School starts this week, as do Sports. My husband starts a call week on Friday night. The chaos is ramping up and my only defense is running away Extreme Uptight Organization.
Let’s see if I can assemble all the elements necessary for meal planning.
Carla has Sports Events two nights this week. One night may or may not involve going to dinner at my in laws’ rental. Carla will not be eating at home three nights this week; however, I need to supply dinner for each sports event. In fact, I could supply dinner for all the kids on her team, but I cannot figure out how to access the spreadsheet of dinner volunteers one of the moms put together.
I feel a panicky slash grumpy digression about Sports Events Sustenance coming on. Gird yourself.
None of the parents wants to be in charge of organizing dinners for the kids, although the aforementioned mom did (supposedly) create a spreadsheet so we can sign up to bring food for each game. One of the other parents noted that her child doesn’t like sandwiches, which – well, honestly, Carla doesn’t like sandwiches either, but what the actual fuck is a person supposed to provide for dinners when sandwiches are off the table? There are only so many times the team can eat Chik-Fil-A nuggets for dinner, right? (Carla, perhaps, would disagree.) I am sure other people’s kids eat a variety of foods, but 99% of the things that a) my particular kid will eat that are b) nourishing and nutritionally balanced are IMPOSSIBLE FOODS to provide for sporting events.
First of all, I don’t even know when these kids are expected to eat; practice starts after school and games start at, like, 4:00 or 5:00. Are they planning to eat these meals on the bus? In the fifteen minutes between school and practice during which they are also expected to change?
Second of all, sure, a sandwich or some chicken nuggets seem fairly easy to scarf down in a few minutes, but the other things Carla likes (salmon! tacos! steak! meatballs!) seem much less easy if even doable for the venue. Other (semi) nourishing foods – like hummus and veggies or cheese and crackers – don’t strike me as calorically rich enough to sustain kids through an entire game, and that’s without mentioning that Carla won’t even eat hummus or any other sort of dip with her veggies. Nuts and nut butters are verboten, so there goes that source of high-calorie protein and fat. Maybe I could get away with creating some sort of charcuterie-esque “dinner,” with ham and pepperoni and cheese and veggies and fruit… but that sounds time consuming and logistically complicated (how would I serve it to a large group?) (keep in mind that I WORRY ABOUT GERMS AND FOOD SAFETY). Bagels and cream cheese and maybe some lunch meat has potential, but I don’t know how many bagels with cream cheese and lunch meat my kid will eat in a season. There’s pizza, I guess, but the other complicating factor is that the dinners need to be delivered by the parent (as in, not by Door Dash or a local delivery person) before the game starts, which means I would have to pick up pizza and take it immediately to wherever the kids are and sometimes I don’t want to do that.
In years past, we’ve stopped for dinner (usually Chik-Fil-A) after games, because my kid is starving… but I would really love to not do that, for so many reasons. One of which is the rumored extreme amp-up of homework this year. HOW is Carla going to do sports, homework, AND dinner and still get to bed early enough to ensure adequate sleep? What do other children eat for dinner? HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS? I am back to wanting to stride briskly into the sea.
My mother made us dinner every night when we were visiting their house. It was luxurious to have a home cooked meal to enjoy, but even more decadent was not having to think about what to make for dinners. But now *I* am the one in charge of the thinking and planning and making, and… well, I have to suck it up, Buttercup, because that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Or something.
Dinners for the Week of August 17
- Szechuan Stir Fry: I bought the ingredients for a fresh veggie (and chicken) stir fry last week and haven’t been able to bring myself to assemble them into eating shape. Let’s not waste all those yummy veggies.
- Greek Chicken with Cucumber-Feta Salad: This sounds good and summery and like it has potential for leftovers.
- Crockpot Crispy Tinga Tacos with Avocado Jalapeno Crema: The crockpot is my bestie on days when there’s no clear timeframe for getting home. Plus maybe this will also produce leftovers?
- Two Dinners for Sports Events: For one night, I think I’ll go with my charcuterie plate idea, at least for Carla. And maybe the bagel and cream cheese idea for the other night? Should I try to sign up to bring dinner for the whole team, or wait until later in the season? WHAT DO SPORTS TEAMS EAT FOR DINNER?????
That’s all the time I have for meal planning panic, Internet. I have a PT appointment, Carla has sports practice, there’s a mandatory school meeting, and some sort of orientation during which the kids are supposed to get their locker assignments. Let the Back-to-School Bedlam begin.
I think maybe just reframe this for yourself– the “dinner” is just a post-school snack, and then she can eat at home. Yes this will change meal time, but it’s probably going to be OK.
If it’s a snack, then there’s less pressure to be a MEAL with good-parent proteins, etc. Coper loves Fairlife Nutrition Plan chocolate milks and typically has one of those, a couple of applesauces, some Goldfish, and a chicken apple sausage (cooked) in the car on the way to dive practice. Then he eats a bigger meal when he gets home.
Also if it is only 2 nights, then chicken nuggets and pizza sound… fine to me. Maybe my standards have been lowered by literal years of impossible dinner times though?
I endorse this completely. You are not responsible for the team’s nutritional goals and needs. They just need something to drink, sonething for energy, and something to keep them from whining about being hungry to the coach. String cheese, crackers, clementine, and you’re good to go!
Also, watch what other parents bring- I bet some send sandwiches, some send pizza, and some will send bananas and cereal bars. If this stresses you out, just sit back and let the other parents do it- you can choose to help in some other way.
Oh good grief! The sports meals sound so hard. Basically it’s a contact sport for the parents. Let us know what you come up with.
I had to read this several times because I only just finished my first cup of coffee and because it seems insane to me that a single parent will just…provide a meal for an entire team. I am…what. Is that what this whole season will be? I am overwhelmed at the thought. No…sandwiches. But. This seems FRAUGHT on so many levels. So I am unhelpful but it looks like Sarah has good advice and if anyone knows what to do on the fly with kids, it’s her. So I will just be over here going “wait….what” until eternity.
Whew. Providing a meal for the whole team is a HUGE amount of pressure on you. I’m nearly having a panic attack just thinking about it! I have no advice. I can only say that I feel for you, and I think that’s A LOT to expect of you.
Also, I’m just curious what it is about sandwiches that they dislike? I love sandwiches! I can’t imagine life without sandwiches!
This sounds so ridiculous. I can’t even think straight, friend. FOOD IS SO FRAUGHT and trying to coordinate for a group of other people’s kids, too? Did I catch that right??
Sarah knows what she’s talking about, so I’d start there. I did the same with my son. He’s had a few times where he went right from one activity to another and another time had a practice from 5-6 pm (right over the dinner hour).
He would have a snack (usually a sandwich and granola bar) and then eat when his practice was over. He survived.
But I think coming up with food for kids 365 days a year is basically impossible and it’s 10x harder to feed them on the go.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN. (What Birchie said about the feeding being like a full contact sport for the parents. So true!!!)
Is there a spot to send cash?
If this group is all girls, they nibble and snack. Fruit, crackers. Calories that they will be burning off immediately. You will have to feed your kid again. Breakfast for dinner worked great for the after event/late night dinner at our house. Some of these are the best days! Standing around the kitchen, pancakes and eggs, getting the gossip and slipping her off to bed after the game. Enjoy!
I personally think it’s bonkers for a parent to provide a meal for the entire team. Kids can be so particular, so you might provide something for 15 kids, let’s say, but only 5-10 eat it, and then it gets wasted/thrown away? I would be opting out of this set up if it existed where I live because I have an extremely particular eater (so particular that we are seeing an OT tomorrow and a dietician next week). I can only provide a meal that is appealing to him and will fuel him – I don’t want the judgment of other parents for how we get calories in him. Sigh. I am mad on your behalf. Why are we doing this, people? WHYYYYYYY??
Our sports involvement is limited to parks & rec programs which involves signing up for a post-game snack. But it’s definitely meant to be a treat for the kids, not something nutritional! So the kid gets to pick out the treat and both boys favor bags of mini oreos and gatorade (except Paul does not drink gatorade – see selective note above) but he knows there’s an expectation to bring something fun, not just a bottle of water (which, besides milk, is the only fluid he will drink – he doesn’t drink anything fruit flavored).
I’d also like to vent about the fact that my particular child won’t eat sandwiches. Sigh. So his packed lunch for camps/summer programs this year has been 3 large pieces of deli turkey meat, 6 club crackers, 2 oreos, and a packet of applesauce. Every. Damn. Day. Will eats the same thing except occasionally, he does want a sandwich, but no mustard, mayo or butter on the bread – just plain bread and turkey. BORING.
Gah, I have more to say because eating is such a fraught situation in our household that requires medical intervention since Paul’s at a low body weight and has the bones of a 6 year old so we really need to work on getting him to grow/eat more calories. But I get rude comments from family members about how my kids eat. If only those rude family members understood how many hours I’ve spent litigating how we got to this point and what I did wrong (I think the answer is nothing because Taco is a pretty good/typical eater). But this is becoming an essay, not a comment… sigh.
I agree with Sarah. Feed your kid a snack and then feed her again something quick when you get home after practice. It sounds like feeding the team is voluntary, so maybe see what other parents do, talk to Carla about what she likes/doesn’t like, and decide then whether you want to participate. Let the parents who have done this before show you the way.
I think your charcuterie board and bagel and cream cheese both sound really good. Would she eat a lunchable? Are those still popular?
Going to check out that Greek chicken recipe now, it sounds good.
You can’t possibly provide a meal that everyone will like. I personally love those pinwheels from Costco–tortillas with cream cheese, some meat, cheese and veggies. I’ve made them too and they aren’t too hard, although are they a sandwich? I just bought some protein bites from a Juice shop and they are delicious–flax, honey, chocolate chips, oats. They taste like cookie dough. Anyway, I have no excellent ideas and would be equally stressed over the responsibility! Hang in there!!
When I have fed the team a pre-game snack on the bus, I’ve sent brown bags with a fruit, a granola bar and a treat – like goldfish or a cookie. For team dinner, it’s ranged from chik-fil-a, to spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, subs, really anything. Plus watermelon and a cookie. (She plays a fall sport, so watermelon still works and it’s mostly outside.) Dinner on sports nights is crazy making though – I’m what feels like a million years in and I still am always figuring it out.
Neither of my kids played a sport after elementary school, so I have no experience of having to do this for a whole season, but sometimes during tech week or performances parents were asked to bring in dinner for the actors. I think it was usually takeout, pizza or the like. Or maybe I have a vague recollection of buying a big frozen lasagna (or maybe more than one), heating it up and bringing it in. Bagel bar with toppings sounds familiar, too.
I did often have to feed North dinner in the middle of the afternoon between school and rehearsals a few nights a week for months at a time, but that was just my own kid. Sometimes I would give them soup in a thermos to have at the bus stop en route to rehearsal when time was especially tight.
Teen activities do make dinner a challenge!
First of all, I’m so sorry . . . I just noticed that I’ve missed your last few posts. I swear they weren’t popping up in my feed, but maybe they were there and I overlooked them while in the throes of college kid packing and traveling to SC for drop off, etc. No clue what happened there, but the photos of your mountain time post are spectacular and your description of the family history at the lake near your folks’ summer cabin – beautifully written and it sounds like the stuff dreams are made of. What a wonderful experience. Bummer that the wildfires interfered with some of your views.
Of course Suz knew that was a weed. I, on the other hand, would have no knowledge of that sort of thing. Leo’s hiding spots and his antics caught on the cat-cam are a hoot.
OK, I’m so confused about this team meal situation. What on earth? I’ve had kids playing sports after school for years and years. Lad is 28 now. And – never ever have I encountered a thing like this. I’ve hosted pasta parties for high school kids over the years, but that’s at my home the night before a big game. “Little Lucy doesn’t like sandwiches” – who is sharing this specific info about one child’s preferences? C’mon. *deep breaths* I think this should be referred to as a team snack, offered after school. I like the idea of the brown bag with granola bar, string cheese, trail mix, a cutie, etc. The kids don’t need dinner before a game that starts at 4. They could benefit from a snack (and in my world, each parent supplies that for their individual kid, but whatever), and then eat a meal later at home after the game. Good luck navigating this. I’d be hard pressed to not suggest each family send their kid with a decent snack. Goodness.
This system is ridiculous. With allergies and preferences, how can you be asked to provide an entire meal for a team? Throw some orange slices at them during halftime or whatever it’s called (I’m *obviously* a sports fan) and you’re done. What is this? You have to bring it there? What are we? People without jobs?
Also, you have to PAY to feed all these children? WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Okay, but if you’re just feeding your own child, please say the answer can be dips. My husband has eaten a dip-based lunch for years now. Guacamole and pretzels/chips. Hummus. Baba ghanoush during eggplant season. Salsa and tortilla chips. DIPS. I’m into it.
Omg. You’ll have to report back on this, but I agree with the other commenters that providing dinner for the whole team is insane. Whose idea was that anyway?? If you HAVE to do it (like if it’s an obligation somewhere down the line) then wait to see what the other parents do, and copy that. But wait- this is twice a week??? What. We have a slightly similar situation on football game days- the band stays after to school to practice, then they have a dinner break at 4:30 where they’re not allowed to leave campus, then they get ready for the game at 5:30. After all these years I’m still delivering a dinner at 4:30 which is really, really inconvenient and there has to be a better way!!! I’ve tried asking other parents what they do and I get a vague answer. Whatever. At least it’s not twice a week! It’s just on the days of home games, and there are only maybe 8-10 of those in the season.
Good luck!!!
Yeah, add me to the list of people reading this post with their jaw dropped. What do you MEAN you have to provide a MEAL for a WHOLE DAMN TEAM? No, absolutely not. That is outside the lines. I do not endorse!!! I am just going to second whatever Sarah said because she’s the Queen of Sportsball Kids.
I’m really trying to remember what we did as kids when we had sports. Like, my mom worked a FT job so she didn’t get home until 5. But then practice started at 6, or maybe 5:30, I don’t know. I guess we did a snack and ate afterward? I need to ask my mom, but she might have blocked it out of her memory, lol.
Dinner for the whole team is bananas.
That being said, if you want to do it, get a crock pot, put many hot dogs in it, heat it up at home. Take tongs with you. Put the hot dogs into buns (take the buns right in their bags from the store) and hand them to a child. Offer bananas as a side (since this situation is bananas) and bananas are cheap and easy to transport since they grow in their own packaging. All of this is handheld and you don’t even need plates or silverware. Not everyone likes hot dogs, that is okay. They can eat a banana. Or they can bring their own snack, since I assume this spreadsheet allows you to find out in advance what the other people are doing. But I’ve found that in group settings, most children will eat the hot dogs. (One out of fifteen Girl Scouts did not eat the hot dog. I used to take her a peanut butter sandwich (which she would only eat open faced) but that was in a place where I was absolutely sure that no one had nut allergies.)
I feel like I go through this every summer when the kids are doing swim team and are at the pool from 5:00pm – 7:30pm. When/ what do we eat??? We tend to eat early around our house – 5 or 5:30p. If kids need to get to an activity, it’s a big snack and then dinner when they get home.
(Also – there’s an episode the The Lazy Genius called “How To Eat Dinner When You’re Not At Home” or something like that – I found it helpful.)
I’ll tell you the favorite meals we eat at the pool during swim season:
-lots of pasta salad
-Sesame noodles
-Dumplings and edamame in a thermos.
-Snack dinner (meats, cheese, crackers, fruits, cut up veggies)
-Onigiri/ Veggie Sushi
-Chicken drumsticks and green beans (surprisingly easy to eat with hands)
-yes, sandwiches.
But we always have cut up veggies, fruit, and a bag of chip or popcorn regardless.
I have to say, last year when my kid was doing a show with two rehearsals on Saturdays, one of the parents tried to get a group dinner going for between rehearsals, and I would have been all over that. But my kid is not a picky eater and actually loves eating other people’s foods. None of the other parents took him up on the idea, though, so it died a slow death.
OMG I am sorry you are dealing with this. Like others said, just feed your kid. Oh, and let us know what you decided – I may need the intel for when I am in team sports phase (if ever, we’ll see).
That sounds like a terrible thing to be tasked with. I think parents should just provide for their own kids, not the whole team… that it a logistic nightmare with restrictions (due to allergy concerns) and picky eaters. Just no.
Oh Lord, briskly into the sea indeed. How the hell is anyone supposed to provide a dinner every kid will eat? It’s impossible. IMPOSSIBLE. Eve would eat an infinite number of bagels with cream cheese, but the time constraints sound horrific – there’s no way she could scarf down a meal and then proceed to playing a sport, she would hurl. Sorry, I’m not helping!
Your dinners sound great. I love the ideas for the sports events especially. That is a tough task, doing dinner for the sports teams. Good luck!
I feel like bagels with toppings would be good! Or maybe wraps? I don’t know how much you need to cater to everyone, or if people with picky/allergic kids have to provide their own? Wraps with a variety of meats and/or cheese only would be my go to. Also they hold up well so can be made in advance to some degree so you (or whoever) are not scrambling at the last minute! Or what about bacon and egg bites? Those are easy to make in muffin tins and you could do some with meat, some without? When running and traveling I often make those, or oatmeal “bars” (also in a muffin pan) which are good calories and easy to eat on the fly!