today i bring you not a recipe per say, but one of the best ideas i’ve had in a while (if i may say so myself).
the husband and i don’t really get out much.
we often don’t have a trustworthy sitter to leave our kids with, so when we do have someone we trust and love it makes a date night all the more awesome.
last week was my birthday… my 44th… and we got to have a belated birthday dinner on saturday. the question of what each of my kids will eat is a nightly kerfuffle. one eats pizza, another won’t touch it. one lives on chicken fingers, another has sworn off chicken. i mean. siiiiiiigh.
so in the shower, where all the good ideas are born, i came up with the idea to make the babysitter board.
on this board will be a massive variety of fruits, vegetables, crackers, cheeses, cured meat, and hummus. i knew that each of my kids would eat a few of each of these things. and my sweet sitter, who is a grown, married grad student, was bringing her husband for a “let’s see what it’s like to have three kids” roleplay. (subsequently, quite effective birth control.) but this way, they could eat off of this board too!
this saves the sitter from making the mac-n-cheese or whatever junk dinner we leave for them, plus little to no cleaning up the kitchen. each kid has their own plate, so no dirty fingers all over the community board. but they can revisit the board if they want to add more to their plate. and i rest knowing my kids have had some decent whole foods for dinner!
if you’re a food safety nerd like me, set a 2 hour timer for the sitter and tell her to stick the whole tray in the fridge when it goes off. this way you can pull it out once you’re home (if you’re hungry) or the next day for an easy lunch.
choose your own adventure and include foods you know your crew will want. this one almost included a few quesadillas, but i ran out of room. maybe some chocolate covered fruits for dessert (mine were already eyeballing their halloween candy so i left this off). maybe grilled cheese sticks, lunch meat roll-ups, or baked brie! you choose!
