No Cook Dinner

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

13 Jul 2008 05:19 PM

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you what I fed my family tonight for dinner. But since they thought it was great fun, I'll tell you.

We had a big, busy day with a trip to the movies, the health food store, the big warehouse store, and exercising at the YMCA. By the time we got home we were all tired, and the house was very hot. We don't have air conditioning, and most of the time we don't really need it here in Colorado. Today though, some cooling air would have been nice. The house was too hot to cook in, and none of felt much like eating.

And so we had plums that we bought today, walnuts, cheese cubes, tortilla chips with mango salsa, and cold sesame noodles with sliced cucumbers. Now I know that dinner isn't going to win me any Martha Stewart or mom-of-the-year awards, but every once in awhile it's not going to hurt my children. I think sometimes as parents we get wrapped up in "shoulds" and in some kind of "good mommy syndrome". We think only certain meals qualify as "real". And yet this quick, easy, and cold dinner had protein, fruit, and vegetables. Everything was kid friendly, so I didn't have to work at getting anyone to try something they thought was strange. And most importantly, no one had to cook. I also think it's a good idea to show the kids how to put together a no-cook dinner all by themselves.

Clean up was also quite easy, a few plates, a knife, and a cutting board. That leaves us the evening to relax together as a family. After all, our Next Food Network Star show is on tonight, and we wouldn't want to miss that.

Also See:

Family Happy Hour

Breakfast For Dinner

Baked Potato Night - Cooking With Kids

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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