I am a big fan of family dinners – it is not secret if you’ve been here long. Dinner together is a relationship building experience of bonding and memory making. We are a blended family – meaning everyone is scattered in different homes at different times plus my husband travels – so it makes our time together even more valuable.
I am pleased to announce I am partnering with Dream Dinners in a 30 Day Challenge to have dinner together as a family. You know, September is a crazy busy month with adjusting schedules and everyone back to fall sports and after school activities. If you are not careful and plan – dinner can easily be forgotten.
For me, planning is key:
1. I grab a blank monthly calendar and mark the days my husband is out of town and then mark the days the kids are home. If it’s just me and my 4 year old, dinners tend to me a little more low key.
2. I plan out what meals I have on hand and what I want to make through the month.
3. This month I was blessed to go to Dream Dinners and make ahead dinners to use during the month. Dream Dinners is the originator and leader of the meal assembly industry – and the menu changes each month, so you’ll never get bored! We picked our dinner choices online and then showed up to assemble them as a family affair. It was great for everyone, and even the older kids were excited!
Here are some photos of us making our dinners – it was great. My two oldest kids came along – and my hubby! It was a fun evening and I loved all my helpers.
I had done this before with my kids when they were much younger and I was a single mom. It was such positive experience and a fun way to build memories, so this was great for bringing those back – my kids were thrilled to go again!
We broke into teams and made dinners and it took a little less than 1 1/2 hours to make 12 dinners for the month. The total cost was $262.72 for 8 meals that served 6, and one meal that served 3; equaling $5.15 per serving. All the prep was done ahead of time, meals are in the freezer and ready to be taken out!
You travel to stations set up with all the ingredients you need for the recipe and the best part – they clean up after you AND they have treats!! We had a special preview appetizer of a menu item that will be available next month as well as freshly baked cookies.
We made:
Meatloaf Milano with Mashed Potatoes
Chicken Soft Tacos with Key Lime Corn
Cranberry Buttermilk Chicken
Steak Provence with Wild Mushroom Sauce
Kentucky Pork Chops
Outlaw Chicken Marinar
Monte Cristo Chicken
Cola and Lime Tender Pork Roast
Bueno Steak Tacos with Spanish Rice
I absolutely loved the experience and overall ease of prepping dinners. The only thing I would love to see is allergen information posted when you go online to sign up for the dinners you will prepare on your set time. Being Gluten Free, I can easily make adjustments to recipes at home, but when you are prepping things away from home, there is less opportunity to change up items or know for sure that the meal can be made gluten free.
Will you join me?
To Join the Challenge:
1. Decide on the number of meals you’d like to share with your family each week during September. Whether you plan on pledging to share 30 homemade meals this month or are looking forward to sitting down as a family for three dinners a week, you’ll reap the benefits of family meals all month long.
2. I will be sharing my dinners on my Facebook page and Instagram using the hashtag #30DaysofDinner. You can also share original pictures of your family’s meals on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter – either homemade or a family dinner at your favorite restaurant – they all count!
3. Tag Dream Dinners in your photo and use #3oDaysofDinner to enter the contest. Dream Dinners will be giving away a $200 gift card each week during September – so the more photos you share, the more chances you’ll have of winning!
I am looking forward to this fun challenge! I have committed to 15 dinners together as a family this month – that may seem a bit slim, but with a hubby that travels and kids at different homes….that is a great number for us!
What’s your number?
I was gifted with a $200 gift card as compensation for my partnership in this challenge from Dream Dinners and all opinions are my own and were not influenced by the compensation.
30 Days of Dinner Challenge is a post from: The Confident Mom