They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit. Here we are, 22 days in to building our family meals habit, and for the most part it’s sticking. Despite the occasional bouts of grousing, we’re eating together each night. And we plan to stick with the habit past the month of January, keeping it flexible, of course.
In honor of 22 days of eating our evening meals together, here are 22 hopefully-helpful-links, loosely related to family meals, in no particular order.
Organization/Systems
- Simple Mom – the resource for all topics related to families and simplifying your life! The founder, Tsh Oxenreider is also the author of Simply Organized, and a fabulous e-book called One Bite at a Time
- Fly Lady - I started reading Fly Lady when S. was a newborn – the basic organizing principles she presents have really helped us over past five years – we don’t follow them perfectly, but we do aim for a somewhat-shiny kitchen sink each night, and minimal clutter around the house.
Web-Sites with Great Recipes/Menu Planning
- The Family Dinner - Laurie David’s web-site, which includes a huge recipe index. Check out the weekly “Table Talk” conversation starter, also published by The Huffington Post
- Do It Delicious – Jessica Seinfeld’s blog, which includes recipes and family dinner tips
- Organized Home – great printable menu-planning and pantry inventory resources
- Super Healthy Kids - blog with lots of free menus and templates
- Faithful Provisions - a website with a wide variety of menu planning templates and money-saving tips
- Simple Bites - part of Tsh Oxenreider’s Simple Living network, this link will take your straight to delicious goodness, not to mention some awesome give-aways
- Orangette - still my favorite food blog ever. Ever. I also love Molly Wizenberg’s book, A Homemade Life: Stories from My Kitchen Table
Books/Cookbooks
- The Family Dinner by Laurie David
- My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme
- A Grateful Heartby M.J. Ryan
- How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher
- Anything and everything by Ruth Reichl
Movies About Eating (that may or may not include families)
No commentary on these choices tonight – maybe that’ll be for a future post…
- Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
- Big Night
- Julie and Julia
- Eat, Pray, Love
- Mostly Martha
- Ratatouille
- Chocolat
- Under the Tuscan Sun
What great web-sites, blogs, books, and movies would you add?
Podcasts to listen to while cooking: Spilled Milk and The Splendid Table
Blogs: Smitten Kitchen, David Lebovitz, The Wednesday Chef, Chocolate and Zucchini.
Cookbooks: Feeding the Whole Family, Cook This Now, The Urban Pantry, A Spoonful of Ginger, Marcella’s Italian Kitchen, The Bread Bible (Henspener), The Dance of Spices, and a copy of the family recipe collection.
Music to cook by: Greg Brown (especially Slow Food), Cole Porter, Rosemary Clooney.
Sorry I haven’t been commenting much lately but I have been following along.
Hi Stacey! Get me to the library – I want to check out all of the cookbooks. I’ll definitely check out the blogs and podcasts too – I always mean to listen to more podcasts, so it’s great to get good recs. And Greg Brown! Sigh…
Films–Remember Babette’s Feast and Diner? Worlds apart but great examples of the power of sharing food.
Cookbooks–The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones
Pleasures of the Good Eartth by Edward Giobbi
The Vegetarian Epicure (the original) by Anna Thomas
Bringing Tuscany Home by Frances and Edward Mayes
Cuisine Rapide by Pierre Franey
Blogs–Simplerecipes
Michael Ruhlman
David Lebovitz
Cornichon
Italian Food Forever
Music–Abba
Hawaiian
Clifford Brown
Ray Charles
Paul Simon
Bon Apetit, ma cherie!
More books to look for at the library, more blogs to check out – wish I didn’t have to sleep…
Now the Abba is a surprise to me though! I didn’t know that you like them at all!