Liz Edmunds, a Utah mother and grandmother, knows a thing or two about planning dinner. She developed a menu plan with guidelines 30 years ago out of self-defense, to make feeding her seven children and husband an enjoyable family activity — and to make cooking a meal her favorite time of day. Her template for stress-free mealtimes has garnered her the nickname "The Food Nanny."
This Mary Poppins of dinnertime has been sharing her plan with enthusiastic friends and family for years, and has recently brought it to the public, hoping to alleviate the anxiety of planning nightly meals for both parents and grandparents, no matter the size of the family.
"Dinner is the glue that holds a family together," says the Food Nanny. When Edmunds and her husband Steven, a pilot for the U.S. Air Force and then for Delta Airlines, began having children, they recognized that being at the table as a family was the key to healthy, "wide-open" communication.
As the Food Nanny, Edmunds helps simplify the daunting task of maintaining dinnertime as the cornerstone of a healthy family, a time, she says, to sit down and "bond as a family" in a stress-free environment. The way she does this is by planning dinner around theme nights, which she says "does not include party hats!" Monday is comfort foods, Tuesday is Italian night, Friday is pizza night, and so on. "The hardest part of planning a meal is choosing what to fix," she says.
With her new book The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner (Palmer/Pletsch, 2008), Edmunds, grandmother of 15 with another on the way, encourages parents and grandparents to follow her guidelines. But most of all, grandparents should "make sure there are always delicious smells coming from grandma’s kitchen, no matter the size of the kitchen," she says. "Grandparents have a huge effect on grandchildren," she says, as she recalls the wonderful smell of bread coming from her own grandmother's kitchen, and how that influenced her own love of bread-baking.
"Grandparents can also grow a pizza garden or grill garden for their grandkids," says the Utah grandmother. "Grow vegetables for grill night or tomatoes and herbs for pizza night."
Her recipes are all kid-approved, such as her creamy mac and cheese, easy pot roast with pan gravy, or her sweet-and-sour baked chicken. Everything is healthy and simple to prepare, with a "warm, nurturing approach," says the 57-year-old La Miranda, Calif., native and the former stay-at-home mom with the burgeoning new career.
Now that her kids are grown and starting their own families, she takes pleasure in knowing she’s given them the tools to encourage family bonding around the dinner table.
Although her template is geared toward parents, grandparents can also benefit from her menu plan. The recipes are simple and quick and great for babysitting grandparents who are "just relearning to parent" with their grandchildren. She says there’s "little work involved in preparing the meals," so the little ones can partake in the "no-nonsense" process and grandparents can focus on teamwork and togetherness.
Continue to the recipe: Sweet and Sour Baked Chicken
Read the Food Nanny's Tips for Grandparents
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