To Home Cooking & Family Dinners....

About time to say good-bye to 2015 - can't believe another year has gone by! It's time for me to be thankful for the little joys this year has brought and review how well the resolutions held up. On the food front, 2015 was a great year of eating more family dinners together at our household. 

Mostly all home cooked. We are not big on takeouts. And I have a whole stash of 30 minute recipes so putting a simple and healthy dinner on table even on crazy weekdays has never been a hassle as long as you have a well stocked pantry and fridge.

I truly feel there isn't a more important way to take care of ourselves than managing what we eat. What we eat influences our health & beauty, happiness, stamina to work/productivity and increasingly I am finding out that it heavily influences family bondings too!

A simple home cooked meal is the best way to manage what we eat - and it doesn't have to be very fancy either. A pot of hot soup with some store bought crusty bread when eaten with family together may give you just as much joy and satisfaction as an elaborate Indian feast cooked over many hours. The idea is to sit together, talk share and enjoy a simple healthy home-cooked meal made with love and care. 

We all lead busy lives and grab lunches on the go. I am guilty of exclusively eating all of my work lunches on my desk while catching up with emails. So the evening ritual of coming home, hustling about in the kitchen, putting something delicious on table and everyone sitting together enjoying the meal while talking about their day just feels so important!
Taco Tuesday this week - looks like a spread but very simple and takes 30 minutes
My daughter is always running around me when I am in the kitchen - she is my helper, grabbing a lemon from front yard or few mint leaves or chilli pepper from back yard or helping fix a salad. She loves that - and I feel this combined with visiting farmer's markets have made such a positive impact towards her atitude on food and eating (and touch-wood on that!). 

She also looks forward to the meal times when we all go around the table and share a story of the day - it helps you connect with the families and specially helps kids form stronger family bonds.

On warm summer nights, we take our dinner outside and eat with a candle lantern hung to a nearby tree. Then we blow off the candle and take turns watching stars and matching them with star gazer apps on phone - just so much fun to make your own small customs around meal-times and make that a focus of the evening. 

After-all good food brings everyone together... Here is to keeping the home-cooked family dinners stronger than ever in 2016!