how i cook nightly family meals without losing my mind

I love family meals. After long days of work, school and sports, dinnertime if often the only time our family is all together. We can catch up on what everyone is up to, unplug and relax–even if we only have 30 minutes until the next event. I’m pretty good at getting dinner on the table in the winter, but in the summer when we are soaking in every last bit of sunshine, it’s hard! Hard to make a plan, shop, prep and cook and still feel like I’m squeezing every drop of summer I can.

So I’ve come up with a simple plan for cooking family meals most nights without having the exact same thing every week.   I make a few basic meals each week and then call in the experts. I recently started using Marley Spoon to give my home cooking a bit of a boost. Having Marley Spoon plan my menu twice a week feels like a weight has been lifted. I can grill burgers once a week, throw chicken in the crock pot once a week, make a pot of spaghetti and rely on Marley Spoon for the good stuff–I’m talking dinners like salmon and bok choy with coconut sauce or crispy rice and beef with pink pickles.  Sounds a little more exciting than tacos, right?  In fact, when my kids ask what’s for dinner and I tell them, they immediately know if it’s a Marley Spoon day.  “Cumin pork tenderloin with pilaf and cilantro salad” just doesn’t happen when meal planning is up to me.  And I love exposing my kids to new foods without scouring the internet for ideas and then reading every review to see if it’s worth my time and energy to make (anyone else with me on this?)

I’m going to give you an inside look into Marley Spoon at our house last week.  We ordered the 2 meal Family Box.  This is designed to feed two adults and two children, but it was plenty for our family of five, so I’m sure you could make it stretch a bit if you need to.  We started with Salmon and Bok Choy with Coconut Broth.  I used ingredients I never have on hand like fish sauce, lemongrass, fresh ginger and fresh red chile to make a coconut broth that set the meal apart from a typical salmon dinner.   About 40 minutes from start to finish.  I would have never come up with that sauce on my own and it was delicious.  Adding that to some super fresh salmon fillets over a bowl of rice and bok choy and shallots was more like something I’d order at a restaurant than a weeknight meal at home.  But it was still kid friendly!  Our next meal was Crispy Rice and Beef with Pink Pickles.  Again, the ingredients were so fresh.  Fresh beef, radishes, leeks, cilantro and ginger.  And ingredients I’ve never used like plum vinegar and tamari.  About 30 minutes from start to finish and we were sitting down, once again, to a restaurant-quality meal.  And, just for you, Marley Spoon is offering $35 off your first Marley Spoon box.  Just enter the code SIMPLEMOMS35 at checkout anytime between now and July 31!  That’s almost half off a two meal family box!

There you have it!  My summer menu plan.  A few basic homemade meals jazzed up with two Marley Spoon upscale meals and I don’t have to feel guilty about ordering pizza at the pool every once in a while since I know we’ll be eating well (and together!) the rest of the week.  What are your summer tips for family dinners?