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By Janine

5 Simple Tips to Make Hectic School Night Dinners Easier

Filed Under: BLOG, Family Life, Influence Central, lists, printable, Sponsored Posts Tagged With: Advice to help with school night dinners, dinnertime, Families, IC, Ling Ling, Sponsored

*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.

Ling Ling Fried Rice and PlannerSee 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

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. The key here is to make meals beforehand to store to be made as the week unfolds.

Ling Ling Thai-Style Chicken Fried Rice Box

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.

Side view of Ling Ling Thai Style Rice and Planner

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!

Ling Ling Thai Style Rice in Bowl over Planner

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!

Closeup of Ling Ling Thai Style Fried Rice

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:

Kid Conversation Starters Printable

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 13th – Tuesday March 6th

How can you enter?

Enter below:

Ling Ling Asian Kitchen Giveaway (Phase 3)

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About Janine

Janine is a published author of the books, The Mother of All Meltdowns and Only Trollops Shave Above the Knee. She has been featured on The Huffington Post, Mamapedia, Today Parenting Team and SheKnows. She also runs her own graphic design company at J9 Designs.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jhanis says

    February 21, 2018 at 7:14 am

    Super helpful tips, Janine! With 2 school kids, our daily routine can get crazy! Ugh. And we love fried rice!

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 7:15 am

      Thanks Jhanis and I know the daily routine with school aged kids can indeed can crazy. And fried rice is and always will be on the top of my list, too 🙂

  2. Meredith Spidel says

    February 21, 2018 at 7:56 am

    Aren’t they such a beast?! Thanks for the tips and I LOVE this printable! Such a great way to get kids chatting at the dinner table!

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 8:20 am

      They really are and again so happy to share my tips and printable with you, too 🙂

  3. Dara says

    February 21, 2018 at 8:55 am

    Great tips! I always have to remember to start dinner before the after school rush!

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 9:08 am

      Thanks Dara and I know I try my best, but sometimes I am still a work in progress myself, too!

  4. William Holland says

    February 21, 2018 at 9:42 am

    I remember those hectic nights well, home after a long day of teaching, try to throw together a meal for my son….must say I’m happy those days are over.

    Happy Wednesday Janine!

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 7:30 pm

      Bill, while there are times I wish that this time would pass. I still know somehow I’d miss it still. That said wishing you a great rest of this Wednesday evening now 😉

  5. Bri Adams says

    February 21, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    I love the Ling Ling Potstickers. We always have a bag in the freezer for a quick meal. I serve it with steamed broccoli and the whole family loves it. Great ideas. I struggle constantly with dinner ideas!

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 2:40 pm

      Bri, that sounds like the perfect quick meal to me and yes I keep a bag of their potsticker in my freezer, too! 🙂

  6. Tamara says

    February 21, 2018 at 8:05 pm

    Don’t I know it! We had Ling Ling just a few days ago for the Chinese New Year. I LOVE the Potstickers, as well as all their noodles.

    • Janine says

      February 21, 2018 at 8:11 pm

      Omg, I absolutely love their Potstickers and noodle, too. So we are most definitely twins on this, as well 🙂

  7. Jen says

    February 22, 2018 at 7:45 am

    So guess what? I actually picked some of these up! Yum! This week was going to be busy and I knew it and so I added a few of these in and my family liked them!

    • Janine says

      February 22, 2018 at 7:46 am

      Yay and so glad you all tried them and enjoyed them, too!! 🙂

  8. AnnMarie John says

    February 22, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    I love those conversation starters. We also love Ling Ling and make it occasionally for dinner. I am so loving your tips and a few are what I currently do as well.

    • Janine says

      February 22, 2018 at 8:07 pm

      Thanks AnnMarie and also happy to here we have a few of these in common, too 🙂

  9. Christine Carter says

    February 24, 2018 at 10:49 pm

    You offered some very smart tips, Janine. I LOVE those questions you came up with to ask our kids. Thanks for the refresher, because dinners ARE HECTIC around here too!

    • Janine says

      February 25, 2018 at 8:36 am

      My pleasure and just always happy to share what I can with you, too!! 🙂

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