Is dinner time stressful at your house? Mine can sometimes be with planning a meal and preparation amidst the hustle and bustle of the husband coming home and kiddos hungry after a day at school. We eat out rarely, so cooking is my duty. We have our favorite recipes, but sometimes, I need to shake it up a bit and try a new recipe!
As we are in back-to-school mode, I’ve been reading through The Busy Mom’s Cookbook: 100 Delicious, Quick and Easy Recipes by culinary TV star and mother Antonia Lofaso. It’s a great book loaded with more than 100 quick and delicious home-cooked meals.
More than a cookbook, The Busy Mom’s Cookbook weaves anecdotes and lessons learned from Lofaso’s experience as single mother, TV personality and chef. It’s a light-hearted approach that encourages cooking and dining as a means to foster relationships. It’s a practice I believe in completely–food is what brings us together, shows our love and nourishes the soul. I so love how Lofaso encourages families to build stronger bonds. Recipes are organized into family-friendly categories from breakfast to brown-bag lunches. I’m eager to try the Almond Popcorn and who can resist the Crunch Cashew Brittle?! Perfect for the Fall season!
Lofaso’s cookbook is the only one that speaks directly to women constantly battling the hectic and wanting to deliver healthy, delicious meals to their families, all while keeping the kiddos entertained.
I love the ideas for transforming leftovers into new meals. We typically have “De Ja Vu Dinner,” where left overs make a reappearance, but Lofaso is going to help me be a genius in serving them again.
There are so many quick and easy-to-make recipes like:
As Antonia says, “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if your experience of family is a mom and her preschooler coloring pictures and telling knock-knock jokes while they eat, or a rowdy gathering of parents and kids, aunties and uncles, grandparents and best friends fiercely debating which team will win the next big game. It’s all family, and it’s time to gather our families around the table again.”