Family Meals Made Easy

Family Fun Idea
The next couple of months we are going to use dinner time as a way of establishing meaningful opportunities to talk with our kids. Using dinner time to engage in meaningful conversations with each other is an easy way to reconnect, share thoughts, and check the pulse of the family. This isn’t something that should be forced in the family. The ideas for conversation are just thought starters. Feel free to modify them as needed for your family’s tastes and ages. They are meant to be answered by both parents and kids.

Conversation Starter Idea
Talk about something that was hard or difficult for you either today or sometime this week. Why do you think it was hard? How did you handle it? What can we do to make it less hard in the future? How do you need mom and dad to help you?

Why this Question is Important….

Asking each other to talk about the difficulties in their lives helps family members release any built up frustrations. With the parents also participating, it shows the kids that mom and dad also struggle with things in life and that they don’t always have all the answers. It also gives kids a chance to feel important by giving them the opportunity to help mom and dad.

Great Recipes
One of our favorite meals in the fall and winter is a simple meal of soup and bread. I love making fresh made soups and usually designate Sundays in my monthly meal planner as soup day. One of our favorites is a chicken gumbo recipe from Recipezaar.com. It isn’t necessarily a quick and easy meal to make because of the large number of ingredients, but it does make a large quantity of which I freeze any extra and pull it out the following month when it comes up in the monthly rotation.

Mean Chef Chicken, Andouille, Ham and Okra Gumbo

Ingredients
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 lb okra, either fresh or frozen and cut into pieces
1 1/2 lbs hot smoked sausage, such as andouille or kielbasa, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices
3/4 lb smoked ham, cut into small cubes or ham, nugget cut into small cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
3/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 bay leaves
3 quarts chicken stock or chicken broth
3 cups cooked chicken meat
1 tablespoon Pickapeppa Sauce
1 cup chopped parsley
2 bunches chopped green onions
hot sauce, to taste (optional)
4 cups cooked long-grain rice, accompaniment

Helpful Hints

To make this gumbo recipe easier to make, I usually fill my crock pot the day before we plan on eating the soup with chicken thighs, water, salt & pepper, and onion. I then use the cooked chicken (without the bone and skin) and the broth for the 3 cups of cooked chicken and the 3 quarts of chicken broth. To make it healthy, I let the chicken and broth sit over night in the refrigerator. This gives the fat in the broth a chance to settle and rise to the top and is very easy to skim off the next day.

When working with a recipe with a lot of ingredients, it is often helpful to have a quick way of checking for equivalent measures and possible substitutions. A good resource to use for this is GourmetSleuth.com’s Cooking Dictionary - Ingredients Substitutions and Equivalents

Make family meal preparation easy and less stressful with either our monthly family meal planner or our new weekly meal planner.

What’s Missing?

Start your family meal off right with the What’s Missing game. You can find this game as well as many others in the Original Family Dinner Games.

What’s Missing?

• One person closes his or her eyes

• Everyone else takes one item from the table (salt, napkin, fork) and hides it in their lap. Then the first person opens his or her eyes and tries to guess what’s missing.

• Alternative: Try having only one person take an item off the table and the others closing their eyes. The first person to guess what’s missing wins and gets to take the next item.

Angel Hair Pasta with Olive Oil and Sautéed Vegetables

Ingredients

Angel Hair Pasta

1/3 cup Olive Oil

1 Clove Garlic

1 Tsp Italian Seasonings

Salt to Taste

Vegetables of Your Choice: Chopped Tomatoes,Artichokes, Sliced Red Roasted Peppers

Cook the pasta according to the box directions. In a small saute pan, add the olive oil, garlic, salt, and Italian seasonings and sauté until the garlic is slightly browned. Add your vegetables and sauté for another minute or two until cooked. Mix with pasta and serve.

Helpful Hints and Tips

Save time by buying the pre-minced garlic in a jar rather than the whole cloves. This will save time by avoiding the peeling and chopping. You can usually find the pre-minced garlic in your vegetable aisle.

Make family meal preparation easy and less stressful with either our monthly family meal planner or our new weekly meal planner.

Summer Memories Picture Frame

By Rondi Hillstrom Davis

Use this picture frame as a Father’s Day gift or to showcase favorite photos from your summer vacation.

Ingredients
Compact Disk Case
Salt Dough (see recipe below)
Saucepan
2 Photos
Scissors
Paint

Directions

• Trim your photos to 5 inches square.

• Place the photos, back to back, inside the CD case and close.

• Use the salt dough to make a standing base for your frame.

• Stir over low heat until thick and rubbery.

• Remove from heat. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper until cool enough to handle.

• To make a base for your frame, roll out a piece of dough about 6 inches long and 1 inch thick.

• Press the edge of the CD case halfway into the dough to make a standing base.

• Use the remaining dough to decorate the edges of the frame. You can also press beads or sequins into the dough.

• Allow the frame to air dry. Depending on the humidity, this may take several days.

• When dry, paint the frame.

 

Salt Dough Recipe

1 cup flour

½ cup flour

1 cup salt

3/4 cups warm water

About the Author: Rondi Hillstrom Davis is the co-author of the award-winning book Together: Creating Family Traditions. To check out her website that’s jam packed with family ideas, visit http://www.togetherparenting.com

Raves, Craves, and Not So Faves - Dramatic Fanatic

This week I am raving about Dramatic Fanatic, a whodunit mystery theater kit for birthday parties, classrooms, or just fun. Each kit comes complete with a mystery game in which each child plays a wacky character involved in a silly crime. Each child acts out an assigned role and the object of the game is for the kids to figure which one of the characters committed the crime. The kit comes complete with a script and roles for up to 16 children and are available for either boys or girls. A minimum of 8 children are required for the game.

Recently used at my daughter’s 9 year old birthday party, this was a huge hit. The girls loved coming dressed in character, acting out the mystery, and solving the crime. A truly original idea that offers loads of fun.

More Summer Boredom Busters

Summer has begun and many parents are scrambling to find new and interesting alternatives to beat the summer blues. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Organize a family Olympics for the families in your neighborhood. Get the kids involved from the very beginning in the planning and organizing. You’ll be amazed at all their incredible ideas. For inspiration, Watch Cheaper by the Dozen 2. You can rent it from your local library or buy it online at Amazon.

• Set up a backyard obstacle course. Give the kids the lead in designing and setting it up. Visit FamilyFun.com for some great ideas.

• Organize a book group and incorporate short day trips, crafts, science experiments, and other activities to reinforce the book’s message. Use books like Great Books for Girls and Great Books for Boys to help you choose the perfect book.

• Take an hour each week to watch a part of the BBC miniseries Planet Earth. This astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you’ll ever experience from the comforts of home. Now available on DVD, you can rent it from the library, video store, or buy it online at Amazon. Bring the messages of the miniseries home by incorporating trips to the zoo or local museums, science experiments, and books.

• Take the time over the summer months to do the fun activities in Cranium’s Fun Folio. Jammed packed with over 50 activities there is plenty to keep them busy all summer long.

• Do nothing and just let the kids figure it out on their own. At first it will be hard (there will probably be a lot of crying and complaining), but after they realize you aren’t going to help them out, their imaginations will take over and they will have great fun

For more great ideas, read through our prior year’s summer boredom buster ideas or the suggestions from some of our blog visitors (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Raves, Craves, and Not So Fave’s - Bucket Blast

With the summer months upon us and my rising worries on how I’m going to keep my kids from getting bored this summer, I thought I would include one of my kids’ favorite summer games, Bucket Blast, in this week’s issue of Raves, Craves, and Not So Fave’s. Containing 24 bean bags, 6 buckets, 6 bucket straps, 4 boundary cones, and 6 blind folds, it offers kids a choice of 15 different games for either indoors, outdoors, or with water. For example with Beanbag Basketball , kids strap the buckets to their backs and run around trying to get the beanbags in other people’s bucket. At the end of the round, the child with the most beanbags loses. It’s a great and fun way for kids to get exercise and have fun doing it. A definite rave with the kids.

Harry Potter Sweepstakes Contest

If you have a Harry Potter fan in the house, be sure to check out the Harry Potter sweepstakes contest sponsored by Scholastic. Seven lucky U.S. Harry Potter fans will win a trip to London to join J.K. Rowling at a midnight launch event for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as the opportunity to attend “J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing” at London’s Natural History Museum. And if that weren’t enough they will also join 1,700 fans who will have the opportunity to meet J.K. Rowling and have their book signed. The deadline is June 15, 2007, so be sure to add it to your family calendar.

A, B, City

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!

A, B, City

 

The first person names a geographic location that starts with A, such as Africa

The next person names a location that starts with B, such as Boston

Continue all the way around the table until Z

Whoever can’t guess a location is out and the others continue

To make it more difficult for older kids, name only cities. Also play with different themes like sports, toys, or food.

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

Barbecued Baby-Back Ribs

This is a recipe from RecipeZaar, a wonderful on-line resource for great recipes. I substituted country style ribs for baby-back ribs and rather than boil them I cooked them in the crock pot until they were fort tender. The barbecue sauce is what makes them great, so if ribs aren’t your style try chicken instead.

Ingredients
6 Country Style Ribs
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (you can find this in the ketchup aisle)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the ribs in a crock pot with 1/3 cup water and cook on low until fork tender (about 3 hours). Mix the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes. While sauce is simmering, heat the grill and place the ribs on the grill without the sauce and grill for about 2 minutes. Coat the ribs with the sauce and grill for another 5 - 7 minutes or until completely warmed through.

Quick Tips
For sauces such as this barbecue sauce, mix the ingredients together the night before and store in an airtight container over night. Add this easy prep to your family calendar, so you don’t forget.

If you are struggling with getting meals on the table, try creating a family meal planner. Simple and easy to use, the meal planner lets you plan meals for each season and streamline grocery shopping.

Plant an Herb Garden

Planting an herb garden is a fun spring family activity that can also be used to create heart felt Christmas gifts for grandparents and friends.With your children, plan and plant a small herb garden either someplace in your yard or in small containers on your windowsill. Work together over the summer to grow and care for the herbs. As summer winds down, dry the herbs and then package them in festive colored bags or containers to give as gifts to grandparents at Christmas. Attach a small note saying something like “Grown with love” or from “From our garden to yours”. This is the perfect gift for grandparents who have everything or the master chef in the family!

Some resources to help you get started:

 

Herbal Adventures

How to Dry and Preserve Your Garden Fresh Herbs

Gardening with Children

Rainbow Dinner

Try this Rainbow Family Dinner Game at your next meal. It’s a great way to develop creative and critical thinking skills and is available in the brand new Beginner Dinner Games.

Rainbow Dinner

 

Someone starts the game by saying a color

As a team, your family names all the foods they can think of that are that color

For example red would be apple, cherry, radish, etc

After you can’t come up with anymore ideas, have another person at the table choose a different color of the rainbow and play again.

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

Mixed Spring Salad with Grilled Pork, Apples, and Pecans

I originally found this recipe in an old Williams-Sonoma recipe book, but have modified it to better fit our family tastes. It’s a great dish for spring and summer.

Ingredients
Marinated Pork Tenderloin (you can find the recipe in our April Newsletter)
1/2 Cup Pecans
1 tblsp Peanut Oil
Salt & Pepper
6 tblsp Olive Oil
2 tblsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 tblsp Hazelnut Oil (many grocery stores will carry this)
2 Apples - Choose your family’s favorite kind
6 - 8 Cups of Mixed Spring Salad - Washed and Dried

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the pecans, peanut oil, and salt & pepper in a small bowl. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake 5-7 minutes in the oven until lightly golden. Let cool.

For the dressing, mix the olive oil, hazelnut oil, and vinegar in the same bowl you used for the pecans and set aside.

Grill the marinated pork tenderloin according to the recipe and let sit 5 minutes before slicing.

While the tenderloin is cooling, in a large salad bowl, mix the mixed spring salad and dressing. Top off the salad with the sliced tenderloin, apples, and pecans. Serve!

Quick Tips
Here is a simple trick to make working with marinades easier. While using your family meal planner to create your grocery list, quickly add a note to your family calendar to remind yourself to marinate the meat the night BEFORE you plan on serving it. For example, if you plan on serving a dish that requires marinating on Tuesday, add a reminder to your calendar for Monday, to marinate the meat. This will give the meat an entire day to marinate and enhance the flavor greatly. Don’t worry if the meat is still frozen. Simply place it in the marinade and let it marinate and defrost in the refrigerator.

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