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What's for Dinner?

I don't know about you guys but my kids start asking me what's for dinner before we've even left the house for school!  I try really hard to plan meals and know ahead of time what we're having for dinner. 

I'm always looking on Pinterest (you can follow my recipe board here) and blogs for easy meals that most of my family will eat and love.  I've fallen in love with Six Sisters' Stuff.  I love their blog posts, meal plans, and recipes.  They recently started a 4x4 Family Dinner Challenge for March.  Even though March is almost over, I really like this challenge and you can start anytime.

Basically the challenge is to eat dinner together as a family 4 nights a week for 4 weeks.  My family does eat dinner together at the table almost every night.  Occasionally, we'll eat pizza in front of the TV.    I'm super glad we have this ritual in my house, because there was some interesting research brought up in the blog post about the challenge.

Family dinners are more important than play, story time, and other family events in the development of vocabulary of younger children (Harvard Reserach, 1996).

Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to get mainly A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University).

One tradition, we've started at dinner is that everyone goes around and shares one good thing and one not so good thing about their day.  Usually the kids like sharing a whole list of good things about their day.  One lesson we've learned the hard way is to make the rule that you can only share ONE not so good thing.  Or dinner turns into a big whine fest.  It's really good hearing what the kids have to say about their day, and it's taught them to listen to others while taking turns.

My real dilemma is getting dinner on the table.  Since I'm commuting with my new job, I've really had to rely on my crock pot.  I wanted to share with you guys some of my favorite crock pot recipes.  Seriously, these recipes are all easy and taste good.  My family approves of them all.  Click on the pictures to see the recipes.

Kailua Pig is a local favorite here in Hawaii.  I make the same recipe only I don't cook it for 16 hours and I just use regular sea salt.  I  just cook it all day on low while I'm at work.  We use the pig for bbq pork sandwiches, Kailua pig tacos, or quesadillas.  Yummy!

Whole Chicken - We love a roasted chicken in the crock pot.  I usually serve it with brown rice and a veggie.  If there leftovers, I use the meat for quesadillas.

These pork carnitas on corn tortillas are awesome!

This is a new one I just discovered, but we've already had it twice.  The first time we ate it with potatoes.  The 2nd time we used the meat to make french dip sandwiches.  So good!

Do you have any easy recipes to share?  I love trying new ones!

8 comments:

  1. Yum! We eat dinner every night too. Cooking seems more of the challenge after a busy work day.

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    1. I agree! Now that I have a commute, the crock pot has been my only saving grace. Goodness knows we don't want to eat fast food ever night.

      Angelia

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  2. Hi Angelina. Thanks for sharing! I started asking my kids years ago for a best and worst about their day. It kind of makes them go into more detail than they would otherwise and it helps me to know what questions to ask to get them to open up even more.

    I love my crockpot too. One of my new favorites is making chicken tacos from frozen chicken breasts, chicken broth, and taco seasoning. I found it on Pinterest too.

    Crystal
    Teaching Little Miracles

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    1. I've been making chicken tacos, too. The recipe I found just has you mix a jar of salsa with a packet of taco seasoning and then cook all day. I've never tried putting in frozen chicken breasts. I should remember that for the days I forget to set something out.

      Angelia

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  3. Thanks for sharing these great recipes! I'm working on acquiring a new crock pot as mine has died prematurely. In the meantime I'm just regular cooking. I plan meals for the whole month- including leftover nights, eat out, pizza, breakfast for dinner, days gone, etc. This way we know exactly what to pull out of the freezer in the morning and have it ready to cook when we get home. I also try to have all my stuff pre-chopped and put in labeled bags when I do my monthly mega-shopping trip. It takes me a day to prep but it's so worth it. I've been pinning lots of recipes too. Summer is my time to experiment. :)
    Shibahn

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    1. I've read a bunch of blogs about cooking for the month, but I feel so intimated. I'd love to do it though. Maybe I should experiment this summer and see if I can do it.

      Angelia

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  5. My real dilemma is getting dinner on the table. Since I'm commuting with my new job, I've really had to rely on my crock pot.
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