Thumbs Up

Try this Thumbs Up family dinner game at your next meal. It’s great fun for kids ages 3 - 6 and can be found in the brand new Beginner Family Dinner Games.

Thumbs Up
At the count of 3, everyone puts one fist out toward the center of the table with their thumb either up or down.

If everyone but one person has a thumb up (or down), that person must take a drink of his/her milk. (In other words, the odd person out, drinks milk.)

If everyone does the same thing with their thumb, or your family is split, count to 3 and try it again.

Alternative: Also play this by eating vegetables instead of drinking milk. Or the odd person out must hug the person to their left….

You can find this fun game as well as many more in Family Time Fun’s Beginner Family Dinner Games and Activities.

Marinated Pork Tenderloin
This is such a family favorite that I carry this meal over between my Spring and Summer menu’s. It keeps everyone happy and helps to make the family meal planning easier.

Ingredients

2 lbs Pork Tenderloin
1/2 Cup Italian Dressing
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1/4 Tsp Pepper

Mix the salad dressing, soy sauce, lemon juice, and pepper together in a 9×13 casserole dish. Place the pork tenderloin in the marinade and turn to coat both sides. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 - 6 hours rotating the tenderloin once or twice during this time. Grill on low to medium for 20-25 minutes.

Quick Tip
Sometime during the weekend, use your Family Meal Planner to determine everything that needs to be defrosted for next week’s meals. Take all of the frozen items that you will be needing, out of the freezer and place them in the refrigerator to defrost.

What’s in the Sock?

Make dinner time fun and enjoyable with this fun family dinner game and easy to make and great tasting dessert. Also be sure to read about creating a family meal planner. An easy way to eliminate the craziness associated with planning family meals.What’s in the Sock?

One person begins by hiding a “secret” object in a clean sock. He or she passes the sock around the table and lets everyone feel the object. No peeking! Everyone guesses what’s in the sock, and whoever guesses correctly leads the next round. Alternative: Try using an oven mitt to make the game more challenging.

Pudding Cake
This is a family recipe handed down to me by my mother. It is very simple to make and great tasting!

Ingredients
1 Chocolate Cake Mix
1- 4.6oz Package of Vanilla Pudding (Not Instant!)
6 oz of Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup of Crushed Walnuts

Cook the pudding according to the directions on the package. Once completely cooked, combine the pudding and the dry cake mix in a mixer and mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour the batter into a 9×13 greased pan and sprinkle with the chocolate chips and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.

Helpful Hints - Cut the Craziness
It’s Saturday afternoon and you and everyone else are slugging your way through the crowded grocery store hoping to get out with everything you need and with your sanity in tact. Sound familiar? For many families getting a meal on the dinner table every night is a challenge. From the planning, shopping, and cooking, family meal planning can become overwhelming forcing many families to opt for eating out or quicker less healthy alternatives. One way to save your sanity and get a home cooked meal on the table more often is to use a family meal planner that allows you to plan meals a month at a time and streamline your grocery shopping and meal preparations.

Valentine’s Day Fun

Here are some quick ideas for adding some fun to your family’s Valentine’s Day this year.

• Using heart shaped containers, take your kids on a treasure hunt throughout the house with the final reward being a special Valentine’s Day treat. You can buy the candy heart containers at your local dollar store or on-line at Oriental Trading.
• If your kids are too small for a treasure hunt, try just filling the hearts with small prizes or candy and hiding them throughout the house.
• Send your kids a secret message with this magical message trick:

Using the juice from a fresh lemon and a small fine tip paint brush, write a secret message of love on plain white paper to your child. Once completely dried, fold the letter and seal it in an envelope for your Valentine telling them to “bake” their letter at 325 degrees for 3-5 minutes to read the message! Be sure to watch the paper the entire time and use a pot holder or metal tongs to handle

How does this work? The heat of the oven burns the lemon juice making it reappear on the paper.

Get To Know Ya Trivia

Make dinner time fun and enjoyable with this fun family dinner game and easy to make and great tasting dish. Be sure to check out the helpful hint at the end!

Get To Know Ya Trivia
Each of the kids test the adults with 4 questions. For example:

• What do I usually play at recess?
• Who are my two favorite school friends?
• What is my favorite class?
• What is my least favorite school meal?

Then, the adults test the kids with their own 4 questions. For example:

• Where was I born?
• Where did I go to Elementary school?
• Where were my parents born?
• What cities have I lived in?

Make up your own questions to continue to learn more about each other.

You can find this fun game as well as many more in Family Time Fun’s Family Dinner Games and Activities.

Fruit Smoothie
This is a great healthy breakfast or snack option. You can pour them into leak proof beverage bottles and take them on the go with you or pack them in the kids’ backpacks for a healthy snack (be sure to include an ice pack to keep them cool).

Ingredients

1 Cup Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt
1/2 Cup Fresh or Frozen Fruit of your Choice
1/2 Cup Ice (I used crushed, but you can use cubed also)

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until completely mixed. Pour into glasses and enjoy! Serves 1 adult or 2 children

Helpful Hints
Do you have kids that love the sugary cereals? Try setting aside one or two days each week as cereal days and allowing the kids to eat cereal on those days only. Make the other days “healthy” choice days and require them to choose something from the healthy list like yogurt, fresh fruit, whole wheat or grain toast, oatmeal, etc.

There will be groans and moans at first, but if you are persistent they will soon fall into the routine and begin looking forward to “cereal” days. To make the transition easier, start by allowing cereal 2 days a week and then after a while cut it back to 1.