Recipe Research > One-pot macaroni beef dinner

Is there such a thing as healthy hamburger helper?

Here’s what I’m looking for: a one-pot dinner that combines macaroni, ground beef, and maybe tomato. It doesn’t even have to be low calorie. It just has to be healthier than the stuff you buy in a box and add to ground beef. As usual, I like my recipes to use regular grocery store ingredients, to not dirty every pan in the house, and for the meal to come together without a lot of fuss. This is a weeknight meal, not a “pleasing my in-laws” meal.

So I was thrilled when I saw a recipe for Hamburger Buddy in a healthy eating magazine I subscribe to. I folded down the corner of the page, added it to my weekly meal plan, and I figured it could be recipe #1 in a series of recipes I would try during my search for an easy macaroni beef dinner.

Even better, this recipe included sneaky vegetables – those chopped up in a food processor – so that we’d be getting extra servings of vegetables without even trying. Yum, sounds perfect, right?

First, I get out the food processor (which has a base, a top, a blade, and a plastic piece to shove things inside) – yes, that means 4 parts that have to be washed. When I’m chopping the mushrooms with the garlic and carrots, it all turns to mush very quickly, so that when I add the onions to be chopped, the machine locks up – the mush getting mushier, the onions remaining in the centre still virtually whole. I fish out the onions and chop them by hand.

OK, then I brown the ground beef, add the squishy pureed vegetables, and begin to cook. It looks wrong, the colours are wrong (lots of orange from the carrots), but I try to have faith. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of dried thyme, which turns out to be way too much, but the first time I make a recipe I like to follow it exactly, before I begin modifying, so that I can see what the chef intended. I should have realized that if the only spices were salt, pepper, beef broth and thyme … well, it was going to taste like beef and noodles and thyme. And let me tell you, this is a weird combination. Thyme is better with chicken, with pasta, and in vegetable soup 🙂

So then I added the raw macaroni to the cooked veggies/meat combo, and then added cups and cups of water and beef broth so the whole thing could boil. You’re right, I know, I can see you all shaking your heads … yes, now I’ve got boiled thyme-scented beef.

Finally, I add some reserved beef broth thickened with flour (mixed in another cup that has to be washed). Then I add sour cream. This is more of a beef stroganoff than hamburger helper, but anyway…

It wasn’t a disaster. André ate it, saying it would be better with less thyme. I ate some and deemed it ‘edible’ but not worth making again. And while we were still sitting at the dinner table, I reached behind me and pulled out my three favourite cookbooks and began searching for another recipe to try, and I found three or four. Some require cooking the ingredients and then putting it in the oven to make a casserole, others use tomato juice and Worcestershire sauce as the only flavourings. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I sample my way through these recipes. It might take me 6 trials (like lasagne did), but in the end I’ll come up with something tasty and cheap and easy that is a combination of the best elements I can find.

Upcoming research

Along with the macaroni beef dinner, I’m already working on Moroccan chickpea stew that doesn’t taste watery and bland. Then my next cooking adventure is pot roast (as requested by new subscribers Anne, Tammy and Katie). I’m totally excited to find a really great pot roast recipe that works every time, isn’t overcooked, and makes enough for leftovers.

If you have any recipes that you would like me to develop, just drop me a line 🙂 I’d love to hear your feedback.

You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chicken
www.oneroastchicken.com

Eat more fish!

Fish is good for you. It’s low in fat, high in Omega-3, and a good source of protein.

OK, if it’s so fabulous, then why don’t we eat it more often?

You’re probably saying … “I don’t like fish.” Well, I have a recipe that might surprise you. Most people like fresh pineapple. And there’s something about tangy fruit salsa served with baked fish that is hard to resist.

Are you thinking … “every time I try to cook fish it never works out.”

Maybe you don’t have a reliable recipe that makes delicious, moist fish time after time … I’ve got the answer for you, and it’s much easier than you think 🙂

	Start with two medium sized fillets. These ones are from the regular grocery store. You can also buy your fish from a fish shop, or poissonnerie. I’m using trout, but you could use salmon…
	Line a baking dish with tin foil. Remove the fish from the package and place directly on the foil. Don’t bother trying to remove the fish skin now, as it comes off easier once cooked.
	To make the fruit salsa, you’ll need tiny pieces of pineapple, and fresh mango …
	… mixed together with a very little bit of chopped jalapeno and some finely chopped red onion.
	To make the dressing, you need some fresh lime juice, honey, spices, and some olive oil.
	Pour the dressing over the fruit salsa, and stir to combine the flavours.
	Bake the fish while you’re making rice and asparagus. This dinner is ready to eat in about 28 minutes. Price per serving $3.45 for the fish and salsa; $4.11 with the rice and asparagus.

These 7 images are just a sampling of the 15 photos that make up the step-by-step illustrated lesson for Trout with Fruit Salsa (Recipe 1.8) . The complete recipe lesson is available in Successful Home Cooking. My goal? To help you become a successful at-home cook. To order your copy of the 122-page full-colour book, click here.

If you have any questions about fish or anything else, just send me a note. You can always reach me at Shelley@OneRoastChicken.com.

All best wishes, and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,

Owner & Head Chef

www.oneroastchicken.com

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Sherri writes …

“I have been cooking for over 40 years, and I probably have over 400 cookbooks, but I’ve never seen anything like Successful Home Cooking. I made your Chicken Tandoori recipe and I followed the lesson exactly, and it was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before! I might have lots of cookbooks, but they’re all the same. I am much more likely to make one of your recipes because I know you’ve tried it, and that you recommend it, and that I will learn something new, and best of all – that I will be successful.” – Sherri from Halifax, Nova Scotia

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Meal planning > Save money, shop less, eat better

Yes, it’s officially Autumn. Finally, I can turn on my oven for supper without the risk of overheating the entire house and melting into a puddle. Hooray, now I can make roast chicken again … which is, you know, nearly my favourite meal of all time.

This week’s cooking letter is another piece about getting organized, working from a meal plan, and preparing for the new school year. Over the summer, you may have been eating more take-out meals than you’d like, or one too many frozen dinners. Autumn is the perfect time to adopt a new regime and break the take-out habit. And I’ve got a few tricks that will help 🙂

Why are you eating take-out or frozen entrées for dinner? (or toast, or canned ravioli…)

Everyone has different reasons for why they’re not cooking as often as they want to. For example, if you’re coming home at 6 pm it’s hard to start cooking dinner right then and there, especially if you have no plan. Sure, you could start cooking at 6 pm and eat by 7:30 pm, but it’s a bit trickier if you have children who need to eat earlier.

Sometimes we can’t put dinner on the table because we haven’t done the grocery shopping. Sometimes we can’t put dinner on the table because we’re doing too many other things. Like committing ourselves to too much else.

If I was to talk to you about eating at home and why people don’t do it, I think the biggest obstacles are:

• Lack of time
• Being away from home, coming home late – like at 6 pm or 7 pm and then feeling starving and not having the brain-space to put dinner on the table
• Lack of groceries in the house.
• Lack of motivation
• Considering different people’s tastes and diets in your home and trying to cook something different for everyone
• And finally, it’s easier to order to take-out, or to the grocery for pre-package food.

The pre-packaged food from the grocery store tastes pretty good, but you don’t always know what’s in it. And it’s about 2-3 times more expensive than it would take to make the same thing at home. I think it’s interesting that the food that they sell at the front of the grocery store in those packages – like the single serving lasagne, or the fish and rice – it isn’t very exotic. It’s like home cooking for people who don’t want to cook at home.

Is a weekly meal plan the answer?

Yes, I think so. You’ll save money. You’ll think less. You’ll shop less. You’ll eat better. I’ve broken down meal planning into 8 steps… in the beginning that will seem like a lot steps, but in the end it takes 25-30 minutes ONCE A WEEK, and then you’ve got all of your meals planned for the week, and you don’t think about “what’s for supper” again.

Remember, when you make your meal plan, it’s you who gets to pick what you’re going to eat this week, and you get to pick your favourite things. People say “I don’t know what I’m going to feel like.” Well if your menu plan is filled with things that you love, and you know you love, then it’s quite motivating when you think that tonight you’re making that chicken quesadilla recipe that you really like, or that hamburger recipe that is so fabulous. You will start to look forward to that feeling of “I know what I’m having tonight, because it’s that thing I really like.”

Start by picking your favourites. The roast chicken recipe that takes absolutely no effort, and an hour later it’s done and then you’ve got leftovers for sandwiches or soup or Thai curried chicken.

This week’s cooking letter has been adapted from “Eight easy steps to plan your week so you can eat at home, save money, be healthy, and impress yourself!” This 16-page Special Report #1 > Motivation and Meal Planning is available by PDF download now.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Just hit reply to this email and drop me a line 🙂 You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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“I won’t pay for recipes!”

Lise in England writes: “There are a lot of cheap people out there. And there are so many free recipes online that people won’t want to pay for them.”

I understand Lise’s point. There are in fact billions of recipes online. Let’s take meatloaf as an example. If I go to epicurious.com, and search for meatloaf, there are 48 recipes. Yikes, how could I pick one? I start reading through the first two or three. The first recipe uses oatmeal (yuck), the second one has a list of ingredients as long as my left arm including white wine, and the third recipe also uses oatmeal (what’s the matter with these people?) and calls for something called ‘meatloaf mix’. Now, I don’t know about you, but without a definition, I’m not exactly sure what meatloaf mix is …

Now pretend you’re my ex-boyfriend for a minute, you can picture him – he’s the one with lots of disposable income but for whom cooking wasn’t one of his greatest strengths, although eating in restaurants was. Imagine you’re him, this guy with cash, who finds cooking to be a chore, who says “let’s just order in.” His favourite at-home meal? Meatloaf. But he can’t cook it himself. Never learned how. So, if you’re him, and you go to epicurious.com, and you start looking for a meatloaf recipe, you’d be overwhelmed in about 2.5 seconds.

OK, so to get back to Lise’s email. What she sees as a downside, I see as a problem to be solved. Indeed, the problem is that there are soooo many recipes online, but are any of them any good?

Are these recipes fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions, foolproof, with full colour photography? Do these millions of online recipes come with the email address of a breathing human where you can send your questions if you get into trouble?

Try to imagine if Martha Stewart actually cared if someone could follow her recipes and successfully get dinner on the table night after night. Imagine if Martha Stewart created recipes that used only regular grocery store ingredients. Imagine if every recipe included how much it cost to make per person.

And what if LOTS of the recipes included a mini-recipe version… how to adapt the ingredients and timing to make the same meal for one (or 2 people) (instead of the 4-8 people most recipes feed).

The new book by http://www.OneRoastChicken.com isn’t a cookbook. It’s a cooking school. It isn’t even called a cookbook. It’s called “Successful Home Cooking.” Because I actually want you to be successful, and I’ve done everything in my power to design and create the best product for you so that you can be successful.

Here’s what Priscilla said after she made the meatloaf recipe in “Successful Home Cooking”:

“I really should enter therapy because of my meatloaf and grisly bologna experiences as a child.

I made your meatloaf tonight, Shelley. It tasted unlike any other meatloaf I have ever eaten in my life …… GOOD ! It was more like paté than the chunky dry square hamburger I usually concoct …

I got a little worried when I started your recipe – it started off really smooshy and then all of a sudden it all glued together like really light bread dough. Must have been a combination of some sort of chemical reaction, patience, and following the recipe. I have always balked at the idea of smothering meatloaf in ketchup – but your “spicy” ketchup has a little more class. And it worked for the potatoes too.

I like the details you give: the REASONS for doing things and EXPLANATION of why you do something. (Like don’t reheat in the microwave unless you want to eat sponge.)

I can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow and for more recipes.”

To make this recipe and more…

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new cookbook, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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Four things I always have in my freezer

I live in an apartment with a small freezer that is part of my fridge. So without the luxury or expense of a big deep freeze, I still use my in-fridge freezer all the time to make my cooking life easier. Here are four things that I always have:

1. When I’m making Chicken Tandoori which calls for 1.5 teaspoons of lemon juice, I take my lemon, remove the zest with a microplaner or box grater, and then wrap the zest in plastic and stick it in the freezer. This comes in handy for Apple Pie for One, which calls for just a bit of lemon zest. OK, so then I cut the lemon in half, and juice both halves, and this produces about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. I use what I need for Chicken Tandoori, then I put the rest in a small jar in the freezer. I save tiny jars for lemon juice, like the kind that capers come in.

2. I make a Roast Chicken dinner about every two weeks or so. In my house, a small chicken makes enough for the two of us for dinner (we eat the white meat), and then when the chicken has cooled off, I remove the leftover chicken and freeze it in a plastic container. Now I’m fully equipped for my favourite Friday night one-bowl dinner (Thai Curried Chicken). I just pull out the frozen chicken and add it to the pot of bubbling coconut milk and vegetables while the meat is still frozen.

3. I buy lean ground beef from the grocery store in a jumbo family pack, and then I freeze it in half-pound packages. When I want to make hamburgers, I pull out one half-pound package and a couple of sausages and I’m ready to cook. If we’re feeling more like Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup, then I defrost three half-pound packages.

 

4. I make chicken broth from the leftover bones every time I roast a chicken. And once the broth is made, I freeze it in one-cup jars that might otherwise be used for jam, or I reuse pickle jars (or others) which hold about 4 cups. We go through a lot of chicken broth on a weekly basis so it’s definitely cheaper and easier to have homemade on hand. I use chicken broth instead of water to cook rice. I use it to make Instant Beef Soup (which uses a combination of beef and chicken broths to get the best flavour). And my favourite Thai Curried Chicken recipe needs 1/3 cup of broth in the sauce, and then more broth to cook the rice.

To make these recipes and more…

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new cookbook, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

What’s for dinner? HMR: Home Meal Replacements

On a recent trip to New York City I discovered a very large Whole Foods Market, a grocery store chain, where one full floor is devoted to precooked and pre-made meals. Hot and cold buffets. A guy served mashed potatoes and meatloaf next to a girl with a huge roast pork, her carving knife ready to go. At first I thought the whole thing was quite incredible — all the colours and smells. Look at all the variety! Look, they even sell bread in little baby packages of only four slices! How cool is that?

But instead of being inspired to eat and sample all these diverse meals, I was quite depressed. I knew from research that this had a name. A nice industry “marketing” name. Ready?

It’s called HMR. Home Meal Replacements. Here’s what the National Restaurant Association says: “Consumers want to enjoy high-quality meals at home but don’t have the time (or the desire) to cook. Solution? Home meal replacement — takeout meals that diners can eat at their own dining-room tables … Because many want foods that they would cook themselves if they had the time, [the store’s] menu leans heavily toward American comfort foods” (source).

So why does this make me feel deflated?

Because they’re taking your money. And lots of it. Mashed potatoes and meatloaf? These two in particular are cheap cheap cheap to make, and pretty easy to prepare. These guys are taking your money in big giant handfuls. It’s not like getting a great curry takeaway that you really can’t easily make at home — these guys are selling you potatoes. They are selling you meatloaf.

Oh, it pains me. The experience of being in that Whole Foods Market on a busy Saturday afternoon was both “Wow look at all the food” mixed with generous portions of “Is this what we’ve come to?” Are we really all soooo busy that making meatloaf is just out of the question? Are we really reduced to buying dinner from a guy wearing a beard-net at the grocery store? Isn’t the grocery store for groceries anymore?

What would gramma say? I can call her up if you like. Nanny Teresa would say: “If you’re too busy to get dinner on the table, then you’re too busy.”

Shelley would say something a bit gentler, like … making and eating food is the best fun you can have with your clothes on. The difference between EATING and DATING is one letter. There’s no easier, faster, healthier, cheaper way to impress yourself (or someone else) than to make dinner. What did you do today? I made roast chicken with rosemary. I made pork tenderloin with baked tinfoil carrots. I made roast vegetables and couscous. I made homemade cream of mushroom soup.

Here’s a simple dinner: heat some tomato based pasta sauce, add a few bottled marinated artichokes (cut up), and few teaspoons of capers. Add some red chilli flakes if you want it spicier. Serve over boiled spaghetti with grated parmesan. It’s hot and cheap, salty and lovely.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.
You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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Questions (and answers) from One Roast Chicken subscribers

Here are a few of the questions (and answers) that have recently been sent to me at OneRoastChicken.com (they’re both from people named Mike, what kind of a coincidence is that?).

If you’d like to submit a question, just send me an email and get busy typing.

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Question (from Mike in Halifax, Nova Scotia):

On the subject of herbs and spices … (I don’t know which are which), I have five in my spaghetti sauce recipe: oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I would normally buy them (dried) in little plastic bags at the grocery store but I think they are also available in a fresh state. Is this preferable?

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Answer: Thanks for the great question. On the subject of herbs and spices, according to science.enotes.com, “spices are aromatic (odorous) seasonings obtained from the bark, buds, fruit, roots, seeds, or stems of various plants and trees. Examples of spices are cloves, cumin, and black pepper. Herbs, on the other hand, usually come from the leafy part of a plant. Examples of herbs are oregano, basil, cilantro, and bay leaves” (source).

Fresh herbs are great when a recipe calls for rosemary or basil, both of which are completely different fresh-to-dried. Fresh basil would be great for your spaghetti sauce recipe, but not entirely necessary. I use dried basil for spaghetti sauce with great results. I save fresh basil for pasta that has only a few ingredients and when I need the basil flavour to really shine. Welcome to One Roast Chicken and thanks for writing.

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Question (from Mike in Orlando, Florida):

I think I make an OK spaghetti sauce, but I need a better one. When I make mine, I use three cans of plain sauce for every small can of tomato paste. So I might use 9 cans of sauce with 3 cans of paste. I sauté onions, and garlic. I broil country ribs, and sausages, and sometimes I buy frozen meatballs. I add basil. What I can’t figure out is when I should put the basil in… while it’s cooking for 3 hours, or 20 minutes before it’s done? My sauce is missing that certain taste that I can’t explain. Maybe you could help?

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Answer: Thanks for this request, I’d be happy to create a really great, simple, and tasty spaghetti sauce for the One Roast Chicken website, what a great idea! I’ll let you know when it’s ready … and I think you’re on the right track. Maybe canned sauce has too much salt and sugar, so we might be better off starting with whole canned tomatoes, and build up the spices from there… yummy, I can’t wait! I’ll keep you posted on the recipe research and thanks for the fabulous request 🙂

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OK, I can take a hint! I’ve added spaghetti sauce to the list of requested recipes. I will work on creating a foolproof, easy, step-by-step recipe, using only grocery store ingredients with lots of full-colour photography. And I’ll let you know how to freeze it AND reheat single servings. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

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As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Drop me a line 🙂

You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
http://www.oneroastchicken.com

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To view recipes for download, visit this link. Have you downloaded your meatloaf recipe yet? This complete recipe includes a complete meal for 4-6, as well as a separate mini-recipe for creating individual, single-serving, baby, mini meat loaves. Do you need to impress a boyfriend? Girlfriend? You need to download this Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup recipe right now and get cooking!

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Audio update > 50 ways to improve your life … and a recipe for the BEST hamburgers

This week I have a special treat for you. I’ve prepared a 4½ minute audio message just for One Roast Chicken subscribers.

On the list of “50 Ways to Improve Your Life,” do you know what Item #4 is?

You’ll want to listen to this week’s audio message to find out. Also, as a special bonus, towards the end of the audio I will share with you my brutally simple and best recipe for hamburgers, so you don’t want to miss out.

CLICK HERE to listen to this week’s audio update…

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef

www.oneroastchicken.com

The lonely business of cooking for one

As a single person, I never made an apple pie. Who would eat it all? (Gasp, what if I ate it all?). I never made lasagne. I hardly ever made meatloaf, because frozen meatloaf reheated was always spongy. And like everyone else, I wanted a recipe that makes enough for dinner, plus maybe some for the next day’s lunch. And if it can be frozen, like some soups can, it better taste as good thawed and reheated as it did going into the freezer, otherwise every time I open the freezer door I’m going to see the plastic container of whatever, and say to myself… “gee, there’s nothing to eat in here.”

Right up there among the things we dislike most… buying more than we need and throwing out food past its expiry date … is eating the same thing day after day. I was single for a couple of longish periods in my life. And being a passionate cook, I never minded cooking for myself, because I knew the alternatives (frozen tv dinner, delivery). So if the challenge is to eat at home more often, and to eat well, then in this adventure of One Roast Chicken, I had to tackle the challenge of cooking for one.

Mini recipe for meatloaf

Starting this week, as the new recipes for download are being posted, I will try wherever possible to create illustrated, simple, step-by-step recipes that feed 4 to 6 people, AND include instructions on how to adapt the recipe to serve one or two.

Let’s call this the Mini recipe.

The recipe I’m publishing this week is Meatloaf with spicy ketchup. It’s a huge favourite in my house, and we make it about every couple of weeks. With two of us eating it for dinner, and then again for lunch the next day, we can use the 4 servings rather nicely. If you’re two adults with two kids, you finish this in one sitting.

But if you’re Gramma, and you’re cooking for one or two, or if you’re Single-Shelley (or Single-Patrick) and you still want to have a decent, home cooked meal… Here’s the question… can you make meat loaf for one?

For the past two weeks I’ve been researching just this question. How can I adapt meatloaf to be made in a muffin tin? And today, it’s finished. Some trial and error, a messy oven, and reheated leftovers today for lunch, and now I have finally discovered all of the tricks.

The tricks for the meatloaf Mini recipe include: how to get the right quantity in the individual muffin tins, how long to cook it, and (most importantly) how to reheat the little babies once frozen. You can download a copy of that recipe here for less than the cost of a super value meal.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. If you have any recipes that you’d like simplified, anything you would love to serve for just one or two… or any other ideas for the upcoming cookbook (Spring 2007), drop me a line or post a comment to the blog 🙂

You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

The lost art of dinner

ere’s what Gramma knew about dinner, that we’ve all forgotten in only two generations: We’re supposed to eat dinner together. One meal, one table, no TV, no radio. We have a standing date, a ritual, see you there around 6 pm.

Perhaps one night a week Gramma took it easy and made eggs and bacon for supper. Sunday nights were probably reserved for a roast of some kind, ham maybe. Or roast beef. Something that made good leftovers for the following day.

Now what do we have? You want to eat a "home-cooked" meal but you don’t want to cook it yourself. Presto, your local grocery store sells pre-packaged meals at the front of the store: single-serving lasagne, tuna roll-ups in dry flour tortillas, and freaky expensive scary looking salmon and rice in plastic microwaveable containers. You have to search in this grocery store for an uncooked pork chop.

It’s nearly too much. What would Gramma say? (In my family, we call her ‘Nanny Teresa’, and I often mentally consult her on such topics.)

Nanny Teresa would say "look at the rates of childhood obesity. Look at the divorce rates. In my day we ate dinner together. One meal. No excuses. If you had band practise that interfered with dinner, you missed the practise, not the dinner."

So what are we missing two generations later?

We’re missing the connection that dinner brings. We get to ask each other "what happened to you that was good today?"
Everyone is seated around one table. The TV is off. The meal doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to be mostly healthy, mostly homemade, and done with a bit of care.

It’s not complicated, really. Pick something you know you can make without much fuss and shop at least the day before. When your dinner night arrives, start your preparation in a clean kitchen, and construct an event — the dinner event.

It’s not supposed to be stressful, you just putter along until it’s done, no hurry. The kidlet helps with washing carrots, setting the table, the mate puts Xs in the bottoms of the brussels sprouts.

Try to get three food groups involved (veg/fruit, meat/fish/protein, bread/pasta). Spaghetti with meat sauce and a plate of sliced cucumbers on the side. Roast chicken with green beans and whole wheat bread. It can be as simple as that.

Throw in a placemat, a couple of candles, and a cloth napkin. Sip your glass of sparkly water. Now it begins: "Tell me something good about your day?"

If you’re on your own, you set a nice table, light the candles, and settle into your lovely dinner with an internet article you’ve downloaded for later reading (hint, hint), or a magazine you’ve been meaning to read, or a great mystery book.

Then what happens? Well, then it all seems possible. You’re making a date with dinner. Soon your once-a-week date turns into a couple of nights, then you’re doing it regularly.

So this week I want to challenge you to make a date with dinner. Just try it once this week. Use the real dining room table, the medium china, two candles. Cook something basic. Make grilled cheese sandwiches with the crusts cut off and a dish of pickles (notice now Nanny Teresa always puts the pickles in a dish). Add a tomato + feta + balsamic vinegar salad.

Then take a picture of your prepared table, hit reply to this message, and tell me how you did. Send me your picture. I’ll post some in an upcoming article. If you need a recipe for roast chicken, hey, I know where you can find a good one… [www.oneroastchicken.com].

You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef