What drives your BGE cooked (or otherwise) evening banquet timing?

lousubcap

Life got in the way so tonight is BGE do-overs.  But thought about how we have evolved thru kids and now empty nesters. 

Kid post school activities and non-school related scheduling got us to the 7-8 PM window.  Spent so much time there that it is now the norm after both moved out , last out in 2009.  Big fan of the later, now more relaxed time.  I would rather eat at 10 PM than 6 PM. 

Comments?

lkapigian

It’s pretty much been Linda and I for almost 20 years , it’s a rare day I cook for us two …. But I love my “ non event” cooks on the weekends when it’s just us and we take food to the pub

RRP

Long story - but I was a workaholic 6 days a week for over 25 years. Though I only lived 20 minutes from home I never got home before 7:00 or 7:30 or 8:00 at best if it was "month end" - a term only us controller idiots understand! I always felt I needed a couple "shooters" to help me unwind. We seldom ate before 8:30 or 9PM. We didn't have kids so THAT was not an issue for us.

Even after I retired 18 years ago that late night supper pattern was a difficult one to break, but now we eat at 7:15 to 7:30.

dmourati

I work backwards from when I want to get to sleep. As I've gotten older, my bed time has crept earlier. I'm currently on a pretty strict 9:30-10PM bed time routine whereas in my younger days I'd easily stay up till 1/2AM.

I figure I need about 3 hours post meal for my body to digest.

That puts my meal time at no later than 7pm.

Works for me.

Langner91

Unfortunately, I am still in "get it done" mode.  My brain starts early and forces me to knock things off my "list".  I don't feel I can relax until all of the tasks for the day are done.

That forces me to come home from work and immediately start on supper.  It is rare for me to eat after 6:00pm.  Then, dishes are put away, kitchen cleaned, and I can finally relax for the evening.  Unless I have a work call or some other activity planned.  Once I finally sit down, I am done for the day.

I hope to make it to retirement so I can work on fixing that mind-set.

ColbyLang

Up at 2:45 am dictates an earlier than expected dinner and subsequently bed time. I used to be able to function on 3-4 hours of sleep, now it’s no less than 5 but no more than 6 or I’m just foggy. We eat 6ish, if later than that I’ve got to eat something prior and go light on dinner. 

FrostyEgg

It's all over the board for us, but seems to be trending around 7pm or so. I have a 5 year old and a 6 month old, along with a wife who is a hospital RN that works 12's so it's a lot to balance schedule wise sometimes. 

I can only imagine it'll get worse once both kids are in school/sports etc. Just trying to enjoy the chaos!

fishlessman

breakfast around 7 am, small brunch at 9:30 am, dinner is at noon on weekdays. weekends, breakfast around 4:30 am, lunch around 9:30 am, dinner around 3 to 4 pm. i never eat late, up early, early to bed. its dark thirty before 4 pm in the colder months here

GrateEggspectations

Spoken, or written, like someone who has spent time overseas. 

We love to eat within the 8-10pm window when schedules allow, but that’s no guarantee in this household, unless we want to burn the candle from both ends. 

I trust that many Eggheads must have a window that vacillates over time. But if my familial obligations were not so prevalent, I believe 9pm would be my target. 

Grogu

The kiddos here are 11 and 13, so we tend to aim earlier. 13 year old is creeping up on the bed time, but still trying to get the 11 year old to bed earlyish and allow for wind down time before that means trying to have dinner served no later than 6:30. Now that I work from home most days I can sneak in some longer cooks during the week. Pre Covid any long cooks were weekend only affairs with the week meals all needing to be 30 minutes or less to  table in time.

Ybabpmuts

To me, it all depends what we're eating. On hot dog night, we always ate after the kids went to bed,mostly because my wife ate her hot dogs the long way and very slowly, and sometimes it made me feel like I had a turkey leg in my pants, and the kids don't need to know that I had a turkey leg in my pants on hot dog night. Far too confusing I think...