Family Meals

There are a million ways feeding kids is hard. But we still make it TOO hard — on ourselves. I tried one small thing that genuinely changed that!

There's only one pasta recipe among these kid-friendly recipes, folks.

It's restaurant-good while also being wham-bam fast.

The "No-Cook Summer Supper" has become my specialty.

I could easily serve this once a week and receive no pushback from my family, which is saying something.

Serve them deconstructed if needed. And don't forget popsicles for dessert!

Any night - Tuesday or otherwise! - that involves tacos for dinner is bound to be a good night.

These five-ingredient meals will become instant family favorites.

What to make when you need a winner dinner.

It's smothered in sauce.

It’s green, it’s served on a single platter, it's super quick, and my kids request it. I mean, jackpot.

The wholesome, savory flavors bring kids of all ages into the kitchen.

Your future self will thank you.

You're left with plenty of leftovers for future dinners so you can get a reprieve from cooking.

Getting kids to eat veggies is often a challenge. Pasta, rice, and bread are easy, but lots of kids shy away from the more complex — and healthy — stuff. I’ve been lucky with my girls: They mostly eat their vegetables (sometimes even with gusto!). Still, if they had a choice between cheese and crackers or spinach? Yeah, they’re going for the crackers.

Bacon-and-egg hand pies, oatmeal breakfast bars, and so many more delicious and quick breakfast options for those busy mornings.

Kids think it’s funny to mess with adults. It’s just the way of the world. They think it’s hysterical to prank call their parents, hide their grandparents’ remote controls, and hide from the teacher during roll call. They also think it’s adorable to not try new foods at the dinner table that they will willingly eat at the cafeteria at lunch. So, how are you supposed to get your kids to eat new things? I have a slightly sneaky way that actually works.

As disappointing as it is when Trader Joe’s discontinues a favorite product, the one thing that makes up for it is finding out what took its place on the shelves. Every Trader Joe’s shopping trip is an opportunity to discover an exciting ingredient, packaged good, or some other surprise that will pique your curiosity.

The last year of lockdowns (and beyond-the-norm grocery shopping that’s come with them) has taught me a few things about my shopping habits and my family’s food preferences. After discovering the supreme value of a second refrigerator and my kids’ deep abiding love of ramen, I’ve also come to terms with my love-hate relationship with Costco.Once an “event” to distract the kids on a rainy day, it’s now become a necessary, grin-and-bear-it activity.

The other day, I got phone calls from two out of three of my children’s schools. I’ve already violated their privacy enough, so I won’t divulge the content of those phone calls, other than to say no one had broken the law, but no one had won a prize, either. I was annoyed. More than annoyed, mad. Those phone calls made it hard for me to get back to work. Why, then, did I text them to ask what they wanted for supper? And why did I make exactly what they wanted?

I didn’t grow up shopping at Aldi, the wildly popular grocery store that is known for great deals and fun products. In fact, it’s only in the last five years that the budget grocer has opened locations in Southern California where I live. While I used to shop a lot at Costco, I eventually started making the switch over to Aldi in 2016. It took me a few trips to get my bearings and learn the Aldi ways (yes, you’ll get your quarter back), but I’m a firm believer in it now.

A classic American summer wouldn’t be complete without long nights spent in the backyard chasing fireflies, making s’mores, sipping cooling drinks, and, yes, enjoying hot dogs fresh off the grill. When you’ve had a good grilled hot dog — juicy on the inside with a little char on the outside — you’ve experienced true savory bliss. But when you’ve had a not-so-good one — burnt, burst, shriveled, dried out, or undercooked — the letdown is huge.

If there’s one section of Costco I never, ever skip, it’s the frozen food aisle. I can easily fill up my cart in that aisle alone. (The organic fruits! The vegetables! The breakfast foods! The treats!) In fact, I’m such an avid Costco freezer-aisle shopper, I’ve even purchased a separate chest freezer so that I have lots of extra storage at home.What have I been stocking up on lately? I’m glad you asked!

Name: ConstanceLocation: Winchester, MAAge: 38Number of people in household: 2 adults and two 5-year-oldsOccupation: Project AssistantHousehold income: $30,000 Grocery budget: $200 for two weeksGrocery stores of choice: Costco, Stop and Shop, and the farmers marketStop and Shop is just down the road from our house so it’s the most convenient location for us to buy groceries from.

I have been thinking for a long time about all the voices that tell us we’re Doing It Wrong in the kitchen. We wanted to bring you a column about the ways that you’ve actually been doing it right all along. My friend Cheryl Sternman Rule is bringing us this occasional dose of reassurance. — Faith More fruits, more vegetables, less processed food. Homemade, wholesome, whole family around the table.

I still remember the sweet sense of victory I felt when I cooked one dinner that my whole family — including my toddler — adored and gobbled up. I’m still new to this, but have learned that feeding toddlers is tricky business that requires patience, understanding, creativity, and persistence. These days I put my meal-planning efforts into building a roster of easy dinners that my whole family enjoys.

Welcome to summer, where the sunshine keeps everyone outside until the last minute, it’s too hot to turn on the stove at dinner time, and everybody wants a quick meal so they can get back to playing. None of these things makes feeding a family easy in the hottest months, so it’s helpful to have some make-ahead meal ideas stashed away so you can cook dinner before the kids go to bed the night before, or maybe even over the weekend before work gets in the way.

Hitting the road with kids in tow? You are in for an adventure! After 20 years of motherhood, I know that vacationing with children is not without its challenges, but I’m equally convinced that it’s worth the effort. We’ve found that getting outside our comfort zone provides us with huge bonding moments.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Ours is a breakfast-loving family, so by default we eat a lot of eggs. We’ve served them every which way: fried, scrambled, hard- and soft-boiled, poached, in quiches, in omelets, you name it.

Having a hard time getting your kids to eat vegetables? Hiding themThe first study compared the vegetable eating habits of elementary school students at five ethnically and economically diverse schools, where carrots were offered three ways: unnamed, named as a “Food of the Day” or named “X-Ray Vision Carrots.” When presented with a fun name, kids ate 66% of the carrots, compared to just 32-35% of the other carrots.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! As a food writer with shiny object syndrome, I’d always wanted a sous vide machine. But when my husband bought me one for Christmas when I was pregnant with our daughter, I was too nauseated to consider playing with it for months.

Easy to cook and beloved by kids, hot dogs are all too often passed over by the adults at cookouts. But hot dogs can make an exciting dinner for the whole family with just a little bit of planning and a few fun upgrades. This family snack board combines two grill-friendly recipes with store-bought basics for the ultimate backyard dinner. Serve it to celebrate the start of summer, the Fourth of July, camping at home, or just a really good Tuesday night.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Juneteenth is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. Juneteenth, or “Freedom Day,” marks the announcement of the ending of slavery in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Widely celebrated in the U.S. and worldwide, it’s a perfect opportunity to share an important moment for African Americans with my two little ones.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. My biggest adjustment in those first days motherhood, the moment I realized that my life was forever changed — was our first meal at home as a family. Our friends had come over, lugging enough Vietnamese takeout to feed us for a week. I was ravenous.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. It’s easy to miss the IKEA Marketplace after a long day of labyrinth-navigating and warehouse-picking.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I can’t say I had a strong idea of what kind of parent I was going to be. Even as someone who loves a plan and a schedule, I went into this thing sort of like, “Well, I gotta wait to see what I’m working with!

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When I was growing up, every week started out with Monday Leftover Night. My parents called it “King’s Table Night,” named after a long-defunct buffet in their native Seattle.

It’s almost Mother’s Day and the world is still in transition. Some are beginning to see things slowly open up around them, while others remain hunkered down in quarantine. Yet the tradition of celebrating our mothers remains. It’s always been a sunny sort of holiday, and we think it’s more important than ever to lean into brightness.There’s no “usual” this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor the mothers in our lives.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. The air hung hazy and filled the kitchen with the smells of caramelized onions and potatoes frying on the stove. We caught the whiff of caraway seed in the sausage links under foil keeping warm. My dad loved making brunch on Sunday.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. We all know the drill: We should be having dinner with our families. That time together, we’re told, is key to unlocking everything from healthy family relationships to, well, health. As a childfree, busy food-and-spirits writer who made a big family change during the pandemic, I’ve thought a lot about this lately.

When I was growing up, eating out usually meant going to an Asian restaurant or an American fast food joint. Our very rare visits to sit-down, non-Asian restaurant were big deals, and we mostly went to chain restaurants. One favorite was the Macaroni Grill, and I always ordered the exact same dish: salmon with a side of sun-dried tomato orzo pasta. I ordered it not because I loved the salmon, but because that orzo was just so delicious.

One of the smartest strategies for serving homemade meals all week long is already in your kitchen: It’s using your freezer. The trick is to stock your freezer with make-ahead meals that taste just as good upon reheating as they did the day they were made. The meals all freeze wonderfully, so take your pick between eating them all this week or popping one (or all of them) into the freezer for future dinners.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Whenever I ask my kids if they have any dinner requests before I make our weekly menu, at least one of them will shout for “pesto pasta!” It’s one of those family recipes that has become a household staple, the kind of dish that I imagine they’ll always remember from their childhood.