Family Meals
Family Meals Matter – More Than Ever!
Price Chopper, Market 32 and Market Bistro are all one company with one mission – to help you feed and care for your families. Family meals are the centerpiece of that collaboration between your family and ours. September as National Family Meals Month was launched several years ago to highlight the connection of food and families – now it is a #FamilyMealsMovement, and every day, every week, every month is a good time to eat together.
We are so busy, for many, meals together have been moved out of family schedules. They should be a time to enjoy and engage! We hope we can help you make that happen as often as possible.
Meals don’t have to be perfectly nutritious, or only happen at dinner time, or even be served on a plate– just being together and sharing food is when the magic happens.
Children and teens that eat with families more often:
- • Eat more healthfully
- • Have a healthier weight
- • Are less apt to develop disordered eating issues
- • Have positive peer relationships/friendships
- • Have lower levels of tension and stress
- • Get better grades
- • Are likelier to say they can confide in their parents
- • Are at half the risk of substance abuse compared to teens who rarely eat with families
Fast and fresh, or slow and savory, on the go, or quiet and comforting -you never know when a family meal will become a cherished memory!
Nourish Your Family and Eat Well Together
Children that eat family meals eat more healthfully, eat more fruits and vegetables, have a healthier weight, and lower risk for disordered eating issues. We make it easy to enjoy this time together and find everything needed for a delicious, nutritious meal. A rotisserie chicken and a chopped salad kit with bakery fresh rolls, fresh pizza and pasta dinners ready to heat and eat, or a sheet pan meal with roasted fresh chicken and veggies – eating together means eating better!
Create Balance and Benefit
Family meals are especially important during stressful times. Gathering around the table gives family members time to look, listen and laugh. Well-being and happiness are fostered by strong family and community connections. Family meals are a great teacher of life skills and family traditions – pass the plate and the torch from generation to generation across the table.
The Amazing Power of Sharing Meals
There are a lot of good reasons to share meals, especially with children, but it really benefits most everyone to connect through and with food. Eating together, whether it is breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack, has family-building benefits that make this investment a lifetime win for parents and children.
Our Family Meals page will help you with that ‘what to eat” question with easy meal and snack ideas. Enjoy great recipes, cooking and food safety tips, and insights into how you can enjoy time with family and friends. Together, you can build food skills and knowledge, and find that sweet spot where the magic of a good meal makes everyone happy. Winner, winner, family dinner!
Pulled Chicken Tacos 3-Ways
Hearty Turkey Chili
Easy Time Saving Meals!
Roasted Guacamole
Slow Cooker Apple Cider Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese
Slow Cooker Expert Tips
- Defrost meat or poultry before placing in a slow cooker
- Keep perishable foods refrigerated until preparation time to assure that bacteria, which multiply rapidly at room temperature, won’t get a “head start” during the first few hours of cooking
- Cook ground meats in a skillet before placing in a slow cooker
- Add vegetables first if using, as they cook more slowly in a slow cooker, followed by meat and desired amount of liquid i.e. broth, water or barbecue sauce
- Fill slow cooker no less than half full and no more than two-thirds full
- Cook on low setting if cooking all day or for less-tender cuts of meat
- – Cook on high the first hour and then turn down to low if time permits to bring foods to the recommended safety zone temperature of 140ºF (although it is safe to cook foods on low the entire time if preparation time is limited
- Avoid removing the cover to sneak a peek as each time it’s removed adds another 20 to 30 minutes to the total cooking time
- – Remove only to stir the food or check for doneness
- Thicken liquids if desired by removing the cover of the slow cooker the last 30 minutes to one hour and cook on high
- Throw away food in the event of a power outage and you aren’t home (even if it looks done)
- – If you are at home, finish cooking the ingredients immediately on a gas stove, grill or house with power
- Don’t reheat leftovers in the slow cooker
- – Reheat cooked food on the stove, in a microwave, or in a conventional oven until it reaches 165 °F, and once heated it can be placed in a preheated slow cooker to keep hot for serving—at least 140 °F as measured with a food thermometer
Check out food safety tips below.
Be food safe. Separate.
USE one cutting board for raw meat, poultry, and seafood and another for salads and ready-to-eat food.
KEEP raw meat, poultry, and seafood and their juices apart from other food items in your grocery cart.
STORE raw meat, poultry, and seafood in a container or on a plate so juices can’t drip on other foods.
Cross-contamination is how bacteria spreads. Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood and their juices away from ready-to-eat food. The four easy lessons of Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill can help prevent harmful bacteria from making your family sick. To find out more about food safey, visit befoodsafe.gov
