If I were hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner this year, I would want my guests to bring something.  I’m not talking about green bean casserole, either.  Although it’s full of deliciousness.  Here’s a list of five things I hope my guests will bring.  I try to do all of these things with varying levels of success. As well as following the most important rule of the holidays for family gatherings: keep your pants on.

Smiley, happy faces

Holidays are stressful.  Traveling on Thanksgiving weekend between my house and my mother’s is about as much fun as watching Dora on a never-ending loop, while locked in a crowded prison cell and spiraling into soul-crushing madness.  It’s actually *exactly* like that, except the prison cell is my mini-van on I-95 between DC and NY.

We’re also chronically late, my kids are constantly whining and my husband is grouchy because he’d rather be home watching football and taking it easy.  None of this lends itself to mommy being a happy camper.  So I get it when people show up and they’re peevish. I’ve been guilty of this myself.  (Hangs head in shame.) Continue reading »

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Eating as a family has benefits for kids.

New research has identified a powerful prevention tool in the fight to keep our children fit and healthy:  Family meals.  We already know that eating dinner together has psychological benefits. Regular family dinners have been said to help prevent behavioral problems, eating disorders, and even suicidal thoughts in children. Now we hear that eating together as a family reduces the risk of childhood obesity by 12%, and increases the chances of your children eating healthy foods by double that amount.

Knowing family meals are what’s best for kids doesn’t make it any easier to make them happen. Juggling schedules and appetites can be so daunting that many, if not most parents throw up their hands and feed the family whenever time allows. How do you eat together as a family when one, if not two parents doesn’t get home until well after your kids are ready to eat? Continue reading »

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Studies have found that children in families who regularly eat together are less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide.  They do better in school and are more likely to put off having sex.  As such, many families make a point to dine together as often as possible.

But if your busy schedule means those dinners often consist of frozen pizzas and takeout meals, perhaps you should consider a cooking co-op.  Designed to help busy people eat better, cooking co-ops let friends and neighbors share the labor involved in preparing delicious,  home-cooked meals. Continue reading »

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Have you had a chance to read Michael Pollan’s latest book, “Food Rules” yet? If not, you’d better put it on reserve at the library or head to the bookstore because it’s getting rave reviews all over the place. Longtime New York Times nutrition writer Jane Brody (who wrote a pretty great book on nutrition herself) even called it the most intelligent, sensible and simple-to-follow book she’s seen in her more than 4 decades writing about health.

That’s a pretty ringing endorsement, given that Pollan is a journalist, not a nutrionist. Of course, his entertaining, intelligently humorous style and ability to coin phrases like “edible foodlike substance” to describe a great deal of what’s in the grocery store these days probably has a lot to do with his popularity. Interested in getting a little taste of “Food Rules”? Check out our excerpt from the book here and a 2006 interview with Pollan here. Continue reading »

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In case you haven’t heard by now, eating together as a family is good for your kids. Study after study has found that children who eat frequent meals with their families are less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and are more likely to make good grades in school.  Parents who manage to pull off regular family dinners pat themselves on the back and feel confident that they are doing all they can to reduce their kids’ chances of becoming drug-abusing dropouts.  Good for them, but what about the rest of us?  Continue reading »

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Professional caterer Vered Guttman thinks foodie moms need to quit with the saffron infusions and crumbled goat cheese and just make their kids a decent meal already.

Today’s obsession with other people’s traditional dishes (whoever and whatever that may be) have crowded out our own (whoever and whatever we may be), she says. Our kitchens are crowded with cookbooks, our mailboxes filled with recipe-rich magazines. We revel in serving our children novel meals with esoteric ingredients. And then stand back baffled when they swoon over the babysitter’s chicken tenders and cheese-drenched broccoli.

After asking her kids their favorite dinners and hearing them list grandma’s meatballs, sushi and quesadillas, Guttman decided to give Swiss chard leaves stuffed with lamb and rice in lemon sauce a rest and focus on family food they actually wanted.

From Double X: Continue reading »

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