Whenever I tout the benefits of family dinner here on The Lunch Tray, I know I’m probably preaching to the choir. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t already care about feeding your kids well and that usually means home cooking, at least some of the time.
But even the most committed among us face real-world challenges that can make family dinners hard: late hours at the office, sports team practices, extracurricular school activities, “picky” eaters at the table, and/or a lack of confidence in our menu-planning or cooking skills, to name just a few. So whenever I learn of new cookbooks, menu-planning services or other resources to help with family dinner, I’m glad to share them here.
Today I wanted to tell you about The Family Dinner Challenge, going on right now. It’s the brainchild of Aviva Goldfarb, founder of the Six O’Clock Scramble, a wildly popular dinner-planning subscription service, and the author of two Scramble cookbooks. (I own both of them, and they’re so well-thumbed they might need to be replaced soon!)
The Family Dinner Challenge asks you to commit to sitting down to dinner with your family at least three times a week for four weeks. That’s it. And in exchange for signing up for the challenge, Aviva will send you a free family dinner checklist, four weeks worth of her easy-but-delicious recipes, including side dishes and grocery lists, and extra resources to make family dinners successful. You’ll also have a chance to win some exciting Family Dinner Challenge prizes, like a Vitamix 7500 blender and a Cuisinart food processor.
Aviva’s goal is to get 10,000 families to take the challenge and she’s over 1/3 of the way there. I just signed up today and I hope you will, too!
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Bettina Elias Siegel
Aviva Goldfarb says
Thank you so much for supporting the Challenge, Bettina! I’m a huge fan of all you do for healthier families, too.
Natalie says
My family is joining in the Family Dinner Challenge. Even though we already eat together, this is a nice little reminder. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for many families nowadays to eat dinner together! It’s really not a hard task.
Attdhaban says
WOMAN IT’S BEEN LIKE TWO WEEKS. HOW CAN YOU CLAIM TO BE A BLOG IF YOU DON’T EVER POST ANYTHING? LAME.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi there and welcome. Regular readers know I slow down the blogging schedule considerably in the summer. But glad you’re so eager for content here!
Juan Carlo Del Rosario says
Hi Bettina! thank you so much for this great reminder. We sometimes neglect the importance of family dinner. Busy schedules of both parents and children make it harder to have family dinners. But families may not be aware of the advantages that come with regular eating together at the table. I am reminded. Thanks!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Glad to help out with this great initiative!