Linners

That's what we call it when we have missed lunch because of mid-day activities and so are starving at 3:00 and finish a huge, well-rounded meal around 4. Sometimes the kids are hungry again before bed, but then we just have buttered bread and milk before brushing teeth.

This past weekend we managed TWO days of "linners," which I guess is a huge dinner fail--but at the same time, it means we were out and about as a family having fun, so that is worth something, right? And the bonus is being done with dinner before 5!

The real danger of linners is getting lazy and not sticking to a good routine at home, like I did TODAY, so that even though there is no excuse for it, I don't make the kids lunch. Today it was because I let them sleep in after a long, hard day of outdoor adventure (which I can't wait to tell you about in another post!) and a late night. So then they wake up late, finish breakfast at 10:30, so are not hungry at lunchtime, and so I gave them a hearty snack after quiet time. Now I need to go make dinner before they are starving, and so we don't end up with another late night and perpetuate the bad cycle!

But I want to keep posting my dinners for a while, because it really is keeping me accountable, and I don't want to wait so long to post them, to keep it from being a big deal to write.

So, just for the record, our l/dinners this past weekend:

Saturday
Toasted cheese bread (crusty bread slices toasted in the oven with slices of cheddar or colby on top) with tomato and avocado. Served with homemade marinated Indian mixed bean salad, fresh pear, and cucumber. We ate dinner late because of being at a cookout all day, not even getting home until 6:30.

(I'm going to stop saying what we drink with meals because it is usually the same every time--water for lunch, milk for dinner)

Sunday
Got home from church late and wasting away (we go to the 11 am service, and then tend to hang around talking with friends and letting the kids run and scream in the gym for a while after), so around 3 pm ate a quick meal of frozen 3-cheese tortellini cooked and then mixed with marinara from a jar. Fancy! With a side of leftover bean salad. But then before bed the kids were saying they were really hungry, so I gave them all the edamame in the pod that they could eat--which they love, by the way!--with sliced cheddar and whole wheat sesame crackers and milk. (So technically, maybe that was dinner and I should not have told you about the lunch, but then you would think I was a horrible mother.)

Monday
Had an amazing adventure out and about, and ended up finishing our huge restaurant lunch at 4, so I had no intentions of making dinner when we got home around 7 pm. But the kids were hungry, so we gave them milk and whole grain bread.

In case you did not notice, I will point out that I had planned on making Shera's black bean soup yesterday--but had not expected I would not be making dinner. But since we are still eating the Indian bean salad (which has black, kidney and garbanzo beans in a mix of sesame oil/raw garlic/cumin/coriander/fresh lemon/pepper/green onion--mmmmm) from Saturday, which I made a huge bowl of for the cookout, I don't think I will make black bean soup. That's a lot of beans for one day. So, that recipe will have to wait for another day, and I'm now off to the kitchen to see what inspires me!

(My guess is something soupish. It's my weakness.)

I'll let you know tomorrow what I came up with today, but I AM GOING NOW TO COOK, and THAT is what matters!