan for a week now and truly, I love it. I want to share more about how it’s worked for our family and some things I’ve had to think through. Basically, here’s the plan. We are eating smaller, simpler lunch meals at dinnertime and heavier, more complex dinner meals at lunchtime. There are three significant things I was evaluating when I decided to start this plan.
- The work load at different parts of the day
- My energy level at different part of the day
- My family’s activity level and needs at different parts of the day.
Dinnertime
Workload – High
Energy level – Low
Family’s activity & needs - Low
I was trying to get the most done when I had the least energy and my family needed me the most. I was rushed and overloaded with the cooking and cleaning when my kids were whiny and needy and my husband walks in the door to download his day. Then I was exhausted and barely making it through the kitchen clean up at the end of the night because I was just so tired. So, I switched it up and now I’m doing the big cooking and cleaning mid-day when I have more energy and motivation and my family is pretty content and I’m doing minimal food prep and clean up in the evenings to be more available to my family and just to rest more.
- Since we are having a big meal during the day when he is at work, I pack a dinner-sized portion for him for the next day.
- We still sit down together at the table in the evenings. We’re just eating sandwiches or pizza pockets or something.
- We can always switch it if we’re eating dinner at someone’s house or I am packing the kids’ lunch to be out for the day (which rarely happens! We are usually out in the mornings and home by lunch.)
- If we are having guests over, it actually works better to invite them over for dessert. I don’t stress about having a gourmet meal, dessert is more frugal to share
, and it’s a calmer time of evening when I can enjoy being hospitable. - It’s so much healthier to eat this way. We’ve both noticed how we are more satisfied through the day and night eating a larger meal at mid-day. Isn’t this how they eat in parts of Europe?
I think it's great that you recognize the flow of your energy level throughout the day. I do keep dinner as a big meal because of my husband, but I try to do as much of the prep work early in the day as I can.
I'm also mindful of making sure the kitchen is cleaned up from the extra cooking before the kids get home. If I leave the cleaning too late, it becomes too stressful to clean up and do homework at the same time.
That's great, Barb. I did have the former goal to get dinner cooked early in the day & I just couldn't get it done. So I decided to redo my whole plan!
My husband works late often so we tend to do this as well!
Jennifer, good to hear someone else is doing it too. We are loving this plan.
What a great suggestion to switch things up. Sounds like it really meets your needs.
And nice that hubby get a dinner size lunch from your efforts the next day.
One reason why I think this is a reasonable plan, is because in my case, I need the energy and fuel provided by a mid-day meal, that I don't need in the evening (I hope that makes sense). Eating a heavy meal in the evening isn't really advantageous.
My husband came from a farming family (we are now suburban dwellers). His mother would start "dinner" – which was the mid-day meal (main meal of the day), right after clearing up the breakfast dishes. His father still had a full day of work ahead of him after "dinner". In the evening they would have supper – a lighter meal, (much like lunch) usually composed of "dinner" leftovers. Often times some of the "dinner" she prepared was taken out to the fields for the field hands.
Anyway – my point is that eating a "heavier" meal mid-day is probably a healthier option.
Anonymous, that makes so much sense! It does seem to fill us up better to give us what we need for the day. And we're just not as hungry in the evenings.
I don’t think it would work for us, but I’m glad that it’s working for you. It makes so much sense to do what fits your pattern. Good on you!
We did this a couple summers ago when my husband was working second shift. He left for work around 3:00pm and I realized after a few days that if I waited until suppertime to fix the big meal of the day, my husband usually ended up with sandwiches for two of the 3 meals a day. It worked really well for us to do a big meal at lunch and a smaller meal at supper.