Lunch is one of my favorite parts of my day. It marks the end of the morning and the half way point of my day. By lunch time my stomach is screaming at me to feed it so I am happy to oblige. Lunch is also typically a meal in which I am not constrained by the tastes and preferences of other family members. During the week I eat what I want when I want as do many people out there. The one thing I almost never do however is eat out.

I typically live life in a pretty healthy way. I try to eat those foods that are good for me and help me to stay in shape. When I do eat out I try to stick to chicken and healthy sides. If I do have some french fries I always order the smallest size or share with my family. Trying to keep up with this nutritional plan is pretty good motivation for not eating out, however even if you aren’t concerned about the nutritional values consider the amount of money you spend every year on eating out.

Lets say you eat out lunch every day. when I was a kid that usually meant $3 to $4 dollars a meal. Nowadays if you eat at a fast food restaurant you are looking at around $7 a meal and for restaurants with wait staff around $10 – $15 dollars a meal. Even if we stick with the lower end of $7 a meal you are looking at $35 dollars a week. For my family of 3 that is roughly equivalent to 1/3 of our weekly grocery bill. Ok so $35 a week doesn’t make you stop and think, well that $35 a week comes out to around to $157 a month. Multiply x 2 for your spouse and you have a whole additional car payment to put unhealthy food into your bodies 5 days a week. Ok maybe I am not being fair about the unhealthy thing. Maybe you eat at Subway, however the cost is still growing. OK, so over the course of a year if you eat out 5 times a week at $7 a meal (remember that is on the low end), you are spending $1820 a year eating out, and that is not counting your spouses meals if they are doing the same.

So here is the big question I have for you….

How many of you dads out there want that new 42 inch LCD TV at $1500 but figure you can’t afford it? How about that trip to Disneyland that will run you around $1600?

I know I know, in the real world, it’s unrealistic to bring your lunch every day. Co-workers probably want to go out and that is fine but here are some suggestions. Treat yourself one a week. By going once a week you will only be spending around $500 a year on lunches at restaurants. This will still save you around $1300 a year. Also, encourage your coworkers to brown bag it as well and enjoy each others company in the break room or outside if it’s a nice day. I also realize that bringing lunch can cost money as well. Try to stick to leftovers and simple lunches like sandwiches. I’ve also found that Zip Lock Zip and Steam Bagsare a great way to cook up some of that frozen chicken at the office. Remember all the estimates we have made were based on the low amount of $7 a lunch. In reality you spend much more eating out. Take the numbers I present here to heart even knowing it will still cost you some money to bring your lunch.

You may be surprised that by cutting down on your daily trips to the fast food joint you may just feel better as well. You will have more money in your pocket as well so you can enjoy some of the finer things in life.

Next weekend my wife and I are watching the neighbors kids while they go to a company holiday party. When we babysit we like to come up with ideas that are fund for our family and our guests to help pass the time. We have decided that for dinner instead of ordering pizza, we would make pizza. The best part is everyone gets to make their own. If you would like to do this, here is what you need.

• An individual pizza crust for each person. These can be just a couple dollars each at the store.
• Some pizza sauce and perhaps even some alfredo sauce for a white pizza option
• Various toppings (Sausage, pepperoni, pineapple, etc.)
• Lots of cheese

Have each kid pick their pizza crust and let each spread out some sauce. Sure it’s going to be a little messy, but that’s the fun (Make sure to protect any valuables). Allow each child to choose exactly what toppings they want for their pizza. Sprinkle some pizza seasoning and allow the kids to top with cheese. It ends up being a great edible pizza art project. Encourage the kids to make designs with toppings, a smiley face for example. Have adults put them in the oven and serve them up when finished.

This is a great activity because the children get to cook their own meal, get exactly what they want and have a good time doing so. Don’t forget to have the kids wash their hands and pitch in cleaning up at the end.

As a kid I was always told that I need to eat all my dinner. Honestly I don’t remember if I did, but that lesson stuck with me my entire life as throughout most of my adult life as I always ate all my dinner. This is not a good thing. When children are told to eat all of their dinner it can become a habit for life. Given the average portion size served at today’s restaurants, eating all of your dinner can be detrimental to one’s health. I still have a lot of trouble walking away from food at a restaurant. This often carries over to home cooked meals as well. If the food tastes even slightly good, I always have the urge to eat it up to the last bite. When I do I always regret it both physically and mentally.

After a life time of eating large portions it’s easy to become a very unhealthy person. For years I struggled with my weight. I attributed my obesity to those large portion sizes. About 4 years ago I found that eating smaller portions at each meal helps to control that weight and allows your body to feel leaner. I am very lean and in shape now, but to this day I still struggle with my portion sizes. I did a great job while I was losing weight. Once I got to that target weight however I noticed that I have started to revert back to my old ways of eating all my dinner. I have managed to keep most of the weight off by a ton of exercise, however that is not always an option for everyone. Exercise is essential to life, but not everyone can get out there an hour a day 6 times a week.

About a month ago I realized that we were passing on this bad habit to our son. We want him to grow up being a well rounded person when it comes to his taste in food. We always encouraged him to eat all of his dinner, just like my parents did when I was a kid. If he ate all of his dinner he got a small desert. I had a talk with my wife and we decided that our request for him to eat all of his dinner was not in his best interest. We now have a new rule. Our son must now eat half of his dinner.

Some people may say that this is a waste of food and that there are starving children in other countries that don’t have those meals; however, you can always pack up that leftover food for lunch later in the week, or if it is a side dish, use it with another meal. We feel that requiring our son to eat half of his food will help build a habit of controlling portion sizes and prevent over eating at a meal. With any luck my son will not go through the weight struggles that I went through over the course of my life as well as the overeating struggles that I still experience to this day.

Here are a couple tips to help prevent over eating for both your self and your children.

1. Eat six smaller meals throughout the day. By eating more often you will be less hungry. Your body will learn that it doesn’t need to store as much food due to the higher replensih rate.
2. Use smaller dishes. If you fill up a smaller plate and eat all of your dinner, you will be eating much less than if you filled up a larger plate and ate all your dinner.
3. Do not under any circumstances upsize your meal at fast food restaurants. That food is bad enough for you. Teach yourself to eat less by ordering less.
4. Cheat every once in awhile. If you have to have a big meal go for it maybe once a week. Just remember how uncomfortable that stuffed fealing is when you are done.
5. Eat a small salad with a little dressing as you can. Eating a little bit of lettuce, carrots, etc just before a meal tends to fill me up so that I am not as hungry when the less healthy main course comes. Remember not to use too much dressing as that completely defeats the purpose.

Remember next time you telling your child they must eat all their dinner, that you are setting an expectation for them that they may have trouble not living up to later in life.

Feel free to leave a comment with any tips you have for controlling portion sizes.

I am a carb lover, I can eat carbs all day long: rice, pasta, bread, bring it on! unfortunatly, carbs do not like me as much as I like them. I often feel less than stellar after having too many of them. Carbs are very important as they provide fuel for your body, however excess carbs along with excess calories can cause an increase in body fat percentage. I try to to get to into weight gain because lets face it we are guys, not all weight gain is bad for us. When we put on muscle and gain weight, that’s good; when we put on fat and gain weight, not so good. About a month ago I was shopping at the grocery store when I noticed a new product in the bread aisle…mmmm bread…! So what’s this new product I am supposed to be raving about? Well here it is:

Oroweat Sandwhich Thins, you may see them as Arnold’s Sandwhich Thins depending on what part of the country you live in.

I am not one of those who can give up my bread. I need a hamburger bun for my hamburgers. Wraps are just wannabe tacos in my opinion. The sandwhich thins are a great way for me to get good healthy carbs and enjoy my sandwhiches the way they were meant to be enjoyed. The whole wheat Oroweat Sandwich Thins have a measly 100 calories and 21g Carbs. Compare that with a typical hamburger bun which has around 160 calories and 35g Carbs. You may fine some hamburger buns and wheat bread out there with similar stats, however looking at the ingredients will determine how good or bad that bun really is for you. The Oroweat Whole Wheat Sandwhich Thin’s first ingrediant is whole wheat flour which is a good source of complex carbs (good carbs). The very first ingrediant shows you this is not a chemistry experiment you are putting in your mouth, it’s the real deal.

The Oroweat Sandwhich Thins can also be included in different recipes such as garlic bread, mini pizzas and more. Give them a try and enjoy those carbs the right way!

We are so tired of the same old dinners. We have a list of about 30 meals or so we choose from on a consistant basis for food. We decided to try something a little different last week and have breakfast for dinner. This is a tradition that is upheld in many households, however we had yet to break the traditional dinner time standards and scramble the egg after 5:00 pm. Our 3 year old son was very excited by the idea and while I was cooking repeated many times that we were “having breakfast, right? Not Dinner”. It was definitly something we hadn’t done before which is always of interest to a three year old.

We have pancakes almost every weekend so we decided to the egg route. We made omlettes wth sausage, bacon and cheese. We made some toast and hashbrowns to go along with it. I put a little extra effort in to cooking everything just right since it was a “special occasion”. It turned out to be one of the best dinners we’ve had in a long time. My wife, who is not an egg person, loved it. My son actually ate all of his dinner which doesn’t happen that often.

This will definitly become a tradition in our house, maybe once a month or so. I encourage those out there who haven’t tried it to do so. For those who do it on a regular basis, I’m glad that my family is now part of the club.

Tonight we had a rare occurence. Our 3 year old son did not eat his dinner. Usually he throws a fuss and says he doesn’t like it (unless it’s hotdogs or chicken nuggets). Typically after a little coaxing we always get him to eat at least some of his food. Tonight he wanted no part of it. He asked for a hot dog and said he would eat that. We refused. He ended up going to bed without dinner. He complained a couple times that he was hungry and we offered his dinner back to him. We had chicken tetrazzini, which is a chicken and pasta dish with a cream of mushroom/cheese sauce. He has had it before, however he is now in a phase where almost everything prompts the saying “I don’t like that.” I’m not sure if it was the right thing to do to not feed him tonight. He did eat breakfast and lunch today. Our opinion as parents is that he needs to eat what is put in front of him. I grew up not liking a lot of things which is something I regret to this day. We feel that making him stick to our dinner plans will help to improve the variety of foods he will enjoy when he gets older. Still I can’t help but feeling a little guilty about not providing him with dinner.

What do you do in this situation? Is it more important to make sure your child is fed every evening, or is it important to teach him to eat foods he may not love perhaps at the sacrafice of a dinner or two?

Here is fun recipe to try out with your kids. The first bite wont knock your socks off, but you will find quickly that you will be craving more:

Ice Cream Bread

2 cups of ice cream – softened (butter pecan is suggested, however I have tried with chocolate brownie and it turned out great).
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
2 tbsp sugar.

Mix the ingredients in a small bowl and put into a loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick or knife to make sure the middle is done.
Let cool for 10 minutes before removing the bread to a wired rack.

Here is the link to the original recipe. I doubled it as to provide a larger number of servings:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Ice-Cream-Bread

Enjoy!

Ever wonder what it means to flambé or garnish? A lot of guys hear these words uttered in the kitchen or restaurant and have no clue what they mean. Here is a set of cooking terms to help us guys decipher the menu or recipe.

Garnish – as a verb it means to dress up a food with edible decoration in order to improve presentation. As a noun, a garnish is the food that is dressing up the plate.

Flambé – To light a sauce or liquid with flames.

Julienne – To cut a food into thin strips.

Purée – to blend foods together until they are completely smooth

Sauté – to cook or brown a food in a pan with a small amount of oil, butter or other fat.