Sally Kuzechak MS RD - Cooking Light Dinnertime Survival Guide: Feed Your Family. Save Your Sanity

Solve Your 10 Toughest
DINNERTIME DILEMMAS

A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP

Thats what I have with the idea of making dinner. I love watching my kids dig in to something Ive just made. I love feeling good about whats on their plates. I love the thrill of finding a new recipe that garners smiles from everyone. And I love sitting around the table as a family.

But I hate all the stuff that makes dinner so hard to pull off. Like 25-minute windows between work and sports practices in which to cook and serve a meal for four. Or the rejection kids bestow on meals based solely on an innocent sprinkling of parsley.

BELIEVE IT! KIDS LOVE EATING AT HOME

In honor of Mothers Day, my sons preschool teachers asked this question: What do you love about your mom? The responses were: Shes pretty or She takes me places. Another said, Her dress is soft. My Sams response: She makes dinner every night.

Sam is frequently the toughest customer at our house. Hes not above a dinner strike or declaring a meal unacceptable before hes even seen it. Yet he loves me because I make those dinners just about every night. Its also possible that he couldnt think of anything else to say. Either way, Ill take it.

Getting dinner on the table isnt easy, even if you like to cook. Just because you like to cook doesnt necessarily mean you want toor that you enjoy it while simultaneously reviewing spelling words and fielding an after-hours work call.

DEDICATION

For my sons, Henry and Sam, and my husband, Joel, the three guys around my dinner table every night. I love you.

A NEVER-ENDING ASSIGNMENT

I remember when I got my first editorial job out of college. After my first day, I came home and collapsed onto my bed, exhaustedand totally exhilarated, until I realized: I had to go to work again tomorrow. And the next day and the day after that. It seemed to stretch into eternity.

Sometimes making dinner feels the same way. You spend time putting together a meal. And when its all over, it hits you that this gig doesnt end today. Its the feeling that prompted my friend, Kelly, to post my favorite Facebook status update of all time: These people have to be fed every day. EVERY DAY. I am so over it.

And yet theres deep satisfaction from knowing that despite your teenagers fast-food lunch or the cupcakes at preschool, youre all eating a wholesome meal at dinnertime. And youre the person who made it happen.

The food you lovingly prepare matters because it nourishes and brings your family around the table for a short 20 minutes. It matters because it shapes your childrens idea of what family dinner is. Does that mean Ive never made a box of mac and cheese with a side of applesauce and called it dinner? Ive had plenty of those nights. Im pretty sure these days that its statistically impossible to make dinner every day (nor do I want to, thankyouverymuch). But most nights, I want our family meal to come from my kitchen, not from a box. If youre reading this, Im guessing you do, too.

DINNER READY AT SIX? EASY-PEASY!

Thats one statement youll never hear me say! I understand you, too, may be dealing with ringing cell phones or sports practices that have the kids running out the door minutes after theyve taken their last bite.

Dinnertime Survival Guide was written to assure you that youre not alone when sometimes making dinner is a pain or your least favorite part of the day. And its goal is to arm youa parent with your heart in the right placewith a game plan for dealing with the very real obstacles that make it a challenge to pull off.

SOLVING THE NITTY-GRITTY PROBLEMS

This book identifies common obstacles all parents can relate tolike crazy schedules, a tight budget, lackluster skills in the kitchen, or kids who are tugging on your pant leg while youre trying to cook. For every challenge, there are strategies from my own playbook, plus input from experts on how to eliminate it or, at least, how to better deal with it. Theres also tried-and-true advice from moms on what actually works. Because when you enlist the help of a bunch of moms on typical dinner dilemmas, youre going to crowdsource some serious wisdom.

The recipes in each section were specifically chosen with each obstacle in mindso youll find everything from pork chops that are ready in 15 minutes to a carbonara you can pull together when you swear you have absolutely no food in the house. Your obstacles may change day to day. One evening youre time-crunched, another youre facing bare cupboards. Or they may change as you shift from one stage of parenthood to another. The idea is to flip to the chapter dealing with whatever crisis youre facing at that moment . If you head to Chapter 5 while on the brink of a picky-eater impasse, youll find recipes that appeal to wee folk. If you go to Chapter 10 in a dont-feel-like-it funk, youll get low-effort, dinner-worthy sandwiches and salads.

GETTING DINNER DONE, NOT PERFECT

I dont expect you to follow these recipes to a T. Theyve been perfected by the experts in the Cooking Light Test Kitchen, who strive to prepare each recipe, and then write it so its accurate. But lets be honest: Part of what makes you a card-carrying mom is the ability to wing it. Nobody expects you to dash out for pine nuts when all you have is walnuts or make your own breadcrumbs when you have Little League playoffs in 30 minutes. So Ive included lots of ideas for substitutions, and hereby give you full permission to use what you have and what you like. My kids act like their mouths are going up in flames if I sprinkle red pepper onto anything, so I always leave it out (we parents sprinkle it onto our own portions). Likewise, if an ingredient seems too pricy for your budget, simply sub in something less expensive.

HANGRY adj.

1. Being so hungry as to become frustrated, angry, and irrational.

2. A state that typically comes over children and spouses roughly 18 minutes before dinner will be ready.

JUST-RIGHT RECIPES FOR FAMILIES

Rest assured, I included recipes for macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and easy stove-top pork chops. It made total sense to include varieties of meat loaf, lasagna, and tacos. And it was also important to pick a few recipes to broaden kids horizonslike Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Apples and hot pink Beet and Brown Rice Sliders. No matter what, each recipe had to pass my uncompromising tests:

1. Could I find these ingredients in a grocery store? I dont expect you to spend your savings at gourmet markets or your valuable time hunting for obscure ingredients. Some recipes call for items in the ethnic-foods section of your storebut I also try to give substitutions when possible.

2. Could I make it in a reasonable amount of time? A few of these recipes are ideal for weekends, when you typically have extra hours (and the help of your spouse and maybe kids). Otherwise, most are recipes you can pull together in less than an hour, most in less than 30 minutes.

3. Would my kids eat it? Ive flipped through many a family cookbook and thought, My kids wont eat that. Or that. Or that. My two boys arent off-the-charts picky, but theyre typical kids who prefer the basics and occasionally grouse at flecks of parsley. I spent months making Cooking Light recipes and tinkering with the ones from my own recipe book. I loved answering the question of What are we having for dinner? with something like Cider-Glazed Chicken with Browned ButterPecan Rice and Easy Garlic-Roasted Kale. Happily, my kids approached it like a fun science experiment, using a rating system of thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways. They liked most of what I made. But its also an unfortunate fact that my older son, Henry, hates brown rice and neither child will eat salmon, so clearly they couldnt be entrusted with the final decisionand a thumbs-down review didnt always mean a recipe was nixed.