Families with 2 young kids- what's your Shabbos menu?

amother

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:26 pm

I have two toddlers. I always struggle with what to make for Shabbos. I don't have much time and I'm not the greatest cook.

This is what my menu normally looks like:

Friday night-
challah
sushi (half a roll)
soup
one main
one side

Shabbos day-
challah
sushi (half a roll)
cholent or a main in the crockpot
veggie or salad

It feels so sparse and empty. The thing is, it's so hard for me to make kugels- it feels like a lot of work for very little nutritional value. Also, I feel like I end up throwing so much of it out, since relatively little gets eaten. At the same time, the kids like variety- they eat a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

How can I add some more food in a way that's easy, at least somewhat filling, and won't end up going to waste?

amother

Lime

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:30 pm

I have 2 little kids and make a traditional menu. The kids eat basically everything.

Night:
Challa with dips
Salmon & gefilta fish
Soup with noodles and kneidel
Cold cuts, kugel, farfel

Morning:
Challa with dips
Salmon & gefilta fish
Eggs with liver and veggies
Chalont & kugel

amother

Mauve

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:31 pm

I have 3 kids and my menu is very similar.
I usually try to add a starch of some sort. For friday night I usually make rice or couscous and shabbos day I'll make lukshen kugel, potato kugel, carrot muffins... something of the sort. I'll make a regular size recipe but either put the kugel in loaf pans or do mini muffins and then I can freeze 2/3rds for another week and it doesn't go to waste

amother

Black

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:44 pm

challah
salmon or gefilta
loaded chicken soup
potato kugel (but can totally skip sometimes)

challah and one dip
cholent

that's it. everyone's full and happy!

amother

cornflower

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:55 pm

Challah and egg (dh doesn't like fish or dips so don't bother)
soup
chicken
potato kugel (I make big batches of kugel and divide between small loaf containers so lasts for multiple weeks)
salad (sometimes)
ice cream

Challah & egg (sometimes liver also, but not usually).
cholent
ice cream

This is what we have when it's just us. If I have guests then I do more variety.

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:57 pm

amother [ Black ] wrote:

challah
salmon or gefilta
loaded chicken soup
potato kugel (but can totally skip sometimes)

challah and one dip
cholent

that's it. everyone's full and happy!

I do basically this and glad I'm not the only one! Only difference is I do also make chicken, mostly for me because I don't like chicken soup. Everyone else would probably be happy with just the chicken soup. But I don't make fish. Also instead of potato kugel I mostly do oven rice, and one roasted vegetable if I'm off carbs.

Shabbos day, I pretty much do exactly that, I'll try to add a simple salad though.

amother

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 10:29 pm

amother [ cornflower ] wrote:

How do you freeze potato kugel in a way that it lasts? Every time I tried freezing, it was gross.

amother

Cerulean

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 10:35 pm

The problem is not that you have 2 little kids to feed... at that age they will probably eat a little of most food
Chicken and kugel is perfect for them cut up - soup with veggies is great! They don’t need much more than that but of course you should prepare more for your dh.

Just wait till you are dealing with teens...
My shabbos menu no longer contains
Fish, soup, chicken, kugel... ahhh! Those were the days.....
Now we have franks n blanks, hot poppers, deli rolls, over night kugel, nish nosh salad...

amother

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 10:36 pm

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

The thing is, challah itself is a pretty heavy starch. I don't like adding another one- it feels like it makes the meal so unhealthy! Like I saw this recipe for pineapple kugel on one of the other threads, but it's more like pineapple cake. Same with most Yerushalmi kugels and carrot kugels. And then potato kugel is just a really heavy starch, and mine never comes out that good, anyway (I think it's the food processor).

tichellady

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 11:14 pm

I don’t make kugel regularly, I steam or roast veggies and/or or we have salad

Pineapple kugel is cake and I’m not serving that as a side dish. Potato kugel is delicious but not a quick thing to make. It’s much easier to cube a few potatoes and roast them

amother

Black

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 11:46 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

How do you freeze potato kugel in a way that it lasts? Every time I tried freezing, it was gross.

When I do make kugel I for sure divide it up into pieces and freeze. 2 squares of kugelper silver foil, I put one in a pan with some water on the hotplate and one in the cholent. The trick is to heat it up with water really slow. Delicious and fresh tasting every time. You can sprinkle some salt in the water too.

chocolatecake

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 11:57 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I have three kids ages 2-6. I make a very simple shabbos.
Friday night
Salmon and or gefilta fish
Lettuce salad
Israeli salad
Chicken soup and kneidels
Chicken
Potato kugel

Shabbos day
Same salads as Friday night
Liver and eggs
Cholent
Carrot muffins

amother

cornflower

Fri, Aug 02 2019, 6:22 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

How do you freeze potato kugel in a way that it lasts? Every time I tried freezing, it was gross.

Kugel is actually one thing that I find tastes just as good from the freezer and lasts there for a long time. Are you reheating it properly? It does need to get heated through very well.

(It could also depend on your freezer - I have noticed that when I put it in my fridge freezer then it does sometimes have a freezer taste. I always put cooked foods in my other freezer.)