Any working mom knows that balancing a career and a family isn’t always seamless. But Dylan Dreyer, co-host of 3rd hour of Today and weather anchor of Weekend Today, has figured out a few techniques for making it work. “We’re big into routines in my house,” she says, revealing that sticking to a schedule helps to ensure that her son, Calvin, 2 ½, eats well, that she has the time to cook a healthy dinner for her family, and is able to unwind with her husband at the end of a long day.
Parade caught up with Dreyer to hear all about her son’s feeding routine, her meal prep process, and how she loves to end a long day on the job with a little TV binging alongside her husband.
Calvin’s food routine
The biggest thing we do is we keep Calvin on a food routine. I’ve never been the type of person who eats when I’m hungry. I eat on a schedule so it’s like at noon, I eat lunch, but if I’m hungry at 4 p.m., I can’t eat because dinnertime is at 5. So, it was just a weird way I was raised and it’s kind of what we’ve gotten Calvin into. So he has breakfast at 9 a.m., usually some kind of oatmeal or yogurt or cereal. And then he eats lunch right at 12.
After his lunch at 12, he usually takes a nap from about 1-2:30. And when he wakes up from his nap, he usually gets some sort of snack. I try to mix-in some sort of shake because I can hide some spinach in there, a banana, I’ll make it a mango shake or whatever he’s in the mood for that day, although his go-to is raisins. He will just polish off a box of raisins like it’s nobody’s business. And then we eat dinner together. Especially when I’m not traveling, I make it a point that we have dinner together at 5 every night. And once he’s done with dinner, that’s kind of the end of the day.
Calvin has a glass of milk at 6:30, and then we start our night routine, which is a whole separate routine. I don’t want to say it’s a strict food schedule because if it’s a weekend or if we’re on vacation or people are visiting, we obviously mix it up a little bit. But I think that’s why he’s such a good eater because he eats at the right time and he doesn’t snack a lot throughout the day.
Varying work hours
It depends on if I’m filling in for Al [Roker] or Carson [Daly]. It kind of changes. But usually I get into work by about five or six depending on whom I’m filling in for. And my workday is usually done at 11 in the morning unless I have a shoot somewhere, whether I get on a plane and travel or have a shoot within New York somewhere, or meetings or little things that come up. But for the most part, I can get home by about noon. So I’m usually there for the second half of Calvin’s day. My husband works for nightly news and he goes into work at 11:30. So it actually works out really well because he gets the morning routine with Cal and I get the evening routine.
Working mommy time into the day
I am a big fan of taking a nap when Calvin naps. We do have a nanny and when she leaves at 5, that’s when Calvin and I eat dinner. And Calvin can be full of energy. He’s a two-and-a-half-year-old boy. So sometimes I just need that little power nap in the middle of the day just to get through the evening. I will nap when he naps and then he usually goes out and plays with whomever from the building. We have a little playroom in our building. We have a playground up the street and he goes out and plays. And then I usually will cook dinner about 4:15 so that it’s ready by 5.
After dinner
After we eat dinner, he goes and plays and I clean up after dinner. Then we always take our dog Bosco for a little walk. Calvin takes his scooter and I take Bosco and we go around the block a few times. And then once we get back, every other night is bath night. So he gets his bath.
And then after that he gets his glass of milk and two episodes of Paw Patrol, which is his obsession right now. And it’s absolutely adorable because after he watches the first episode, he’s like, “Just one more and that’s it, right?” So I realize that I must say that to him every time the first episode ends because he recites it right back to me.
But he knows after the second episode, we go brush his teeth, we put his PJs on, he gets to pick out a book and we read it probably five or six times. And then I put them into bed. We always say goodnight to Bosco and then we say our prayers. I’ve gotten into the routine of singing him “Silent Night.” I’m not a good singer and he was born in December so it was holiday music time, so it just became this thing where every single night I sing him “Silent Night” and he asks for it. I scratch his back and sing him “Silent Night” and he’s usually asleep by 7:30.
Husband time
Then I start my own routine. When I cook dinner at 5, I always make a dish for my husband. So he gets home at 8 at night and I usually just reheat his dinner so he’s good to go. Then I hop into my routine of picking out the outfit I’m going to wear the next day, laying everything out so it’s ready to go for the next morning, wash my face, scrub the layers of makeup off my face.
Usually I get up at 4:15 if I’m in for Al, but if I’m not filling in for Al, I usually go to bed at about 9/9:30. So it gives me about an hour with my husband. We usually binge watch something, usually reruns of 30 Rock or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, something pretty mindless just so I can zone out for a little bit and then I go to bed.
At home in the kitchen
I love to cook. And actually the thing that’s kind of taken off is my #DiningwithCal that I do on my Instagram because my son loves to eat and he likes to name all this food and tell me what’s on his plate. So I cook a variety for dinner. Last night was pork chops and applesauce with sweet potatoes. Tonight I’m making cauliflower soup topped with a crispy pancetta. It’s a nice simple meal that he likes. I also make a mean chicken pot pie. Every meal, I really like to have a meat and potatoes, a starch with some kind of a vegetable. It’s just the way my mom cooks. So that’s just how I like to cook.
Meal prep
A lot of the things I cook are just things I’ve just been making, stuff my mom made like baked chicken thighs and some rice and a vegetable. But I have so many cookbooks. Lidia Bastianich is one of my go-to cookbooks. When I feel like I’m in the mood for Italian, she’s definitely a cookbook I go to often. And Ina Garten always has the simplest, most delicious recipes. So she’s a go-to as well.
Luckily in New York there’s the benefit of FoodKick and FreshDirect. So I actually just ordered all my groceries this morning on my ride into work. I have it delivered at my house in the morning so my husband can put it away and I don’t have to worry about it. And this way when I get home, all the ingredients are there and usually around 4 is when is when I’ll make dinner.
That morning or the night before, I’ll think of what we haven’t had in a while and what we’re in the mood for and decide on the evening’s menu. I’m also a huge fan of Hello Fresh. I use the service a lot just because it means three nights a week I don’t have to worry about what to cook. The ingredients are all sent. It’s good recipes for two people.
The problem is Calvin is eating so much more now. I used to just share a little bits of my meal with him. So now he’s eating half my meal and I end up not even getting that much food and my husband gets his whole plate. So that’s why sometimes I’ll skip the week on Hello Fresh and just make some of my tried and true favorites. It definitely teaches a lesson in portion control though (laughs).
On my days off, a lot of the routines go out the window. I feel the most unproductive then because I don’t want to have to stick to a routine. I just want to do my own thing. I end up ordering food and just eating whatever throughout the day and it just kind of throws everything off. So I think that’s why I’m a big fan of routines. But I do enjoy that every once in a while, a break from all the structure.
