Living in the Now: Worthy Meal Shortcuts

"If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."  

G. K. Chesterton

 

Eating together as a family, even a single meal a day, has fallen to a rare normal.  A mere 27% of families eating together, only eat, drink, and converse at meal time (listen to Les and Leslie Parrot talk about this sobering pattern).  Eating purposefully, together, and regularly is indeed worth doing, but admittedly, sometimes needs a few shortcuts.  Create space to mealtimes.  Give these a try.  Be realistic.  Suggest a few of your own shortcuts in the comments below:

• Use paper plates.  Try fun colors or paper party plates.  Special touch for sabbath family meals.  Easier for you, you'll also win eager eaters.
• Try frozen entrees.  A reheated lasagna and fresh salad is a cinch to prepare, and is a step above frozen pizza.
• Prepare two, freeze one.  If you go to all the trouble of preparing a meal, save yourself some work by preparing double, and freezing half for a future meal.
• Rotate helpers.  Even middle schoolers can make a pot of mac and cheese and throw in some tuna and veggies for a one pot wonder.  To simplify, assign a specialty meal for each helper to prepare on their meal night.
• KISS.  Keep it Simple, Silly!  Have a regular finger food night that is simple to prepare and fun to eat.  Find a hummus recipe you like.  Dip veggies and bread.  Easy to make ahead and serve in a moment!
• Commit to 15 mealtime minutes.  Be realistic.  An average week night meal need not carry the pressure of a long drawn out ritual.  Focus on sweet and prompt times together.  You will be more likely to connect regularly if you set a reasonable goal.
• Think outside the norm.  Instead of family dinner time, try Saturday morning pancakes or Sunday pizza parties.  Spending a family meal together is most important.

Living in the Now: Food Swap

Pondering the soulful knitting between eating and being, I wanted to hear how you handle the daily logistics of good eating.  My little rut-full system always needs updates and fresh ideas.  Especially, have you:

• jumped on the once a month cooking bandwagon, shopping and prepping a whole month's worth at a time to simplify your routine?
• found a fabulous frozen entree (not that I would ever serve it to you, but sometime I want a night off)?
• found a good rhythm for favorite meal rotations?
• stashed your favorite staples in the pantry?
• juggled dietary restrictions for the whole family without driving anyone crazy?

Your ideas will help me, and maybe save my little family a bit of peace!

Living in the Now: Consuming Food

This is a conservative formula for the past month.  There is often an extra mouth, not to mention the times we've eaten with a friends or family. My immediate family now numbers 14, so you can image the orchestration to just share our two birthday celebrations last month. Check it out:

3 Mouths per meal

3 Meals per day 

31 Days per month

----------------------

279 meals prepared in the month of March

Not to mention my needful morning coffee routine. Not to mention snacks. Not to mention second breakfasts. Not to mention helping friends. Not to mention...

HEAVENS.  There is freedom for me in realizing food is consuming. How could it not be? I'm thinking about food more hours than not. Researching good food (recipes, diets, restrictions).  Buying good food (grocery runs, coupon clipping, organizing my way-too-tiny pantry). Eating good food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bites in between).

What about you? Or am I just a food addict?

I have been completely committed to two ideas, at different times in my journey:

1. Food is a necessity.  Meals are important because creates space for communion together.  Thinking too much about food shows you have an eating problem. Being fed is a practical, yet often inconvenient task.

2. Food creates space for worship. Most of the time, I can't NOT think about food. God gave me a body needful of good food. I'm going to worship Him by eating deliberately completely, fully, and well. 

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

 Could it be that tasting--eating--is a way for us to see how good the Lord is?  That it teaches us to take safety in His faithfulness?  Can we really worship while feeding our faces?  God, give me the heart that eats in a way honoring to You.

Living in the Now: Making Choices

It's 2:00 in the afternoon.  I wish you were here to see the polite, quiet struggle.  While I've had an extremely productive day checking off responsibilities, Someone has been slightly less productive.  Quietly, respectfully, he refuses to work on his school. Purely won't pick up the pencil. 

A little less quietly, he has clearly refused all food offered, and somehow that was the breaking point for me.  He used to be such a good little eater, and this insane pickiness, this overwhelming stubbornness, hurts my pride.

Ah, there's the root. 

Its somehow shocking that I can't force him to make good choices.  And eating wholesome food, lovingly prepared from scratch, being served with a kiss and a smile...he won't choose it. His undying stubbornness to sit at the table, on strike, for this many hours is unsettling. Lord have mercy, what will he be like when he's 15?!

In the meantime, I'm committed to letting home be a place where it is safe to make choices--good or bad. A safe environment to live out what you choose, going hungry or grazing.  How much more my Father does for me, a mindless sheep in His pasture: 

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23: 5-6

How do you coach your little one into making good choices? How do you let go of pride and humbly walk with God?  This has been an ongoing battle for months.  We've probably tried the basic ideas, so dig deeper.  Input needed.