Book Review: Family Dinner

By Sandy Amazeen Dec 27, 2010, 17:21 GMT

The producer of An Inconvenient Truth, Laurie David\'s new mission is to help America\'s overwhelmed families sit down to a Family Dinner, and she provides all the reasons, recipes and fun tools to do so. Laurie David speaks from her own experience confronting the challenges of raising two teenage girls. Today\'s parents have lots to deal with and technology is making their job harder than ever. Research has ...more

Today’s busy schedules finds family members going in all directions with little time to connect with each other resulting in children and parents feeling isolated and stressed. David advocates the importance of establishing the daily routine of sharing at least one meal together and using that precious time to learn how each person’s day was and reconnect with them. Using her own family as an example, David explains how to engage kids of all ages in the meal preparation and developing your own special rituals. While cooking together is fun and educational, it does demand time but the rewards are well worth the investment as children learn how to cooperate, share and have input into what they eat beyond demanding McDonald’s.

Not only are there tasty, easy recipes for dishes like Pea Nutty Noodles, Moroccan Chicken Tagine (stew) and Chipotle Orange Shrimp but also inexpensive drain and glass cleaners, fun family games, topics for discussion and much more. Most of the recipes include sidebars about what tasks are best suited to young helpers and helpful tips. As much about how to develop family bonds and traditions as it is about cooking, no matter how busy you think you are, make time to read this engaging book and start forging your own special memories. This book is a must for anyone looking to start a family or interested in enriching the lives of their family members and would be an excellent shower gift.