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

#116 What we’ve Lost from Cooking and Nutritious Food since the 1900s and How We Can Bring it Back

Note: Only one episode this week as we have a CRAZY amount of stuff going on - I'll be back next Monday.  I appreciate all my loyal listeners!
Today I want to talk about what we've lost from food cooking and nutrition since the 1900s. Back then, food was a lot more nutritious, home cooked meals were much more common, and there was much less refinement and processing. My middle daughter has been doing some homemaking reading and studying as part of her course this year. One of the books she’s reading is Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton, first published in 1861. It contains a lot of recipes, but also a lot of text about homemaking and cooking, how to plan it and execute it. 
I was just thinking about how differently we cook and eat these days. We’re really afraid of food that's what I would call decadent. We want to just do chicken breasts or lean meat, and we do the same things over and over again. I don’t know about you, but in our family, probably because it's cheapest, we repeatedly use chicken breasts and ground beef, and most of our meals are made up of those. Yes, it's good because it's cheaper, but existing on muscle meat is really not good for us.
So, I wanted to talk about some things that I feel like we've lost. I love looking at old menus from the 1900s from various countries, and just seeing how they ate - It's quite amazing. If you factor in that they didn't have snacks, and that they had all their meals really full and nutritious, then it makes a bit more sense. I'm going to talk about what things we've lost since those times from cooking, food, and nutrition. 

#115 Meal Planning with Themes for each Evening plus a Master List of Ideas

In Episode 113, we talked about a meal planning method that our family's been using, which is based on who's cooking each night and what dishes they know how to cook. We discuss what our older children enjoy cooking, and then we plan together based on that. 
Today, I want to talk about a meal planning method based on themes. You set a theme for each evening; each day of the week, and then you do your planning based on that. For example, you could do French or Greek themed food, or a baked potato bar, or a takeout evening. You can vary this as much as you like. 
What's very helpful when you’re planning like this is a master list. I have a printable for you for this. 
You can download and print your blank Meal Planning With Themes sheets to fill in at familyfoodformoms.com/meals. 
 

#114 Breaking Dinner into Courses without Extra Work plus Easy Ideas for the Appetizer Course

(Somehow this didn't get published yesterday.. but here it is :) Hope you enjoy! 
Today we're going to talk about how we break our meals into courses without making extra work for ourselves.
I find that eating meals in courses helps all of us to slow down and give our full attention to the dinner meal - to be fully present and to enjoy chatting with each other. It also helps the cooking to not be too hectic because things can be prepared or finished off a little bit at a time for each course.
I'm going to talk about different ways that our family do meals with courses. Sometimes it's relaxed with an activity, and sometimes it's formal. We’ll also talk about how we break down the meals.

#113 Our Current Meal Planning Method and Master Plan - Involving our Kids in the Planning and Cookinging!

 Today I want to talk about what we've been eating lately, a bit about our current menu planning method and how we decide what meals to have each week. We've been trying to involve the kids in cooking, and to be more organized and orderly in the way we plan our meals. 
At the beginning of the year, I made a master plan for our meals, and now each week we take that and set up our weekly meal plan from it. Let's chat about it!

#112 What We Can Learn From Caribbean Cuisine, Caribbean Comfort Food plus Dishes to Try at Home

Today we're going to be talking about food from the Caribbean. What’s Caribbean comfort food? What can we learn from Caribbean cuisine? I find it quite fascinating what they eat out there.
They have some things that are quite unusual, and some things that are perhaps familiar, but it’s definitely different to living on the mainland.

#111 - What can we learn from Chef Rachel Ray about food and cooking - Chef Series

Just one episode this week - I'll be back next Monday!
Today we're going to be talking about chef Rachel Ray. You may have seen her on the Food Network. She loves to do all her cooking from home. You can look her up on YouTube - she's lots of fun.
She's very much about taking things like fast food, or anything that you enjoy, like Chinese food takeout, and then recreating it at home using simple techniques. She makes a lot of comfort food. We’re going to mention some things that we can learn from her as a chef, and then we’ll talk about some particular meals she makes, and what she does to make them her signature food. Let's get started. 

#110 Practical Dinner Ideas for Making Memories with Your Hubby and Kids

Today we’re going to be continuing our theme on meaningful dinners with some practical ideas for things you can do.
So, we’re thinking about how to make dinner time meaningful, how to create meaningful memories, and to make it special. Here are some ideas to focus on connection, not perfection - making the evening meaningful. 
There are so many ways to make dinners meaningful, whether family nights or date nights. I find that as soon as I start to make an effort, the ideas come. When I'm feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, I don’t have many ideas, but somehow putting on some soft music, dimming the lights, and setting the table beautifully helps already to bring that family closeness and connection.

#109 Being Fully Present at Dinner Time and Making it Meaningful as a Family

 Today we're going to be talking about dinnertime in your family - what makes memories, what makes it meaningful, and what makes it special.
I've been feeling that lately I've been leaping up a lot in the middle of meals, both at lunch and dinnertime. 
What I really want is connected family mealtimes where we feel close, where the conversation is good and deep, and where it's a meaningful experience. Now, this can't happen at every single meal, obviously, but I do want to make sure that every week or two we have an extra special meal so that we can feel connected as a family and make some memories. 

#108 What we can learn from Guy Fieri about Cooking – Chef Series

 Today we’re going to continue with our chef series - what we can learn from and be inspired by from famous chefs.
Today, we’ll talk about Guy Fieri. Guy is the host of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives from Food Network. He has a great love for American comfort food. He loves roadside diners and dive bars, and he travels around the country to find unique places that make local-inspired food.
He just loves to make ordinary dishes that are easy to cook, and to elevate them. He has many of what he calls “Guy-ifie” dishes. So, there's a lot we can learn from this inspiring chef. Let's get started. 

#107 British Comfort Food – Easy England-Inspired Meals to Cook at Home

 Today we’re going to continue the series about comfort food.
We've done French, Swiss and Italian comfort foods, and today we're going to talk about British comfort foods - all the yummy things that they eat that are easy to make.
 If you order a meal at a pub on the street, you'll probably order one of these things. They're easy to cook at home, and they're hearty, they help in the winter. In Britain there are a lot of rainy days. So, here we go with some British comfort foods that you can try at home.