Deborah Asada
Debbie Asada
About me:
Debbie Asada is a credentialed health teacher with a degree in dietetics and is completing her master’s degree in education. After teaching high school health, she began working for Dairy Council of California as a Schools Supervisor, where she develops nutrition education curricula.
She loves to spend time with her five children, ages 2-16 and teaching them the joys of cooking. Foods that she can’t live without are pomegranates, feta cheese and pizza.
With five kids, school in session and soccer season in full swing, I found myself with a new dilemma this year: our first soccer season with the 4 and 8-year-olds playing. Between the two teams, soccer practice is Monday through Thursday between 6 and 7 p.m. How do I manage the kids, work, homework and soccer practice and still provide a healthy home-cooked meal at an appropriate time?
I leave work around 3:30 p.m., pick up kids from school and make it home by 4:30 p.m. When we get home, I get everyone a snack and get them ready for practice. If I waited until after practice to prepare dinner, it would be 7:15 or 7:30 p.m., and even if I prepared a simple dinner, we wouldn’t be eating until after 8 p.m., which is just too late.
So I cooked up a little experiment for my two oldest kids (16 and 12 years old). Neither one has spent much time in the kitchen, other than when taking their turn doing the dishes. But I began to think that they were old enough to prepare healthy meals for the whole family. I decided to swap their “dish nights” for “dinner nights.”
What would their dinner nights entail? They need to choose a meal the weekend before their scheduled night so I can include anything they may need on my weekly run to the grocery store, prepare dinner and have it ready on the table by 7:30 p.m. when we get home from practice. This will not only teach them the life skill of how to prepare dishes when they are out on their own, but it also gets everyone fed at a decent hour, and I think the older kids would be thrilled to get out of a dish night.
Wish me luck as I wander into uncharted territory. I will let you know how the experiment is going, how the kids feel about their “dinner nights” and any insights that may come of this new adventure!
Debbie Asada
Schools Supervisor, Northern California