Roasted Brussel Sprouts

If you aren't sure your kids will eat Brussels Sprouts this is a good way to try them. Oven roasting your vegetables is a great way to keep the natural flavor and vitamins in tact.

We also like to use this same method with broccoli!

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts Recipe

Time Savings Tips For Dinner Time

Many families are in a hurry to get dinner on the table and the quickest resort seems to be eating out or ordering in. When it comes to meals, preparation is important and can really save you money.

One of the key factors to successful meals is to have an organized kitchen. This will help you to get meals done quicker when everything is in its place and kitchen items are easily accessible. Organize your kitchen in stations to ease in baking and preparing meals.

Place all baking items in a cupboard next to the mixing bowl. Place serving spoons, spatulas and serving dishes close to the stove in a cupboard. For serving utensils a crock or jar on the counter makes for easy access.

After grocery shopping do any prep work that you will need through the week. Cut carrots and celery in sticks and store in a bowl of water in the fridge. Even onions can be diced and stored for later use. Cheese can be grated and sauces made ahead of time.

When planning your meals for the week, plan for making extra. If you make a little more when cooking it can be frozen for later meals or lunches to go. Find recipes that are freezer friendly and double them to use for another busy night.

The crock pot can be a great help when in a hurry. Prepare your dinner in the morning and cook on low throughout the day. There is little work that needs done so these meals are great for nights when you have very little time. You can also buy crock pot liners or line your crock pot with tin foil for easier clean up.
Your family dinners don't have to be lacking in flavor, excitement or fun. Plan ahead and you will save money and time in the long run.

More family dinner ideas

Homemade Ranch Dressing

We love ranch dressing at our house! Here is a homemade version.

Homemade ranch dressing

Check out some easy salad recipes to go with your ranch dressing, now!

The Importance of Eating Together As a Family

The importance of family dinnertime is something that often gets overlooked in our modern, fast-paced environment. In many modern families, family members are all running on a different schedule and don't make time to sit down together for a meal. It's one of the great tragedies of modern life that all the technology which is supposed to make everything easier has in fact, led to us being busier than ever, with technological devices like TV, iPods and personal computers making it easier for family members to "tune out" from the home environment. This article will delve into why eating together as a family is so important and a few techniques you can use to help encourage more quality family time in your home.

Keeping Up with News
Having dinner as a family is a great way to keep up with everything that's going on in the lives of your children and other family members. This may not be a big issue when your kids are young, but as they reach the teenage years they will start to take up their own interests and make new friends through school. Often they won't mention those things of their own accord, so a family dinner is a good time to ask what's new in your kids' lives. This is especially true if you as a parent lead a busy lifestyle.

Teaching Children Lessons
In the past, family dinner time was an opportunity for the older members of the family to share life lessons with the younger children. Often teens in particular will try to face the troubles in their lives on their own rather than talk about it with the family, missing out on the valuable knowledge and experience of older family members. Family dinnertime creates a chance for the sharing of that knowledge, making life's difficulties easier for the younger kids.

Keeping Kids on the Good Path
One of the other benefits of having a time when the whole family sits down together is that you can instil some important family values. Often it's a lack of these values that leads teens into problems with alcohol or drugs. This problem can be curbed by having regular mealtimes together where you as a parent remind your kids of the important character qualities that will help them succeed in life.

Family Dinner Meals
Often half the battle of getting the whole family together for a meal is that some family members view it as "boring." In order to avoid this problem, try changing up the routine with some fun meal ideas. Cook a lavish feast and arrange the table in the style of a formal dinner, or have a barbeque in winter time - do whatever it takes to break the family out of the regular routine.
Certain dishes such as casseroles are great for family dinnertime because the meal is cooked in one dish. Just set it in the middle of the table and let each of your family members serve themselves - as long as they stay at the table to eat.

See more family dinner ideas

Heart Potato Pancakes

What You Need:

1 (14 oz) can chicken broth

1/2 t pepper

1 green onion, chopped

1 1/2 C instant potato flakes

How to Make It:

Pour the broth into a saucepan over medium high heat.

Stir in the pepper well.

Bring the broth to a brisk boil then remove from the heat.

Gently stir in the green onion.

Pour the potato flakes into the pan and let them stand until they have absorbed all the broth liquid.

Lay a heart shaped cookie cutter in a skillet over medium heat.

Fill the cookie cutter with the potato mixture. 

Cook 5 minutes then flip and continue cooking 3 minutes or until browned.

Serving Size:  4

Make these heart potato cakes extra special for your Valentine by adding a spoon of applesauce with red hot candies on the top of each one. 

Healthy Valentine’s Meal Ideas

Everyone used to look forward to Valentine’s Day. They got to eat sweets from their sweetie. We are trying to be a bit more health conscious these days so that holidays won’t show in our bodies. If you want to indulge in a sweet treat on Valentine’s Day, make room for it with a healthier meal.

It is not too hard to sneak in a few healthy additions to the meal that your loved ones won’t mind at all.

 Start off with a healthy snack that everyone can eat while dinner is baking. Instead of cookies and candies, put out a tray of veggies and fruit. The vegetables can be jazzed up with a vegetable cream cheese or Ranch dressing. For the fruit, use flavored fruit dip. Yogurt flavors like strawberry, peach, or blueberry work well also as a dip.

Get rid of the hot wings for appetizers and opt instead for chicken chunks breaded with Shake-n-Bake or regular breadcrumbs. Cubing boneless, skinless chicken breasts and rolling them in batter saves a lot of calories. Serve them with hot pepper sauce or regular hot sauce and your metabolism will rev up from the heat.

Toss a salad to go with dinner. Instead of store bought croutons on the top, use cubed pieces of wheat bread. Brush them with a little butter or reduced fat margarine and pop them into the oven to bake. They still add crunch to the salad with less fat than regular croutons. Even better would be to sprinkle the salad with shelled sunflower seeds to add crunch.

Soups are a great way to hide lots of vegetables for those who don’t take a shine to them. for Valentine’s Day, serve a simple soup like potato, vegetable, chicken noodle, or tomato. What soup you serve will depend on the meal. The point is that soup helps to fill you up without eating a lot of it.

 Now for the meal. It is hard to eat healthy sometimes, especially if there is a holiday celebration going on. Well, Valentine’s Day is no different. Stick with recipes that use lean cuts of beef, pork, or chicken. Seafood can also be used.

Opt for lower fat ingredients in your recipes. If the main course recipe calls for heavy cream, substitute with half and half or light cream. Substitute margarine with butter. Avoid using too much salt. Use saltless seasonings to add flavor to the meal.

 Let your healthy meals extend to Valentine’s Day. After all, we are supposed to show love to those who mean the world to us. Keep their heart healthy.

 Raspberry Rendezvous'

 
 

What You Need:

1/2 tub Raspberry Ice Drink Mix

1 C cranberry juice, cold

1 C water, cold

2 C sparkling water

Frozen raspberries

How to Make It:

Place the drink mix powder into a small pitcher.

Pour the cranberry juice and water into the pitcher and whisk until the powder is completely dissolved and the ingredients are combined well.

Place the pitcher in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.

Just before serving stir in the sparkling water.

Place frozen raspberries in the bottom of 2 champagne glasses.

Pour the raspberry rendezvous over the top of the raspberries.

Serving Size: 2

Easy Valentine’s Day Recipes

 

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, most people go out for dinner. If you have a family this can get expensive. Try a few easy recipes to prepare a nice dinner for your loving family in no time.

Crock Pot

Get those slow cookers working. We often use it when we know we’ll be late getting home so dinner will be ready. The slow cooker is an asset on Valentine’s Day also. Most of the crock pots on the market today have a removable inner pot that is fashionable enough to serve at the table.

Cookingwith a crock pot will free you up to do other fun Valentine’s Day things instead of standing in the kitchen. Some meal ideas for the slow cooker: beef roast with vegetables, chicken cacciatore, roasted chicken with vegetables, Swedish meatballs. The crock pot can be set to cook slowly (ten hours) or a bit faster (4 hours).

 Cook-ahead meals

Dinner can be harried even on Valentine’s Day. Watching boiling pots and hot skillets not to mention something in the oven can absolutely fry your brain. Free your mind to enjoy this day of love by trying a dish that is easy to prepare ahead of time and just needs to be baked on Valentine’s Day.

Casseroles are the easiest make-ahead dishes. They can feature beef, chicken, or pork. Even fish like salmon or tilapia can be marinated and dressed the day before and wrapped in foil to bake on Valentine’s Day. Avoid adding milk or eggs before you are ready to cook the meal. If the dish calls for cooked meat, cook and cube the meat the day before and combine all ingredients in the casserole dish when you are ready to pop it in the oven.

See some make ahead meal ideas.

Five or Fewer Ingredients

Another alternative to the slow cooker or cooking ahead is using a recipe that has fiveor fewer ingredients. When you have fewer ingredients, prep time is cut dramatically. While the food is baking you can occupy yourself with spending time with the family.

With so few ingredients, kids can even help with dinner. To further cut preparation time, if anything such as vegetables need to be cubed, diced, or sliced so that the day before and refrigerate them. 

Pastadishes fall into this category. Besides the pasta, you usually have sauce and some sort of meat or seafood. The pasta, sauce, and meat can all cook at the same time which saves time.

On Valentine’s Day, you want to be occupied with family and/or your sweetie. Slaving in the kitchen is not in the game plan. With a little pre-planning, you’ll spend less time in the kitchen and more time having fun.

Romaine Lettuce Hearts Finger Salad

What You Need:

2 hearts of Romaine lettuce

1 T pecans, toasted

1 small red pepper

1/4 C Italian cheese, shredded

1 C Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

How to Make It:

Separate the leaves of each heart and place them on 2 salad plates.

Sprinkle the top of the lettuce with 1/2 T of the pecans per plate.

Slice the red pepper in half and remove the seeds and core.

Slice each half into half then cut with a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Place the red pepper hearts on top of both salads.

Top each salad with 1/8 C of the cheese.

Divide the dressing into 2 small bowls.

Barbecue Beans Side Dish

 This recipe is a great and flavorful way to get your kids to eat Beans! You can use whatever type of beans in the recipe. We used a can of pork and beans and a can of white beans.

A great side dish!

Barbecue Beans Recipe