Reinventing the Family Meal

I have a confession.

We don’t eat dinner together as a family on a regular basis.

I know the family meal table is an important part of child's development. I know how it encourages them to try new foods, helps promote good table manners and is a great bonding time for families.

When I was growing up we always ate together. Some of my favorite memories are around the dinner table. And, on the rare occasion, when my brother, sister and I gather our families at my parents’ house, we still sit around the dinner table and talk.

MMM—Monday!

Back in October 2010, I decided to become a Pampered Chef Consultant. I haven't had much time in my schedule to do many parties, I have had several catalog shows and have had booths at fairs and expos. I really enjoy it and hope things slow down enough that I can start doing more parties.
One of my new favorite Pampered Chef recipes is new the Mango Confetti Salsa Recipe. I made some yesterday and wanted to share it with you all. It is so yummy and so easy!

I'm on a 12-week Mission.

I had a horrible realization the other day.

Our pool opens on Saturday and I'm about 12 pounds heavier than I was last year at this time! YIKES! No wonder none of my shorts fit me!

And then... the kids are almost done with school! YIKES!

If I don't start some type of plan for meals and snacks, I'll go out of my mind.

Before I had Sam I lost a significant amount of weight by following the Curves diet and the Body-for-Life exercise routines. They are both great, but I'm getting bored. And I've stopped doing the weights... I keep struggling with costochondritis for about 18 months and I find it goes away if I don't lift weights. But I can still run and do light weights and the WiiFit!

I just haven't been able to stay focused. But I'm determined now. I think I've mentioned before how we have to make adjustments now that Rich is at work late every day. Up until this week, he'd get home, we'd both be tired so we'd open a bottle of wine, unwind... soon the cheese and crackers come out, then we find some chocolate or some other type of junk food to eat.... now 12 pounds later, I'm paying for it!

Well this week, I decided I'm making some changes. I bought the EatingWell Diet book and I subscribe to the CleanEating Magazine. They are very similar in that they focus on eating fresh, healty, non-processed foods. And eating locally when possible.

I also joined a co-op of sorts. When we went to visit my mom and dad last June, my mom had just joined a local CSA farm. The produce was fantastic -- fresh, yummy, sometimes a bit different to what we normally eat, locally and organically grown. I really wanted to try this for our family, but have had problems finding one with a drop off point near enough to my house.

But, I found the next best thing (thanks Summer and Jackie). A lady right around the corner collects money and goes down to the Georgia State Farmer's market once a week and fills up baskets with fresh produce. All this for $15 a week. Score!

So with my newly armed arsenal of yummy, healthy recipies and my newly stocked fridge full of fresh produce... I'm good to go. This time I'm determined to stay the course. We go to my parents house in 12 weeks and that is my target. Twelve pounds in 12 weeks. I think it's doable.

Now I know with the kids getting out of school this may prove difficult to accomplish all the time. So the plan is to be strict for the next 3 weeks. Then, once the kids are out, I'm going to make a "Weekly Breakfast & Lunch Menu" for the kids too. I decide what will be for breakfast, snacks and lunch every day of the week. Or we can work together to make the menu but we're sticking to the menu!

Hopefully, this will help me keep the kids eating healthy, save money, save time and just take the meal time worry away.

Of course I realize I'll have to build in a day or so a week for a treat like pizza or ice cream. And sometimes things come up and you need to be flexible...

So, wish me luck! I'm going to try and post my weekly progress here Just for the support and accountability! And I'm going to start taking part in Meal Plan Monday so stay tuned for that.

More of our Asheville Trip

We're home from Asheville now. We got home on Friday afternoon.

I wanted to write more about Asheville because we really had a great time. I just loved the town. It was not what I was expecting at all! The locals are all so diverse and eclectic, at times Rich and I remarked we could have been in Camden Town. Yet all the tourists were upper-middle to upper class retirees in search of a good golf course. And everyone was fine with it.

The architecture in Asheville is amazing. The shops are all unique little boutique-y places. We saw lots of "green" shops, places that sold "recycled clothes" as opposed to "used" clothes, artsy shops and galleries, antique shops... all sorts. There are lots of restaurants. More vegetarian and vegan restaurants than I've seen in one small area. And all the "non" veggie restaurants have vegan and veggie options. Lots of outdoor seating...

I know I'm rambling and in my head I had lots of things to say about where we went and what we did... but there was just so much!

Some of our favorite places...

Our B&B. We stayed at the Princess Anne Hotel and I would HIGHLY recommend it. The staff, all of them, were so nice and friendly and welcoming. We had yummy breakfasts every morning and every evening they have wine and cheese and little nibbley bits to enjoy before you head off to dinner. They left homemade truffles in our room every night. It was amazing.

We ate lunch two days at the Early Girl Eatery. This was the only place we went to twice. Lunch on the other days was bread and cheese in our room at the hotel. The food at the Early Girl Eatery was very good. Rich had the soup both days and it was delicious. Very hearty and filling. I had a salad one day and the avocado and sprout sandwich one day. Yummy!

Dinners we had such a hard time choosing where to eat. There is every type of cuisine available. The first night we had Indian at Mela. I'm still dreaming about the salmon tikka. And if anyone knows a good recipe, please let me know!

The second night was a bit disappointing. We really wanted to have either a good steak or some sort of fish. We found a place called Magnolia's Oyster Bar & Grille which looked promising. They had a large covered outdoor seating area and the menu looked good. But when we got in and really had a look at the menu, it was a bit over the top (grilled trout with fried shrimp and oysters with a bur blanc sauce....). I kept expecting Gordon Ramsey to come out as they were filming "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" there. In the end, we decided "simple" may be best so we both ordered a fillet -- rare plus to medium rare. I cut into my steak and it was stone cold in the middle. Fair play to them, they were really nice about taking back the steaks and cooking them more. And they even gave us a new plate with new potatoes and asparagus. And the waitress was really friendly. It's such a charming little place, it's just the menu was a bit over the top and complex. I'd like to think the regular chef was off on Mondays and it's better most other days...

Tuesday it poured rain and thundered so we ordered pizza and watched a movie in our room.

Wednesday we went to a very yummy Thai restaurant called Thai-Basil. It was so nice to sit outside and just have a nice meal. The curry puffs were not quite as good as the ones at Chinta Ria in Melbourne, but they were still good.

Our last day there, we really wanted to have a nice dinner but we didn't know what to have. We were torn between Tapas, a pub meal, Italian or Mexican. In the end, my vote was counted twice and we went Mexican. We ate at the best place ever! Called Salsa's. It's a small little place with "Mexican-Caribbean" flavors. We sat outside and stuffed our faces. It was a great way to end the week. Highly recommend them if you are ever in Asheville.

And, like I said, we got home on Friday afternoon. It was so nice to see the boys again. Sam didn't stop hugging me for about 20 minutes. The look on his face was priceless. We met Josh at the bus stop and he was just as happy to see us!

My parents left yesterday -- completely tired and worn out -- but happy for being able to spend a week with their grandsons! They're off visiting their granddaughters now at my sister's cottage.

That was our anniversary vacation. I really am looking forward to going back to Asheville. I can't imagine a more perfect place to spend with Rich!

Funny Boy

Okay, just a funny story about dinner last night. Sam has FINALLY decided to start eating (insert Halleluiah Chorus here). After 1 year of basically boycotting food all together, we can now manage to get him to eat, takes some effort, but hey, why knock it when he's eating!

Anyway, last night at dinner, I hear, "Choo Choo... Here comes Henry" and I look down... he's got an apple slice turned upside down so the hole where the core was cut out looks like a "tunnel" and he's pushing pieces of dinner through it.

Very cute, quite funny. Continue eating.

Later:

I look over to Sam and he has a piece of broccoli in one hand pressed to his left shoulder and he's rocking it back and forth.

Me: "What are you doing?"

Sam: "Cuddle broccoli"

Me: "You're cuddling your broccoli?"

Sam: "Yes Mommy, cuddle broccoli"

Of course, what else do you do with broccoli?

Crazy kid.