November 20th 2006 Dine Without

November 20th 2006
Dine Without Whine's Weekly Newsletter
An Extension of our Menu Planning Service
www.dinewithoutwhine.com
Publisher ~ Christine Steendahl
Read Past Issues In Our Newsletter Archives

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This Issue:

A Personal Note
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
What is Thanksgiving all About?

A Personal Note

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a great day! Do you take part in the big Black Friday Hoopla as well? We always have when we lived in a larger town. We’d get up at 5:00 a.m. and hit those early morning sales. It was a lot of fun. However, being that we live at least an hour from a large town and with Dane’s broken leg I don’t think I am going to make it this year. In fact I haven’t made it out of the house at all for the past two weeks except to take the boys to school. Dane is just a mommy’s boy at the moment. I’m counting down the days before the cast comes off! Matt is taking a few days off after Thanksgiving, so we’ll have to think of something creative to do at home since we can’t really go anywhere with Dane. I think I’ll pull out all my catalogs I’ve been saving and get my Christmas shopping done online.

I’m sure most of you received the announcement in your e-mail box on Friday, but in case you missed it… I just launched a new site last week. Kid Approved Meals – www.kidapprovedmeals.com.

Are you Nascar fans? My husband is a big fan and one of his favorite drivers, Jimmy Johnson, won the championship yesterday so he is pretty happy. He doesn’t really watch any other sports, so we can reclaim our Sunday afternoons for 3 months or so now before they start up again.

Now that Thanksgiving is here, I wanted to let you know about a really fun site. Waiting For Christmas www.waitingforxmas.com This is a free service offering daily craft ideas, recipes, and Christmas tradition ideas to help your kids make it through that long month before Christmas when they are so excited. Please do go check it out…. (when you sign-up you’ll receive some Dine Without Whine recipes woven into the mailings). They have some great ideas on how to enjoy the holidays with your family.

Well, once again Happy Thanksgiving!

Christine

P.S. If you need some extra last minute help planning Thanksgiving, we can help! http://www.healthymenumailer.com/thx/ features a full Thanksgiving Menu with shopping list along with planning tips, decorating advice etc.

Recipe of the Week

Exerted from this week's family friendly menu plan and convenient grocery shopping list.

Have you tried our sample menu?

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Makes 24 servings (2 loaves)

    1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
    5 eggs
    1 16-ounce can pumpkin
    2 cups flour
    2 cups sugar
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon cinnamon
    1 teaspoon nutmeg
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    2 3-ounce packages instant vanilla pudding
    1 cup walnuts chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix oil, eggs, and pumpkin in mixing bowl and beat well.

3. Sift together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix till blended.

4. Stir in pudding mix.

5. Fold in nuts.

6. Pour into greased large loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour.

This Weeks Top Five Referring Sites
(These sites have a link to DWW somewhere on their site and have sent the most visitors to www.dinewithoutwhine.com this week)

http://www.healthy-kids-snacks.com/
http://www.catholicmom.com
http://www.snacksfortoddlers.com/
http://www.christian-homemaking.com/
http://www.practicalhomemaking.com/

Kitchen and Cooking Tips, Articles, And Product Reviews

What Is Thanksgiving All About?

Thanksgiving is such a special time. It’s a time to reflect on all the blessings in your life. All too often we focus on bad things and don’t take time out of our busy schedules to be thankful for our blessings. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to express these feelings.

This is the perfect time to help kids understand what Thanksgiving is all about, too. Don’t let this Thanksgiving just be a time for your family to get together and have dinner. Here are a few ways to help kids learn about the Thanksgiving tradition.

Tell The Thanksgiving Story - Ask your kids if they know the Thanksgiving story. Unless you have taught them the story, they may not even know what Thanksgiving is all about. Visit your library and check out a few interesting books about this American tradition.

Make it Interesting - While you are discussing the Thanksgiving story, make it interesting to your kids. They don’t want a boring history lesson. Bring the Thanksgiving story to life when you talk about the pilgrims and Indians. Add dialogue when you tell your kids how Thanksgiving became a national holiday during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

Incorporate today into the Thanksgiving story - Once you’ve discussed the history of Thanksgiving with your kids, bring it full circle, back to today. Ask them what they are thankful for. Remind them of the little things we so often take for granted that many third-world countries do not have. Ask them how they can be more thankful for the things they have.

And above all lead by example. Why not write a beautiful Thanksgiving card or letter to each of your children and spouse telling them why you’re thankful for them.