I can't figure out when to eat family dinner. The elementary bus drops off at 4pm. Depending on the day, we have music at 4:30, swimming lessons at 6 or art class at 7. My husband works home but doesn't finish until around 5 or 5:30. I like to put the kids to bed at 8. This new weird schedule has me wondering if family dinner is worth the effort. Of course I know it is, so, I'm considering moving family dinner to 4:00 pm. We can find 15 minutes to be together at 4. It sounds weird and it feels weird, but think it might actually work. Research shows that families who sit down and eat breakfast together reap all the same benefits of families who eat dinner together later in the day. Maybe breakfast is the only meal that works for your family. All that matters is the you prepare a meal, turn off all your screens, and sit down to eat food and talk together. Wish me luck with my geriatric dinner time trial. I'm always adjust our dinner time depending on what we have going on. Things are so much harder than they used to be when my oldest was a baby (photo above is me and my oldest child). What time does your family eat together? Send me an email to let me know! nicolebuhlerRD@gmail.com

I moved to a small town 3 hours from Salt Lake City last week. I had to pause the weekly blog for 2 weeks while moving, but I did not pause family dinners. Family dinner has been our anchor in this sea of newness. The family dinner project reports that kids who regularly eat dinner with their family get these benefits (I bolded the ones that relate to me right now): Better academic performance Higher self-esteem Greater sense of resilience Lower risk of substance abuse Lower risk of teen pregnancy Lower risk of depression Lower likelihood of developing eating disorders Lower rates of obesity Better cardiovascular health in teens Bigger vocabulary in preschoolers Healthier eating patterns in young adults There are also benefits for adults, including: Better nutrition with more fruits and vegetables and less fast food Less dieting Increased self-esteem Lower risk of depression I knew we needed the emotional benefits of family dinners, so I made it a priority. And now that I'm getting back into a rhythm, I can write more about what I'm cooking. One of the most important thing you can do for your family is to sit down and eat together. It doesn't matter if it's Little Cesar's pizza, spaghetti from a jar, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or homemade rolls and roast beef. What matters is that you sit down and enjoy each other's company while you fill your bellies. Once you have the habit of sitting down together, then you can focus on adding in healthy foods. Maybe later you focus on switching out unhealthy foods to healthier options. Every week on this blog, I share what my menu looked like the past week. You will see a lot of the recipes from cooking class, and some new things that look weird. But I always post what we actually ate. The goal is that you can get some ideas for what to cook your family for dinner from seeing what a Registered Dietitian feeds her family on the regular. Please don't compare yourself or think that you have to eat like I do. Again the purpose is to give you ideas, not to add any stress or anxiety to your life. I hope you enjoy the blog! Here's my menu from the first week in a new town: Sunday: (first day in the new house after arriving at midnight saturday!) one pot chicken and rice (prepared by my 12 year old), canned green beans, canned corn Monday: Lentil tacos from the freezer (I froze the extras from July's cooking class and heated them in the microwave) + canned corn + chopped lettuce + watermelon Tuesday: Tostadas topped with refried beans and chopped fresh tomatoes + corn on the cob (my 12 year old cooked for us) Wednesday: Grilled salmon (from our freezer, I love this website for kid's recipes) + rice + watermelon (my 10 year old cooked for us with my help) Thursday: Homemade pizza + melon + green salad (my husband cooked for us, I have no idea what recipe he used for crust, here's what our pizza usually looks like - we use pesto sauce) Friday: Ham fried rice (to use up stuff in the fridge, been making this recipe for years) + watermelon Saturday: Baked eggs + avocado toast + watermelon (not kiwis, they were too expensive!) Sunday: Turkey Pozole for lunch (my husband is a hunter and cooked this with turkey he shot last year and it was SO YUMMY) + hot dog cookout up the canyon for dinner I've got a yummy meal plan for this week! I hope I have time to make everything I want to cook! Please send me an email with any questions or comments! nicolebuhlerRD@gmail.com

It's been a while since I posted! We went on a long summer vacation and were without internet for a few weeks! This week I'm moving to Vernal. My kitchen is packed up and friends are bringing us dinner all week. So, instead of menu, I'm going to share my favorite summer salad recipe. Everyone loves this salad; even self-proclaimed VEGETABLE HATERS end up asking for the recipe. It's very nutritious and inexpensive to make. Leftovers will last a week in the fridge and pack up nicely for lunches! I often serve it in a cheese quesadilla for a fast and easy meal. Click on the link below to access the recipe (it's in this website). Rice and Bean Salad | DDInutrition

I love my freezer. I buy things when they are on clearance and stick them in the freezer until I can use them. This week, I'm planning my menu around things I've found in the depths of my freezer: fancy cheeses, whole limes, whole peppers, leeks, bacon, tomatoes from last year's garden, frozen steak and fish. Did you know you can freeze all of those things? Smith's frequently clearances out their poblano peppers, lemons and limes. I buy the entire bags for 1 dollar and stick them in my freezer whole. When I'm ready to cook with them, I just microwave them until soft and cook them. Here's the menu I created from things found in the deep dark depths of my freezer. Have a great week! Monday: daughters birthday: takeout pizza + green salad Tuesday: Cooking Class! Quick microwave oatmeal + breakfast burritos Wednesday: Corn and poblano chowder with gouda cheese (using poblanos, corn, gouda cheese and leeks from my freezer) image from link above (fromachefskitchen.com) Thursday: Creamy coconut lentil curry (using tomatoes and ginger from my freezer) image from link above (theendlessmeal.com) Friday: tuna salad wrapped in a tortilla Saturday: fish + steak tacos + cabbage slaw (using frozen steak and fish from my freezer)

I've reached the summer burnout zone. The heat makes me tired, and thus I'm too tired to cook. However, I am still hungry, so I must soldier on. Here's what I hope to muster the energy to put together this week. Monday: frozen tortellini noodles with store bought pesto sauce + canned green beans + watermelon Tuesday: corn and black bean salad (too lazy to cook rice this week) + queso fresco on whole wheat tortillas + watermelon image of cowboy caviar, click link above for recipe Wednesday: cabbage with noodles + watermelon Thursday: tropical cabbage salad + grilled salmon Friday: little Cesar's pizza + bagged green salad

My menu is a bit sketchy this week. We're still trying to sell our house and we've had a lot of people coming to see the house around dinner time. Today we had to be out of the house at lunch time and dinner time! I'm running low on energy to cook a big meal and still keep my kitchen spotless for a house showing. So, we will probably eat out a lot this week or have simple things like quesadillas. Instead of pretending like I'm going to follow a menu this week, I just want to share two salads I made and LOVED this weekend. I hope you enjoy them too. Both recipes are from this cookbook I found at my inlaw's house. I made 5 recipes from the book and we had ZERO leftovers...which was actually disappointing! Here's the salads! 5 Minute Greek Salad (this is a photo from the photo in the book because I ate the whole salad before I took a photo!) Sweet Jicama Salad This is also a photo of the photo from the cookbook. This was SO YUMMY served with tacos! What is your favorite summer salad?? I would love to try it when I finally sell my house and can use my kitchen again! I would love to create a post with everyone's recipes next week. Please email it to me: nicolebuhlerRD@gmail.com

Our glorious extended spring is OVER and the heat of summer has arrived. Never ending ninety degree days are in our foreseeable future. Using the oven is a big no-no at my house during the summer. Our AC doesn't work well and the house is always uncomfortably warm; using the oven would exacerbate that. Since oven-baked anything is a bad idea, and even the thought of boiling water makes me sweat, I plan to serve up simple no-cook wraps and summer salads. Not only are they healthy, but also inexpensive, delicious and filling on hot summer days. Here's my no cook healthy menu for the week: Monday: leftover barbacoa meat from sunday dinner + tropical cabbage salad Tuesday: hummus, tzatziki, tabbouleh on naan bread + mango smoothie Wednesday: tuna or chicken salad wraps (tuna mixed with mayo, whole wheat tortilla, lettuce, bell pepper strips) + watermelon Thursday: going on a long trip - leftover wrap sandwiches Friday: rice and bean salad + watermelon Saturday: cafe rio salad (canned black beans on quesadillas with salad greens, store bought cilantro lime dressing and pico de gallo)

I'm not a fan of kitchen gadgets. I have a small kitchen and I like to keep things simple. I was gifted an insta-pot a few years ago, but mostly just use it to make beans. As I am packing and moving, I rediscovered my insta-pot and decided to give it another chance. If it's taking up space on a shelf, I better figure out how to use it! Here's my insta-pot menu: Monday: insta-pot pepperocini beef sandwiches (put steak in the instpot with pepperocinis and cook 70 minutes then put it on top of rolls for sandwiches) + cabbage/ramen salad + watermelon Tuesday: Ground beef tacos + whole wheat tortillas + rice/bean salad + watermelon Wednesday: Instapot cabbage soup + store bought rolls + grapes image from feasting at home Thursday: instapot chicken + tortillas + mango spinach smoothies image from spendwithpennies.com Friday: Food truck meal at Utah Art's Festival (there are activities for kids and it's free for kids to enter, we rarely eat out, as you see on this blog, but when we do I try to make it a cultural experience!) Saturday: leftovers or tortillas w/cheese and beans

I grow a lot of cabbage. It's getting big enough to harvest, so we will be eating a lot of cabbage the next few weeks. If you don't grow your own, cabbage is still a BUDGET FRIENDLY food. At my local smiths, you can pick up a bag of chopped cabbage for $1.50, that's a steal! Cabbage is a nutrition powerhouse. It has as much vitamin C as an orange, and is also a good source of vitamin K, potassium (which is good for your heart) and antioxidants (which protect against diseases like cancer). Here's my menu this week, a tribute to my cabbage patch! Monday: Cabbage soup + breadsticks (I made a double batch of soup so I could bring some camping this weekend) Tuesday: Beef and Cabbage stir fry with ramen noodles on the side image source: Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry - with VIDEO - Budget Bytes Wednesday: Lettuce wraps with tropical cabbage salad image source: Honey Beef Lettuce Wraps - Creme De La Crumb (lecremedelacrumb.com) Thursday: BBQ meatloaf sheetpan dinner (using cabbage instead of the veggies she shows) image source: Sheet Pan BBQ Meatloaf Dinner - Instructional VIDEO - Budget Bytes Friday: leftover tacos from Sunday night Saturday: leftover soup from monday

I'm sorry I missed last week. I am selling my house and last week was over-the-top stressful. I think we mostly ate cheese quesadillas standing at the kitchen counter. Some weeks are like that. But the thing about healthy eating is that we can always try tomorrow, because we have to eat every day. I resolve to do a better job feeding my family this week and that starts with planning a menu. Here's my meal plan: Monday: cabbage and ramen salad with pan fried tofu (just cook it until it's brown) and watermelon (using homegrown cabbage shown below) Tuesday: meat tacos with lettuce, bell peppers and mangos Wednesday: whole wheat noodles topped with peanut sauce, garden peas and chunks of broccoli and cauliflower (from my garden!), apples photo from realmomnutrition.com Thursday: noodles topped with pesto sauce and chopped greens from the garden, grapes (click link for a video and photos!) Friday: pizza party with a friend! Saturday: Pizza at another friends party!

I love cooking in the winter: it's warm, it's cozy, it gives me something to do when I'm trapped inside, hiding from the wind and snow. Summer is another story. Cooking in the summer feels so inconvenient. My AC doesn't work well, my house is hot, and I want to be out playing, not inside melting by the oven or stove. The kids are home and need to be fed 4 times a day. It can feel burdensome. To save myself from serving little Cesar's pizza every night, I batch cook in the summer. I double and triple recipes so we eat at least 3 times from the one meal I cook. I also make food that requires little actual cooking: like salads, pastas and dips. Here's an example of that below! Monday: Hummus and tzatziki with store bought naan bread, frozen mangoes and salad greens Tuesday: tortellini salad (cook tortellini noodles and put on top of salad greens with dressing, cheese, canned kidney beans and chopped apples - it's like the photo below, but instead of croutons I use cheese tortellini noodles) Wednesday: Cold peanut sauce noodles with frozen broccoli, cabbage ramen salad, cut apples image from Real Mom Nutrition Thursday: Kid's last day: little cesars pizza + green salad (I have a lot of salad in the garden right now) Photo is of the lettuce in my garden! Friday: left over hummus and tzatziki inside tortillas with salad greens Saturday: tortellini salad leftovers Sunday: Peanut noodles leftovers, make a second batch of cabbage ramen salad Happy cooking (or minimal cooking anyway)!

Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutrition deficiencies in young children. Before birth, infants take iron from their mother and store it in their bodies. After birth, they only get a little bit of iron from breastmilk. By 6 months, those stores of iron run low, and infants need more iron from their diet. Enter in solid foods! Six months is the perfect time to start infants on solids so they can 1) learn how to feed themselves (yay!!) and 2) get some iron. Pureed red meat is the best source of iron. The second-best source is iron-fortified infant cereal (like baby rice or baby oatmeal). If your baby is vegetarian, pureed beans and lentils are also a good source of iron. Iron is also important for women who are having their periods. Iron deficiency is common in women. I used to think that red meat was bad and avoided it all costs. I thought I was getting enough iron from beans. When I developed iron deficiency, I changed my mind! The problem with red meat is that it is high in bad fats, called saturated fats. However, foods like cheese and butter are also high in this type of fat. So, I cut back on the amount of cheese I eat and have red meat instead. It is more nutritious than cheese and I'm not eating any more bad fat than I was before. Red meat is expensive! Serving size to the rescue: a 6-month-old infant only needs about 1 Tablespoon per meal! If you made a pound of ground beef and pureed it for your infant, that meat would last several weeks. Serving size for an adult is the size of 1 deck of cards - also less than most of us want to eat. Eating smaller serving sizes cuts down costs! Mixing beans with your meat also helps it to last longer. That being said, my menu this week includes a lot of red meat. My husband is a hunter, so we have a freezer full of elk meat, which is similar to beef. He made a large roast yesterday. We had small servings yesterday and will eat the rest this week in other things. And with that long primer, here is my IRON RICH menu: Monday: enchiladas w/beans and leftover roast (I'll use meat and beans) + chopped bell peppers + corn + mangoes image from foodhero.org Tuesday: barbecue beef sandwiches (no recipe: I'll just heat the meat in store bought barbeque sauce with some lentils I already have cooked) + bean salad + watermelon image from foodhero.org Wednesday: beef & bean stew (no recipe: I'll just put meat, onions, carrots and lentils in a crock pot with broth and let cook all day) + cornbread + watermelon Thursday: cheese tortellini salad (no recipe: I'll cook tortellini and put it on top of green salad with pecans and store-bought dressing) + apples Friday: hummus + tzatziki + tabouleh + pita bread image from ddinutrition.com Saturday: leftovers!