This post is sponsored by Loblaws.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about food and the act of nourishing a family. For instance, what does it take to raise a food lover? Fall means back to school and routines. Sometimes that’s exciting. Return to a regular schedule can mean new beginnings and that’s fun, even re-invigorating. Around here that may mean less barbecue and more quick family-friendly meals. Or more slow cooker meals.
The Fall schedule means more meal preparation, planning and organization, which also means easing back into a routine in the mornings and at dinner too. The flip side of routine is that it doesn’t take long to get bored sometimes. So how will we avoid boring and still eat healthy meals together?
Table of Contents
Take the Pledge to Raise a Food Lover
Right now Loblaws is helping me to get organized and build healthy meals together with my family. How? Yesterday I took the pledge to raise a food lover. Basically I added my name and took the pledge agreeing to participate in each month’s family challenges to get in the kitchen together. By being in the kitchen together cooking we are also striving to learn more about our food, where it comes from, what is healthy and how we can protect the environment our food comes from.
Loblaws is asking Canadians to take a pledge to Raise a Food Lover, encouraging families to live a healthier lifestyle and learn about the food they eat. There are several monthly challenges throughout the Raise a Food Lover campaign. Each challenge helps build nutrition education while providing a chance to win a WE Family Day Getaway.
The first challenge is going on right now, so don’t waste a moment thinking about it. Month one is the Cook Together Family Challenge. See how we did below.
To participate in the Raise a Food Lover Challenge:
It’s easy to take part in this challenge and there are multiple rewards. Primarily you are showing your kids the value of cooking together and also how to raise a food lover.
Step one: Jump right in. Take the pledge here – > Loblaws Raise a Food Lover Challenge.
Step Two: Do the challenge together.
And step Three: Post your own #RaiseAFoodLover pictures on your social media channels for a chance to win amazing prizes, including 10,000 PC Optimum points or a chance to attend WE Family Day in Toronto this fall. Don’t forget the hashtag when posting!
Returning to Our Old Habits
From the time my kids were small I knew that food and dining together was something that mattered to us as a family. While everyone else is ditching their dining rooms we are still using ours. After a long day of school and work the kitchen and the dining room table are family spaces where we enjoy meals together and reconnect. We strive to eat together and prepare food together often. My younger daughter LOVES to help make a meal, plate it and serve it.
Of course over the summer we have been busy. My oldest daughter had a job and was so tired when she got in from work every day that she fell fast asleep often well before dinner. Ainsley, my younger daughter, has been away at camp for 2 weeks. Before that she did a variety of theatre camps in town here. So routine was altered and our dinner time meals were also a bit chaotic.
My Goals
This Fall I am striving to get back to our family goal of eating and cooking together as often as possible. For us, I think that dining together is feasible at least 4 to 5 nights a week. Right now I will strive for 4. Cooking together is a bit harder but I am pledging to do this at least once a week.
This week I am pulling together a few new ideas and tasty meals that are family friendly, ones that draw kids into the kitchen to help. Feeding a family can be fun, creative and an act of love. Cooking together leads to pride in the food that we create together and that’s vital when you want to raise a food lover.
We started this week already with a cheesy quesadilla recipe we all love.
Cheesy Bean Quesadillas
See the recipe below. I think it will become one of your favourites too.
Take The Pledge - Raise a Food Lover
Ingredients
- One package of Flatbread
- A can of pinto beans or red kidney beans you decide
- Lean Ground Beef - one pound you can omit this is you want a lighter vegetarian meal.
- Single red pepper diced
- Small yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of red chilis
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup of sour cream - garnish
Instructions
- Brown ground beef and drain oil off of it. Set aside.
- Drizzle olive oil in frying pan.
- Add diced onion followed by diced red pepper.
- Add pinto beans (or kidney beans)
- Sautee all of it on medium until beans soften up.
- Add chilli powder and chilis
- Add cooked ground beef
- Heat oven to 375 degrees
- Place 6-8 flatbread shells on a cookie sheet.
- Scoop filling into each shell.
- Top with cheese and fold each over.
- Heat for 6 minutes
- Add a spoonful of sour cream on the side and devour!
Nutrition
Enter for a Chance to Win
Don’t forget to go take the pledge and in the meantime also enter for a chance to win my giveaway here. I have one Loblaws Raise a Food Lover Kit for one lucky Canadian reader.
It includes:
- #RaiseAFoodLover aprons for your kids
- $50 PC gift card
- Welcome Kit (including fun recipes and challenges the whole family will enjoy)
Don’ forget to follow Loblaws on Twitter and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoblawsON/
Follow Loblaws on Instagram and don’t forget to check out the hashtag to see what other families are creating in the kitchen. Good Luck!
I am raising food lovers by letting them get involved in the prepping and making of our family meals. My daughters especially love to help mom and dad make our big family breakfast on the weekends
I love to get my boys working in the kitchen. I find they are so much more willing to eat new recipes if they helped prepare them. When we all prepare the food together, it makes meal times feel like an event instead of just 15 minutes of eating.
I’m trying really hard to get them (my two kiddos) involved more to help encourage better eating and knowing there’s choices .. plus with a baby on the way the mire they help the better !
I’m trying really hard to get them (my two kiddos) involved more to help encourage better eating and knowing there’s choices .. plus with a baby on the way the mire they help the better !
My niece enjoys helping in the kitchen! She will be a good cook one day
I let my daughter pick out groceries especially veggies and I like to have her help me with dinner!
Young children helping with meals will be, hopefully, good meal planners.
Our granddaughter can make a delicious vegetable soup.
I am raising a food lover, by letting her help in the preparation of the food and giving her access to my family recipes
I fed my sons lots of different foods and cook them in different ways and they both are food lovers now.
I encourage my kids to try new things even if they don’t look appealing
The grandkids love to make pizza loaded with their favourite veggies,we cut out the processed meats long ago.Teach the kids to be good to their bodies. #RaiseAFoodLover
My grandson loves to eat. On my last visit we made blueberry waffles together. He also made homemade pretzels with the help of his grandfather.
i am growing a food lover by evolving him in all aspects of food and meal planning and getting him into the kitchen and helping me cook he loves it
I am trying to raise a food lover but my 9 year old is so picky. I like to mix things up and make meal time fun. I always try to get him to join and make his own creations!
we pick from the garden and cook with it and kids love it.
I don’t have kids but enjoyed being able to bake with my cousins as they were growing up making us all a food lover of cookies!
I buy healthy food and we do not eat out
We are teaching her how to cook
I am raising a food lover by introducing new recipes, new food and involving them in food prep! Thank you!
I’m raising a Food Lover because we talk about what our bodies need to work well!
I am raising a food lover by trying new foods,making new foods and always talking about food!
When my children were growing up we always cooked together. They loved to help and now they are all excellent cooks. They are now teaching their own children their cooking skills and raising food lovers. When I visit I like to join in and make fun foods for the kids with them.
I have always welcomed the family in the kitchen to join in the fun of preparing meals.
My Grandchildren in the farm know about picking and eating fruit and veggie I get them to help in the kitchen and they love it
I am raising food lovers by letting them prepare and have fun with their food!
I like to get my Grandkids helping me prepare meals!
We encourage our son to try something new every week – AND he can pick any new fruit or veg at the grocery store for us all to try
We enjoy making cakes together
Getting some children’s cookbooks with fun ideas helps make them food lovers.
Get in the kitchen to prepare food together.
My niece likes to help us shop for food.
I cook from scratch and try to use simple good ingredients. And my kids know that and often ask me why I choose one product over another and I’m always happy to explain that a cheese with 2 or 3 ingredients is better than the one with 10. They can taste the difference now too. They also love to watch me cook and help me.
I’m raising a Food Lover by experiencing lots of new foods and trying new dishes
I’m raising a food lover by eating together – we aren’t always the best at this so it’s been nice to sit down all together.
By getting into the kitchen and cooking together.
I find that letting Sophie be involved in whatever I’m making helps her become more of a food lover.
By teaching our kids how to cook, we are teaching them life lessons that they need!
Our kids have their own garden and are allowed to help with all meals and the decision what to make. Always a messy kitchen but future foodies.
I am raising 2 little Food Lovers by letting them try new things when we are at the grocery store, we take a look around the fruit and veggies and pick something different that we can take home and experiment a recipe with.
I love to get the kids taking part in the kitchen,we have learned some great tips from great-grandmother by cooking some items from the yard such as dandelions !
Food is very important to my family. My grandparents were farmers so we were taught to cook from scratch. Started cooking with my little niece when she was four. It’s nice for use to spend time together & give my sister the night off.
My grandchildren enjoy cooking and one has started to make funny you tube videos on cooking. Encouraging her helps to make her a food lover.
We like to grocery shop together then cook together.
BY LETTING MY SON GET INVOLVED IN THE COOKING PLANNING AND MEAL PREPARATION
We let her pick out our meals sometimes.
I’m raising food lovers by letting them get involved in choosing and preparing the food!
We like to try out a new recipe every week or two.
I love taking my kids shopping with me and then help me prepare food
My granddaughters have become very interested in cooking so we are trying new recipes, unfamiliar ingredients and having lots of fun figuring things out together.
Taking your children grocery shopping and letting them pick out fruits and vegetables will help children love food and make good choices.
We like to shop and prepare meals together.
I am raising a food lover by showing then the importance of preparing good food!
I always encouraged my children to put their own spin on recipes to make them their own. I think that helped them become food lovers.
We love to go to the farmers markets in the summer.
We are cooking together and trying out new foods
I let them have decision making when it comes to dinners, their school lunches, and the grocery list. My 11 year old likes to help me cook, the other two don’t have any interest yet but once they do they’ll help out as well.
I’m raising a Food Lover but looking for fun recipes they want to make!
Trying new recipes of course and letting them help!
I raised food lovers by giving them each one night a week when they got the pick the menu and make the meal.
We love trying new recipes and experimenting on recipes
We decide together what recipes to make.
I’m raising a Food Lover by trying many different types of meals , we love to cook together!
Growing some of the food you eat and having your children help you harvest it will help them become a food lover
We plant a garden each year.
We love experimenting with new veggies!
Making it a point of sitting down together as a family to enjoy meals help children become food lovers.
I am raising a food lover by getting my son enveloped in all aspects of food prepping and cooking
We let them help us with adding the ingredients
We are raising a Food Lover by interesting new food weekly and it’s been fun!
Planning meals together is the way to go.
Growing your own herbs, letting them taste them and using them with your children in the cooking helps raise a food lover.
Today we all made dinner together, it was fun
we are trying to raise a food lover by making sure we offer her lots of new foods and textures to taste, touch and smell.
i am trying to raise a food lover by making sure they understand what is healthy eating so they make the right choices now and through out their adult lives
Planting a garden is a great way to raise a food lover.
We are raising a Food Lover by introducing new ingredients to our dishes!
I always let my son help making dinner and introducing new foods to him, now as a adult he like to try new vegetables- the same ones he hated as a child
One of the ways I am growing a food lover is by taking him to our local markets.
We are raising a food lover by taking our grand daughter to the farmers marker with us, we pick out things to prepare together and she likes trying different things with us on the weekends
by getting my son evolved in Meal prep cooking and shopping we both enjoy it
I have my kids pick out the fruits and vegetables while grocery shopping.
Watching cooking shows is a great way to raise a food lover.
We watch the food channels together sometimes
I show them how cooking can be fun, also showing them the veggies are good
I let everyone pick a meal and then help prepare it.
I am raising food lovers by adding new ingredients weekly
we try and not create very much food waste and also try to involve the kids in the cooking!