My 3 Monsters: I'm Bringin' Dinner Back

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8.22.2011

I'm Bringin' Dinner Back

Family dinner, that is.  Home cooked and seated around the table.  That's right, we're gonna' be kickin' it 50's style up in here.  We've {and by WE, I mean I} gotten into a bad habit of eating fast food because I'm too busy {and by busy I mean lazy} to prepare dinner.  It's just that it's every night.  Every. Single. Night.  My kids and husband want to eat something every blasted night.  It's a bit overwhelming for a lazy girl like me think about having to prepare a meal each and every night for the rest of my life.  Seriously.  But I have the enormous privilege of staying home to raise my children, which, for all intents and purposes, IS my job.  And I've been doing a pretty poor job of it lately {and by lately I mean the past ten years or so}.

Now, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back or anything, but . . . pat,pat,pat . . . we've had some delicious dinners since I made this resolve:  Biscuits and Sausage Gravy {try this MOST delicious recipe for 7-Up biscuits}, Porcupine Meatballs {porcupine meat is hard to find, y'all -- I kid. It's ground beef and rice.}, and a pretty stellar beef roast with mashed potatoes {not from a box}, gravy {my best batch to date} and Yorkshire puddings.  Not to mention the Fresh Strawberry Pie I made last Sunday.  My family may not miss the fast food at all.

Here's the thing I'm learning:  I have to know what I'm making for dinner by about lunch time.  Many of you good wives and mothers probably already knew that.  Deciding plenty early gives me the chance to thaw out whatever meat I need, make sure I have all the necessary ingredients, and most importantly, wrap my brain around eating whatever it is {shredded beef burritos tonight} for dinner so I'm not swayed by every commercial for Chicken McNuggets or Pizza that I see on TV throughout the day.  Because I'm easily swayed.  Anyway -- that's my plan.  I am a firm believer in family dinner, especially now that all my kids are in school all day and my husband works in an office nearly an hour away.  When else are we going to all be in one place for a full thirty minutes?  When else are we going to reconnect and share the events of our days without the distraction of TV and cell phones?!  We always had family dinner when I was growing up.  I didn't know until much later how much work that was for my mom.  For any mom who sacrifices time and energy to keep her family strong and unified, not just fed.  It's an under-appreciated art.  I love the whole idea of it and definitely want to pass the family dinner legacy on to my own kids.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think moms who feed their family fast food or families who go out to eat are bad.  I think any woman that gathers her family for a shared meal at the end of the day is doing a lot more than just feeding them physically, no matter what they eat.  The home cooking thing is as much a budget issue for us as anything. Also, and this is just a me thing, I'm trying to become more disciplined as a person -- to do what needs to be done even when I don't feel like doing it.  And to be as good a cook as my mom, which are both lofty goals, given my current skill set.  With that, I better go make sure I have salsa and sour cream for those burritos tonight.

Here's a little funny I stole from my friend Emily's blog.  Our dads grew up together in little old Malad, Idaho.  This is the town's "famous" Dude Ranch Cafe:


There must not be much work for the ho's in such a small town, so they've resorted to baking pies. Mmmmm, pie. I probably still have time to bake one for tonight . . .




9 comments:

  1. www.Cooking4RealLife.blogspot.com is my newest adventure. I laugh because I was preaching about family dinner there last week. :) AMEN sista!

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  2. Tammy, I love it!! I'm going to be anxiously awaiting each and every post!

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  3. We have been eating out a lot too. I am actually fixing dinner now! This post is very inspiring. Happy cooking :)

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  4. I'm with you on this one. We are in the middle of buying a house and starting school and all that jazz so dinner has been whatever we can find in the cupboard at 5:30 (ahem, cereal). But I'm making dinner tonight. AND, I think the reference to Malad is funny. My parents bought a house there that they are fixing up to retire in in a few years. From SD to Malad. I'm super excited that they will only be 2 hours away instead of 17.

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  5. Amy!! I love your blogs!! Being a fairly new mom...I always feel like I need to improve. Your blog is very inspiring...I need to be a bit more disciplined if I do say so myself! Keep it up!

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  6. I TOTALLY forgot your dad was from Malad!

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  7. I tackled family dinner a year and a half ago (again!) and it's going well!!! To help with the planning I also have designated nights: Pasta night, Mexican fiesta, and Homemade pizza night. Those are my easiest nights for dinner! GOOD LUCK!!!!

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  8. I got nothing to add other than that I am 1 - impressed, 2 - hungry, and 3 - probably going to chef myself a burrito tonight!

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  9. oh, wait. One more thing. I'm off work and catching up on blogs right now... on another blog (CJane, if you read her), there was a reference to the Garrens, and I was reminded how, ya know, Ms. Amy Hughes Gregson comes from a long line of good kissers! Ha!

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