Family First reader Sara Leah Rosenfeld shares how she simultaneously cooks for kids and adults

Job: Writer and editor

Lives: Yerushalayim

Cooking for: Husband and four kids, ages 21 and 20 (bochurim who are only home bein hazmanim) and 5 and 2.

When we eat: I feed my two little kids at six, and the adults eat when the little kids are in bed.

Cooking Philosophy:

I love to cook and I enjoy trying new recipes, but there’s a time and place for everything. If it involves more than two steps, it’s not a weeknight supper in my house. I’m working until my little ones come home at 3:30, and then they get my full attention. I cook supper after they go to bed.

I’m a super-organized type and I create a menu each week before I write my shopping list. I have a basic supper menu that I rotate on a biweekly basis.

When the big boys aren’t home, I plan supper around me and my husband. The little guys eat the leftovers the next day, or simple things like oatmeal and eggs. They don’t need elaborate suppers at this point.

Sunday: Grilled chicken sandwiches in baguettes with fresh vegetables

Nothing to report; we enjoyed our grilled chicken sandwiches and the kids had oatmeal and eggs, as planned.

Full disclosure: I don’t own a Betty Crocker or even a George Foreman. When I want to make grilled chicken, I broil it in the oven for ten minutes. Voilà, grilled chicken.

Monday: Leftovers from Shabbos

We wait till Monday to eat these, when everyone will be more excited about them. They go down well.

Tuesday: One-pot mushroom pasta + fish schnitzel

Tuesday is always milchig night for us. I either do a pasta/veggie combo like the above with store-bought frozen fish schnitzel (one step up from fish sticks) or baked ziti with a frozen veggie mix, sautéed and seasoned. For the little guys, I usually make plain noodles with melted cheese.

The mac and cheese hasn’t been such a big hit recently, so I switched to fish sticks and French fries. For the adults, no change.

Wednesday: Sloppy Joe (meat sauce) with couscous and corn

This is an oldie but goodie — classic ground meat in tomato sauce served over couscous. I generally use ground chicken or turkey because it’s cheaper, along with frozen corn.

The kids wouldn’t eat the leftover mushroom pasta, but we still had some Shabbos leftovers in the fridge, so they ate that with turkey pastrami, which they both love.

Thursday: Pita pizza and grilled zucchini sticks

Since I gave the little guys fish sticks and French fries on Tuesday, I had to come up with something else to serve. I offered pita pizza, but my two-year-old just licked some cheese and sauce off it. That didn’t seem filling enough, so I made him a bowl of oatmeal and a scrambled egg. One of my big boys happened to be home for supper that night. I told him I was too tired to make anything other than pita pizza, but he was welcome to order pizza if he wanted to, so he did.

I pick up baguettes at a bakery. If my older boys are home, I’ll add pickles, sliced red onions, and coleslaw (which is left over from Shabbos). It’s a quick, easy supper since I only need to cook one thing: the chicken.

The little guys usually eat oatmeal and eggs on Sunday night.

Thursday is always milchig or pareve in my house. When my older boys are home, I might make a real pizza dough (using Sarah Faygie Berkowitz’s recipe from FT many years ago). If not, we suffice with pita pizzas. The little guys will eat French fries and fish sticks.

My favorite supper hack:

Using bread / baguettes / wraps as the carb rather than cooking a side dish!

When I’m too tired to cook:

I take food out of the freezer. I usually have at least one or two backup suppers in there. (Super-organized type, as I said.)

My favorite spice:

I recently bought Moroccan paprika in oil, based on Brynie Greisman’s recommendations, and I can really taste a difference in my cholent.

My go-to kimpeturin supper:

Chicken stir-fry and rice with cut-up veggies and dip.

If someone treated me to a meal out, I’d order:

Depends if it’s milchigs or fleishigs! Probably a grilled chicken salad or a sweet potato/salmon salad. I love salads that someone else has cut up.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 925)