It’s no secret that my children LOVE to help out in the kitchen.  My oldest son, Zman,  aspires to become a professional chef when he is older.  My little dude, Tatertot is already convinced that his daddy is a chef and loves to help him in the kitchen any way he can.

As a family, we made the decision to spend more time eating at home as a family and gave up eating fast food as our new years  resolution this year.  I am proud to say that we are still on track after the first month of the year has come to a close.  With our resolution we have stocked the fridge, freezers and pantry to ensure that there is always something to cook.  We have dug all over the internet for new to us recipes for some healthy family friendly meals and started planning out menus.

Another part of our resolution was to eat better as well so we have learned new ways to cook our foods and are teaching the kids more about baking foods instead of frying them and choosing fresh vegetables instead of canned.  We are also working hard on removing the processed/boxed foods from our diet as well.

I will admit, over the years we have not taught our children the proper tools for eating healthy.  You know it is bad when you have an almost 4 year old who recognizes all of the signs and logos for the fast food chains.  Together we have been creating healthy meals and a lot of those meals contain one of our favorite foods…rice!  The kids love to try new meals but one of their favorites with rice is paprika chicken with sauce over a bed of rice….it is delish!  Believe it or not, we’ve even turned to Uncle Ben’s for new recipe ideas as well!

By doing all of this together as a family, we are not only improving our lifestyle but we are spending more time together as a family, as one unit.

After setting our goals in place, I was excited to learn that Uncle Ben’s is encouraging families to get in the kitchen to cook and eat together too!

To empower and encouage parents to connect with their kids, one meal at a time, Uncle Ben’s has launched an exciting national contest called Ben’s Beginners. By entering the contest, you could win $20,000, along with a $50,000 grant towards a cafeteria makeover for your child’s school. In addition, you will have a chance to appear on The Rachael Ray show! Uncle Ben’s is calling for parents with children ages 5-12 to submit a 2-3 minute video of you cooking a rice-based dish with your children. For more info on the contest, please check out Ben’s Beginners on Facebook!

Disclaimer:  I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Uncle Ben’s blogging program, for 6,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.