Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

 Lately, I've been trying to have more breakfasts or light meal items ready prepared for on the go. Whether I'm at home or gonna be out, it's great to have something to grab in the morning. Often things get crazy busy so fast or there's no time to really make breakfast. And I wanted to be sure that I was getting enough good fiber, and good protein in the mornings.
I've been planning and preparing quite a few things that work for morning meals, and morning snacks.
Also I was talking to a friend lately and she was saying how she often just grabs half a bagel out on her way to church or just can't think of what to eat in the morning when she's in a hurry. That got me thinking as well, and I want to share some ideas with you!

Today we're going to be talking about what the French do to help with digestion and good nutrition. I've spoken about the French before - their food culture is very inspiring, as are many European countries.
This helps me to think about my meals and how I want to structure them, both for my family and for myself. Let's talk about it!

Karyn here from the Family Food for Moms podcast. I just wanted to let you know that I've decided to take a break for three months from the podcast, not publishing any episodes for May, June, and July. Then I will be back the very beginning of August.
I so love doing this podcast and talking about food and dining with you!. I love thinking about celebrating with your family, about date nights, about learning new cooking skills, and being inspired by different cultures and the way they do food.
I'm excited to continue in August.
I'm gonna mention a few episodes that you might be interested in listening to in the mean time.
Some of our most downloaded... 

 Today we're going to talk about food from Germany - what we can be inspired by and what we can learn from German food and cooking.
German food is hearty, it's comforting, and it's built around simple, high-quality ingredients. It's designed to keep you full, satisfied, and comforted in the colder climate. 

 Today I want to talk about desserts, and how it's not necessarily bad to have dessert, even if you have it quite regularly. I was recently talking to my mom-in-law who's visiting from Belgium, and she was telling us how in Belgium people often eat dessert every night. 
Most nights they have a three-course dinner, usually starting with soup, then having the main, and then a dessert. It's expected that there's dessert every night. I think this is a good thing because it's a much healthier version of a dessert. It's not some highly processed, white flour thing - it's made using natural ingredients like fruit. The spices that are in it are good for the blood sugar, and it's seen as part of the meal.
I wanted to talk about that a little bit, and tell you more about what they do, and about why having dessert is not a bad thing. 

 Today we're going to be talking about cooking in sauce.
Instead of making a sauce separately and then adding it later - which can be delicious, cooking in sauces is really going to enhance the meat or vegetable that you're busy cooking. I wanted to talk about cooking in sources rather than adding them at the end.
It’s one of the easiest ways to make your food deeply flavorful, juicy, and hard to mess up. It's how many of the world's best comfort food dishes are made. 

 Today we’re going to talk about celebrating life - the small things in life, and not having to wait for the occasions. Celebration meals are always special and fun for a family, and they don't need a calendar event to happen. We can make them meaningful by celebrating the small things, and just celebrating life - being together and enjoying each other. Some of the best celebrations come from ordinary days when you decide to do something special. So, let's talk about some solid reasons to celebrate, and reasons to have celebration meals at various times that aren’t linked to a specific occasion.

 This is part two of How to Cook Meat Well which is part of the series about basic cooking skills. Last time we talked about techniques that help you to make your lamb and beef tasty, tender, and juicy.
Today we’re going to talk about cooking chicken, fish, and other items in a way that's convenient, easy, and ends up delicious.

Today we're going to be talking about cooking meat - knowing how to cook it, which kitchen appliances to use, how to make sure it's not dry, but nice and moist, how to not overcook your meat, how to prepare it for cooking, et cetera. 
So, let's start with some techniques that make all the difference. They seem like small things that wouldn't actually matter, but they really do make a huge difference in making your meat tasty, and making it tender, not dry.

Today we're going to talk more about hospitality.
Last time we talked about how it's important to be present, and not have it be stressful, but to enjoy the time with your guests. We said that you should have plans for what kind of meals you could make so that it's not stressful. You can plan a lot in advance.
We talked about having laughter and warmth, helping people feel welcome, involving your children in the decorating and the cooking, focusing on your connection with people, prepping ahead, and making it fun for kids as well. We also looked at knowing how to welcome your kids, having some kind of treats in the freezer, micro-hospitality, and et cetera.
Today we're going to talk about what you can do for food when you have guests over. You can do a tea or a dessert evening, but if you're doing a full meal, here are some ideas of what's easy, what works, and what you can do without stress!