Review and Giveaway: The Family Dinner

THE FAMILY DINNER
By: Laurie David, Kirstin Uhrenholdt

From the Publisher: The producer of An Inconvenient Truth, Laurie David's new mission is to help America's overwhelmed families sit down to a Family Dinner, and she provides all the reasons, recipes and fun tools to do so.

Laurie David speaks from her own experience confronting the challenges of raising two teenage girls. Today's parents have lots to deal with and technology is making their job harder than ever. Research has proven that everything we worry about as parents--from drugs to alcohol, promiscuity, to obesity, academic achievement and just good old nutrition--can all be improved by the simple act of eating and talking together around the table.

Laurie has written a practical, inspirational, fun (and, of course, green) guide to the most important hour in any parent's day. Chock-full chapters include: Over seventy-five kid approved fantastic recipes; tips on teaching green values; conversation starters; games to play to help even the shyest family member become engaged; ways to express gratitude; the family dinner after divorce (hint: keep eating together) and much more. Filled with moving memories and advice from the country's experts and teachers, this book will get everyone away from electronic screens and back to the dinner table.

Review: Family dinners are my all time favorite part of the day. Sadly I am missing that due to work evenings Monday to Fridays for the time being. This book is more of a book about bringing family together than a cookbook but it also has some very yummy easy recipes. We haven't been able to try a lot yet but we did try out the Little Chocolate Pies on page 209. I didn't have puff pastry but I used the Phyillo pastry and they tasted very yummy! The recipe was easy to follow and fun to make. My son helped me out. They are really hard to stop at just one lovely chocolate morsel.

The Family Dinner is sectioned off very well so it is very easy to find what you are looking for. One great section is on conversation starters. Family dinner for me is all about enjoying the food and finding out how the day was, what's on their mind or what is going on during the week. I am hoping to get back into family dinners within the next year before my children get too old. I find it right now as a great place to work on learning to count, recognize shapes, colors, tastes and talk about anything they are thinking about.

The author talks about if you can not have every night together choose a night or a breakfast when everyone can relax and enjoy time together talking. This book also features a green section on composting and growing your own spices and produce.

Next up on my list of recipes to try is Pea Nutty Noodles, Homemade Challah and Nanna's Happy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This is an all around great book to add to your collection or just in time for a Christmas present! Mommy approved with two thumbs up!

Where to buy: You can find The Family Dinner at Chapters.ca or at Amazon.ca 

WIN IT: One lucky reader will have the chance to win a copy of The Family Dinner. Please enter the mandatory entry before any other entries can be counted.

Mandatory Enter: Tell me what your favorite part of family dinner is - 1 entry.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canada. This giveaway ends on November 20th, 2010 at Midnight EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org on November 21st, 2010 and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck! Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the title in the mail.

~*Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Hachetter Book Group, Anna Balasi and The Product Review Place for review purposes. All opinions on my blog are that of my own.*~

Posted in: Reviews and Giveaways