Paper Plates, Uno and Urban Dictionary
If I was to come up with one thing I think I do well as parent it would be dinner…It may be the only thing I do well some days.
There are also days when I don’t even do that well and we order a pizza. My kids would tell you those are the days I REALLY excel in my parenting. But generally we eat homemade meals around the dinner table and deck of Uno cards about five to six times a week. This is no easy feat. In fact, I probably spend more energy on our family dinners than I do on CrossFit. It requires meal planning, grocery list making, grocery shopping, food prep, cooking, and lots of dishes. And that doesn’t even include the magic that has to work in our family schedule to just get five bodies around the table at the same time.
Our dinners never look picture perfect.
We use paper plates and bowls, often come to the table with dried sweat from a workout or basketball practice, and sometimes dinner is over in fifteen minutes and consisted of the baby throwing most of his food on the floor or climbing on the table. Very often my kiddos try to drive me nuts with talk of irritating memes and video games. Ya’ll I just can’t with all of this VSCO girl and yeet ridiculousness. That sentence doesn’t even make sense to most of you so I provided links to my favorite parenting site, Urban Dictionary. Feel free to bookmark it if you also have difficulty translating your kid’s attempt at communication. The important thing is we reconnect during this time. It keeps us bonded throughout the week and gives us insight as parents into what is truly going on in our kiddos lives.
Research suggests that family dinners lower anxiety and depression in school age children and teens and also creates healthy eating habits that stick with them into adulthood. Studies also show that kids that eat with their family without screens also make higher grades in school. Listen, my kids have yet to prove healthy habits as adults but I will tell you the grade thing is so true because Jack acts like dinner is a time of homework confession and I often relish my lectures about how high school begins next year and whether or not he lives upstairs until his 30s will be determined in the next four years. Let me tell you, it gets real at the dinner table…which is the point.
For my marriage our dinners are valuable as well. While Levi and I can’t have some of the heavier conversations in front of the kids, it is so nice to just have 15-45 minutes together talking, playing cards and laughing between work and the bathtime, lunch packing, homework circus. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to connect during the week if we aren’t intentional about it which is why I feel like it is worth putting so much time, effort and energy into prioritizing our family meals.
I wanted to share my heart for family meals with all of our shoppe customers by making our first giveaway basket all about meal prep!
There is NO WAY I would be able to get dinner on the table every night if I didn’t meal prep. There is just not enough time in our evenings between basketball practice and games, piano practice, the gym, homework and errands to also cook from start to finish.
On Saturdays I pull out my favorite “Cook Once, Eat All Week” cookbook by Cassie Joy Garcia. You guys, I have a TON of cookbooks. I LOVE them. I love to read them from cover to cover and stick my little sticky notes on the recipes I plan to make. I usually try out a few recipes and then the book goes on the shelf for when I want to make those few recipes again. Not with “Cook Once, Eat all Week.” I have not put that book up in almost a year. It stays on the counter ready to go because I am in it constantly. There are 26 weeks worth of recipes and the layout is so simple. Each week’s recipes use three main ingredients, for example, pork shoulder, kale and sweet potato. Those three ingredients are then used in three different recipes in totally different ways. One day may be a Jerk Pork-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Mango Kale Slaw, the other Honey Garlic Pork Skillet and the last a Sweet Potato Tamale Pie. A list of additional ingredients is included as well as two bonus meal options for those of us eating more than just 3 times that week. (I say that kinda sarcastically because at first I was annoyed it was only 3 meals at a time but I actually really appreciate it now. I rarely use both of the bonus meal options and I fill my meal plan’s other days with recipes I’ve saved on Pinterest or that I sticky-noted in a cookbook.)
Then the magic happens and Cassie walks us through the entire meal prep process in the most efficient way possible. A precious friend of mine brought this book to my attention at a time where I was spending hours scouring my saved Pinterest recipes and cookbooks to create a weekly meal plan that would often have more variety than necessary which would lead to waste, expense and a lot of time trying to cook day to day between coaching classes, my chauffeur responsibilities, cuddling the baby, nutrition consults, etc. It has also taught me some really good meal prep techniques and tricks that I incorporate into my own recipes. Basically this book has saved me so much time and frustration and I just can’t help but want everyone to have it so it’s going in the January Giveaway Basket!!!
I’ve also included all my favorite kitchen staples.
My fave dish soap by Mrs. Meyers. I love the honeysuckle scent, especially right now when I’m so ready for Spring to arrive.
The BEST dairy-free vodka sauce from Primal Kitchen. Y’all, this is so creamy and I used it just last night over some stuffed mushrooms and it made the meal! I pretty much always use this vodka sauce instead of taking the time to make marinara from scratch for Italian dishes or even pizza sauce.
Coconut milk.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You will notice a difference in this olive oil compared to the cheaper versions.
Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos. THIS! I use this stuff to flavor Asian sauces or as a marinade for meat. I love to mix the coconut aminos with Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce and spicy mustard to make a copycat recipe of the sauce served at PF Changs with their lettuce wraps. It’s sooooooo good!
Avocado Oil Spray.
Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
FIT Fruit and Veggie Wash. You guys need to be washing your produce with more than just water. I’m all about some immune boosting germs but dysentery doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Local Honey Bear. Texas allergies are enough to give this bear a squeeze.
Jasmine Green Tea because you have to have something to drink while you cook! And wine isn’t typically acceptable in the morning.
Primal Kitchen Avocado Mayo. I love to add a little sriracha to this to add a kick to dishes like Inside-out Egg Roll and Caribbean Pork Bowl.
Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar. I use this in marinades and dressings but it Is also our family’s go-to tummy tonic. Just a couple of teaspoons of ACV in a glass of water with a little honey to sip on can really do wonders to settle an upset stomach.
Farmhouse apron. Y’all, I never wear an apron when I cook and I regret it constantly.
This basket is full of some really great goodies. Every time you come in to shop with us you are registered to win! For those that don’t end up winning or just want to get your hands on these products now, they are all available in the Sunshine Shoppe. Regardless of what products you use I hope you are prioritizing eating meals at home and that you, too, find that it is worth all the work and imperfect chaos.