"Healthy meals and good books"

As a working mother, I have always worried about whether my kids were going to turn into Chinese take out cartons or become best friends with the drive thru guy at Mc Donalds. Healthy meals and ready the moment we get home is never synonymous. But I have found something that has been a lifeline www.dreamdinners.com

Dream Dinners, founded by two working mothers, has helped me on many occasions put a healthy meal on the table quickly and without much effort. You go to their website, check out the monthly menu and select the meals you want. You then go to the store and assemble your meals. It is fun, feels like you are actually cooking and in about 90 minutes you walk out with 12 meals that feed 6 people each. You defrost in the morning before you leave for work and then either pop in the oven or cook on your stove when you get home. Make a salad and some rice and you’re good to go! For a family of 4, you either have two full meals or a dinner and then lunch for the adults, depending on how much of a hit it was at the dinner table.

It seems a bit pricey at first, but I have cut back on buying dinner groceries and just buy side dish stuff. BTW - if you are vegetarian, this option may not work well for you. Most of their dishes are meat based. My family doesn’t eat these meals every day, but once or twice a week it is great. It also forces me to cook things I wouldn’t normally, like paella and Caribbean Pork Roast. Me and my family love it!


My other recommendation is a place for bi-lingual children’s books. Being Filipino-American, I rarely find books with Filipino faces and stories. Until recently, there were no books written in both English and Tagalog (Filipino native language). A few year ago, I discovered Children’s Book Press in San Francisco. They publish, Lakas and the Manilatown Fish, a story about a young Pilipino boy and a magic fish. Not only does it have beautiful art, but it shares a lot about our culture. Children’s Book Press has stories about kids growing up in the US from Mexico, Vietnam, Korea, Central America and the list goes on. All stories share about their culture and are written in two languages side by side, not in different books. The CBP website also has lesson plans for teachers and are always looking for folks to write good stories. Check it out at www.childrensbookpress.org.