The Kids are Home and I Forgot How Much They Eat

+ a recipe for Mustard-Thyme Roasted Chicken!

Happy Monday!  If you’re looking for the Mustard-Thyme Roasted Chicken, that’s the bonus content for paid subscribers.  Please scroll to the bottom!

Join My March Online Cooking Class! If you’re looking for fresh meal inspiration, my newest March 2025 online cooking class is now available! In this class, I’ll walk you through delicious, seasonal recipes that are easy to prepare and perfect for busy schedules. They can do double duty for family meals but also spring holidays like Passover and Easter.  You’ll get a full class recording, a detailed recipe packet, and all my best tips to make cooking stress-free and enjoyable. Sign up here: March 2025 Online Class—I’d love to cook with you!

If you have kids who’ve left the nest, you know the drill. They come home, and suddenly it’s like you’ve opened a 24-hour diner. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner—oh, and snacks, because apparently, being home means their stomachs are bottomless pits. This past week, I had two of my kids home: my son, Andrew, on spring break from college, and Anna visiting and working remotely. Anna’s fiancé was here too, so we had a full house and a fully operating kitchen.

Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE having them home. But I forgot how much they eat. And that they’re always hungry. And that feeding them requires an advanced-level strategy since my son is a pescatarian who doesn’t eat dairy, while the other two eat everything but have their own preferences too. Oh, and did I mention they were all still on East Coast time? So breakfast was early and dinner requests started rolling in right after lunch. Send help.

For those of you who feel like short-order cooks when your kids come home, I get it. But after years of hosting my own personal food festival every time they visit, I’ve learned a few tricks to keep things manageable:

1. Meal Plans are Everything

When everyone eats different things at different times, the only way to stay sane is to have a plan. I made sure to have a few versatile proteins on hand (canned salmon, frozen shrimp, and tofu for my son; eggs, chicken and turkey for the others) and a loose meal schedule so I wasn’t scrambling every few hours.  Just a reminder that I have posted a free dinner planner on my website every Saturday morning for almost a decade!

2. Prep Like Your Life Depends On It

I live by a few non-negotiables: clean lettuce and vinaigrettes always ready for quick salads, washed berries for snacking, and some pre-cooked grains like quinoa or brown rice plus dressings/sauces that can be turned into bowls, stir-fries, or sides in a pinch. When you have a fridge stocked with the basics, meals come together fast—especially when everyone’s ravenous.

3. Get Them to Pitch In (Without Them Realizing It)

I don’t ask for help; I just subtly delegate. “Can you chop this while we chat?” or “Want to stir this while I set the table?” works like a charm. Before they know it, they’re invested in the meal, and—bonus!—clean-up magically gets done faster.

4. Keep a Repertoire of Quick Recipes

I pulled from Quicker Than Quick more times than I can count this past week. Having a handful of go-to recipes that take 30 minutes or less is key, as well as dishes that can be batch prepped and reheated.  Here were some of the highlights this week:

*Breakfast: baked oatmeal, Hubs made his famous acai bowls, sheet pan pancake, avocado toast with eggs, yogurt and granola

*Lunch: Chinese chicken salad (QTQ), White Bean and Tuna Salad with Basil Vinaigrette (Kitchen Matters), Kale and White Bean Minestrone, DIY sandwiches (Wild Grain bread and pastries came in clutch this week - look for the discount PAMELACOOKS in my IG stories on March 13th): turkey, tuna salad, egg salad

*Dinner: Black Bean Burgers (QTQ), Deconstructed Fish and Sushi Rice Bowls, Pizza Night, Broccoli-Tomato Spaghetti Squash Casserole (in last week’s newsletter), Mustard-Thyme Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato Coins (QTQ), I also made a Salmon twist on Quicker Chicken Marbella (QTQ) which I’ll share in next week’s newsletter - so good!

5. Accept That You’ll Be Doing More Dishes (and Breathe Through It)

The dishwasher worked overtime, and I still ended up hand-washing a ridiculous amount of things. But this is part of the deal, right? I miss the chaos when they leave, so I try to remind myself of that in between loads of dishes and water bottles and glasses everywhere. (Try being the keyword.)

The fridge is now less full, the kitchen is finally clean, and the house is a little too quiet again. But I know that the next time they come home, I’ll be ready—because I’ll remember just how much they eat. ;)

Even More Musings is an extension of my weekly newsletter, Monday Musings. My newsletter is a sponsor-free zone and is fully supported by readers like you. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get Even More Musings! Each week, I share my tips and tricks along with a new recipe. For only $5/month or $50/year (less than $1 a newsletter), you'll also gain access to the entire archive, featuring favorites like My New Hyper-fixation High-Protein Fluffy Breakfast Bowl  and the Hillstone Copycat Emerald Kale Salad.  This week I am sharing a recipe for Mustard-Thyme Roasted Chicken. I made it for my Rummikub night with friends and then again for the kids. So easy and so good!