A New Take on Frozen Pizza for Dinner

Frozen pizza - survival tool or family fun?

Have you ever had one of those days when you were stretched so thin that you were doing good just to get a frozen pizza heated up and on the table before everyone melted into a big hungry heap? I sure have - many, many times. 

This used to make me feel super guilty. How could I call that dinner? Wasn't I supposed to be cooking big, healthy meals every night? And if I couldn't manage it, wasn't I failing as a wife and mom?

This really hit me hard when my kids were little. By the time 5pm arrived every day, I was completely spent, and the last thing I could do was find something to occupy my little guys while the hubs and I cooked an elaborate meal in the kitchen. It just was not possible on most days. So we ate a lot of frozen pizza (and I added salad or raw veggies for the health factor). 

It felt like all the plates were precariously perched on top of a million tiny spindles and if one more thing came my way, they would all fall down.

I spent way too long trying to keep those plates perched and spinning, but then I started reading and hearing about the idea that balancing everything perfectly might just be a myth. (For more on that, you can read this article and listen to this podcast.) 

And I realized that frozen pizza nights could actually be really fun family time.

Not too much work on the front end, not many dishes to wash on the back end, and really happy kids sitting at the dinner table chatting away with us. So all these years later, we're still having frozen pizza nights in our family. They're our go-to on days that are just too full, and they continue to open up extra time for family fun. 

I think that's why frozen pizza exists - for families who need a night here and there to have an easy dinner at home, right?

The truth is that as parents, some days we do cook really big, healthy meals for our kids (most days in my world it's my husband with just a hand from me), and other days we're top-notch employees who only have time to cook frozen pizza for dinner. Some days we're the best moms and dads on the planet, and other days we're stellar writers or athletes or homeschoolers, but rarely do all of those things happen all on the same day.

And that's life - big, messy, dream-chasing life.

So, if you've been spinning plates and your family fun factor is dipping pretty low these days, the pressure is officially off. You're hearing from someone who has been there and knows that balancing it all just perfectly is just a lie that keeps us from enjoying our big, crazy lives.

And frozen pizza nights can totally be the best thing we do for our families sometimes - especially if they open up time for family fun. 

What do frozen pizza nights look like with your family?

Come on over to the email group and join the discussion!