That one time when you didn’t know what to cook for dinner (aka Fruit and Veggie Dinner)

I’m pretty good at meal planning. I make my month long menu. I make my weekly grocery lists. I get in, get out and get back home in 60 minutes or less each week. I don’t particularly like meal planning and such, which is why I have it down to an art. I want to spend the least amount of time thinking about what we’ll eat as possible.

But every now and then, the plan falls apart.

Sometimes I forget to buy an item, or sometimes I realize I have 20 minutes to get dinner ready and the planned meal is a doozy to cook. Or, gotta love those days when I realize at 3:30 that we’re having a crockpot meal. Whoops!

We had a day like that a couple weeks ago, and I had next to nothing as a backup plan. We were going to leave to go out of town the next day and we had a TON of fruits and veggies that needed to be eaten.

So, I made a gigantic salad. I heated the leftover green beans and broccoli.

I cut the apple, nectarines, grapes, and added it to a can of pineapple to make a make shift fruit salad.

I put it all in the middle of the table and said:

Dinner served.

There were some grumbles from the kids. I expected Jake to be a little bit put off by it (mostly because he has an amazing metabolism and has a hard time feeling full on fruits and veggies alone), but he was cheerful.

But 5 minutes in, they loved it! Their plates were heaping with fruits and veggies and they were happy. I always let them eat as many veggies as they want, so in a way, it was the endless dinner :). Perfect for my always-hungry kids.

So, the next time you’re running late or just not feeling it, get out some fruits and veggies and call it a night! 

Of course I didn’t take pictures because, at the time, this was a FAIL night, not a Post-worthy night. So use your imagination, and enjoy this picture of the kids working in grandma’s garden!