The Family Table: Winning the battle …. sort of
I try my darndest to make all my meals from scratch, keeping things as whole-some as possible. There are days, though, that between work, the kids’ activities and housework, I just can’t.
It’s the struggle a lot of moms and dads have: wanting to fuel yourselves and your children with the healthiest choices while trying to balance, well, life — both yours and theirs.
Some days, I feel like we win that battle. Gabe, Wes, Josie, Mike and I manage to sit down together, eat a well-thought-out homemade meal, laugh and talk about our respective days. There are no speed bumps or roadblocks, no one “remembers” at 9 p.m. that they need something special for school the next day that no one possibly has at home (i.e. a tie dye T-shirt or chartreuse and periwinkle striped socks).
When those days happen, I feel like a rainbow has enveloped our home. It’s relaxing.
Then there are the days where I wake up with two left feet, tumbling out of bed late and hoping I don’t land on the big dog, who is patiently lying beside the bed waiting for his morning trip outside. Then it’s off to work, trying to remember what I made for dinner that day (occasionally finding that it’s been consumed already), getting home and getting it all ready before Mike and two of the three kids rush off to karate.
Those days pass in a rush, and at times I find myself not sitting down to unwind until it’s dark outside.
I try on those days to give myself a break — permission, I guess, to be just “OK” and not “great” about what we eat.
This past weekend, Mike and I were just “OK” about what we ate on Friday night for a different reason. Our house reverberated with the sounds of silence as all three kiddos were not there. It had been a long week. Cooking was the last thing either of us felt like doing, nor did we feel like prettying up for a meal out.
Together, we worked up a solution. He raided the olive bar at the grocery store on his way home from work. I made a crab dip, which took about 5 minutes of effort. We picked, and that was fine. I felt less guilty because I wasn’t subjecting the kids to what amount to snacks as a meal.
Knowing how I hate to eat poorly, Mike suggested celery as a suitable alternative to carb and sodium heavy crackers as a way to consume the dip. It wasn’t much of a victory, but sometimes, you gotta take what you can get.
Crab dip
1 pound can crab meat
1, 8 oz block cream cheese
1, 8 oz container sour cream
4-5 cloves roasted garlic, minced
3 scallions, finely chopped
2-3 sprigs fresh dill, finely chopped
录 cup parsley, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Old Bay seasoning
Celery or crackers for serving
Thoroughly blend softened cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice and Worcestershire. Stir in the cheese, garlic, scallions, parsley and dill. Gently fold in the crab meat. Put the dip into a baking dish, and sprinkle Old Bay seasoning on top. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes.