If you slice it, they will come.

This summer I tried to put a tray of fruit and vegetables out every day for snacking. We called it the snack bar. BIG SUCCESS! The kids generally cleaned the tray daily and stayed out of the crackers and chips in the pantry.

Blind Taste Test

I made this great and ridiculously easy meatball soup. I snuck in some veggie meatballs to see if anyone would notice. I could not tell which were which!!! I had a hunch, but had to go check the frozen ones and compare size to really be sure. They were VERY convincing and much healthier. My breadetarian was a little grossed out by the meatballs, so I whispered to her that some of them were veggie. Once word got out we had to do a blind taste test. Sam in particular was very grossed out by the thought of veggie meatballs (even though he'd been eating them for 20 minutes). Long story short - THEY COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE. Not sure how to proceed with this - I'm sure they'll ask next time I make the soup. I guess I'll continue using a combination of veggie and meat so at least we're cutting down on meat consumption. At some point I'll compile my thoughts on vegan/vegetarian/flexatarianisms and do a post about it. For now, here's the recipe for the soup. It's definitely going into the rotation!!!


ITALIAN "MEATBALL" SOUP

Takes 25 minutes start to finish.
Serves 4 (I doubled it.)

1  14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with onion and garlic, undrained
1  14 oz. can beef broth (could use vegetable broth for vegan option)
1-1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
1/2 of a 16-oz. package frozen Italian-style cooked meatballs
1/2 cup small dried pasta (elbow macaroni, orzo, small shells, ditalini)
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In a large saucepan, combine undrained tomatoes, broth and water, and Italian seasoning; bring to boil.
2. Add frozen meatballs, uncooked pasta, and frozen vegetables. Return to boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until pasta and vegetables are tender. Top each serving with Parmesan.

Nutrition: 337 calories, 16 g fat (much less with veggie meatballs), 42 g cholesterol (again less with veggie meatballs), 4 g fiber (more with veggie mballs), 18 g protein

This photo doesn't do it justice - it's much prettier in real life.

Family Fire Pit

The fire pit has turned out to be quite a worthwhile investment in family time. When the weather is nice we make a habit of roasting hot dogs every Friday night over the fire and finish up with s'mores, of course! I buy regular hot dogs for those who like them and some fancy chicken habanero cheese sausages for those with a more refined palette. My "breadetarian" eats cheese on a bun. It's easy and so fun. I also invested in some state-of-the-art hot dog/marshmallow roasters from Academy. They were about $2 each and feature a wooden handle, adjustable length, and double prongs - definitely worth the $. I really look forward to this family dinner!

Crazy Coffee Cup Corn Chowder Circus Night

Yesterday was a snow day and I braved the crowds at Wal-Mart to make sure I had plenty of stuff to compete with my friends who like to brag about all their yummy cold-weather fare on Facebook. My bacon-filled Corn Chowder simmered in the crockpot all day while the kids played* and I busied myself with home decorating projects. Great day, right? When dinner rolled around it turns out we'd made our way through all the clean matching dishes and mugs - go figure. So I declared it Choose Your Own Mug Corn Chowder Night. We ate chowder from an ecclectic assortment of coffee cups with salad on the side - and finished it up with... wait for it... Homemade 'Smores Ice Cream! Yep - you read that correctly. And the best part was that our school district had already called school off for today! P A R T Y! Throw something in the crockpot.

*The word "played" here means spent hours scripting, choreographing, costuming, set designing, and rehearsing a Circus of the Snow production in my basement playroom. It was AWESOME and I scored these trinkets at the souvenir shop. They are Seal and Maestro (ie Ringmaster) action figures.

The Details

When I first launched this whole Family Dinner idea I splurged on two new kitchen items: a set of small "on the rocks glasses" that have a nice heft (as we used to say in the catalog biz), and a set of everyday utensils that match. Altogether I spent about $100 and had a gift card from my mom that took care of it. These things make dinner seem a little more special even when it's frozen pizza or ramen noodles. I keep the glasses in a low drawer so my youngest can help set the table. They weren't so expensive that I'd be heartbroken if she dropped one, although she probably would be. And they just add a little touch of formality that plastic tumblers do not.

I have to say that so far making the effort to all sit down at the same time at the same table to eat whatever I fix hasn't seemed like THAT much effort - but it makes a difference. There's usually some tension leading up to sitting down... I'm trying to juggle everything so it's done at the same time, everybody is hungry and a little tired at the end of their day. Once we sit though, most of that tension melts away. There's almost ALWAYS some laughter and a funny quote from one of the kids.

A few nights ago we were discussing whether or not Jello is actually made from horse hooves. Tillie said, "I think anything made from horse hooves would be crunchy." <3

Dumbing Down Dinner

Lightbulb moment!! The food doesn't have to be fancy to have Family Dinner!! It doesn't even have to be fancy to be healthy (ok, maybe the brownies aren't so healthy - I used them to bribe Sam to get a haircut). I've discovered one key ingredient to successful Family Dinner is RELAXED MOM. So sometimes that might look like me having created a culinary masterpiece and feeling really good about it. But it also might look like me throwing some canned beans and Rotel in a pot and serving it with rice so I can sit down sooner and so that everyone will eat without complaint or eye roll. Family Dinner doesn't have to be about the food. It's mostly about the family.

FYI Sam's before and after:

The Book

So here's the book. You can't really click to look inside - that's just the image I copied from Amazon. It got like 44 five-star reviews or something insane like that. Part of that might be because the author, Laurie David, was famous before she wrote the book and has friends like Steve Martin and Michael Pollan. She also used to be married to Larry David, former co-producer of Seinfeld (whose wife ALSO wrote a cookbook, hmmm). Anyway, it IS a really good book. And it's not just a cookbook with recipes (I haven't even tried any of the recipes yet). What I love about it is the philosophy, quotes, statistics, and inspiration.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book: "People say they don't have time to cook, yet in the last few years we have found an extra two hours a day for the internet."  - Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Ooooooh, BURN!

There's an interview with Judge Judy and lots of other famous people, lots of conversation starter ideas, easy ways to let your kids help cook, and it's just a darn cute book to look at.

I'm not saying you have to buy it. I'm just saying I like it. I like A LOT of cute cookbooks. You might say I have a problem. There's worse things than collecting cookbooks, right?