10 Reasons to Have Family Meals More Often

When was the last time your family had a meal together?

I don’t mean sitting in the car munching on burgers from the drive-through. I mean sitting down at the table and sharing a home-cooked meal. If you can’t remember when you last enjoyed a family dinner, make plans to have them more often.

Experts have found - and continue to discover - plenty of benefits for both children and adults when families have dinner together at least three times a week. I know…I know, it’s not always easy, so click here if you need help with meal planning and grocery shopping.

Here are 10 reasons why you should have family meals more often:

Good For The Body

1. When families eat together, everyone tends to eat healthier. People who have frequent family meals consume more calcium, fiber, iron, and vitamins B6, B12, C and E. It could be because home-cooked meals are healthier than fast food and restaurant meals. (Source: Archives of Family Medicine)

2. Children tend to eat more fruits and vegetables when they frequently have dinner with their families. They also tend to eat fewer snack foods. (Source: American Dietetic Association)

3. Children in families who eat dinner together are less likely to be overweight (Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine). This makes sense, given the findings in #1 and #2 above.

Good For The Brain

4. Children from families who eat meals together get better grades than their peers who don’t have lots of family meal times (Source: Lou Harris-Reader’s Digest National Poll). So family dinners are not only good for the body; they’re also good for the brain.

5. When families eat together frequently, children have better language skills compared to kids from families who don’t have family mealtimes often. (Source: Harvard University) Good For Emotional Health 6. Children of families who eat together report feeling happier and are more optimistic about the future, than their peers who have infrequent family meals. (Source: Lou Harris- Reader’s Digest National Poll)

7. Teenagers are less likely to use drugs, smoke, and drink alcoholic drinks, when their families eat together regularly. (Source: Columbia University)

8. It may come as a surprise, but among Moms who work outside the home, those who have family mealtimes reported feeling less stress than those who had family dinners less often. (Source: Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal)

9. The more often teen girls had meals with their families, the less likely they were to have symptoms of depression and suicidal behaviors. (Source: University of Minnesota)

Good For Family Bonding

10. Eating together gives family members the chance to communicate and build relationships, something that both adults and children appreciate very much. (Source: Nutrition Education Network of Washington & Oprah Winfrey’s “Family Dinner Experiment”) I hope these reasons motivate you and your family to try and eat together more often. We’re all busy - even children have plenty of after-school activities.

But as the list above shows, family meals are worth every effort we put into them. It helps to plan ahead so that we’re not scrambling to get dinner ready or panicking because we don’t have all the ingredients we need.

To make it easier to get the family around the table with a home-cooked meal, check out Dine Without Whine’s menu planning service. It cost just a penny to try it out!

Over Stuffed? 10 Great Leftover Turkey & Stuffing Recipes

I am crazy about Thanksgiving & Christmas Day leftovers.  I am not sure why, but sometimes I think the turkey & stuffing actually tastes better the next day (plus, I am a huge fan of fresh turkey & swiss sandwiches). 

This year, we have an abundance of leftovers and I thought I would stretch the leftovers with some creative leftover stuffing & turkey recipes.   I tried the first one last night and it was fabulous! 

If you are "over-stuffed" check out these leftover turkey & stuffing recipes.

1).  Breakfast Stuffing Frittata

2).  Turkey & Stuffing Bundles

3).  Turkey and Stuffing Soup

4).  Turkey Casserole with Stuffing

5).  Turkey Broccoli Pie

6).  Turkey Strata

7).  Turkey Soup with Stuffing Dumplings

8).  Stuffing Stuffed Mushrooms

9).  Stuffing Bites with Cranberry Pesto

10). Stuffed Shells

…add your own leftover stuffing tips and ideas in the comments section….

It Actually Works! Egg Shell Removal in Seconds

I saw this video on YouTube a few weeks ago and shared it on my SimpleSAHM blog.  It a nutshell (or eggshell, if you will) you simply peel both ends off of the egg and “blow” it out of the shell. 

Today, I made 5 egg sandwiches for our family lunch and had to “de-shell” 8 eggs.  Using this method, it literally took me 10 minutes to prepare my egg-salad - plus, my kids were cracking up (pardon the pun) the entire time!

Give it a try!  (Oh….and just make sure you blow on the larger part of the egg…and not the smaller part. ;)  I nearly popped my eardrums doing the opposite.

A Few Kitchen "Sprintcuts" for Busy Cooks

Have you heard of “sprintcuts” yet? It is a cool video campaign by Sprint that shows viewers how to do things faster…. Here are two of my favorites…view more (like how to “quick pour ketchup” at waitless.org.

Quickly Peel a Potato

Quickly Peel Boiled Eggs

Use Your Freezer to Save Money on Groceries

I spent part of yesterday at Costco and left with sticker shock - and LOTS of milk.  =) 

When the price of milk started to rise (dramatically) I begin looking for ways to save money on our grocery bill.  The price of milk at our local Costco store is usually half the price at our local grocery store.  Therefore, I did a little research on freezing milk and learned that it is possible, simple and it does not harm the quality of the milk. 

Since the prices of nearly everything else are rising as well, I thought about ways to buy additional items in bulk and freeze them (like cheeses, breads, eggs, etc..)

Here are a few useful links I discovered in my search.

• USDA - Food Safety and Freezing
• How to Freeze Food and Save Money
• 30 Day Cafe - Once a Month Cooking (Freezer Cooking Guide)
• A Guide to Freezing Cheese
• Refrigerator & Freezer Storage Guide
• Freezing Vegetables

Hopefully they will help you make a dent in your rising grocery bill as well.

Once a Month Cooking Video Tutorials

This weekend my husband and I spent nearly $300 at Costco stocking up on items like cheese, milk, butter, eggs and cereal. Perhaps you noticed the cost of these items skyrocketing too?

When I didn’t have two preschoolers underfoot I spent one weekend each month preparing a months’ worth of meals. While the cooking day wasn’t exactly fun (unless you *really* like cooking) I saved a tremendous amount of money and I loved having healthy “fast food” to serve each evening.

As a result of the recent jump in grocery prices, I am revisiting once a month cooking (or freezer cooking) as a way to save money on our families’ grocery bill.

Since I am “polishing up” myself, I thought I would share some resources with you…

Easy Crockpot Recipe - Chicken Pot Pie

Fix, Freeze, Fast - An At-Home Alternative to Popular Meal Assembly Kitchens

Meal assembly kitchens have become all the rage lately.  If you’ve never been to one, the concept is simple.  You choose your menu from a variety of dishes and then assemble them in a professional kitchen for later use.

I decided to try the service about a year ago and I loved it.  I gathered a bunch of girlfriends and we had a blast making delicious meals together (and not worrying about clean-up).  I would do it every month…if I had a six-figure income.

The only drawback to these centers (in my opinion, of course) is that they can be expensive.  You could create twice as many meals at a fraction of the cost by creating your own meal assembly center in the comfort of your own home.

This video will show you how to quickly and easily create a tasty freezable dish.

My Kind of Cookie Recipe - 1 Cookie…25 Ways

Now this is my kind of cookie recipe.  MSN just posted a great article about how to use a single, simple sugar cookie recipe to create 25 different cookies.  Some are elegant, some are childish and all of them look absolutely de-lish!

I was just pondering a Costco holiday cookie tray…but may change my mind after seeing this. 

Enjoy!

One Holiday Cookie Recipe, 25 Ways - MSN Lifestyle - Food & Entertaining - Slideshow - 1

Baked Spaghetti: Quick, Easy and De-lish Bulk Recipe

I am right in the middle of a "pantry challenge". 

What’s that?  Well, it means different things for different people.  For me, the pantry challenge means that I am trying desperately to put off grocery shopping (one of my least favorite things in the world). 

Basically, I am going through my pantry and trying to come up with creative meals with all of the stuff I haven’t used yet.  Let’s just say that we’ve eaten a lot of tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches and hot-dogs this week.

I was very excited about tonight’s meal, however.  I found a recipe for a fantastic baked spaghetti on AllRecipes.com. 

Since I purchase my cheese, spaghetti sauce and noodles at Costco, I have an abundance of those items to use. 

I decided to make three batches of the dish (without even trying it first).  Really - how can anyone (including me) mess up a spaghetti dish?

The great thing about this recipe is that it is super-simple to make mass quantities of it and it freezes wonderfully. 

A quick tip:

Line your baking dishes with at  least two layers of tin foil before adding the ingredients making sure you allow enough extra tinfoil on the sides to completely cover the dishes.

Then, "quick-freeze" the dishes (including the pans).  This will take several hours.  Once the dishes are solid (like a brick) remove them from the pans, label and freeze them for later use.

When you are ready to cook the meal, you simply place the "brick" back into the original dish and bake.

Enjoy!  =)