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I love going to pancake parlors, simply because they make the most delicious pancakes.

The problem is, they’re expensive.  On average, it costs $60 plus for hubby and I to buy a pancake stack each, and a hot drink each. ($10 or more for a hot chocolate?  They’ve got to be kidding!)

Instead of dining out at these places, I now dine in.  I buy the bags of premium pancake mix, and instead of paying $60 plus for two people, I can feed my family of six for around $10 maximum.  Seriously.

If you like your pancakes with all the trimmings, try adding a few ‘embelishments’.  Some of the extras I usually have available for the family are: bananas, stewed apple, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries.  You can also top with cream or icecream, add some maple syrup, or even some topping (such as strawberry syrup).

Even adding all these added extras, you’ll come way out in front money-wise.  Trust me.  I’ll never go back to eating pancakes out.  It’s simply not worth the outlay.

Are you sick and tired of sliced tomatoes going soft and gooey after you’ve cut them?  Yep, me too.

After a bit of trial and error, I found if I folded a piece of paper towel and placed it in the bottom of a sealed container with the tomato, it would stay firm for longer – at least a couple of days.

Sound too simple?  Yes, it does, but believe me, it works.

This recipe is quick and easy, and if you’re diabetic like hubby and I, it won’t send your sugar levels over the top! This is one of our favourite desserts, and we have it at least one night each week. If your not diabetic you can play around with it, add sugar or other sweet goodies to it, or even sprinkle sugar or icing sugar on the top!

Quick and Easy Apple Pies

You’ll need a Sandwich/Snack Maker – one that’s for toasted sandwiches. Ours is divided into four – it makes two sandwich sized pies, and automatically cuts it into four triangles.

Take one sheet of puff pastry out of the freezer and lay it flat to thaw. Lightly spray the snack maker, and leave it to warm up.

Cut the pastry sheet into half, and place one half onto the base of the snack maker. Spoon stewed or tinned apple into the triangle bases.

Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. You can also add sugar or sugar substitute if wanted, but sugar isn’t necessary.

Add remaining half of the pastry to cover the apple.

Close the lid and cook for about 5-10 minutes. *Can take more or less time depending on how hot the snack maker is when pastry is added.

You can substitute other fruits (such as rhubarb or peaches)  for the apple.

*Best eaten hot but can also be consumed cold.

1. Spaghetti – It’s easy to quickly boil noodles and simmer some spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti has so many add-ins your family will enjoy: Italian sausage, hamburger, diced vegetables and a variety of herbs and seasonings. For a low calorie meal, use spaghetti squash in place of traditional noodles.

2. Tacos – Olay! If your family likes Mexican food, whip up a batch of tacos for dinner. Use hard and soft shells for variety. For family menu planning, dice the fixin’s ahead of time so you can just pull them out on taco night.

3. Macaroni and cheese – What kid doesn’t like this as a dinner main dish? Spice it up with diced tomatoes, crumbled bacon, sliced hot dogs or hamburger.

4. Pizza – This is not the store-bought or the delivery. Keep several prepared pizza crusts on hand (like Boboli for instance). On pizza night, let the entire family choose which toppings they want on their pizza. Prep time is fun so it doesn’t last long and it takes about 20 minutes or so to bake.

5. Skewers – you can create tasty chicken, pork, seafood or beef kebobs quickly. Skewer the meat and your favorite vegetables and place them in a sealed container until meal day. This is the benefit of meal planning – getting prep work done early. Cook your tasty kebobs on a gas grill or use a grill pan indoors.

6. Hot dogs – Nothing could be easier than throwing them in a pot of boiling water or grilling them up. For the health-conscious family, use light franks or turkey franks by Oscar Mayer or Ballpark.

7. Chef salad – Salads are always quick to fix but they usually lack something in the taste department. With a chef salad you get your portion of protein from lean ham or turkey. The taste comes from the add-ins: bacon crumbles parmesan cheese, tomatoes, shredded cheese, black beans and cucumbers. Use others that your family likes.

8. Grilled cheese sandwich – Dinner doesn’t need to be a four-course meal. For a new taste, add deli meat or a juicy tomato.

9. Tortilla wraps – Create delicious quick sandwiches with your favorite flavor of tortilla. Glaze with mustard or low calorie mayonnaise. Add crunchy veggies and diced chicken, pork or beef.

10. Leftover creations– Use leftovers to create salads, casseroles, sandwiches and soups. Don’t let anything go to waste if it can be used for new meals.

Let these ideas spark your interest in having a great meal with your family.

Children are the future. You want the best for them. Family meals are instrumental in spending quality time with your children and helping them avoid some of the dangers that come with growing up.

Parents and kids have created shortcuts that pass for quality time. Most of us don’t even realize that that’s what we are doing. Sitting in the same room watching a movie or saying ‘hello’ and ‘good night’ is not the same as holding a meaningful discussion.

Here are a few statistics that might shock you to learn. According to A.C. Nielsen, parents and children spend an average of 38 minutes per week chatting to each other. That is less than six minutes each day discovering what is going on in their lives. They spend more time than that with their friends.

Kids who spend meal time sitting down with their families have a lesser risk of starting such behaviors as smoking, drinking and drugs according to the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (2004). These are three of the biggest concerns that parents have with their kids. The teenage years are a time when depression is common as kids seek to “find” themselves. Those depressive episodes are less likely to occur in children who have meals with their family.

Also, kids (and parents) eat slower when they have meals with their families. This cuts down on overeating which is what we do when we are eating in a hurry between activities. Over indulgence is contributing to a higher incidence of childhood obesity.

Between school and work, very few families take the time to unwind. Less often than that, they take the time to relax together. Home is a sanctuary and a place of safety. At the dinner table, you and your kids can let your guard down and listen uninterrupted to each other. For younger children, listening to discussions at the dinner table helps them to learn language and communication skills (Harvard Research, 1996).

Most of the happier times in our lives center on food and family. That can still be true when you make time for meals. There are no set times for dinner. If your family can only get together at seven o’clock, have dinner at that time.

Just like working and school are priorities in your life, consider treating meal time the same way. Use that opportunity to talk about things that happened during the day and also to give advice to your children concerning difficult situations they are experiencing. In such a calm setting, they are more likely to open up and hear what you have to say.

Kids have their own rhyme and reason to eating. While some will eat everything you put in front of them one week, they will fight you at each meal the next. The first thing to remember is not to over react. Kids will be kids as they say.

Your children are not testing you. Their food preferences change with moods and their age. Resist the urge to shove food in their mouth when they refuse. They may not be hungry at that particular moment.

Is your child a picky eater? Use these five strategies to deal with mealtime issues.

1. Introduce new foods slowly. Maybe they got used to eating macaroni and cheese for lunch. If you want them to eat a jam sandwich this week, they may not want to break their routine. Instead, give them some macaroni and cheese and a quarter of a jam sandwich. They can see if they like it and still have something on their plate that they will eat if they don’t.

2. Save drinks for last. It is a common practice to serve a drink with the meal. Smaller kids love to drink. Filling their stomach with liquid will diminish their appetite. Later, when the drink fullness wears off, it’s bedtime and they are whining for food. Let them eat when they are hungry and serve them something to drink after they have eaten at least half of their meal.

3. Ask your child what they want to eat. If they choose to have breakfast at lunch or dinnertime, let them. The important thing is that they are eating. Your choice of food selection will provide them with the nutrients that they need even if they eat only a little.

4. Let kids help with meals. When they can see what you are fixing and participate, it can stimulate their appetite. It is not recommended to snack while cooking but for your kids, a few celery or carrot sticks won’t hurt. Be aware though, that too much snacking will spoil their appetite.

5. Have children sit at the table with you. With finger foods, kids are prone to walk around with their food if you let them. Also, sitting in front of the television to eat distracts a child and can mess with his or her appetite. They would rather see the show than eat their food.

The one thing we never seem to have enough of is time. When time gets short, the first thing that gets missed is meal time. Eating fast food several nights a week can be expensive not to mention bad for your health. If you plan your meals in advance, your family can still eat together for dinner.

Here’s the scenario: You come home and realize that you omitted to take an item out of the freezer for dinner. Rumaging through the refrigerator, you find a few bits and pieces to throw together. When the kids come in, they grumble because it’s not what they want. Your partner arrives later to find a congealed something in the pan on the stove and skips dinner.

Does this sound familiar? If it does, there is help for you and your family. Menu planning saves the headache that comes with searching at the last minute for something to fix for dinner. It also keeps you from throwing away food that no one wants to consume.

You could be one of those families who eat out for dinner because it’s late when you get home. No one wants to cook so you hit the fast food outlet.

There are many benefits to meal planning:

1. The entire family gets involved. One day a week, probably a Saturday or a Sunday, let everyone come together for an hour and decide what will be on the menu for the upcoming week. Each person from the youngest to the oldest has a say in the meals.

2. Menu planning fosters healthier lifestyles. When you have time to decide in advance, you can be sure that there is the right combination of protein, fats and carbohydrates in each meal. Eating at home means that you’ll know what is in the food that you eat.

3. You can save on the food bill. How many of us have gone to the grocery store and half filled the cart with items that we didn’t need but caught our eye? When you prepare a menu, you have an instant grocery list. Each week, you’ll shop for the items that are needed to make the meals and that’s it.

4. Meals can be fixed in a jiffy. When you are tired in the evening, simply pop your meals in the oven or microwave. Planning allows you to start the prep work the night before in anticipation of a busy day. That way, all the hard work is already done.

As a kid, grocery shopping looked like fun. As a parent, it’s a chore that most of us could do without.

Below are a handful of tips to save both time and money on your next trip to the grocery store.

You might just change your mind about the experience after trying one or two.

First, why do people dislike going to the grocery store? You probably don’t like the long checkout lines or the time it takes to go up and down every aisle to find what you are looking for. Or, it could be the high cost of food and other grocery items these days.

Now, examine the following tips in light of what bugs you about the grocery store:

1. Clip coupons – This point can’t be stressed enough. Using money-saving coupons on the items that you use most is free money. Some grocery stores routinely double or triple coupons. When you want to try something new or exotic, use a coupon to get a discount off of the full price.

2. Create a grocery list from your meal menus – Meal planning saves money at the grocery store because you start with a list that encompasses everything you will need for all meals that week. Only pick up those items. With a list, you can target what you want and get out of the store fast.

3. Visit the grocery store early in the morning – This works for stay-at-home moms, as well as those unemployed. Everyone else is at work so you will have the place pretty much to yourself. Many trucks deliver supplies to the grocery stores in the morning. You’ll be the first to get the freshest cuts of meat and the best produce.

4. Know your store. The biggest pet peeve has to do with the need to shop every aisle to find something. Choose a grocery store that has all of the food and qualities you like in a supermarket. On your grocery list, put the number of the aisle next to the item. Now, you won’t skip over the bread on aisle two while looking for the green beans which are on aisle four.

5. Stock up on common staples. Since you plan your meals every week, you know which items are needed most. When shopping, it’s okay to buy those items in bulk so that it cuts down on weekly shopping bills. For instance, if peanut butter is a lunch menu item most of the time, buy a lot when the peanut butter is on sale to save money.

These tips make you want to run to the grocery store right now don’t they? Start with one and eventually use all five to shop like a pro.

Instead of going from place to place, site to site, or collecting coupons here, there, and everywhere, I have found a website where you can get loads of coupons – for free!

Click on the banner below to check it out. You need to sign up, but it’s a painless operation – just add your zip code and email. That’s it!!

I came across this site recently, and it’s a beauty. Check your pantry to see what groceries you currently have. Then go to this site and with the software provided, list your available grocery items.

The software will work out your meal using your available products!

It’s free to use, and there’s no cost whatsoever involved. Try it out and do leave your feedback about the site.