What's For Dinner?

What is for dinner?  It is sad to say, but this is the question I ask myself every morning.  Because my goal each day is to have dinner on the table when my husband comes home. 

I am a homemaker and have been for three years.  Many people call themselves a stay at home mom, however, my job doesn't stop at mom.  My job is to make our house a home for our family.  A home full of love, cleanliness, laughter, alittle bit of craziness and good food.  Yes, our home had all of these qualities when I was working, however, they were all done "half ***ed".  Now that I am home, I feel as though it is an opportunity make all of these qualities my top priority and perfect them to my best ability.

Love, laughter, and craziness are all natural for the most part; I don't have to work as hard on these, most days, however, cleanliness and good food are difficult, especially with two kids running around.  I have pretty much given up on having the cleanest house in the neighborhood, which before kids, would have been on the top of my list thanks to my "OCD."  My house is now clean about 42% of the time; the time in which my children are sleeping. 

The good food has been my most difficult to accomplish.  When I first got married, my husband cooked the majority of the time.  While I was working, he was in grad-school and was the one who had dinner on the table for me.  However, once he was finished, he didn't have time to get it done before I got home and so I started helping him cook.  As time went on, it seemed as though he was cooking less and I was doing almost all of it.  My family use to joke about my cooking, prior to getting married.  You could say that the fire alarm in our house told everyone when dinner was done, if I was left in charge of making a meal.  It didn't help that I almost cooked the directions to my parents brand new oven back when I was 16.  That is a story for another day...  And after hearing many stories from my family, obviously my husband did not marry me for my cooking.  But after time and lots of practice, I have came a long way and would consider myself a pretty decent cook. 

I am writing this blog for two reasons.  The first, to share quick and easy meals with others.  It doesn't take a lot of ingredients or expensive gadgets, cookware, or time to make a great meal.  The second reason, is to encourage others to sit down as a family and eat dinner as much as possible.  Growing up, my mom always had dinner on the table and we ate together, sometimes someone would have to miss, but no one every ate alone.  Dinner was not just about eating, it was family bonding. There were times when our family of five would be at the dinner table until 9:00pm, just talking and enjoying each other's company. The TV was never on, except those nights when we ate late and Home Improvement was on...  It was just human conversation,  which I feel has been lost at the kitchen table, and everywhere else.   And to this day, if you were to go to my mom's house, we are usually in the kitchen or on the beach, they live on a lake now days, but I can guarantee, there is always food involved.   

That being said, my goal is to share meals our family enjoys, along how I plan meals, how I save money on meals, and what we do to "bond" at the kitchen table!