Jul 20, 2017

Guess what? This is the 26^th week that I am writing this blog. A little over the six month mark, I have to ask myself a few questions. There are three questions that my son’s drum teacher asks after every single lesson and I feel these questions apply to pretty much any life situation: Did you learn anything? Are you getting better? Did you have fun?

What I have I learned? Consistently cooking good dinners for my family is difficult for me to maintain. I sometimes set too high of expectations and then I constantly let myself down. I have learned that there is no easy fix and that this is a process. As a single parent, I only have so much time in the day to get everything done and sometimes things have to give, and that is okay.

Am I getting better? I’m getting better by not giving up and keeping dinner time top of mind. Not every evening is a meal win, but there are improvements. I consider that a victory. Yet, I know I have a ways to go.

Am I having fun? This is probably the most important factor at play in the dinner dynamic, yet sometimes the most difficult to sustain. Dinner with family should be enjoyable and not another item to check off the list. Connecting with my family at the dinner table and making an effort to include the kids in the meal prep and cleanup is another way to build a stronger family unit – and even if there are complaints, it is creating a routine for the kids that they can carry into their households as adults.

When someone is really crabby I suggest doing a silly dance and singing until that person looks at you and eventually smiles. Annoying my children gives me great joy and usually knocks them out of their funky mood.

That leaves me with, how do I continue to make progress with family dinners? And how can I help you with your family dinners? The County Market marketing team is always working on finding new ways to provide meal solutions for busy families. We are now partnering with The Dinner Daily. The Dinner Daily is an online meal planning resource that specifically designs shopping lists and recipes specific to you and your family’s needs. The cool thing is that you can plug in County Market as your store and the weekly meal solutions will match what County Market has on sale that week.

For me, this is a tool that I hope will continue to keep me motivated and give me a little extra helping hand in my planning, which is my biggest downfall. I set up my Dinner Daily account, made my meal selections and printed out my shopping list and recipe cards in about five minutes.

Here is what your personal dashboard on The Dinner Daily looks like:

 

Below is one of the recipes I will be cooking. As you can see, not too many ingredients and ready under 30 minutes:

 

Next week I will feature my first week of recipes and resulting dinners and give you my honest review of how this worked for me. If you sign up before July 31 you will get a 10% discount by using the code CM10, in addition to getting the first two weeks free. Check out The Dinner Daily HERE.

I hope that you will join me in this continued challenge to find easier ways to plan and make dinner for our families. And a second challenge, which I am rating the level of difficulty as EXPERT LEVEL, I am going to attempt to not go through any drive thru lanes. At all. Ambitious? You bet your Wendy’s frosty it is!

As an ending thought, I hope you are getting better, learning, and having fun in the kitchen. If this blog does anything, I hope it helps you accomplish these goals.

- Maureen

A Marketing Mom Striving to get out of the Fast Food Lane and into the Grocery Aisle

 

 

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