Don't be a short order cook trying to keep up on the daily likes and dislikes of your children. Serve a healthy variety and let them decide if they want to eat a certain food at all and select the quantity. Once a week it helps to make a grocery list and rough out meals. The most important factor in avoiding obesity in your family is to offer scheduled meals and snacks. Grazing leads to poor food habits.
Creative Cooking Use a variety of methods to keep ahead of meals on busy days.
Planning ahead won't take long but actually saves time. You don't have to keep running menus through your mind to patch together a meal. You can cook foods on non-work days and freeze ahead. You can double and triple recipes to have food for a rainy day. You can make extra food and use as planned leftovers or can cook more of something like a lean roast and divide it between two different recipes.