What would your ideal weeknight meal time like?? I just answered this question on another forum and thought it was a fun question.
for me it would be a meal that Everyone likes with out any fussing. A meal that everyone talks nicely and politly. Mostly I"m sure the meal would be fried chicken.
My favorite family meal would be had outside on thr porch or picnic table. Fried chicken, potato salad, buttered corn on the cob, deviled eggs and watermelon.
The ideal weekday meal can take place anywhere and we can eat anything. What makes it ideal is that we can come together as a family and hopefully enjoy each others company. Notice I said hopefully! LOL Every now and then, thankfully not very often, we have a snippity-snap at the table. Usually it is Ems or me.
If my dh and children would be choosing, it would be cheesburgs and fries. Blah!!! If I would choose, It would be a nice buffet where everyone could have what they wanted, no complaining or fighting between the children.
I have that every night. We decide the menu up to 2 weeks at a time and everyone has input, so they know whats coming up the next day..no complaints because they know that the meal they like the most is coming up in X amount of days. The girls also grocery shop and cook with me so that makes it fun for them and if they help there is no fighting or yuck sounds when I say thats what we are doing. Friday-Sunday are grilling days with dad...ribs, tri-tip, chops, spit whole chicken, lobster/crab legs/shrimp ..we look forward to the weekends. Weeknights are easy meals: casseroles/layered dishes, pasta , rice dishes, soups/stews, roasts ( that make 2 days worth of meals incl. lunches), etc. No complaints here..mealtime is way easy for us.
I'm kind of an oddball, here, but I can't stand conversation and such during meals. I also can't stand the sound of other people eating. So we listen to the radio while we eat our meals. And we eat rather quickly because once the meal is done, then we hang out and talk. When my mom came to visit last week, we went out to eat a lot. Mum kept trying to get the boys into a conversation over dinner. Finally, on the second day, my 5 yo said, "Grandma, if you're talking you're not eating and if you're not eating you need to put your plate up." About died laughing... cause that's word for word what I tell them.
Dinner time has always been a nice sit down family time in our house and the whole family pictches in. As far as choices one of their favorites is smoked turkey legs, steamed asparagus, and flaky biscuits dipped in garlic butter. Their favorite summer time meal would be anything grilled with fresh veggies.
As long as we all sit and eat together, it's good. Now if I don't have to cook or clean that's an added plus for sure! LOL
Big Breakfast for dinner is one of the favorites here. Best? During football season, we have fingerfoods here... plates of veggies, fruits, chickenwings, cheese, dips, meatballs, sausage, pinwheels, pizza, ... the list goes on and on. A few enjoy football, most dont. But they all like to jump in and help with the planning, shopping and fixing. And it just seems to go well even when "our team" doesn't. 'Course any meal where we are all together works wonderfully!