I come from a family of 5. My mom taught us that being thrifty and creative got you a long way. She always stretched our dollar as far as it could go. We didn't have an abundance of money but we lived what I considered a comfortable and privileged life thanks to her. We never went out to eat and almost every night of the week she had a home cooked meal for us that we sat down at the table and ate together as a family. There were no "made to order" dishes for each kid and their likes and dislikes. Just simply one meal, that we all ate or didn't.
Nowadays this type of tradition has gone by the wayside.
Parents are running their kids to a variety of school activities, little league sports have become more competitive, and technology has taken over actual conversation. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
I watched my mom make a weekly list...2 weeks worth of meals at a time and all of the ingredients she would need to buy to make them. We stuck to the list and didn't fill the cart with extra junk food and soft drinks because every dollar counted. As soon as I had a family to cook for this is exactly what I did. After all, this was the only example I had.
We were eating healthy, nutritious meals and conversation was happening on a daily basis.
What if we got back to the simplicity of meal planning again? What if we scheduled one hour to plan out the rest of the month? Would there be less fast food lines? Less stress? More mindful meals? More quality time together?
I think so.
Would you like some help? Let's get back to the dinner table together.
