5 Simple Tips to Make Hectic School Night Dinners Easier

*This post was sponsored by Ling Ling, all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Recently, I shared how our family makes time for special themed family dinners, such as celebrating Chinese New Year here.

But let’s be honest, dinner time with school aged children sometimes no matter how hard we try are darn near impossible to manage; Let Alone special family meals.

I would like to say that we limit the after school activities here for my girls. But let’s be clear as much as this would be ideal, it just isn’t always possible.

See between my two girls, they each belong to their own Girl Scout Troops, dance, soccer, art club, school chorus and even religious education (being Roman Catholic) during the school year.

So many days eating dinner as a family is not always an option with everyone’s varying schedules.

We all tend to eat on the go often enough because of this.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Looking to make school nights and dinner time easier? Then check out these 5 easy tips #LingLingAsianFood #LL #easymeals #ad” quote=”Looking to make school nights and dinner time easier? Then check out these 5 easy tips #LingLingAsianFood #LL #easymeals #ad” theme=”style1″]

But how do we maintain our sanity with our schedules and still eat enjoy dinners here?

Here are a few tips on how to do just that if your family has dinner but not as a family unit:

5 Simple Tips to Make Hectic School Night Dinners Easier

1. Learn to be flexible with weeknight dinners.

Sometimes you just have to Let It Go (as Disney’s Elsa would say) and go with the flow. Honestly when you are a parent to young school aged kids, family meal time is going to be down right hectic. One may have a soccer game. While another might have Girl Scouts. Plus, let’s not forget who may be putting in extra hours at the office. So, here is where you have to learn to give into these crazy times as far as family dinners are concerned. How can you do just that? Keep reading.

2. Pre-make meals on the weekends.

One of the ways to handle these busy school nights is to pre-make meals ahead of time, such as on the weekend. Whether this be crockpot meals or other such meals that can be made beforehand. If you’re planning to prepare one or two vegan recipes, Kathy’s Vegan Kitchen has plenty of tasty vegan meals you can try out.. The key here is to make meals beforehand to store to be made as the week unfolds.

3. Choose meals that are easily re-heatable.

So whether you make the meals on the weekend or earlier in the week only to have enough for leftovers. Just make sure these same meals are easy to re-heat to serve at a later date. Nothing is better than being able to heat up a meal quickly and easily to serve to your family when you are indeed pressed for time.

4. When you can’t pre-make meals, choose quick alternatives.

Sometimes, even your weekends with young kids don’t afford you to make as many meals for the week as you like beforehand. This is when I make sure to have food in my freezer that can be made quickly. As shared earlier with Ling Ling, I can make a meal more special by using Ling Ling by adding more ingredients, such as grilled shrimp. Or I can just make meals that already have meat, like chicken included in the dish already, such as Ling Ling Thai-Style Chicken. This is a meal unto itself and needs no additions at all!

See Ling Ling Fried Rice dishes once again are not only authentic Asian cuisine, but they are just so tasty down to the last grain of rice! So essentially all I have to do is heat this meal in a skillet or microwave quickly. And this same meal can be easily transferred to a dish or plate to eat. The preparation is quick and so is the cleanup here. A win-win!

5. Make the most of it and make it fun still whenever possible.

Even though you have to eat quickly in these times, you can still make it fun. This can be by simply chatting with those who are able to eat at the same or similar time about their day. This could also include listening to music together while eating on the quick. Or even playing a game of 20 questions.

Do you want to start a fun conversation starter game while enjoying a quick bite on the go?

Check out my fun FREE Printable Kids Conversation Starter Printable and download below:

See while some evenings eating dinner on the go and not as a complete family may be unavoidable, above are some ways to indeed make these meals more manageable if nothing else.

**Don’t forget to Purchase Ling Ling Asian Food using this provided coupon for $2 off ONE Ling Ling Entree or Appetizer (20oz. or more).at a local store where the products are sold.

Plus get ready to win thanks to Ling Ling and IC now!  See I-C will randomly select winners from all program entries and will facilitate fulfillment of the winning prizes (5).

What is can you win?

One of (5) $100 Walmart Gift Card

When can you win?

Tuesday, February 13^th – Tuesday March 6^th

How can you enter?

Enter below:

Ling Ling Asian Kitchen Giveaway (Phase 3)