(ThyBlackMan.com) Soul Food staring Vanessa Williams, Nia Long, and Mekhi Phifer is one of my all time favorite films. Who couldn’t relate to the vivid portrayal of warm family gatherings centered around a holiday feast?
The movie brings back memories of my very own relatives laughing, talking, and joking as they prepared mouthwatering ham, succulent turkey and delicious side dishes like sweet corn, yams, and potato salad.
Yet these good times weren’t just confined to holiday feasting. On Saturday mornings my father and siblings would enjoy an adventure making pancakes, eggs and bacon. This was time spent bonding and creating wonderful memories.
Today, however, it seems like cooking has become a lost art – and in the process we’ve lost something.
Our instant fast paced society has turned cooking into a chore to be endured rather than an event to unite and nourish the family’s soul. Something to be 
dispensed with quickly so we can get on to more important tasks.
We stop by “fast food” restaurants, have food delivered right to our door step, and in a pinch reach for freezer to take out frozen dinners. But missing in this instant, microwavable, ready in two minutes culture are the bonds strengthened when we cook and eat together.
We’d much rather rush through dinner to get to our favorite episode of Lost or American Idol. Fix it, eat it, wash it down in fifteen minutes flat.
Its estimated the average American spends nearly five hours a day watching television.
Yet, the average parent spends only seven to twenty minutes a day engaged in meaningful conversation with their children.
This may explain why a 2007 National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse study found family dining to be associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, illegal drug use and prescription drug abuse.
In fact, teens from families that frequently dine together are three and a half times less likely to engage in illegal and prescription drug abuse.
It seems that family dinners provide the quality time together that is so often absent in today’s on the run society.
And I still haven’t mentioned the financial benefits.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics we spend nearly 44% of our food dollars outside the home. This is insane when you consider the average restaurant soda can have a 500% mark-up and a typical fast food meal can have a 200% mark-up or more. This is valuable money we could use to pay down debt or put into our savings accounts.
A typical dinner at McDonald’s will easily set a family back $24 or more. A more nutritious meal can be made at home at less than half that price. In fact, many websites and books like Erin Chase’s the $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook show you how to create meals for $5 or less.
Over the course of a year eating more dinners at home will easily save you one to two thousand dollars – cold hard cash.
So what are some of the tips for creating a great family kitchen experience while keeping more of your hard earned money in your pocket?
Get everyone involved
One reason family dinner is viewed as a chore is that too often the task falls on the shoulders of one person. Making cooking dinner a family affair turns it from a burden for one into a time spent bonding for all.
Yes it may require busting out of old tired gender roles. But teaching young girls and boys how to cook will save them serious cash as young adults.
You don’t have to be the Brady’s
Finding time to get together as a family to make dinner can be difficult. We live in hectic times and all family members, even young children, face demands and pressures unseen by generations before.
In today’s world it’s nearly impossible to imitate the families that graced our televisions sets, families like the Brady bunch and the Evan’s of Good Times who had a sit down family meal every night.
Yet we can aim to cook together one or two nights a week, even in today’s hectic society.
Cook twice as much
It doesn’t take much extra effort to cook twice as much food as you’ll need for the night. Freeze the extra for home made frozen dinners. In short order you’ll have a nice selection of dinners in your freezer. When you’re tempted after a long day’s work to pick up dinner from a fast food restaurant, you can instead turn to one of the home cooked meals in your very own freezer.
Don’t make your dinner night a chore. Turn it into the main event. Make your “soul food” nourishing to the body and the family’s soul.
So when’s the last time you took the time to bond with your family in the kitchen?
Would you like to do it more often? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Staff Writer; Dr. Charles Alonzo Peters
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