The Importance of a Family Dinner

Now that we have had two weeks of food I’d like to take a minute out to explain a little more about the underlying reasons for cooking a family meal instead of everyone just eating on the run. Not because we are hungry but because it bring the family together. Ever one eats but when you cook and eat with each others there is a sense of family, of community, of friendship among all. I know family dinners have been a large part of my life for a long time. This weekend I experienced something new. I skipped out on a family dinner to go have some fun up at Michigan State with a couple of friends. To my surprise a friend of mine who lives with 3 other people and some of the neighbors had all gotten together for dinner and when I asked what was going on they simply  replied “oh we all get together at each person’s house and whoever’s house were at makes dinner for everyone.” I thought it was strange but this is the sense of community that something as basic as food/dinner can provide a close nit group of individuals.

Dinners as a family starting at a young age has an amazing effect on a child. Not only are they healthier in a world were more and more dinners come from fast food establishments like McDonald's, KFC, and Taco Bell or other places that may serve your food fast but might be are still sit down restaurants like Qudoba, Panara Bread, or Chilies.

This video gives you 10 great reasons to stop eating fast food and try making something new for dinner instead.

Kids are not born with manners, they are learned, and like the video says the dinner table is a great place to learn them. The dinner table can serve as more than just a place to teach. It can be used as a place for parents to learn, what their kids did that day or learned in school. This creates comradery and a sense of community like my friends from Michigan State had.

I hope that you start to build that sense of community and enjoy the comradery that comes with it.

Banana Pudding Dessert

Sometimes as a family you cannot enjoy dinner together. I understand this I used to work in retail not too long ago. It’s hard to have that nice Sunday family dinner when you have to be at work till 9:30 p.m. In my family we try not to let that get in the way of sharing some time together as a family. On nights like these we use desert as a way to get together as a family. From time to time when you don’t feel like cooking a scoop of ice cream or a small dish of jello will work but when you have that urge to create a simple but elegant desert here is an option that you may want to try out.

Simple Banana Pudding Dessert

Yields: 4 servings                                 Prep Time: 10 minutes                                                      Cook Time: 5 minutes

2 3.3oz packs of Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding

4 cups of cold Milk

1 8oz container of Cool Whip

2 Banana’s

36 vanilla wafers

In a bowl mix the instant pudding mix and cold milk. You will want to wisk this together till the pudding is full dissolved and there are no lumps left. Your pudding should be a yellowish color like the picture. Place the pudding in the refrigerator to this should only take a couple of minutes. In the mean time you can gather your other ingredients and most importantly your glasses in which to serve them.  In my family we enjoy this desert so we tend to use a larger glass like a margarita glass. Another great glass to use is a martini glass these are smaller therefore you might not need as much pudding for these.

Well waiting for the pudding you can also peel and cut your bananas. You will want to cut them relatively thin somewhere between a ½ - ¼ of an inch thick. No need to measure just guess its dessert it’s supposed to be fun.

Now that the pudding has set and you have all your ingredients out you just simply start to layer your dessert first a scoop of pudding, next a layer of Vanilla Wafers, then the bananas, more pudding, topped off with a dollop of Cool Whip and another Vanilla Wafer.

Now this quick and simple treat is ready to eat!

BBQ Po' Boys

Over the past 10 years family dinners have been a very important and relevant thing among my family. This has inspired myself to cook and experiment with different recipes, I often find myself grilling as soon as the snow melts, which I hope to share with some of you for you to try out on your families. The first recipe is a simple recipe that I have experimented with over the past couple years.

Barbecued Pork Po' Boy Sandwiches and Chopped Salad topped with Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

Yields: 4 servings                                             Prep Time: 1 hour                                                               Cook Time: 20 minutes      

12 Pork chops sliced thin

2 French Baguettes

1 Cup of your favorite BBQ Sauce

1 Head of Lettuce

2 Large Cucumbers

3 Large Carrots

¼ Cup of Red Wine Vinegar

3 Tbs. of Water

1 Tsp. of Salt

½ Tsp. of Pepper

½ Tsp. of Garlic Powder

¼ Tsp. of Onion Powder

In an air tight container place the pork chops and ¾ of a cup of barbecue sauce and place in the refrigerator to marinate for as long as you desire. Well you wait for the pork chops to marinate; you can start on your chopped salad. Take the top 5 or 6 pieces of lettuce of and reserve them to add to the po' boy sandwich. After washing the lettuce chop the lettuce into small pieces, I like to use the Miracle blade rock n’ chop, cut the cucumbers up into quarters and then dice them into bite size pieces, using a cheese grader shred the carrots. And combine all of these ingredients with the dressing.

In a bowl combine the Red wine vinegar, water, salt pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Wisk these ingredients together till the oil and vinegar are no longer separated.

Now it’s time to cook the pork chops out on the grill or inside on the griddle (on the griddle you will not be as likely to get the nice char marks that you would from the grill). Use the reserved BBQ sauce to apply to the pork chops during cooking on the grill/griddle.

Well the pork chops are cooking you want to slice open the French baguette open and pour a small drizzle of olive oil on the inside and place face down on the grilling surface for about 2 minutes till the inside becomes crisp.

Now we get to put our po' boys together, take the baguette that you have grilled place a small amount of BBQ sauce on the bread and layer with pork chops and top with the reserved lettuce and other half of bread.

Serve and Enjoy.