Come up with weeknight meals that fit my family's incompatible criteria!
March 16, 2016 3:35 PM   Subscribe

I don't think there are a lot of weeknight dinner options out there for my picky, picky family, and I suspect that for a long time to come I'll be cobbling dinners together from Munchery, frozen meals, takeout, snacks, etc. But I would really welcome a few new ideas for quick meals that we might all eat.

Here are the restrictions:
- me: I eat seafood but no other meats. My favorite cuisines are spicy. I hate raw onions. In general, if a recipe involves chopping onions I tend to avoid it; I have super sensitive eyes and chopping onions is extremely painful for me (I've tried everything).
- husband: eats all sorts of meat, including seafood, and almost none of the sources of vegetarian protein that I depend on. So: no eggs unless they can't be smelled or texture-detected, no tofu, forget any less common meat substitutes like tempeh or seitan. Beans-and-rice kinds of meals don't feel filling to him as he was brought up thinking a "real" meal has meat and that's what he's used to - although he really tries to be open-minded, it seems like if he doesn't have some kind of meaty thing for dinner he ends up going out at 11pm to get fast food because he's hungry again. Doesn't like most spicy food.
- daughter: typically picky 3-year-old. Would eat mac and cheese from a box every day given the option. No seafood, no eggs, no tofu, will eat chicken if bribed, no other meat. Would love ideas for seafood she might be tricked into eating. She claims to eat fish sometimes at school but I have never witnessed it.

Literally the only thing I make that all three of us will eat is three-cheese tortellini (and even then I have to leave off the sauce for the kiddo). I'm about to go on maternity leave and I have a short chunk of time off before I give birth, and I was thinking a good use of my time would be to try some new recipes...but I can't even think of anything to try!

I have very little time to cook on weeknights, like most people, but I am open to things I can make ahead on weekends if they're really great. Otherwise keeping it below 45 minutes of prep time is probably practical. We have a pressure cooker we never use and also a crock pot we never use and I am totally open to using them.
posted by town of cats to Food & Drink (18 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
What about modular meals, where each person can add or subtract components? I have found Vietnamese salad rolls (rice noodles, lettuce, herbs, peanuts, stir-fried meat/tofu/shrimp, rice paper wrapper) go over surprisingly well with picky eaters. The wrapping is hard to do neatly, but that makes it kind of a game.

Tacos? Burritos? Fancy grilled cheese, with bacon for the carnivore?
posted by yarntheory at 4:05 PM on March 16, 2016 [8 favorites]


Soups like tomato, pea, lentil and veggie are easy to cook in a crock pot and heat really well.

What about canned tuna? Most kids like it and perhaps your husband does too.

One summer meal we ate every week was tuna salad (celery, green onion, hard boiled egg, relish and mayo), Kraft dinner and a green salad.

We ate whatever appealed in whatever quantity.

Chili, with an assortment of hot sauce choices.

Burgers. You have a Boca Burger, they have whatever burger they like. Or a cheese Sammy.

Or do a variety of veggies and ranch dressing. Do it at the beginning of the week, pull it out for every meal. Everyone eats what pleases them.

Hummus, pita, kebabs and rice.

Dinner time!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:33 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Tacos, and I give the picky ones the rule of choosing at least three out of the four toppings. And then I make sure that this algorithm requires them to eat at least one healthy thing.
posted by Liesl at 4:37 PM on March 16, 2016 [5 favorites]


I was also thinking modular meals, but in the sense of stockpiling (by purchasing pre-cooked or by mass-cooking at home and parceling) and freezing separate servings of:

meats (pork/beef roast, chicken, meatloaf, also kielbasa-type sausage and frozen meatballs)
vegetarian casseroles that don't have a lot of starch (and so egg-based thickening and additional vegetables can be obscured inside)
frozen vegetables
shelf-stable jars/pouches of sauce that can be put on frozen vegetables, plain starches, etc
plain cooked starches (OR supplies of microwaveable rice and pasta) (plus plan to buy potatoes routinely to microwave also) (also consider a rice cooker)
individually frozen fish and other seafood you eat
tofu, which is better after it's frozen anyway

The grownups eat casserole. He has thawed meatserving, you have simply-prepared fish or tofu. The child eats whatever the child is eating at any given moment (but is always offered a little casserole, meat, and non-meat protein, in hopes that one day child will cave and eat actual food) and plain pasta or rice. There are vegetables you can just sauce and throw over pasta/rice/potato when you need to eat in a hurry.

It probably goes without saying that you are a saint and deserve a freezer, if you don't have one. Plus a rice cooker and electric kettle and a really good microwave steamer.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:37 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


(Or an Instant Pot and some steamer inserts, but I should stop answering every food question with "Instant Pot".)
posted by Lyn Never at 4:41 PM on March 16, 2016


Spaghetti plus meatball for the meat eater. Perhaps a more finger friendly pasta than actual spaghetti.

nthing the suggestion of something fill-able (taco, pita, warp) with choice of fillings.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:42 PM on March 16, 2016


Keep a rotisserie chicken around (or roast one yourself on the weekend) for when you want to make a meal for yourself. Then your husband and kid can add it to your chosen main dish, or it's available for a modular meal without you having to add a lot of extra time during the week. I like salad and taco bars for customizable meals.
posted by ghost phoneme at 4:45 PM on March 16, 2016


what about a mild/sweet yellow or green curry with veggies over brown or white rice?

You could easily add fish or shrimp for you and your husband after taking out your child's portion. You could up the spices for yourself by adding some kind of chile sauce to yours. You could even cooked chicken to the kid's or to the husbands, while adding an alternative protein to yours. Perhaps she would find a mild meaty white fish to seem similar enough to chicken, or would like to dip chicken or fishsticks into sauce. Point is that a simple curry is kind of modular in part because the proteins cook quickly in the sauce or can be cooked separately and added.

For example, this green curry.
posted by vunder at 4:47 PM on March 16, 2016


Best answer: I am also extremely sensitive to raw onions (I've also tried it all) and eventually gave in and just started buying the pre-diced/sliced onions in a bag for recipes that call for it. Yes, it's not environmentally friendly, yes, it's more expensive. But I am willing to pay that price in exchange for the deliciousness of caramelized onions and dry eyes. YMMV.

I think build your own type things are a good idea. You could do build-your-own-burrito bowls with some meat for hubby and your own preferred proteins for yourself. I obviously don't know your husband, but I haven't met too many meat eaters who would eschew a cheesy veggie pizza or gruyere and tomato tart in favor of McDonald's. If you buy pre-made dough these things can be banged out in no time. I think people are sometimes still hungry after eating fish because it tends to be so light tasting and most white fish is low in fat. You could try various coatings to add some fat and increase satiety. I've seen recipes that call for ranch or mayo and cheese before broiling tilapia on allrecipes. Breading fish isn't too difficult and seems to please kids if you have a yummy dipping sauce. You could also search for some seafood pasta recipes and add bacon to your husband's portion. Upping the fat content of your sides on fish nights is another option to increase satiety. Many, many people will do the broiled tilapia with steamed veggies and simple rice, which is not particularly filling. Try roasting the veggies with some nice oil instead. Delish.
posted by xyzzy at 4:52 PM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Also peanut noodles tend to be super kid friendly, the peanuts provide a fat/protein and again, totally modular, plus you can bulk up with veggies. I often get salad bar stuff for this meal.

Asian foods tend to not use regular onions but do use green onions. Are raw green onions ok for you? If not, you can skip.
posted by vunder at 4:54 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


How much freezer space do you have available? You can do a huge batch of chicken breasts in the oven for your husband and maybe daughter, individually vacuum seal them, and toss them into the freezer to be pulled out as needed, heated and turned into sandwiches or added to other meals.

Breaded and fried tilapia might suit you and your daughter - I've gotten frozen cutlets that fry up in minutes.

For you and your husband, you might do something that's 1/2 rice and 1/2 lentils that you can doctor up with whatever sauces make it interesting to you and added cooked ground beef (roughly the same volume as the portions of rice) for your husband.

A great time saver with tofu if you have a convenient oriental grocery store is pre-fried tofu, which saves all the time and effort of pressing it.

Is your daughter ready to start venturing into pizza? If so, premade dough on a cookie pan with three segments for each one of you can be not too difficult to toss together.
posted by Candleman at 5:12 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Have you tried feeding your daughter shrimp? My weirdo chronically picky eaters love shrimp. We keep a bag in the freezer and that's their dinner every Friday .

Is quiche too obviously eggy for your husband? I mean, yes, you can see the eggs, but I don't think quiche tastes like EGG. This is my picky eaters' superfood because you can pack it with calories AND veggies. It freezes well. This is the kids' Wednesday dinner.

Finally, we all love potsticker type dumplings. Make some shrimp and/or mushroom for you, pork for husband, give kid whichever she will eat. We make an enormous batch as a family, cook some for dinner that night, and freeze the rest for future meals. They can cook from frozen.
posted by telepanda at 5:58 PM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I've started using those premade stir fry sauces and man does it make dinner easy. They typically have serving suggestions on the package. You can bake a couple chicken breasts on the weekend (just coat with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake) and just slice them up the night you use them. Same goes with steak or pork. You can make your seafood fresh that night. Your toddler can eat everything mixed together if willing or just set portions of everything aside for her and let her pick.

I just got it from the library so I've only looked through it a bit but the book Simple Food for Busy Families by Bessinger and Hamlin-Brenner has mix and match charts for pasta, soup, stew, sandwiches, quiche, salad. You might have to pick two proteins and make separate portions but that shouldn't be too hard if the building blocks are the same.
posted by betsybetsy at 6:12 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Linguini with clams? I do a white sauce and my 2 year old loves it, and will even eat the clams, shockingly, but it's easy enough for the toddler to just eat the pasta. My son thinks the sea shells are hilarious to play with at the dinner table and thinks the clam is.. I don't really know, but he is into eating it. Worth a try! This dish is also just about the most stupidly easy thing to make, which is great when you have a newborn.
posted by gatorae at 8:35 PM on March 16, 2016


Uh, onecircle, please don't police other people's parenting around food. We've had many long fraught threads on that topic.

To the question, I'd say make your husband cook or reheat meat if he's the only one eating it. Many men enjoy crock potting roasts and ribs and he could eat on that for a week. Meanwhile you cook sides you can share plus whatever else you and kid are eating.
posted by emjaybee at 8:58 PM on March 16, 2016


Response by poster: Much as I love unsolicited parenting advice, I'd appreciate if you could answer the question as asked. Thanks!

betsybetsy, can you give an example of the stir fry sauces you like?
posted by town of cats at 9:22 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


In general, if a recipe involves chopping onions I tend to avoid it; I have super sensitive eyes and chopping onions is extremely painful for me (I've tried everything).

Have you tried wearing goggles? May seem like overkill, and they're not exactly the most comfortable or stylish option, but that's what I've resorted to since I also find chopping raw onions to be quite painful.

I work in a lab so I defaulted to using lab goggles (although not an active pair of lab goggles because lab chemicals + food is not a good combination). You could get something like that off of Amazon. If you have swim goggles or ski goggles, those should work too.
posted by litera scripta manet at 12:47 AM on March 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Seconding xyxxy's idea to do build your own meals.

I was in a six month long dinner rut and Dinner: The Playbook helped me so much with planning meals. Not so much the recipes, but the Introduction through to How to Get Started. Things I liked: she made weekly meal planning a family activity so the picky eaters had a say in the meals for the week and she reminded readers that dinner didn't have to be have be an hour long process with a ton of steps (something I lose sight of a lot) - it just had to be done and on the table.
posted by pumpkinlatte at 9:46 AM on March 17, 2016


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