Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

 Today we're going to talk about some things we can learn from elegant restaurants about food and dining - things that we can apply at home without making it a huge big effort, but still making our dinnertime more special, more meaningful, and more nutritious.  Certainly there are fast food restaurants and things that we wouldn't want to emulate. And, we're not going to be able to create a restaur...

Thanks for joining me on the Family Food for Moms podcast! Today we're going to be talking about simple health tips for your kitchen. These are some unusual health ideas, ones that I find important, and that I like to do in our family. I thought that you might enjoy hearing them - you haven’t heard some of these before!

Sometimes things just get stuck, often around the holidays and other busy times of year. There's so much to catch up with, and things kind of get stuck when it comes to food and cooking. I found this out recently, when there was so much going on, and I didn't even realize that I didn't have a proper food plan. Every day I would be like; whoa, I have no idea what we're doing for lunch or dinner tod...

The Chinese are a fascinating culture when it comes to food. They have a unique approch to eating and there is a ton we can learn from them. Everybody loves a good chinese takeout, and its great to learn to cook chiniese broth, noodles, stir fry, etc at home. So today, Lets talk about what we can learn from the Chinese about Food and Cooking! This is the last episode for 2024. I'll be back on Mond...

 Queen Elizabeth II was an amazing lady. She lived to the age of 96, and she reigned as monarch for 70 years, which was the longest of any British monarch. She was healthy and active up until close to her death, so it's very interesting to learn about what she ate, and how she ate it. I enjoy watching YouTube videos by Darren McGrady, who is a former royal chef for the Queen, and then for Princess...

 Today we're going to be talking about Italy - what we can learn from the Italians about food and dining. I've been doing quite a few “what we can learn froms” recently, and the reason for that is that I'm also currently working on my book - the Family Food for Moms Inspiration for Food and Dining - all about what we can learn from all these amazing cultures and people, and then how to practically...

Today I want to talk about food in biblical times, and what can inspire us from that time, what we can learn about food from the Bible. In the Bible, eating is a sign of rejoicing and celebrating, and eating is an opportunity to share food, and fellowship through conversations - this was more special because it was done over a meal. Eating was a sign of contentment, peace, and provision. They ate...

 Last time we talked about school lunches in France, and this time we're going to talk about school lunches in Spain, which are also very interesting and rather healthy. As always, there'll be links in the show notes.  We'll also talk a little bit about Spanish food; their fascinating culture and how they approach food and dining. Similar to the French, mealtime is very important to Spanish cultur...

“I walked into the dining room to see tables of four already set - silverware, silver bread basket, off white ceramic plates, cloth napkins, clear glasses, and water pitchers laid out ready for lunch. I was standing inside my children's public elementary school cafeteria, or canteen as the French call it, in our local town near Annecy, France.” This is a quote from the website mindbodygreen.com, f...

Learning to cook starts slowly, and then you gain momentum as you get better at the basic tasks, at multitasking, and you grow in confidence and experience. Then your knowledge and skill just increases exponentially. I think it's great for kids to learn to cook before they leave home. I couldn't cook very much at all at the beginning, and we mainly ate either frozen meals made for us by my mom, or...

Today I want to talk about Thanksgiving. For me, one of the biggest challenges for both Christmas and Thanksgiving is to not become busy during the event, but to be present, and also to not become stressed before the event, but to be relaxed, and to enjoy the time with my children, with my family, because that's basically what it's all about. It's not about making it perfect. This is a concept tha...

Today, I thought it might be fun to talk about some US presidents and their favorite meals, with Thanksgiving coming up next week, and in honor of the elections. Let's talk about some of our recent presidents and what they liked to eat. And then I'll mention some from quite long ago, and what they enjoyed.  I find it really fascinating seeing what someone will eat when they have a chef at their di...

Today, we're going to be talking about kitchen utensils that I find really helpful in cooking and serving food. I don't like having a ton of stuff, especially gimmicky things, lying around the kitchen. Good utensils have got to be simple, fit into the drawers, and really be super helpful. There are no affiliate links with these - these are just things that I have in our home that I wouldnt want to...

It's a fun one today. We're going to talk about what we can learn from Masterchef.  I'm sure you all know the show Masterchef, Masterchef USA. There's Masterchef Australia.  We like to watch Masterchef USA and Masterchef Junior.  And it's always so inspiring to me even what the young kids can cook and how  elegantly they do it and how much variety. They seem to know how to cook all these obscure i...

Today we're going to be talking about ways to foster and grow family closeness and connection at your dinner table, making dinner time meaningful and special. This can really transform a simple meal into a chance to be close as a family, connect with each other, reflect together on how your days' went, and to relax after the craziness of the day. Join me as we chat about family closeness at dinner...

Today I want to talk about things that we prep in our kitchen for the week. Now I'm not talking about meals, not meal prep.  Other things, so snacks,  protein maybe to add to breakfast,  sauces, salad dressings,  bone broth,  sides maybe for family members who don't eat wheat or who are gluten free and then I want to replace them with something.  And then the meat and veg that I cook through the w...

Today we're going to be talking about what we can learn from our grandparents and great grandparents about food and dining; our grandmothers and our mother's past generations. I asked one of my daughters what she thinks of when she thinks of granny's food, and she said that the food is very solid and simple whenever we go to visit. It's meat and vegetables, and it's not complicated and difficult....

Previously we spoke about five ways to save money in your kitchen,  and we talked about some unusual and controversial things you can do while trying to keep your food nourishing and delicious.  It's not easy to do that when you have to cut costs, because often the healthiest things are expensive. But it's definitely possible to eat healthy food and nourish your family while spending less.  Today...

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining.  Today, I want to talk about ways to save money in the kitchen. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed these days, and a bit discouraged. I want to feed my family healthy meals and delicious meals, but everything is so expensive. We're just going to talk about a few ways to...

Hi friends! I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. Check out our website on familyfoodformoms.com! I want to help you with the inspiration, the perspiration, and the celebration of food in your family. Today, we're going to talk about a fun topic, and that is what we can learn about food from children's and young adult...

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining.  In this episode we're going to be talking about more ways to make your dining table special.  Last time in episode 3, I mentioned five things - we talked about decorative underplates, lighting, fancy napkin folding, personalized place names and music for ambience.  W...

 In this episode, we're going to talk more about family fun nights. Last time we talked about a whole lot of ideas for events you can have together in your family. A lot of those were for large families, so today I'm going to give you ideas for how to have a family fun night when you have a smaller family, even if it's just mom or dad and a child.  The reason I'm talking about family fun nights is...

In this episode, we're going to talk a bit more about the food go bag, and the best ways to go about using the list. Then we're going to talk about some easy meals that can be made when you have a few more supplies than the absolute minimum, but still not many - or perhaps no power, or limited power from a generator. But before I give you some ideas for those, I want to talk more about the emergen...

The world feels very serious right now. There’s so much going on! So many people are affected by conflicts, and by Hurricane Helene. They have to either move, or figure out their lives without power or water. Now with the new hurricane Milton coming, there’s so many people in the world who live in ways that we can't even imagine - they have so little.  So, my prayers go out to all of you who are a...

In this episode I'm going to talk about family fun nights. Family fun nights can be as simple as takeaway pizza in front of a movie or an episode of Masterchef, or they can be something that takes a bit more preparation.  There are many different seasons of having children at home, and we found that no matter what the kids’ ages are, there are family fun nights that everyone can enjoy.  So, I'm go...