Dinner with Children

When I was growing up, Mom had a set dinner menu:

• Sunday – Hamburgers – simple grilled burger.  Dad would take canned mushrooms and painstakingly slice them up
• Monday – Chicken – Shake n Bake, or roasted, sometimes with dumplins.  Never fried.
• Tuesday – Pork – Normally pork chops, cooked until thoroughly cooked, then cooked some more.
• Wednesday – Pasta (spaghetti) – Mom would make her own sauce (gravy for my Italian friends) starting with a jar
• Thursday – Open – could be breakfast, or ribs, or cornbread and milk (for my dad), or chill, or sloppy joes.
• Friday – Mac n Cheese – my mom made the best macaroni and cheese.  When she was preparing her will, she asked my sister and I what we would like.  I told her, “I want you alive.”  Not getting far with that logic, I asked for one thing…her macaroni and cheese casserole dish…and I have it to this day

• Saturday – Steak.  Mom and dad would buy a “7 bone” steak.  These are tough cuts of beef, but who knew there was anything better.

Salad was a staple at every meal.

If you could see my waistline, you would know I didn’t miss many of mom’s meals.  I am going to guess this recurring schedule made it easy for mom to buy some items in bulk.

Since it is well documented I am not a savant in the kitchen, would you share how you deal with your children’s meals, or how your parents prepared?  It might be fun to see if my mom was the only one with the set schedule.