Boost your child's academic achievement and psychological adjustment in one easy step!

Who isn't interested in academically successful and psychologically adjusted children? In Dallin H. Oaks' talk, "Good, Better, Best" he quoted Anderson and Doherty, Family Relations, 54:655, "Eating meals at home is the strongest predictor of children's academic achievement and psychological adjustment." Nancy Gibbs, "The Magic of a Family Meal," Time, June 12,2006 wrote, "Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children's smoking, drinking, or using drugs." Alrighty then, I'm in.

Knowing that eating dinner together is the common denominator of successful families makes it an easy sell. The fact that cooking isn't that fun to me makes it a challenging reality. But I'm all about happy kids so I'll do what it takes to give them the best chance.

I'm going to give you some food ideas, not delicious, natural, gourmet, pinterest worthy food ideas. I'm giving you, "My 1 year old lives on vapor," "Is a hot dog a day too many for my child?," "Is it too soon to serve spaghetti again? It's almost been a week." food ideas.

Lets start with my food standards:
1. We need to eat together, sitting down, with plates and utensils for dinner for sure, lunch possibly, breakfast not likely.
2. There needs to be a fruit and vegetable at lunch and dinner.
3. All meals must contain protein.
4. Sugar drinks are served with meals only on holidays (that may include weekends.)
5. No desserts until noon (Frosted Mini Wheats and Honey nut Cheerios don't count.)

Baby foods-My goal is to breastfeed until they're 1 and then wean to a cup. This has worked for me. My last baby couldn't breastfeed because of a cleft palate and so I had to eat some words about toddlers walking around the house with a bottle. I was afraid to take it away from him because he didn't really eat much. When I finally did, he got hungry and branched out in the food department just like "Parents magazine" said he would.

The hard part was at 6 months when I was supposed to introduce solid foods. I parented in the days when Gerber baby foods were cool. I fed them rice cereal and applesauce and bananas and peaches because they were delicious. I made the baby choke down sweet potatoes and carrots, but no-can-do anything green. Those foods were nasty. I like how they have little grinders now so moms can mash up real vegetables. I've read that avacados are the "It" food for babies. I remember a lot of spitting food out, rubbing it in the hair and throwing it off the tray. It seemed like not much was getting inside the body. I used to place little food bits strategically around the kitchen on the foot rest of the high chair or in a little bowl on the floor to try to encourage the one-year-old to eat. I'm not presenting this as good parenting, I'm just sharing the desperate measures taken to solve the "children need food" problem.

I'm proud of the moms who are confidently feeding their children exciting, healthy foods. I sat by a mother on the airplane who handed her 4-year-old daughter carrot chips and hummus for her snack. That was so impressive. One of my daughter-in-laws encourages her son to try things he didn't like last time "Just in case your taste buds changed." It totally works. My other daughter-in-law has charts of stickers for children who have eaten healthy foods they may not care for.

I was a bit of a food coward. My meal rotation for young children was spaghetti, tacos, baked chicken, casserole, roast and mashed potatoes, pizza, and hot dogs and macaroni and cheese on Friday- date night, always with a vegetable and a fruit.I have tried to serve more interesting meals as the children have grown older and I'm not as crazy. There were many nights when I would start dinner only to have to stop and nurse the baby. When my husband walked in I would ask him to finish browning the meat, or make the salad...He was kind to acquiesce but probably wondered if he had to bring home the bacon and cook it too.

What I'm trying to say is food is hard, but very important. Many people are serving delicious and various foods at their family dinner. At the Stoker house the food is delicious once in a while and we could definitely have more variety, but it's there, on the table, almost every night. So here are my tips:

1. If you know me, you've heard this, but it's my best tip. Bake a lot of chicken at once. Chop it and separate it into zip-lock bags and store it in the freezer. Chicken enchiladas, chicken pasta, chicken soup, chicken pizza aren't as scary that way.

2. Recognize dinner prep time as one of the witching hours (bedtime is the other.) Don't work in the kitchen hungry. Feed yourself a healthy snack so your family doesn't anger you.

3. I am not a big meal planner, but those who are are happier. Another daughter-in-law puts her meal planning for the month on a google doc that includes a link to the recipe for the day. I want to be like her when I grow up. At least I write what I was thinking when I was grocery shopping on a slip of paper on the fridge.

4. Try new recipes. It adds pizazz. It also changes the experience from obligation to creation.

5. Salad, big ones.

6. My 2 tips for getting littles to eat vegetables is serve the peas frozen and buy carrot chips.

7. I have some attitudes, so I try to warn my family of potential danger zones. Since I don't love cooking that much I expect my sacrifice to be appreciated i.e. a.You'd better come when I call for dinner. This meal is a big deal. b.If you express displeasure with the food, you can cook tomorrow. This is real. It happens. c. The only comment that is acceptable is "Thank you for the delicious dinner." The exception to this is if I'm trying something new and I want to know if it should go into the rotation of 7 or 8 meals that I know by heart. Then I will ask if you like this food. If I don't ask, I don't want to know. d. If you didn't help prepare dinner don't come "snitching". Wait to eat until dinner is served. e. You cannot ask "When's dinner?" You can only ask "What can I do to help?"

8. Don't have an attitude

9. The most important thing is, of course, enjoy the people at the table. They are your greatest gift and it's a privilege to serve them.  The food doesn't matter as much as the talk.  Make it joyful.

Here are a couple of recipes that have been in the rotation that are, actually, delicious.

BETTER MEATLOAF

1 lb. ground sausage
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 c. Italian bread crumbs
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

Barbecue sauce and brown sugar

Blend first 5 ingredients and place in loaf pan. Top with sauce. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove foil and drain grease. Return to oven for 10-15 more minutes.

SMOKY BACON CHICKEN

3 oz. pepper Jack cheese shredded
3 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 c. cooked bacon pieces
1/4 c. light olive oil mayonnaise (or regular)
1 tsp. chipotle or chile sauce

6 chicken tenderloin

Combine sauce ingredients and spread on chicken. Bake however long you need to at 350 degrees.

Vegetable Barley Soup

Combine in soup pan:

6 cans nonfat chicken broth (15 oz. cans)

2 cans petite diced tomatoes, with juice

1 onion, chopped

4 medium carrots, sliced

3 stalks celery, sliced

4 bay leaves

1 t. garlic powder

2 t. white sugar

½ t pepper

1 t paprika

1 t Worcestershire sauce

Simmer for about 40 minutes.  Add: ¾ c. quick cooking barley

Simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove bay leaves. You can add meat.

*Note, if barley is used that requires a longer cooking time, add it to the soup at the appropriate time so it will be fully cooked at the end of the cooking time.  Makes about  12 cups.

(Thanks Ann West)