Five Tips for Making Dinner Happen

This week held a lot of discussion on family dinner and how to make it work, inspired in part by Pete Wells' column about the difficulties of pulling it off. I wrote an open letter to Pete, and eatdinner.org was featured twice for my advocacy for family dinner, on The Lunch Tray and on the Love You More blogs. (Thank you!) Through the magic of the Internet (aka links), I found some other great folks that are singing the same tune.

Here's hoping that the family dinner discussion encourages parents not to wave the white flag, but to embrace the kitchen and the merits of family dinner.  Family dinner does take time and commitment, and it isn't always fun, but it's so worth it in the end. Much like parenting, no?

Here's 5 more tips to add to my list. 

Five MORE Tips for Making Family Dinner Happen

1. Plan ahead. If you can plan and shop a week ahead, that's great. But even just making a plan in the morning, at your lunch hour, or via email or text with your spouse, can help.  Having a ready answer a when the kids cry "What's for dinner?" will take the pressure off as you walk in the door and help you feel more in control.

2. Have back-pocket, straight-out of the pantry recipes that you can whip up without thinking. There are many simple pasta sauces that can be made with just a few at-hand ingredients. Memorize a few, and you'll have dinner even on crazy days. Your goal should be 5 to 10 recipes you can make in 20 or 30 minutes. Use the weekends to learn new recipes or to make large batches of favorite meals.

3. Fresh is great, but don't fear the freezer.  In addition to frozen meals and leftovers you make yourself, there are healthy frozen food options out there, but check the ingredients!  Frozen veggies or fruit (for dessert) can be a life-saver to round out a meal nutritionally. Don't forget you can "freeze your own." We often pre-cut a large package of meat (chicken, beef, pork) into stir-fry sized pieces that can be quickly defrosted and put into weeknight meals.

4. Resist ordering take-out or buying drive-thru, if you can. If you can whip up a meal in 30 minutes, it will be on the table way before the pizza guy arrives. Cooking a simple meal at home is way better for you and cheaper too.

5. Use the web for inspiration! There are so many great food blogs out there, many with quick easy recipes for families. Also, Google just came out with a Recipe View that looks promising. Type in a cooking idea, or even a holiday or theme, and get recipe suggestions, complete with ingredient list and cooking times. Very cool!

Check out these blogs or find others that you trust and keep checking for new ideas.  (If you like any of these, send the author some love via the comments sections! Bloggers love that, really!)

Red, Round or Green Lots of great stuff on family meals, meal planning and recipes. Her recent post on how she does it: plan, plan, plan.
Stay at Stove Dad. Great recipes and perspective as a dad who cooks for his family. New book coming out in May!
Friday Fan Club: Great Blogs for Family Dinner Recipes A recent eatdinner.org round-up of recipe sites I like.

Friday Fan Club: Great Blogs for Family Dinner Recipes

For some people, the hardest part of family dinner is the dinner part. Knowing what to cook and having the confidence to prepare a meal can be a huge stumbling block. I'm preparing for several workshops on healthy eating this spring, and I want to collect the best resources to share with families to promote family dinner. One thing I'm creating is a list of some of my favorites food blogs that focus on family-friendly meals. By "family-friendly," I don't mean bland and boring, I mean "done in 30 minutes and on the table"!  I also mean, realistic for food budgets, cooking skills, nutrition and tastes, but still featuring real food that home cooks can accomplish on a daily basis. All these blogs fit the bill with inspiring recipes and tips that are do-able for time-strapped parents. As far as I know, all of these blogs are written by real parents who cook for their families. You can do it too!


Great Blogs for Family Dinner Recipes:
The Family Dinner Book. By Laurie David. This website, based on her book, has lots of resources, recipes and links to keep family dinner and the conversations with your kids flowing. I am honored to occasionally guest blog for the site.
TheScramble.com  byAviva Goldfarb, author of The Six O'Clock Scramble and other great cookbooks
Dinner: A Love Story: Great Stories, Great Recipes
One Hungry Mama: Recipes for Kids and their Food-loving Parents, Babies, Toddlers, and up.
What's Cooking with Kids: More than recipes, a lot of great info and insight on cooking with your kids and making a difference
Simple Bites: Articles, Recipes, and Fun Tips on Healthy Eating
The Jolly Tomato Family Food News and Recipes
In Jennie's Kitchen and Simple Scratch Cooking Recipes may be a bit more intensive than some, but real cooking is worth it!
The Naptime Chef This mom has accomplished a lot during naptime! Great recipes and inspiration.

I'd love to feature more blogs that can help with family dinner.  Let me know if you have a blog to share (even your own!) and I'll consider adding it to the list. (And, if you like any of these blogs, send the author some love via the comments section! Bloggers love that, really!)


More Blog additions:
Take Back Your Table
Food for my Family
Feed our Families
Little Locavores, by Melissa Graham, Founder of Purple Asparagus

Just Cook: Easy Fried Rice

Part of cooking regularly is figuring out a way to effectively deal with leftovers. Some meals lend themselves well to just being re-heated and re-served.  But often, leftovers, at least in our house, are scraps of this and that, nothing big enough to count as another full meal, but a bit too much to just toss.

My DH, our resident stir-fry champ, feels like fried rice is the ultimate leftover tool. You mix lots of little bits together to create a whole new delicious and healthy meal. It is basically free, all you need are some leftovers and cold rice. (In this video, he uses freshly cooked chicken, but normally he would just use leftovers.) Here's his version of fried rice, thanks to YouBChef.

Easy Fried Rice

1 1/2 - 2 cups of cold leftover rice
Leftover meat and/or vegetable*, chopped small. (You can freshly cook 1/2 lb of boneless chicken or pork with a little ginger or garlic, as shown here, if you are out of leftovers.)
1-2 eggs
XO sauce (secret ingredient)
Chopped scallions (optional)
Soy sauce, optional, to taste
Canola oil

Prep leftover ingredients and egg first. Chop leftovers into small pieces. Scramble 1-2 eggs (depends how much you like egg and how much rice you are using) and cook omelet-style in wok. Chop egg into strips.

Add 1-2 Tbs of Canola oil to wok and heat on high. When wok and oil are hot, add cold rice and stir-fry in pan, breaking up with metal spatula. Rice is to be coated in oil. Once rice is coated, starting adding the cooled, chopped ingredients in any order: leftover meat, leftover veggies, cooked eggs. Keep tossing a heating until everything is hot. This should take 5 min or less, depending on how much rice you have. Near end of cooking, add 1/2 teaspoon of XO sauce, fresh scallions, and a bit of soy sauce to taste. (Soy sauce may not be needed, depending on whether leftovers have soy sauce or not.)

*Note: Any leftovers will work except those cooked with dairy.

Leftovers can get a bad rap, but creative re-use can instantly become new family favorites. Fried rice is one way to re-purpose perfectly good food into a new meal and a great way to whip up a weeknight dinner with no thought required! It is a big family favorite in our house for weekend lunches too, as seen here where the fried rices feeds 3 adults, 2 teens, 2 tweens and a five year old!