Dinner in 20!

Tonight's dinner was slightly disjointed, but was home-made, healthy and ready in 20!


 September is synonymous with busy-beyond-all-belief.  Between hockey and ringette evaluations, piano lessons, back to school and morning routines, its enough to make you go mad.  As a family, we really try to eat dinner together, but it doesn't always work out that way.  We actually manage to sit down at the dining room table and eat dinner together as a family at least 4-5 nights per week.   But like I said, due to the kids activities, sometimes you really just have to work around their schedule.

Tonight was one of those nights, both kids with activities in different parts of the city, all around dinner time (of course).  I did the "hockey run" and once we were back, the boy was starving.  What's the first thing I was asked? "Can we order out?"   My response was a firm "No!" followed by a "Go shower, and I'll whip something up for dinner."    OK...time to make good on my meal planning skills...Ah ha!  In my deep freeze I found a frozen container of home made soup with orzo, chicken, carrots, celery, chick peas, green peas, quinoa.....yum!   But I knew it would not be quite enough...Ah ha again!   Pre-made, home-made frozen burgers (with some hemp hearts for extra nutrients!).  Ok...burgers and soup it is!  And I even had the buns!  Throw in some raw veggies and dip and a glass of milk, and  dinner was ready in 20 minutes, and was a completely balanced and healthy meal.

I will sometimes ask my kids...is the meal balanced?  Perhaps it is an occupational hazard of mine, but I want them to learn what a balanced meal is...so I ask them:   Does the meal have protein?  Does the meal have grain for your brain (cuz grain is fuels your brain!)?  Does the meal have fruits and/or vegetables?  Do you have a source of calcium?  OK...I don't do this at every meal (really, I don't) but I do think about these things when I am meal planning and today's dinner passed with flying colours:

• protein:  the burger, and some of the chicken and legumes in the soup
• grain: the bun, and the orzo in the soup
• fruit or veggie:  veggies in the soup, raw veggies and dip

My saving grace?  Having stuff in the deep freeze!  And by the time the other two got home from ringette, dinner was ready, and oh, so good.