Mommage

Are You Tired Of Having The Same Ole Things For Dinner?

I know I am.  I feel like I am in a major rut, making the same things over and over again.  Luckily my family is not picky and likes my cooking so they never complain.  I feel like I am doing them a disservice by ALWAYS serving the same things all the time.

For those of you that may not know, I am a working mom, however I work at night so I am not home most nights for dinner.  I make sure that my family always has a hot meal on the table before I leave for work int he evening.  I was sitting here the other day trying to come up with new ideas for meals that I could make with things that I already have on hand.

I came across a wonderful site that has a ton of easy and quick ideas.  One basic ingredient in most of these recipes is soup, yes soup!  Who would have thought that there were so many things that could be made using soup, that would not resemble soup at the end?  Campbell's Kitchen provides a wealth of recipes submitted by other users, for all different types of meals.  It is easy to search by ingredient for example you can type in ground beef or chicken and it will display all recipes that match those key words.  This site also has a feature called the recipe box where you can store recipes found on the site for easy retrieval for future use.

Contributed by Renee (Who knew how many different varieties of Campbell's soups there were?) 

Healthy Eating--Mistakes That Parents Make

We have all been there.  Trying to get our children to eat healthy.  It is often times hard to teach by example here.  Surely, you have heard about the movement of mothers trying to get Ketchup classified as a vegetable, because it is the only one their kids will eat!  :)

I guess I am lucky my kids eat mostly healthy but at times it is still a struggle.  My children love to eat carrots, celery and absolutely love to have cucumber slices with their lunch.  My kids love apples and bananas, peaches and plums.  So what is the problem?  The problem is they also love to eat all the other things that aren't as good for them.  I have control most of the time, but cannot watch my daughter at school for example.  The school systems offer such unhealthy options with lunch as cookies and cereal bars (not the nutri-grain bars, the ones made from corn pops or froot loops). 

My mother has told me that when I was younger all I wanted to eat was bologna sandwiches, or nothing at all.  The doctor told her that I would eat when I was hungry enough, and that at least bologna was protein, and that it was a phase I would out grow.  I did but I have not had a bologna sandwich in years, guess I had my fill in my younger years.

Living with Food Allergies

If you have a child with a food allergy, you know it's nothing to joke about.  It's serious business and should not be taken lightly.  You might recall my post about peanut free schools, but a parent's concern goes far beyond the school environment.  Whether you're dining out with your family while on vacation or enjoying girls night out away from the kids, anyone with a food allergy or raising a child with one leads a challenging life.

Preparing food at home in your own kitchen is the safest way to eat, but we all know that fast food and eating out is common for many families.  Some restaurants do everything possible to address customers' concerns while others don't seem to realize the seriousness of the problem and that giving a customer incorrect information could be deadly.

Two Planetfeedback users recently had completely different experiences trying to obtain information about the food being served at some popular and well-known restaurants.  Here's what happened.