Menu Plan Monday: 24 Reasons to Gather Around the Dinner Table

How often does your family have dinner together? If you’re like most families nowadays, the answer is probably, “Not very often.”

It’s understandable. Modern families are busy. Both parents work and sometimes get home at different times. Children have activities to go to, and Mom’s got to drive them all over the place. Really, who’s got the time and energy to even cook dinner every single night?

You, that’s who! Eating together is good for you and your family. So you better make time and find the energy to make home-cooked meals and sit down and eat together more often.

Researchers have found many benefits to home-cooked meals. Watch this video to learn about some of them. In my own experience, though, there are many more. Here are 24 reasons I have found to share family meals more often:

1. Families who eat together eat healthier, because home-cooked food is healthier than fast food.

2. Family meals allow busy families to catch up with each other.

3. Young children learn a lot of verbal skills just by eating with their family members.

4. It gives everyone a chance to unwind after a busy day.

5. Having family meals more often forces you to end your working day and other obligations in time for dinner.

6. Home cooked meals are not only healthier, they’re also cheaper than takeout food or eating out.

7. Eating together forces everybody to tell stories.

8. Cooking at home motivates you to be creative with your meal planning and cooking.

9. Children can get involved in cooking meals.

10. Cooking and eating together creates happy childhood memories.

11. Eating together is an opportunity to explore different cuisines.

12. Eating with your family is more fun than eating in front of the television (or the computer).

13. Eating together gives parents a chance to talk about current events from their point of view, injecting their personal values without giving a lecture.

14. Eating together helps family members bond and get to know each other better.

15. You’ll be surprised what your kids reveal when you’re in a relaxed environment, such as a family meal.

16. Kids are less likely to roll their eyes when you reminisce and tell stories from your childhood while eating a meal together.

17. Family meals can be good teaching moments, even for small children. My toddler learned how to count by counting after-meal treats on his high chair.

18. Eating together is a good opportunity to teach and model good manners.

19. Family meals give a good transition from work or school to home life.

20. Family meals are also good times to share music together.

21. Family meals teach everyone valuable life skills, such as sharing and taking turns.

22. Stopping and sitting down to a meal gives everyone a chance to quiet down and regroup.

23. Family meals provide an additional occasion for family members to pray together.

24. Eating home is more eco-friendly than eating out or ordering food – less waste!

If you think having family meals is too much work, don’t despair. You can get help for everything from meal planning to putting your weekly grocery shopping list together. Check out Dine Without Whine for kid-tested, quick recipes that will help you put together family meals with less effort. Dine Without Whine’s weekly shopping lists will also help you get food shopping done much faster, and even save money on groceries.

As you can see from the list above, the extra time and effort you spend to have family meals more often are worthwhile.

PS: I posted more about Dine Without Whine here.

Menu Plan Monday

Because of a super busy week coming up, I did my shopping a day earlier (Sunday) and spent most of the afternoon preparing foods for the week. I made veggie quicke cups, pancakes, and cooked a whole box of spaghetti. I cut up carrots, celery, yellow peppers, strawberries, pineapple, watermelon. I froze some of the fruits to make smoothies (previously mentioned fruits plus blueberries and pre-cut bananas. I froze on cookie sheets; once frozen, I tossed them into bags) I even popped popcorn and bagged it into individual servings for the Little Dude.

Breakfasts: cold cereal, veggie quiche cups, pancakes or smoothies

Lunches: veggie quicke cups, mac & cheese, PB&J, salad, tuna, ham & cheese,

Snacks: fruits, cut-up veggies with hummus or cream cheese, popcorn, cereal bars, graham crackers, yogurt, pretzels

Dinners: Each dinner is served either with a salad or a veggie side.

• Sunday – bacon cheese burgers and sweet potato fries
• Monday – spaghetti & meatballs (spaghetti pre-cooked, sauce and meatballs made by Hubby and in the freezer)
• “Toddler Tuesday” – I let my Little Dude choose dinner. He chooses from chicken nuggets, fish sticks, hotdogs or pizza. He also has to choose a vegetable. (9 times out of 10 it’s peas – yuck!)
• Wednesday – steak and grilled veggies
• Thursday – pork roast with apples and sweet potatoes (crock pot) with egg noodles and salad
• Friday – open (see note below)
• Saturday – grilled chicken (I’ll probably reheat the left over grilled veggies with a can of diced tomatoes, add the grilled chicken and serve over left over spaghetti)

I only planned 6 dinners this week because on Friday, Hubby and I are going to the ACDC concert (I’m so excited!!). We’ll probably have left overs or go to the diner where as Little Dude will be spoiled rotten with my parents and will probably get pancakes for dinner.

So what’s your plan for the week? Did you even plan? If not, you should! Did you catch my talk show guest starring Laura from orgjunkie.com? Take a listen to the two of us get all giddy over meal planning!

Visit Laura and join in the Menu Plan Monday fun!!

Episode #27 – Meal Planning How and Why

First, I share my thoughts on Alice.com – a new website to order household goods from.

Alice provides you a better way to manage all of your household essentials online. You tell Alice what you buy—choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work. We organize all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low, and help you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store. And all this convenience comes direct to your door with free shipping included.

I LOVE ALICE! It cut my time in half in the grocery store! That alone is worth a try!

Next, I’m so super excited to be joined today by Laura from I’m An Organizing Junkie. I’ve wanted to talk with her for some time now about menu planning. After all she is the super fabulous hostess of Menu Plan Monday!

Not only does she tell us how and why she began meal planning, Laura provides such useful information on dealing with food allergies. This is a must for moms having a hard time planning menues around someone with food allergies. Bottom line – it’s not as hard as it seems!

You won’t believe how much fun the two of us had discussing meal planning! We talked, and talked, about:

• How we each meal plan
• Planning around food allergies
• Using themes in meal planning
• Getting the kids involved (and the hubby)
• Where we get our recipes

Both Laura and I hope that after this show, you’ll be convinced to start planning your family’s meals!

If you need help meal planning, I have a how-to guide just for busy moms. For less than the cost of a fast-food dinner, you can be on your way planning your menus. Click here for the Meal Planning Guide.

Links I Love

While the boys are napping, I’ve FINALLY been able to go through my Google Reader to catch-up on blog posts for the past two weeks – yikes! Over 1,000 unread! Between Little Dude in the hospital with pneumonia (he’s better now – thanks!) and my surgery, I just haven’t had the time to blog hop. Now that I got my fix I want to share with you some of my faves.

How about some natural skin care recipes from my pal Carrie.

Laura explains in plain english how to meal plan.

My friend Jim from Rubbermaid posted an audio you just have to hear about how to get organized around the house.

Ivy teaches us how to max the use of our fridge and lessen food waste.

Mandi guest posted at SimpleMom and debunked some organizing myths for us.

And finally there are classifieds for parents of special needs children to find or get rid of supplies.

Thrifty Thursday + Giveaway

Plan for left-overs.

Each time I sit to do my menu for the week, I do my best to plan for leftovers. These make perfect home-made microwave dinners – or lunches in my hubby’s case.

He works the night shift which means there is no other option than to bring lunch with him. So by planning to have left-overs, he has a nice selection of microwavable meals right in the fridge and freezer.

I simply put a serving of the dinner, including side dishes, straight into a Rubbermaid container and pop it into the freezer. He has his own shelf of meals so he can just grab and go.  Easy and cheap – just the way I like it!

And speaking of Rubbermaid, my Twitter pal Jim (@rubbermaid) sent me a little something to give away! It’s the Rubbermaid Premiere food-storage containers – a 20 piece set! To enter, all you have to do is leave your Thrifty Thursday Tip in a comment! How easy is that?!?!?

For more entries you can share this post with your friends and followers by Twittering or including a link on your blog. Just come-on back and leave another comment with proof

Comments for this post will be close at 10pm Eastern time on Tuesday, February 10th and the winner will be announced.

Oh, and if you’re looking for organizing ideas, information or inspiration, head on over to the Rubbermaid blog – Adventures In Organizing. Jim and his crew do a fantastic job!

Meal Planning Works For Busy Moms

Yesterday was on of those days where NOTHING went right. It started first thing with spilling my first cup of coffee. I should have realized it would go down-hill from there.

In the afternoon I had to take my dog Molly to the vet to have a boo-boo taken care of. And Little Dude came with us. Oh what an exhausting experience! A 45-pound nervous and hurt dog and a 35-pound toddler – not a good combination when you have to wait 1/2 hour in the waiting room!

Then to top it off, there was an accident so we got stuck in traffic on the way home. UGH! After all was said and done, the whole trip took almost two hours! Twice as long as I had anticipated.

What does this hectic day have to do with meal planning?

The whole ride home (actually the whole time we sat in traffic) I was starting to panic because dinner time was very soon. I was anticipating a toddler melt-down.But when I arrived home, dinner was already cooking! All I had to do was steam the veggies and set the table!

How did this miracle of miracles happen?

Hubby realized we were running late. So he looked on my meal plan list for the week, saw what was planned, and did the job. And because I prepared in advance, all he had to do was throw it together and pop it in the oven!

Meal Planning Saves Time and Sanity

Each Sunday afternoon I plan our family’s meals for the coming week. I post the menu for the week on my fridge. I create my shopping list. I pull ingredients from my freezer and pantry to have them handy.

Advanced meal planning saves me time at dinner time (aka The Witching Hour). Because I know what to make, and have the ingredients ready, cooking dinner is easy-peasy! And the bonus is that Hubby can jump in and help when needed. I didn’t even have to tell him what to do – everything was ready for him to just put together.

Do you meal plan? Do you need help planning your family menu? I have a how-to guide to help you get started. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to save time and money by planning your family meals in advance. Chapters include The Strategy Session, Making The Shopping List, Short Cut Cooking, Plan Your Leftovers, Storage And Reheating Tips, Recipe Suggestions and more. Click here to learn more about Meal Planning for Busy Moms.

Now Recruiting!

Domestically Challenged Boot Camp is now looking for recruits! If you feel that you are ‘domestically challenged’ and need help – this program is for you.

Many online programs provide steps and suggestions for improvement, but the problem is that they don’t help connect these wonderful new habits to a step by step process of integrating those good habits into real life. This is what Boot Camp is designed to do!

Women tend to be real sensitive about their homemaking skills, so if you feel like your sinking it can be very hard to take the first step and say ‘I need help’. Domestically Challenged Boot Camp provides a level of privacy that is hard to find in most coaching and mentorship programs.

And member ship is your’s for my introductory price of just $29. Don’t wait – this price will increase in a week!

Click here! www.thehouseholdhelper.com/domesticallychallengedbootcamp.html

Keep your chin up soldier – a clean and orderly home is just weeks away!

Episode #10 – Groceries, Coupons, Meal Planning

This week I re-run an interview from November – Marie from MommyCommunity.com grilled me on saving money using coupons. But there is more to saving money on groceries.

It starts with meal planning. Planning your meal’s for the week based on what’s on sale at your store will save you a bunch. I provide some examples during my talk with Marie on how I would plan some meals.

Always match a coupon to a sale item to increase your savings. And shop at more than one store, depending on what’s on sale. I personally shop at 2 grocery stores, Walmart and CVS in order to maximize my savings.

In the last segment, I provide additional tips: where else to find coupons and freezer cooking.

Thanks to my top partners for this past week:

BlissfullyDomestic.com
MomsTalkRadio.com
5MinutesForMom.com

If you would like to become a partner, here’s the information.

Recommended Resources:

Cara’s Coupons: Links to all my favorite coupon sites as well as “Grocery Coupons 101″
Meal Planning for Busy Moms: step by step instructions to plan your family’s meals. This ebook includes 2 additional downloads: a pantry planner and quick and easy recipes ebook.

Need Help Menu Planning?

My favorite way to save money on household expenses is menu planning. I’ve talked about it before, I know, but that’s because, second to your mortgage, food just may be your highest monthly expense. So, it does make sense to trim that expense as much as you can, right? (Hint, the answer is yes!)

I talked with the owner of DineWithoutWhine.com — my favorite menu planner for busy moms, and she has given me a coupon code that I can pass onto you so you can save 20% on her menu planning service.

To get started, go to this site DineWithoutWhine.com and choose either the 3, 6, or 12 month subscription option. When you’re checking out, enter this code: 04AO (The first digit is a zero and the last is an uppercase letter “O”.) and you’ll save 20% instantly.

Most people give up on their New Year’s Resolution before January 31st. Give yourself the tools to actually make it work this year. You’ll be so glad you did!

DineWithoutWhine.com
Coupon: 20% off 3,6 or 12 month subscription to menu plan
Code: 04AO (that’s a zero first and then the letter o at the end)
Expiration Date: 4/15/2008