No matter what your history with food is some of it carries over to your children.
I applaud First Lady Michelle Obama for recognizing the link between what our kids eat and who’s providing it for them.
Breaking the cycle of generations of unhealthy eating isn’t easy. It takes education, desire, commitment and discipline.
As a mom, figuring out what to cook for dinner may be one of the biggest jobs we must face. Granted, it’s easy enough to leave it up to our kids once they’re a certain age, but unsupervised, dinner could be anything from Pop Tarts to popcorn.
Obesity is an epidemic in our society and some of the chemicals that contribute to it are hard for us to avoid. Is there really a way for me and my boys to live free of hormones, hidden saturated fats and sugar that are found in the foods we love?
I don’t think so.
What I can do though, is give it my best effort.
Depending on my mood, workload, and time constraints, the dinner routine at our house can go through changes. While never the intention, fast food or take-out is sometimes an option and we’re all learning to make the healthiest choices available.
Let’s just say, we aren’t strangers to the staff at Chipotle.
We’ve also tried putting the kids in charge of coming up with meal ideas. Here’s a fun fact. Most kids enjoy cooking and helping in the kitchen until it starts to feel like it’s becoming a job.
Studies bear out that no matter what your family looks like, the responsibility of daily meals falls on moms in the majority of cases and moms like the women I know are doing our bests to prepare something easy, healthy and good…and to keep it moving.
As good as sitting down to dinner with the family sounds, doing it every night is no longer a reality for most of us. Or in the words of my best friend’s daughter: “What’s this six o’clock dinner thing about?” For so many kids is as foreign as seeing their mom in an apron.
As much as we read, watch the Food Network and obsess over the idea of cooking, according to a NYTimes.com article, the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation and another four minutes cleaning up. In my opinion, 27 minutes is about 15 minutes too long.
There are tons of products for sale claiming to make our jobs in the kitchen easier. We probably have them all. In an informal Facebook Poll, I asked what kitchen item/utensil or appliance you couldn’t give up and how it made your life easier?
From basics like microwave oven and dishwashers to fancy pants like immersion and blenders espresso machines and your answers ran the gamut. Most bizarre responses: bacon and the spoon. But I’m not here to judge. I will judge “folk” even though I pray he meant fork, which is almost as goofy.
As much as I’d like to associate myself with something hot and sizzling like the wok, my go-to kitchen savior has become the good old fashioned, tried and true crock-pot. Not only does it fit our lifestyle but it’s taught us a few life lessons as well.
Invented by Irving Naxon, the slow cooker was inspired by his Jewish grandmother who prepared a stew, which took several hours to cook in the oven. Given the fact that I don’t even like my food items to touch on a plate, you can imagine how turned off I am by too many things thrown together in a pot. However, my crock-pot has taught me to look beyond that and has opened my mind to all kinds of possibilities that my sons love.
But the best lesson it’s taught us all is patience. No matter how high you turn up the dial, the crock-pot takes its sweet time. Even though we live in a microwave world, a slow cooker allows us to do the things we need to do and still have a good, hot meal at the end of the day.
One of my oldest son’s favorite recipes is Crockpot BBQ Chicken:
Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt to taste
Directions:
- Season chicken breast lightly (a small pinch per breast) with some sea salt and place in your crockpot.
- In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well combined.
- Pour over chicken, cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours
- Once time is up, you can serve the breast whole, or shred with 2 forks. If shredding, recover and let cook in sauce for about 10-15 more minutes to soak up all that delish flavor.
Serve on buns, over rice, in wraps, on a salad or eat a plateful as is!
After producing a radio show, blogging, promoting one book and working on another, picking up kids and managing homework, like most working moms, I have to find tools and strategies for improving my quality of life. Who knew that right up there with the iPhone, Skype, DVR and GPS would be the Crock Pot?
It might not be sexy but it gives you more time to be!
If you have ideas, recipes or gadgets that you want to share, serve them up below.
