Frozen vs. Freestyle

I was speaking with a dear friend of mine yesterday, another swim mom incidentally, when I mentioned the fact that because all the kids had dryland (aerobic exercises and running) in addition to their pool workouts, our dinner schedule was all screwed up. I would have people coming and going at all different times and mealtime would be on a "three-shift schedule". To solve this issue, I abandoned my original dinner plans (veggie night, see a previous post) and opted for Plan B which was a store-bought frozen casserole with different veggies on the side. I could put all of this in the lower oven on 200 and let it just sit there until the dinner shifts were done.

When my friend and I were discussing this plan, she was thrilled that I was serving a frozen, store-bought meal because her daughter gives her flack about doing the same thing. Horror of horrors! I told her that I do this occasionally knowing full well 1/3 of my kids won't eat it, 1/3 will try to eat it and the last third will eat it and enjoy it. I am, frankly, ambivalent about it as sometimes meal preparation is so difficult with our evening schedule that I am just interested in "filling the hole" so to speak; I'm not as interested in what we are eating as I am in the fact that we EAT.

The jury in my head is still out as to whether or not the frozen casseroles actually taste good. Some are better than others, and ones that I think would be awesome just aren't. But, they DO fill the hole, and that's one less meal I need to really cook. With this being said however, I cannot help but compare what I could make vs. what the red box offers. The quality of what I can buy, on sale, is great and there is no beating the price; there is no way I could produce the same amount of food for under $4 (again, on sale), but I know that what I make would taste tons better. Herein lies the conundrum.

If I knew I could get my kids to eat it, I would make and freeze casseroles myself. One casserole could feed us twice - especially because they just pick at it, only 2-3 of them will actually eat the whole thing. So what to do? Maybe next time we have leftover chicken, I will turn it into the traditional chicken and rice or chicken and pasta casserole and freeze it. This way, I will have the option of an "on the fly" dinner when I need it. Every budget-friendly, time-saver, organizational article ever written mentions this strategy, but I have yet to do it simply because my family is "casserole-challenged," but maybe it's better than the red box? I'll let you all know...K