family - eating together as a family

image from google.com

This past weekend I attended a conference on strengthening your family. We talked of various things you can do, but one that I wanted to share was strengthening your family by eating together.

It can be really tough to get a family around the table. Between sports, dance, school, work, and personal attitudes getting a family together can be a pain sometimes and may not seem like it will make a difference. However, it does make a difference. Here are 8 more reasons you should keep pushing for family meals 5-6 times a week:

1. model manners – mealtime as a family is a perfect place for you to show your kids the appropriate table manners for when they are in a place not so forgiving. Try to keep the mood light and don’t criticize. Try to teach by example.
2. Expanding cultural views – mealtime is a great way to introduce cultures besides your own. it takes about 10-15 times for a child to accept a new food so keep on putting it on their plate. In our family we have a rule, you can have a lot or a little, but you have to try some. When allowing your children to help out with the meal (see number 4) they will also be more likely to try the veggie if they prepared it.
3. nourish – when you eat out, you are rarely getting a balanced meal… not only that, how do you know the ingredients and how they cooked it? home made dinners are lower is sugar, salt and fat; and higher in vitamins and minerals.
4. self sufficient teaching – it is the perfect place to teach your children how to be self sufficient… have them help plan dinners, make dinners, and clean up dinner. Heck, you could even have them help shop (even though you know you will spend more when they come :). Even your younger children can sit on a stool and tear lettuce, or mix batter. Having your children help gives them a sense of “ownership” to the meal and can be proud. this builds great self image.
5. destructive behaviors – five or more family dinners a week are associated with lower rates of smoking, drinking, and illegal drug use in teens. So you know what this means… schedule!!! It can get tough with your teens, but if you want them to succeed, you need to show them you care and want to work around them.
6. communication and well-being – conversations at the dinner table (or counter in our case) provide greater bond between parent/child relationships and even child/child relationships. it is a chance for each child to get extra and special attention from the parents. ask questions and give good and positive feedback. Again. restrain from negative comments, and criticism.
7. improves grades – children do better at school when they eat with their parents and family. But it has to be four or more times a week together to make a difference in performance in the academics.
8. saves money – meals purchases away from home cost 2-4 times more than meals prepared at home. I know families who eat fast food every single night, even sundays. I can’t imagine the percentage of the income in the family that goes to this habit.

Some other ideas

• have your children have a night when they plan and prepare a meal…
• be flexible on your menu
• create a menu – you will save SO much money and time

berry trifle

This is the recipe to the trifle that I have made HUNDREDS of times because it is SO easy and so good!!! You will be licking the bowl… promise!  I like to let Abi help me too. she is great at breaking the angel food cake and licking the beaters :)

 

2- 8oz pkg of cream cheese

2 c. powdered sugar

1 c. sour cream

2 small cont. cool whip

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond

cream together sugar, cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla and almond

either two bags of frozen berries or use fresh (that is what I do)

1 1/2 angel food cakes broken into pieces

layer cake, fruit, and cream mixture

ENJOY!!!

have a berry wonderful flag day

little miss A and I were busy in the kitchen this morning doing yet another craft/activity out of the July issue of Family Fun magazine! These are so easy and look so cute! I have to say that it takes a lot for me to just let little miss A do her own thing and not have my strawberries look like the ones in the magazine. At least I was able to do these three before I let her do her own.

I would love to do some next time with star sprinkles!

picky eaters or parenting fail

it sure has been a while since I have posted about family… this was posted to a community blog I am a member of.

I hear a lot of parents talk about their kids being picky eaters. Did you know that it is normally the parents’ fault? Think about it. If your child starts complaining about what you are eating at dinner and you get up, and prepare a whole different meal for your child… you just initiated a picky eater. Next time around, your child is going to do the same thing and then you will be known as a short order cook… always making special dishes for each member of your family. And just think about doing this for two or three different kids! Yikes!

On average, it takes a toddler 25 times of having a food placed in front of them before they will like it and even try a bite of it! That is a lot of times! So if your toddler doesn’t eat their broccoli the first time, or even second time… keep trying! Just one or two pieces of what you are serving will suffice too!

So to get your child to eat unique foods… we call them fruits and veggies… here are some extra tips-

· Involve- have your child help you prepare your meals/snacks. We always have our daughter wash the fruits and veggies. Something that she can do for her age. She also loves to help me add the spices to our meals. I am amazed at what we can get her to try and even like if she has invested her time into the preparation.

· Snacks- This is even a good tip for me! I always try to leave out a bowl of fruits and veggies on the counter or in the fridge that our daughter has free reign to. If she wants a snack that is what she eats. It also makes her feel like she is independent and can make her own food choices.

· Different versions- if your child won’t eat a raw version try steamed…

· Creativity- I have a wonderful book called Deceptively Delicious that is all recipes with hidden fruits and veggies. Our favorite is Mac and Cheese made with cauliflower and the avocado cupcakes.

· Variety and repetition- my last to tips that can really help…

sprinkle bakes

new found webiste for those who crave yummy food! And who doesn’t?

This is Sprinkle Bakes. I discovered this site pretty much by accident, but LOVE the food and even more LOVE the photography. The creations look like something out of a children’s imagination and are just whimsical and so lively.

Check it out here! 

on the menu – chicken. bacon. ranch.

I have wanted to make these chicken, bacon stuffed pizza rolls since they were posted, but never got around to it until tonight. Oh these are heaven! Especially with some A&W Root Beer. Thank you Our Best Bites!!!

on the menu - valentine’s whoopie pies from Family Fun Mag

my mom and i made these this week… it is a good thing that they were for people or we would have made ourselves sick! we got the recipe from Family Fun Magazine.

 

Ingredients

• CAKES
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup softened butter

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• FILLING
• ½ cup softened butter
• 1½ cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup marshmallow crème
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a glass measuring cup or small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla extract.

3. In a large bowl with a hand mixer set at medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until evenly blended, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg, increase the speed to high, and beat until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute more.

4. Pour half the fl our mixture into the butter-sugar mixture, and beat at medium speed until combined. Add the buttermilk mixture and continue beating until just blended. Add the remaining fl our mixture and beat again.

5. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to place a heaping tablespoon of batter on a prepared cookie sheet. Add more mounds of batter, evenly spacing them, until there are nine on each sheet. Slightly fl atten each mound with a spoon.

6. Bake the cakes one sheet at a time for 10 minutes (they should be moist and spongy). Let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Reline the sheets and scoop, shape, and bake the remaining batter.

7. Using an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat all the fi lling ingredients except the coloring in a medium bowl until evenly blended, about 2 minutes. If you want to give the fi lling a Valentine hue, fold in drops of red food coloring until the desired tint is reached.

8. To make each pie, spoon and spread a heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the bottom of a cake, then gently press another cake on top.

discovery – see jane cook

since all I can think about is food :) I have been in the deep search of some great food blogs. I came across this one today and I am in LOVE with it! Her photography is amazing!

Check out http://cjaneinthekitchen.blogspot.com/

Look at some of these photos-

Yum ~ I have got to get some food! Later!

on the menu – bite of heaven

since staying at my parents’ home, I have rediscovered a classic favorite…

I saw my brother eating some of this on toast and have been craving it all week. For some reason or another, it is just me and my daughter tonight in the house, and the craving overtook me like waves crashing over the side of a boat out to sea. I scrounged up some ingredients and made a crazy good, one-isn’t-enough-but-it-should-be desert.

 

It was way easy but so darn good- here’s the recipe for those craving nutella filled turnover

Ingredients

• Nutella (of course)
• single Pie crust recipe or pie crust from a box (what we used)
• butter melted
• cinnamon and sugar
• raspberry jam
• cool whip

Directions

• heat oven to 375*
• roll out your pie crust to around 1/4” thick
• cut circles out with biscuit cutter (3” diameter)
• put a dime or nickel sized dab of nutella in the middle
• fold the circle in half around the nutella and using a small amount of water, dab around the outside of the round and close it up to make a half circle…

• brush all the turnovers with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon
• pop in the oven for about 12 minutes
• serve with drizzled raspberry jam and cool whip
• enjoy the rich, nutty goodness!

PS- I couldn’t eat just this one… I ate much more! Will be on the treadmill in the morning!

sign of a good cook

I can sure tell that I am feeling better and getting out of my first trimester, and this is why. In all my education at BYU they tell you that being an efficient and good cook is based on other things besides cooking the actual food.

Some of those things are:

• planning your meal out and making time plans in advance
• getting out all the ingredients out before you start cooking
• washing your dishes as you go through your preparation
• not serving your meals out of the pans you have cooked in

I actually had the energy to do this yesterday… and the day before yesterday, in fact. I have been able to plan out the meals instead of waiting for my hubby to get home and then pilfering our empty fridge (trying not to purchase groceries before our vacation to Colorado) for the dinner supplies. I also have FINALLY been able to keep up with my dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher and it showed for the past three months… but it seems she is back in working order - wish I was paid for that job :)

Do you do these things? When you feel nasty or tired, what is the first thing that drops off your list? Mine?--- not serving out of the pans I cook in!

Here’s to good cooking!!!

on the menu – peanut butter pie

something started a tradition of love in my family with this pie! We have it all the time. It is so easy and just silky, nutty goodness. It takes only ounces of time and always turns out beautifully! This is a great recipe to include your little ones with and is fun to change up. See below for some ideas on this-

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 3-4 big peanut butter cups, unwrapped and chopped up

Directions

1. Mix the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and peanut butter together until smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping. Spoon the mixture into the graham cracker crust.
2. Place the remaining whipped topping over the top of the peanut butter mixture and garnish with the peanut butter cups. Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.

Ideas to change things up

- using caramel and chocolate sauce on top

- using a Oreo crust

- using a Butterfinger crunched in the PB mixture and then on top

- making fun designs with the chocolate

obsession

Okay, I am totally obsessed with this dessert cafe.

The Chocolate

I took my mom there while she was in town last week. She had a piece of the dark chocolate and I had a piece of the vanilla (what I get every time). When I want something sweet, this is where I go. Lucky for me, it is just down the street and around the corner. You can check out their website here.

financial food for thought no.4

Grocery shopping helps

Did you know the average American spends $5.00 for every minute they are in a grocery store? Did you know that 2 out of 3 items in your cart are impulse buys?

I watched a movie in my cooking class a while back that really inspired me to not go to the grocery store hungry!… and with kids. It made me sick thinking that I spent that much on things that we really could do without. So I am trying to do things differently now. Here are some tips that I gleaned from the class

• Make a weekly shopping plan- take ONLY the amount of money you will spend on one week’s worth
• Check newspaper ads – buy staple items on sale and stock up
• check your inventory- LOOK in your fridge before you go to the store. I cannot tell you how many times I have come home and realized I already had what I bought.
• Kids- shop when they are rested, when the store is less crowded, let them add one item to the cart – in my opinion, don’t go with your child if you can manage it. You need to pay attention to prices and labels. You can’t do that AND keep a kid in the cart (or 2 for that matter).
• Coupons- use the for food WHEN the price is right
• Know the store layout – it will help you make your list in order that you go through the store. this  will save you time and money
• Be aware of marketing techniques- end of aisle displays aren’t always good deals
• EAT BEFORE YOU SHOP!!!
• Limit convenience foods- they are ALWAYS higher prices
• Read the labels
• Ingredients- are always listed largest quantity to smallest… watch that sugar!
• Check dates for freshness- you don’t even want to know about expired meat being repackaged! YUCK!
• Eat meat less often- use beans and lentils if you can
• Choose brown or enriched rice… they are healthier for you
• Plan meals around specials
• Make a LIST!!!
• Know your prices- why you shouldn’t take your kids shopping
• Be sure to check the scanner for pricing errors – check your receipts before you leave the store
• Use unit pricing
• Try store brands – they may taste better than you expect
• Buy fruit and veggies in season
• Start a garden at home

Hope these tips help you in your next shopping experience!!!

on the menu – pumpkin butter

I attended  a fun class on pumpkin butter the other night. Sadly, due to botulism, it is not something you can make and then can it, but you are allowed to freeze it! This recipe is a great way to use those uncarved pumpkins on your doorstep!

Ingredients

• 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree or 4 cups of freshly baked, pureed pumpkin
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently.
2. Transfer to sterile containers and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

reshape your plate series – part 5 – meal

So here we are with some good education about the Plate Method now in our minds, but now to conquer it in our lives!

MEAL PLANNING

When we meal plan, things can get pretty complicated! How do we ever stay in budget (a leader for a new series coming soon), stay in the pyramid guides and make things our families like? The Plate Method is here to make some of these things easy for us.

 

This is how you can do things really simply-

Make a menu on a sheet of paper for a week with BLD on three separate lines underneath the day. Then I go through and pick one from each category using my placemat. For example for Breakfast on Monday, I would choose

• 1/2 c. strawberries
• 1 c. tomato juice
• 2 slices of whole wheat bread
• 2 scrambled eggs
• 3/4 c. yogurt

That’s it! Then once your menu is filled for the week, you need to add up how much you need to buy of each item. (Are you thinking a spreadsheet?!?!) I think SO! I would throw this all into one in an instant. Anyway, so if I had yogurt for three mornings, I would need (3/4+3/4+3/4)= 2 1/4 cups yogurt.

Then, I need to multiply that by how many people would be eating that meal (my husband and I and A, but for right now, let’s just say my hubby and myself). That would be (2 1/4 * 2) = 4 1/2 cups of yogurt for the week. This is for teens and adults. If I was feeding my teenage brother, we would have to count his eating as 2 people’s servings (he is an athlete to the highest degree).

Now, for children and toddlers. A good rule of thumb is about three quarters to half of what you eat per day. So that would just make my family’s multiplier 2.5 (1- hubby, 1-me, 1/2-A).

This also makes planning meals for company really easy! Just multiply!

Here are some other helps. I am seeing if I can get some better copies of these for you to link to and print out-

Here are some helps for planning your menu- make sure that you are keeping things LOW fat! Cooking your veggies in bacon fat is not allowed :)

So we have come to the end of this series- I hope you have learned some. I find this information most useful when I am eating out. But it truly is good for anywhere. If you are served at a friend’s home and the meat is 3/4 the plate, just eat a 1/4 and then get some more salad to cover the other 2 quarters :)

The last things

• as you try this, I think you will be amazed at how much food this really is! Most nights we cannot eat all on our plates! It goes into a Gladware container for a snack another time.
• It is hard to shop for more than a week in advance because you are eating a lot of produce – and it may spoil.
• During the winter it can be hard to get fresh fruits and veggie – and expensive. So there are other ways you can get these – freeze or can some from summer, pre-canned, frozen, buying in season, and watching for sales can help.
• DON’T give up! It can be frustrating to get it all down and get the hang of it. I find that I like to make recipes that use items from multiple groups. In cases like this, I just try to imagine the ratio of uncooked items on a plate and figure how much would be a serving in the dish. For example, a chicken pot pie has chicken, veggies, milk, and some bread. I wouldn’t count the bread really. In the recipe I might double the veggies to get a good ratio and then for how many people I am multiplying with, just make that much meat servings in the whole dish.

We are so lucky to have the ability to create our own meals! We can change recipes and make them healthier, we can make things within our budget, and we can make them taste better! How blessed we are! And how blessed we are to have enlightened people to think of and produce guidelines that help us be healthy. Props to them!

Here’s to Reshaping Our Plates!

on the menu

This is what we are making today with the abundant produce from Saturday. I don’t know which I am more excited for… the actual butter, or my wonderful smelling house! In the meantime, I will be babysitting a load of kids and trying to clean my crazy house to make it look as good as it will smell. Happy Monday!

Honey-Apple Butter

Ingredients

• 2 cups apple cider
• 2 pounds apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground salt

Directions

1. Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the honey, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well.
2. Cover and cook on high 1 hour.
3. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.
4. Uncover and continue cooking on low 2 hours. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.
5. Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze.

bountiful baskets

My mom introduced me to bountiful baskets this past week. I tried it and it is the BEST thing I have ever done!!!

Bountiful Baskets is a co-op that a whole bunch of people pool their money to get a great deal on produce. It is 15.00 for a LARGE bundle of food – 50% veggies and 50% fruit – or 6 fruits and 6 veggies. This is a volunteer organization so on your first time you pay a 3.00 fee on top of the cost of food, to have them purchase you a basket to sort the produce. I was a little skeptical about this, but I am so overjoyed at the results!

For $15.00 I got around:

• 10 pears
• 10 apples
• 2 lbs grapes
• pineapple
• blackberries
• 10 bananas
• head of romaine lettuce
• 5 tomatoes
• bag of fresh green beans
• 12 sweet potatoes
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 yellow squash

Amazing huh? It is almost enough produce to last us 2 weeks and I usually spend $25.00 on produce every 2 weeks. Everything is fresh and healthy.

 

They have places in Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona & Texas that do this. Their website is kind of hard to understand, but this is what you will do:

• Go on to their site at bountifulbaskets.org
• You can click on Locations to see if one is offered close to you
• You can click on Current Offerings to see what they are offering for the week
• I love the idea of bread baskets and Mexican baskets that offer tomatoes, chilies, onions and such.
• Today they don’t have any offerings because they had one this morning. I would check back next Monday. That is about when I did mine.
• When there is an offering you just make an account and purchase. Then when you go, make sure you take your own box/laundry basket to bring your food home in.

reshape your plate – part 4 – choosing foods

Have you been applying this yet? I want to hear your thoughts as you learn and try new things. I know that I have a lot to learn with all this still, so please share!

Here are the other parts of my reshape your plate series if you are interested in catching up! All parts here.

To review the three layers

1. Reshape your plate
2. Serving sizes
3. Food choices

I have talked about the first two, but now we are on the third! Food Choices!

What constitutes a good food choice?

Here is The Plate Method with food choices added on top of the colors and portion sizes.

I really don’t feel like I need to say more on this. It is pretty self-explanatory. But I will give some overview

The food groups for your plate are

• 1/2 plate veggies (1/4 should be dark greens or oranges and the other 1/4 another veggie)
• 1/4 plate grains and/or starches (potatoes, corn, peas, and lima beans are considered starches – so those don’t count as veggies
• 1/4 plate meat and beans – I talked a little last time about portion sizes for your meat. I like that this diagram has lean, very lean, and dry beans and peas sectioned out. This becomes helpful in planning meals.

Which is for next week! Are you finally ready to get into some application of this!?! YES!

heaven in a jar

I saw this cute idea and had to make one of my own. I know that pie in a jar is really popular, but cake?… it is WAY easy! Just take an 8 oz canning jar, shove a cupcake (baked without papers) in the bottom, layer with frosting, another cupcake and more frosting. I put some sprinkles in for a surprise on top. A note, ribbon, and a spoon top it all off! These are SO easy and just look so creative. These make great gifts! Just try not to lick your fingers!

friday feature favs!

I am finally back from my parent’s house in Colorado. We had such a wonderful time, but here we are back to the swing of things. Well trying. For some reason, it has been terribly hard to kick it into gear today. I would like to blame it on the cold weather, but I do feel overwhelmed at all I need to do.

Anyway, so for the post today, I am featuring other blogs that I have stumbled upon today… wonderful talented people!

First is this creepy, crawly dish from Be Different… Act Normal

Also on this site is a great idea to mix things up in your kitchen with this – It makes me wish I had a kitchen aid to do it with. I am wondering how I could do it with my plain Bosch mixer.

Next is the cutest dessert truck table on Amy Atlas designs. Check out the sugared pears and the cute fabric strip chandelier.

Then last, but not least is the find of the week! It is a site called Made by Joel that I have fallen head over heels for! His stuff is so simple, chic, and just well done. Check out this cute Dancing Deer idea – This would be such a great idea for an afternoon activity with any child or even a car trip to Grandma’s house!

Enjoy your Friday night and get ready for some crafty posts to come!