September 26-Family Day, A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children

Tomorrow, September 26th is Family Day-A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children.  This day encourages families of all types to stop, take 30 minutes and eat dinner as a family.  To that I say...hurrah!

I remember where I was when I first heard about this concept.  It was 2006 and the Sweet Boy was a baby, less than two months old, and I was driving down the main road in our neighborhood.  I was struck by the idea that families had become so busy that they were not eating dinner together to the point that they needed to create a day for Americans to stop and spend time together at the dinner table.  The data on how adversly children can be impacted just by families not eating dinner together on a regular basis was astounding to me.

According to the statistics for Family Day, the CASA Columbia report finds " that compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five to seven per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are almost four times likelier to use tobacco; more than twice as likely to use alcohol; two-and-a-half times likelier to use marijuana; and almost four times likelier to say they expect to try drugs in the future." 

There is more information on the CASA Family Day website
http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/Home.aspx?articleid=287&zoneid=32

There in my car with the Sweet Boy, I decided that was not going to be a problem for our family.  No matter how busy our family got with work, school or extracirricular activities, we were going to eat dinner together on a regular basis. And for the most part, we do a real dinner together almost every night.  I believe on this day, at that intersection, the seed for Good, Better, Best Food was planted.

Part of the reason why I am so passionate about Good Better Best Food is that I want people to understand that they can take 30 minutes or so and make a meal that will not only nourish their bodies but will also strengthen their family.  That it is not only important to their physical health but also to the health of their family structure.

Good, Better, Best is a resource to help busy people understand that with a little planning dinner does not have to be a big, stressful deal.  I hope that that after you read the information from CASA about the importance of eating dinner together as a family you too will make this commitment.  Good, Better, Best is here to help.

Feel free to leave me comments about what you are going to try and do to eat dinner as a family!

Happy Family Day!  Enjoy the Best Food!
Patty

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Back to School with Good Better Best-Part 1 Snacks

So the sweet boy started kindergarten last week and with that big change comes a whole new challenge for the Good Better Best household...the lunch box!  Even though the sweet boy is in full day kindergarten, for the first week they had all half days, so we needed snacks only last week. 

This got me thinking about all of the great snacks we can do in the Good Better Best way!

Here are ten ideas aka two school weeks worth:

-Cucumber slices with either organic ranch dressing or hummus.  The sweet boy brought farmers market cucumbers one day last week.
-Switch the granola bars to either organic or whole grain.  We like the Annie's brand.
-Yogurt makes a great lunch box snack...go organic.
-Whole grain crackers with cheese.
-Edamame...the sweet boy loves edamame and it is great for a lunch box snack.
-Cut up fruit...farmers market or organic.
-Organic raisins and other dried fruit.
-Every kid loves Goldfish...they make cheddar ones that are whole grain...go for those they will never know the difference.
-Brown rice cake with either organic jelly or cheese.
-Get your calcium on with organic cheese sticks.

So those are just some ideas to start with.  Feel free to add ideas in the comment section below.

Speaking of lunch boxes, this time of year we are all trying to make sure that all of the fun lunch boxes, water bottles, school uniforms and new school clothes make it home.  The best way to do that is with the labeling products from Mabel's Labels.  I have tried labels from other companies and they either don't stick the first time or fall off after a week or so.  Not with Mabel's Labels they are fantastic products. 

I especially like the shoe labels which can be used for so much more than shoes.  They are waterproof and dishwasher safe for things like sandwich boxes, ice packs, water bottles etc.  They have all types of great labels for both home and school.  You can check them out at this link and get a special deal on the Ultimate Back to School combo. 

Mabel's Labels <a href="http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-5431993-10917946" target="_blank" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.mabel.ca';return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return true;"> Ultimate Back-to-School Combo </a> is back for a limited time only. Label your gear today!<img src="http://www.awltovhc.com/image-5431993-10917946" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

Enjoy the Best lunch box!
Patty

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The Hurricane Irene Good Better Best Table

Last weekend brought Hurricane Irene to the Mid-Atlantic region, no real drama thank heavens, although we did have a 19 hour power outage in our neighborhood.  Since the day after any hurricane is usually beautiful weather it gave the neighbors time to chat while we all cleaned up our yards. 

While the Sweet Boy played with the kids across the street it gave the grown ups the idea that we should take whatever was in the fridge that might not make it due to the power outage and just throw together a fun lunch.  So that is what we did...Good Better Best style.

We didn't intend to make this Good Better Best...but it ended up that way.  I brought over some kosher hot dogs, farmers market cucumber, oganic tortilla chips and famers market apples.  Our neighbors had steaks, big salad and grilled peppers and broccoli.  Miss Judy brought over some deer dogs, yes deer dogs and we were good to go!  Grand finale, all of the ice cream that was about to melt.

It was a great afternoon with a big lunch, great beer and wine and the kids playing.  If we had tried to plan this it never would have worked out.

See, even post-hurricane you can enjoy a meal in the Good Better Best style!

Enjoy the best food.

Patty

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