This article in the New York Times calls us, shoppers and chefs, the family's "nutritional gatekeepers." We influence 70% of the food a family eats, and not just at dinner time. Our influence can be seen in breakfasts, brown bag lunches, and even restaurant choices! If we struggle with our food choices, there is a high chance that we will pass those struggles on to our families. But if we can conquer our eating, we can influence our families to do the same!

What is most important to you about the way you feed your family? Is it that they love the taste of the food? That it is new every day? That it keeps them healthy? That it is impressively displayed? That it contains the most number of calories per dollar spent? There there is good conversation around the table? Or just that the family eats?

The important thing is not as much who we are today as it is who we want to become. We need to examine our values as they relate to food, and come up with some food goals. If you have been planning your meals, you can look at what you've planned over the past few months. Does what your serving match your food goals? If not, take some time to sort through your recipes and decide which ones bring you closer to your goal, and which ones need to be removed from your recipe box. Be methodical, and view your weekly meal planning as a way to bring you and your family closer to the food goals that you have set.

We have the POWER!

Labels: Family Meal Planning, In the News

I recently came across an article from Time magazine called The Magic of the Family Meal.

It highlights some pretty amazing benefits to eating together as a family:

Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use.

Pretty amazing results for such a simple activity! Even though the act of eating as a family sounds simplistic, for some reason, the majority of families don't practice this important ritual daily. Perhaps the ideal of a family meal every day sounds unattainable. It does take organization and foresight to actually make family dinners happen. But family meal planning doesn't have to be overwhelming! DinnerBeat not only provides the framework to make family meal planning a breeze, it also provides meal ideas, a way to dialog with friends about their meals, an automatically-generated shopping list, and will even schedule your main dishes for you.

My family and I are committed to eating family meals together every day. I'm sure there will be more struggles as my 2 1/2-year-old and 9-month-old grow, but at least now that I have DinnerBeat, I am no longer overwhelmed by the thought of family meal planning.

Labels: Family Meal Planning