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@Cherrybee: For now, it's not feasible for LO to eat dinner with us for the same reasons as you--we both work full time and LO is exhausted from daycare and wants to eat and go to bed as soon as we get home. DH doesn't get home from work till 7 at the earliest. She's usually asleep or at least in bed by that point.

I know that when she is older, we will all eat together, but I'm not feeling guilty that it doesn't work right now with a 10 month old's schedule.

I *do* eat with her because I'm always starving after work so it's my snack time. But I give her things just for her, and I also munch on them. Hard boiled eggs, peas, corn, broccoli, purees sometimes, pasta with veggie sauce, frozen blueberries, pieces of banana, etc.

My LO still doesn't really eat much in terms of volume, so I still feel like we're in the "practicing" stage. When she's older and not eating dinner at 5 pm, she'll be able to eat with us.

My DH and I used to eat as late as 9 or 10, often while watching TV! We have become disciplined about having dinner at the table around 7 so we can eat with LO and give him time for bed.

Our meals are usually ok for him to share, when they're not, we just steam him some broccoli or cut him up some avocado and he's fine.

My major issue is snacks, though! I'm a huge grazer, and it's definitely not LO food-sweets, junk food, wine, etc. It's so hard! If I'm alone at home, I've been known to sneak into another room for coffee and cookies...

@Cherrybee: We have the same problem, especially during the week. My little eats dinner at 5:15ish, and is down for the night at 6:15ish (it's the only way she gets enough sleep . . . we have to wake her up in the morning as it is!). I do her evening routine solo (about 98% of the time), and I wait until DH gets home (usually around 7:30/8) to eat dinner. I try to do family breakfasts and lunches at the weekend, but even then, sometimes if the morning has been hectic, it's easier for us to do lunch together after she is down for her nap.

Could you try having a snack at the same time your LO eats dinner (for now, until she is able to stay up until a more reasonable time for you to eat) and feed her leftovers from the night before? You can both nibble on something at the same time so you are having "meal time" together, and then eat your regular dinner later. This would just be temporary until her schedule adjusts to where you can all eat your normal dinner together, but it would give her more variety in what she is eating and give you all an opportunity to sit down together still, even if it is only for 10 minutes.

@Cherrybee: We don't eat with R either. We aren't hungry at 530 when she has dinner. Plus during the week, I can't eat cause then I will feel sick when I work out after she goes to bed. I cook at night for her the next day, if I know she won't eat the leftovers. Then I just reheat for her when we get home.
We eat as a family for lunches on the weekends. Whoever gets up with her on the weekends, eat breakfast with her, but usually one of us is sleeping in.

@Cherrybee: so what made meal planning easiest for me was assigning general categories to each night- Monday is fish, Tuesday is soup, Wednesday pasts, Thursday Mexican, Friday easy! I do look at the weather because certain days inspire different meals.
We do eat different things for breakfast and lunch, although my goal when our lives are a little more predictable is to have special family breakfasts on the weekends. Lunch is usually leftovers for everyone, but if your husband won't go for that I'd get sandwich stuff.
Here's out a typical day works for us (and I realize this doesn't all apply to you because I SAH for now. Ask me in two months how this is going when I'm back at work three days a week....things may look a lot different then)
She usually eats half a banana and maybe some berries while i get everything else ready. Then we sit and she eats peanut butter toast or oatmeal with applesauce and I usually just eat cereal.
She has a morning snack.
Lunch is typically leftovers, and we eat together between 11:30 and noon.
Afternoon snack she usually eats in her chair while watching me do some dinner prep.
Dinner we eat together at 5:30 if it's an early bed night or if my husband has to work the overnight shift (I try to include him in family dinner whenever possible, but his schedule is erratic at best so it can be tricky. Yesterday we ate at 5:15). Usually we aim for 6:00.
If I'm not hungry with dinner I'll eat a small portion and then have a bit later. I'm hoping that by seeing us enjoy a variety of foods with her, she won't be a picky eater....we will see.

Also, talk to your husband. There is a lot of research about the benefits of family dinner, and if you are all on the same page about what your goals are related to food then it will be easier. I really see meal times as integral to family culture, and a time when everyone comes together without distraction. I have some goals for adjusting our meal times too- currently we do "buffet style" but when I have a dishwasher I'd prefer to set things out family style on the table. It sounds pretty fifties, but I think there is something to be said for beautifully displayed food tasting better

@Cherrybee: He really loves the filling for these too http://www.hellobee.com/2014/02/17/15-minute-lettuce-wraps/ I still don't give him lettuce yet (not enough teeth I don't think)

We are the same as @Silva: in that I have told DH since before we got married that family dinnertime would be non-neogtiable for me. It has meant, since I've gone back to work, that our meals are very simple. It's been a lot easier since the weather's gotten warmer, as we're able to cook most meals entirely on the BBQ, but they are not at all elaborate (e.g. tonight we're having some sausage we got at the farmers' market and a huge amount of mixed grilled veggies). We typically get home around 5 (we all commute together) and have dinner by 5:30/5:45. DD starts her bath/bed routine at 7.

As for the weekends, we often pick up stuff while we're on the go on weekends and some of it isn't stuff I want DD to eat. So I've gotten into the habit of cooking extra through the week so that she can have those leftovers on the weekend. So, to give you some idea, earlier this week we had teriyaki pork chops we dinner...we only ate 2.5 chops, but they came in packs of 2 at the grocery store, so I bought 4 and now have extra for DD to eat this weekend. I also save leftover vegetables through the week. And I always have some of her 'standbys' on hand (frozen blueberries, avocados, banana and peanut butter etc.) that I can use as sides on the weekend or any time DH and I have a meal that isn't baby-appropriate

@heartonastring: oh, yeah- we have ravioli with spinach and cheese, and broccoli pancakes in the freezer to pull out if we need a meal for her (like if we are going out after she goes to bed or something). I always check the frozen section for good sales and stock up on that kind of stuff.
But I do resist the temptation to break it out if she just doesn't like what we are having. If she really won't touch anything on her plate I might give her a bit of bread with hummus or something because she is still pretty tiny and can't lose weight- but for the most part what's for dinner is what's for dinner. I don't do separate meals because I'm lazy.

@Cherrybee: I also wanted to add that you will always be able to do family dinners later . . . your little lady won't remember family dinners for some time. All hope is not lost if you don't start family dinners until later!

@Cherrybee: I agree with @MsLipGloss: there is PLENTY of time for family dinner. DH and I both agree they are important but right now they just don't work for us. In a year or so, when she starts going to bed later and we can eat at 630 then DH and I will make that work but 530 is just too early for us.

We've been doing BLW for just about 4 months now and I still struggle with this. I definitely want to eventually get into the habit of family meals, but DH rarely gets home before 7 and C is in bed by 7:30-8, then DH and I eat dinner after she is in bed, so it's not going to happen for a little while. When she is a little older, I'll probably switch to eating dinner with her, not DH, I guess. For now in terms of eating together, since I SAH I always eat lunch with C, and I snack while I give her dinner. But she doesn't always eat what I do, even if I do make a point now to always eat things I can offer her at least (like, I'd be happy for her to eat a turkey and cheese sandwich, but she isn't a big fan.)

Confession: I was feeling a little smug about how my baby would eat anything I offered her and she wasn't picky and she was soooo good at feeding herself. And now all she wants is cheese cubes and fruit, sometimes she will lick the hummus off the piece of bread I put it on.

So, I definitely cook up a bunch of vegetables at once-- steam a whole head of broccoli, bunch of carrots, and keep them in the fridge. And I cut up a bunch of fruit-- lately strawberries and blueberries are on a sale and she LOVES them. Shovels them into her mouth. I snack on whatever she is eating, even if I'm also eating something she doesn't like. Oh and she loves tortellini, so I'm going to try making a pasta salad with them and a bunch of veggies that she has liked before and hope she will eat them again.

I really should ask my mom how she did it, b/c I know for sure my sister & I both ate what they ate starting at a very young age.

E eats much earlier than we do. DH works until 8:30, so we don't eat until late at night, long after E is in bed. He eats our leftovers most of the time, or rather, that's what I give him. Whether or not he eats it is another story. Poor kid barely knows what a freshly cooked dinner tastes like, but I don't get him home until 6 and I don't have time to cook him a fresh meal. He gets offered all of our regular/regularly spiced food, though on that note, I have tried to limit the salt I put into our food because of this. Sometimes he'll go for it, sometimes not. On nights where he doesn't eat our meals, he'll get down, play and do bath and I'll feed him a snack before bed so he doesn't go hungry. I'm hoping that he doesn't associate not eating dinner with getting a snack, but he's too young to know that he'll be hungry in the middle of the night if he doesn't eat dinner. And I don't want to get in the habit of cooking two dinners every night, one of stuff E will eat, and one for us.

As for weekends, he gets a small "snack" when he wakes up. A banana or some applesauce and oatmeal. That will hold him over until we eat breakfast a little later. He eats our breakfast sandwiches, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, whatever we're having. Then usually he'll get leftovers for lunch, and we'll eat his dinner with him, which is actually usually our lunch. We usually get two meals together on a weekend, and when he's eating and we're not, I sit with him and I'll eat a snack while he eats.