Taco night for a family that includes 4 particular eaters sounds more difficult than it actually is. Here are a few simple strategies that make my family’s taco night delicious AND simple.
There’s nothing easier than making ground beef tacos, in my humble opinion. Throw 4 kids in the mix and there’s nothing quite as complicated as ground beef tacos, second opinion for the day. What feels like an extreme sport [feeding kids] has become somewhat of a balancing act OR hostage negotiation [did you laugh? It felt funny writing it]. While I’d like to sit here and tell you my family eats the same exact meal that I serve night in and night out, that would be one BIG lie. In an ideal world I’d love for them to. But I also realize that food is the only thing my little people can control right now. They cannot control what is being served. When their school day starts. What their schedule entails. You name it! But they can control if they decide to eat dinner. So, I’m bending a little and giving everyone a little bit of what they like on night’s like taco night!
Here’s the taco night run-down:
- Mom eats everything pictured in a soft-shell taco WITH lean ground beef + olives + hot sauce. I love all the toppings, hence I actually could consider my taco post with everything that SHOULD go in a taco! But it wouldn’t fit in the picture above.
- Joey eats a cheese quesadilla. Dipped in applesauce. The applesauce is NOT pictured because I cannot bring myself to stomach the idea. Lately he’s been open to having the Ground Beef or steak strips with the cheese and lettuce. Progress folks!
- Anthony eats a salad with ranch [I.e. shredded lettuce DOUSED in ranch dressing] and ground beef crumbles on the side. He’s not a fan of cheese or tortillas. Is he even my child? Don’t tell him I said that…
- Lily’s plate is a salad like Anthony and a quesadilla like Joey. Boy does she want to be like her big bros!
- And as for Michael? He gets what Mom gets. And most of it ends up on the floor and it’s washed down with a big gulp of milk. Seriously guys, if we owned a dairy cow Michael would be in 7th heaven!
The moral of this post is this: don’t feel bad if I’m sharing a full-plated meal on Instagram or Facebook re: what my family is eating. Chances are I’m the only one eating it and someone else in the family is just having milk for dinner. My hope is that you do what I do, and just keep trying to serve family meals to the best of your ability. If that’s one night a week or every night a week, you do what works for you. We are all just trying to do our best right now. And for some of us that’s a bowl of cereal after working a long day with or without kids.
So tell me: do you deconstruct meals like I do for taco night? How does it work in your family?
Looking for more taco-inspired recipes on M2MN? You might like these!
I’m laughing because that’s exactly what taco night looks like in my house. The four of us all “taco” differently. As long as the kids get fed and the adults get to eat what they want once in a while it’s all good.