New Challenge!

In honor of this month of cooking, eating, and gratitude, I have decided to do a family meals challenge. You *may* remember my new year's resolution (oh, who am I kidding) to improve my cooking abilities. I actually have not done a bad job this year. I learned a handful of new recipes, had 'stints' of cooking dinner marathons. Tried some new techniques. Did a 'fruits and veggies' challenge with my family. Even started a short-lived blog about my attempts, The Riley Food Revolution. Anyway.

For the month of November, our family will have dinner together (at least) 6 nights a week. Five of those nights it will be cooked by me. This leaves us two 'freebie' nights of eating out (with one potential date night). We will make a ritual of the meals, with everyone playing a role. Miss P will *decorate*, set the table, or help cook. We will say grace and leave the TV off. We will have games sometimes.

I will post my recipe, a photo, and tell a bit about how it went. I can't promise that the recipes will be super creative, original, (and 95% of the time they won't be mine), or always really healthy. I will pick things that are quick and easy to cook, usually comfort type foods, that kids and adults both might like.

Posting here will keep me accountable, be a fun personal record, and may give you some ideas (or help you feel a whole lot better about yourself and your efforts!!) Oh, and since I love, and am a sucker for cookbooks, I'll give some deets about the newest ones. Pictured above is our school's community cookbook (first grade fundraiser this year). It has some awesome recipes! Also, an inspiration for this challenge - The Family Dinner, by Laurie David. Bon appetit!