Resources Everywhere

It's amazing how many resources there are regarding family time.

Today, I found that Louisiana State University AgCenter (LSUAg) has a Web page devoted to parenting and families at LSUAgCenter.com. They have several articles pertaining to families and spending time together. Viewers can rate the articles, select related articles, or narrow by sub-topics.

I also found and article on the LSU AgCenter Web site entitled, "Mom's Time Out." The article was complete with suggestions on how mothers can relax with limited time and many demands. The AgCenter does extensive research in Agriculture (as likely noted) and children and families (such as childhood obesity).

Featured Recipe:

Pizza Noodle (or Baked Pasta with Sausage)

• 1 lb. package of pasta (penne, rigatoni, shells, farfale, rotini, or ruote will work, really any type of pasta is fine)
• 1 can or jar of spaghetti sauce (any flavor will do, I prefer 4 cheese)
• 1 lb. ground sausage (mild, medium, or hot)
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta per package directions. Thoroughly cook sausage. Combine cooked pasta, sausage and spaghetti sauce into a 13 x 9 pan, coating all the pasta and sausage with sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake at 425* until cheese is melted.

This recipe is super simple and so delicious. It's one of my favorites! My family has always called it "Pizza Noodle," though I'm sure it has another name. I love this with salad and a piece of garlic bread.

Why I Love Family Meals

I love family meals because it is a time when I can relax and converse with my family. It seems like our days just get busier and busier, but when we make time for dinner together as a family, things fall into place.

I'm grateful for the opportunity I have had to study the benefits and outcomes of frequent family dinners. As I have worked on a case analysis for one of my communications classes, I have learned a great deal about the difference eating together as a family can make.

Because of this knowledge of the importance of family dinners (and family time in general), I have made spending time as a family a priority in my life. My husband and I have many goals, and most of them are concerning our family.

I hope today's movement for structured family time, family meals, and families will be successful and touch many lives. I truly believe that families are capable of so much and I hope other people will realize this as well.

Featured Recipe: 

Sour Cream Enchiladas

• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can diced green chiles
• 2 shredded chicken breasts
• 10 flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 
• Optional: 1 small can diced jalapenos

Combine the Cream of Chicken soup, sour cream, green chiles, and jalapenos in a large mixing bowl. Spread part of the chicken in a tortilla, add a tablespoon of sauce, top with cheese, and roll. Place into a 13 x 9 pan. Repeat until chicken and tortillas are all used. Spread the remaining cream mixture on top of the rolled tortillas. Top with remaining cheddar cheese and bake in the oven at 400* until the cheese is completely melted.

Family Day

The National Center on Alcohol and Substance Abuse (CASA) has initiated Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner With Your Children. Family Day is a movement reminding parents and families that dinner makes a difference in the lives of children.

The Web site contains examples of public service announcements that have aired on stations such as CBS, as well as what's in the news about family dinners, parenting tips, and how to be a STAR Parent.

Family Day, 2010 is on September 27th.

Here is one of the featured public service announcements:

http://casafamilyday.org/familyday/files/media/video/CASA-Family-Day-2008-Public-Service-Announcement.mpg


Featured Recipe:

Taco Salad (From eatingwell.com)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup prepared salsa
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey
• 2 large plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 cups shredded romaine lettuce
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Preparation: 

1. Combine salsa and sour cream in a large bowl.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add turkey and cook, stirring often and crumbling with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, cumin and chili powder; cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in cilantro and 1/4 cup of the salsa mixture.
3. Add lettuce to the remaining salsa mixture in the bowl; toss to coat. To serve, divide the lettuce among 4 plates, top with the turkey mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

My husband and I have created our own variations of this recipe. We have omitted the meat, exchanged the kidney beans for black beans, and have pressed a tortilla into a bowl, filled with lettuce, and topped with the taco mixture. The tomatoes can be exchanged for canned or omitted. Take what you like from the recipe and go with it!
 

 

The Benefits of Family Dinners

Kids who eat 5 or more family meals a week are:

• More likely to get A's and B's in school
• Less likely to feel depressed or suicidal
• More likely to think their parents are proud of them

These are just some of the facts listed on Stouffer's Let's Fix Dinner Web site. The information cited on the site is from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), from their September 2009 report: The Importance of Family Dinners V. 

Substantial research concerning family meals has been conducted, and the results are pervasive: Family meals matter! 

Eating dinner with my husband is something I look forward to every day. When we sit down and set aside all the work and distractions of the day, we are free to talk, catch up, and just enjoy each others' company. 

Frequent family meals also provide nutritional and health benefits. According to mealsmatter.org, "Frequent family meals are related to better nutritional intake, and a decreased risk for unhealthy weight control practices and substance abuse."

Life gets busy . . . but isn't family worth the time?


 FEATURED RECIPE:
Pasta Pomodoro

• 1 lb. package angel hair pasta
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups Roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/3 cups chicken broth
• Crushed red pepper, to taste (optional)
• Black pepper, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook per package directions until al dente; drain. Pour olive oil in a large, deep skillet over high-heat. Saute onions and garlic until lightly browned. Reduce heat to medium-high and add tomatoes, vinegar, and chicken broth; simmer for about 8 minutes. Stir in red pepper, black pepper, salt, basil, and cooked pasta, tossing thoroughly with sauce. Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve topped with grated cheese.

You may add more tomatoes if you desire. This is also good topped with grilled chicken.

My husband and I LOVE this dinner. It's simple and delicious!

Thanks mommy & daddy!

Look how awesome my mommy and daddy are! They sent us an Easter basket and cinnamon rolls for General Conference breakfast!! Love you mom & dad!! Thank you Thur-goodies.com for delivering this awesome treat!

I fail.

Ok, so I pretty much failed at the "writing every day" thing. And pretty much--that's an understatement.

Today I had swim class. I swam 750 meters straight without stopping to rest! Man, am I wiped out. On Monday I swam 1,000 meters (at least that's how much I was supposed to swim... but I lost count), I felt super hardcore. My mother should be proud.

We lost our way out of the Wallyball tourney today. We made it a lot further than I anticipated we would! We really should have beat this team we played tonight, though. We just didn't bring our "A" game, yo!

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a huge nerd. I love working on databases and powerpoint presentations and all those other nerdy things. Today, I spent 3 hours working on perfecting my ppt presentation for next Tuesday. The slides are awesome! The presentation is for a case analysis I'm doing on Nintendo's Wii. I'm so proud of my powerpoint. I'm SUCH  a NERD!!

Daniel took me to Panda Express for dinner. MmmMmm, so delicious! As is customary, I ate with chopsticks. Daniel made fun of me for it (which is also customary). Hehe.

I'm excited for volleyball class tomorrow. Hopefully I'll play better in VOLLEYBALL than I did tonight in WALLYBALL.

I love it when Tuesdays feel like Mondays...

I love it when Tuesdays feel like Mondays. I know that sounds strange, but it's really great. The whole time you're thinking, "Man, I've still got four days to go!" But in reality, you only have three. Realizing this is the greatest feeling ever. Seriously.

Yesterday (around 3:00 a.m.), I developed some sort of stomach flu and woke up puking my guts out. It was not pleasant. Once I fell back asleep, it was very difficult to wake up for my 8:00 classes. In fact, I didn't. My dear, kind, wonderful hubby ditched his first class to take care of me and make sure I was fit to be left on my own before he headed to campus. I spent my day writing half of a paper due Friday (which lasted all of about 45 minutes) and spent the remainder of the day watching chick-flicks on my laptop in bed. I avoided eating food for fear of losing whatever I swallowed. When Daniel got home, he made me a delicious home-made soup with fresh french bread. Boy, did I feel better after that! I have the sweetest husband ever =)

Today I was feeling much better... thankfully. I hit a couple rough patches of nausea during class and work, but I was able to make it through the day. I ended up feeling well enough to participate in our intramural wallyball game, so that was great! Our team is comprised of me, Daniel, Nicole, and David. We're pretty decent if we can just get David a good set (aka, David's the best person on our team and really good at hitting if we provide a good set). We're in Div I for the tourney. We won our first game, lost the second (horribly, btw... the team could have beat us with both hands tied and laying on their stomachs... no joke!), and have won all of our loser's bracket games. It's double elimination. I reckon we may be able to pull off one more win, but after that--I'm sure we're done for!

Tomorrow I have swim class. I swear, if I swallow any chlorine, I'm sure I'll vomit. Speaking of chlorine, I feel like no matter how many times I wash my hair, it perpetually smells of the chemical. Same with my skin.

After Daniel and I got home from campus this evening, we began making a snack: quesadillas and grapefruit. As I cut the grapefruit and got it ready for eating, I commented to Daniel about how amazing all of Heavenly Father's creations are--even grapefruit. How God created all of these things for us, so that we could enjoy their beauty and nourishment. Just now, as I was reading the next Gospel Principles lesson, I was able to read about this exact idea. It says:

          
           "We are now living in this beautiful world. Think of the sun, which gives us warmth and light. Think of the rain, which makes plants grow and makes the world feel clean and fresh. Think of how good it is to hear a bird singing or a friend laughing. Think of how wonderful our bodies are—how we can work and play and rest. When we consider all of these creations, we begin to understand what wise, powerful, and loving beings Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father are. They have shown great love for us by providing for all of our needs.
           "Plant life and animal life were also made to give us joy. The Lord said, “Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul” (D&C 59:18–19). Even though God’s creations are many, He knows and loves them all. He said, “All things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:35)."

 How wonderful it is to think of all the amazing plants, fruits, vegetables, animals--everything--created by God to give us joy.

In Doctrine and Covenants 59:18-19 it says, "18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the ^abenefit and the ^buse of man, both to please the eye and to ^cgladden the heart;

  19 Yea, for ^afood and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to ^bstrengthen the body and to enliven the soul.

  20 And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to ^aexcess, neither by extortion."

 

I'm going to try and recognize the beauty in all of God's creations--he knows each and every thing, I should at least be able to appreciate the ones I know. 

-Whitney