HOW MANY ARE YOU COOKING FOR TONIGHT?

One the challenges of cooking in a single parent household is that the numbers can change frequently. Children might be with you alternating nights, or half the week, or every other weekend or one week a month. Maybe you and their other parent choose not to have a firm schedule and amicably agree about where your children are staying as situations and work schedules change. Whatever your situation, it can be tricky to plan efficient and tasty meals.

When your children are with you

How often your children are with you can easily affect how you handle mealtimes. If you see them rarely, you might make the meal an occasion and feed them their favorites. If you have children more regularly, I think it's good to give them the "regular family dinner," whatever that means to you. For me, it meant regular foods I'd cook if another adult was eating with me. I tried to always make sure there was at least one dish the kids really liked and if they chose to fill up on fruit salad or a baked potato, for example, I didn't much worry about it. Your own rules will change as they get older, but I do find it useful to think in terms of "what have they eaten this week" rather than "what have they eaten this meal." Treats and unhealthy meals every night of the week can lead to health problems (and cranky children!). Treats now and then or a meal of less than totally healthy foods now and then should be enjoyed as the exception to the usual healthy eating you do.

When your children are switching soon

If your children are not going to be with you the following evening, plan ahead a bit. Perhaps you have an adult night out scheduled and so want to ensure you don't have leftovers. Or perhaps you're looking forward to a quiet evening alone at home and want a simple meal. In that case, you might think about grilling a steak or roasting a chicken so you can make yourself a nice salad or substantial sandwich easily the next night.

When it's just you

What you do on nights to yourself can vary drastically of course. Perhaps you're seeing someone and would like to cook a nice meal together, something fancier than you'd attempt when your kids are with you. Perhaps you hate to cook and so just heat up a can of soup or make yourself a salad. Or perhaps you love to cook and entertain and choose that night to have a few friends over and really go wild in the kitchen.

Making a plan

Whatever your situation, unless you've been cooking for years and can wing it with great success, you're likely to find it easier to make a menu plan. Your menu plan might be for one week or one month, depending on how often you like to shop.

Your plan can be pretty flexible but still offer you a planned menu on those nights you just don't have any ideas. I like to keep a list of favorite meals and categorize them by things like:

• Super simple
• Pantry dinners
• Freezer dinners
• Plan ahead
• Barbecue
• Morning prep (for things like slow cooker recipes or meats that marinade)
• Sports nights (things that can be fixed up to a point and then wait for kids to arrive home hungry)

If you like to try new recipes and keep tearing them out but never actually cooking them, a plan can really help. Look through your collection of recipes and pick out one or two new ones to try and then figure out whether they're good for a "with kids" or "without kids" night.