Fast And Fabulous
Even if your family is busy at dinnertime, you can still gather for a daily meal together.

Jump-Start Your Menus

It’s another busy weeknight with ball practice, music lessons and a late meeting. It’s tempting to skip dinner and grab something at the drive-through as family members dash off to their activities. But you might want to reconsider that decision. A study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Center found that the most important factor in predicting whether teens do well in school and stay out of trouble is whether they eat dinner with their parents five nights a week. Another study at the Harvard Graduate School of Child Development concluded that the most important factor in child development is dinnertime.

How do you fit a sit-down dinner into your family’s busy lifestyle? Try this: Identify four or five easy meals you can prepare in 30 minutes or less and keep the ingredients on hand. Check out the efrigerated food aisles for a wide selection of precooked ingredients that are ready to go in an instant. You’ll find everything from grilled chicken strips and precooked seasoned ground beef to a variety of tasty side dishes and desserts.