This guest post is courtesy Yihung Mohs, the owner of  Silver Spring Dream Dinners and the talented writer of the The Silver Spring Dream Dinners Blog.

It should come as no surprise that the most popular New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and eat healthier meals. Is this your resolution? If so, be encouraged that you are not alone. Many people, just like you, are starting today! However, for busy parents who are constantly on the go, creating healthy eating habits while maintaining a busy lifestyle is not always easy. This is especially true when it’s easier to throw a processed meal in the microwave or drive through a fast food restaurant.

But with some pre-planning and getting your family on board to make healthy and tasty meals, you will be surprised that your New Year’s resolution is really not so difficult.

First, start slow and transform your habits over time. It’s unrealistic to change your family’s routine overnight. This can create an unhappy household, which could make it easier to give up your program before your new lifestyle even begins! Start by adding salads with colorful vegetables and substitute cooking with butter to olive oil. Eliminate sugary after dinner desserts and serve fresh fruit and a scoop of sherbet or frozen yogurt. These are simple yet subtle changes that can easily make a difference in your home.

Next, don’t take everything you love off the menu. Why is it when you ban certain foods, you crave them more? Moderation is the key. Start by reducing your portion sizes. Sometimes just a taste of something sweet or salty is really all you need.

Most importantly, enjoy your family mealtimes. When schedules get so busy that eating on the run happens more and more frequently, make it a priority to establish family dinners as often as you can. Savoring every bite, chewing slowly, finishing before you feel full and reconnecting with your family will not only change what you eat, but how you eat.

Finally, get organized. Create and shop for your meal during the weekends or reserve a few hours during your busy week. At Dream Dinners we have done much of the work for you. With classic good-for-you dinners, including healthier versions of Buffalo Ranch Chicken, Pesto Salmon with Cheese Crisps and Kentucky Pork Chops among a few, we provide everything you need, from fresh ingredients, to easy to follow instructions. Once you are home, you can freeze your uncooked dinners and use them to serve when needed.

Simple, positive steps are ready for you to take now. Every change you make matters. Make it a good year to embrace a healthier lifestyle!

Thanks Yihung! Would you like to contribute a guest post to A Parent in Silver Spring? I would love it! Just send me an e-mail with your idea for a post and we’ll talk.

Since having another baby, I am feeling re-domesticated and find myself really reveling in cooking and recipes for my family. It must be the hormones! So here is my very first recipe/food blogging attempt…with photos. (You professional-grade cooks out there are very free to mock me.)

I believe this recipe for pork roast is a winner even if you would rather do most anything besides cook because it is so freaking easy. This is my family’s favorite pork recipe, and it is probably the easiest special-tasting dish in my arsenal.

You can literally make this with a baby on your hip (I did!). This recipe is also one of my go-to dishes when we are hosting another family for dinner. I love how I can just pick up one good quality roast of meat at Costco or another local grocery store, pour a few ingredients on it and shove it in the oven.

There is no fiddling, no multi-step recipes, there is hardly any prep at all. When the roast comes out, all fancy looking and juicy delicious, everyone is always so impressed…when really I just sat on my duff drinking wine with my guests or playing Uno with my kids while the piece of pig did its thing!

Throw some rice in your rice cooker and flip the switch, throw some veggies on to steam (or stick one of those steam-in-the bags in your microwave) and you have a dinner that is less effort than boxed mac-n-cheese or frozen chicken nuggets. Really.

Easy Pork Roast (Asian Fusion Lazy Girl Style)

Ingredients

1 boneless roast of pork, 2-4 lbs. (2 lbs. feeds a family of four with leftovers, 3-4 lbs. is great for larger families or easy entertaining)

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium is fine)

2 tablespoons finely minced garlic, about four cloves (for ease I use the fresh pre-minced garlic from a jar, found in the produce section in most grocery stores)

2 tablespoons peeled, minced fresh ginger (for ease I use the fresh ground ginger paste from a jar, found in the produce section in most grocery stores)

Optional if you like a kick of onion: 1 tablespoon finely minced shallots, about 1/2 of a large one or 1 small shallot (again, for ease I use the fresh pre-minced shallots from a jar, found in the produce section in most grocery stores). I often leave out the shallots when making for children, as the garlic and ginger alone combine to make a milder, sweeter taste my children prefer.

1 glass white wine (any type, quality does not matter)

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place your roast in a roasting or baking pan. Drizzle over the roast the olive oil, turning the roast to coat completely and rubbing into the meat (imagine you are applying moisturizer). Similarly drizzle the soy sauce.

Combine the garlic, ginger and shallot (if you are using) in a small bowl and then thickly and evenly spread over the top and sides of the roast. If you are the type to buy or stock fresh garlic cloves, ginger and shallots, I bow down to you. I personally live by the fresh, jarred versions of these items – it drastically cuts down the prep time for so many dishes and they are always dependably ready in the condiment section of my fridge.

Roast the pork for 20 minutes per pound or until the center of the roast reaches an internal temperature of 150°-155°F on your meat thermometer. (In May, the USDA reduced the temperature guideline for pork loins, chops and roasts from 160 to 145°F. I believe 150ish is the ideal temp for a flavorful, fully-cooked roast which is not too dry. However, ground pork, like all ground meat, should always be cooked to 160°F. )

Halfway through the cooking time pour the glass of white wine into the roasting pan (not over the roast) so that the roast does not dry out and a thin gravy is created.

Remove roast from pan and let stand on a cutting board for 10 minutes before carving into thin chops. The roast will have a delicious carmelized crust.

Pour the juice in the pan into a gravy boat if you are a gravy-pouring kind of family. Because the roast is lean and the olive oil a healthy fat, you do not even have to strain. Be sure to scrape in those stray garlic and ginger pieces left hanging in the roasting pan.

Serve with steamed brown or white rice if you really want to go for the Asian-fusion meal vibe, but potatoes or couscous work too. A hearty green veggie that appears in Asian dishes also goes well on the side. My kids adore broccoli (“baby trees”) so that is usually the accompaniment when I make this for my family, but if we are hosting a dinner party I often also stir fry a more “glamorous” vegetable such as kale or bok choi to go alongside for the grownups. Next to your gravy boat of au jus, stick your bottle of soy sauce (and your bottle of Sriracha if you have it for the spicy addicts) on your table or buffet.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Costco, The National Pork Board and The Motherhood are providing one lucky reader a $25 Costco gift card and a free instant read meat thermometer.  And I’ll throw in a SECOND $25 Costco gift card from me for another reader, so there will be TWO WINNERS. (Hey, it’s the least I can do for subjecting you all to my first food blogging recipe attempt!)

To enter, leave a comment on this post describing your favorite pork dish OR the item you most love to buy from Costco!

The two winners will be randomly drawn from all comments on Friday October 14 at midnight. Be sure to leave your e-mail address or login via Facebook so I can contact you if you win.

Disclosure: This post and giveaway is sponsored, however all opinions expressed are my own.

Charlie, Eve and their cousins enjoying a yummy family dinner

My husband loves pork and my kids love variety. So when the chicken and beef dinners get too tedious and people say things like “This, again?”, after sending them to their rooms, I take that feedback as a hint to serve more fish and pork dishes.

Boneless chops and roasts are the pork cuts that my kids dig the most – the texture is similar to the lean poultry and steak they like and the taste is both mild and flavorful. I also love a boneless pork roast when we have company – you just shove that nice hunk of meat in the oven and can hang with your guests while it cooks. I purchase most of the meats my family eats from Costco, where I have been a member since I was a freshman in college (thanks Mom for the membership!).

So, when Costco, The National Pork Board and The Motherhood asked me to help spread the word about Costco’s special deals for families in honor of National Pork Month, I was game.

Especially when I learned that they were providing Costco gift cards to readers for you to use towards your own groceries…nice! I’ll be posting about the gift card giveaway later this week, as well as sharing my family’s favorite pork recipe.

This first post is to let you know that this week, October 3 through October 9, you can save $2.50 off boneless pork chops and roasts at our local Costco stores.

You can find more of Costco’s awesome weekly deals, recipes and more at Costco’s In the Warehouse site. (Hey, on on Extreme Couponing, I don’t see those chicks pulling much in the way of fresh butcher items…although they do score themselves mountains of toothpaste, I’ll give them that.)

Check back later this week for the cool CostCo gift card giveaway here on A Parent in Silver Spring!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored, however all opinions expressed are my own.

Rockville Restaurant Week is September 10th through 18th and it is the perfect time to head out to eat with your family, your friends, your loooove.

You will live large and save big with special prix-fixe menus priced at either $8 lunch/$15 for dinner or $15 lunch/$30 dinner, depending on the place. It’s a super chance for lovers of both fine food and a good deal to hit the town.

My family and I started our own Rockville restaurant eatin’ a week early by breaking out of our same old, same old places and trying The Potomac Grill on Rockville Pike. This restaurant was beautiful, serene but also kid-friendly. The staff oohhed and ahhed over our children and treated us like royalty (and no, they had no idea that they had an actual small-time mom blogger on the premises). Our server immediately brought Shirley Temples and bread for the kids’ impatient appetites, and put our children’s orders in first. Chris and I were relaxed the entire time, and we loved how it was a high-quality establishment but locally-owned and not a chain.

The menu features American grill classics like steaks, seafood, salads, soups and sandwiches. Children’s meals are less than five dollars, but truly adult-sized portions of grilled burgers, non-frozen chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, shrimp and hand-cut french fries.

Chris started with the French Onion Soup and then went for the Original Potomac Grill burger. It was huge. It was over half a pound of beef topped with cheese, grilled peppers and onions, double-thick smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato on a fresh brioche.

I asked our server for another sandwich recommendation for myself, and she gushed about the Gabby’s French Dip.  Now this was much more deluxe than what my grandma used to get at Denny’s. This was a huge french roll stuffed with super-thin prime rib, topped with bacon and then covered in melted jack. The au ju on the side was wonderful (and it was very worth the killer workout this sammie warranted earlier in the day).

Both of our carnivorous sandwiches went well with a draft Murphy’s stout. The wine list looked promising too, as well as the seafood dishes, entree salads and steaks. We had deprived Charlie and Eve of all snacks after lunch and they proclaimed the food delicious, so nary a french fry was left remaining on their big kid meal platters. (Again, the kid meals are just $4.95…a steal.)

As you can see from these phone photos (I was so excited to go out to eat I left the Nikon at home), all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our meal. And Alice enjoyed it vicariously.

During Rockville Restaurant Week September 10-18, The Potomac Grill is offering a $15 lunch/$30 dinner special.

Other participating restaurants:

	Offering $8 lunch/$15 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $8 lunch only
	Offering $8 lunch/$15 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special)
	Offering $30 dinner special only
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $30 dinner special only
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $8 lunch/$15 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special
	Offering $15 lunch/$30 dinner special

Now for the giveaway.

The fabulous Rockville Restaurant Week promoters are giving A Parent in Silver Spring readers gift certificates to two of my favorite restaurants participating in this great week of eats.

I have a $25 gift certificate to Oro Pomodoro for one lucky winner (here’s a short piece I recently wrote about Oro Pomodoro), and a $25 gift certificate to Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company (I dream of their barbequed chicken and honey jalapeno cornbread) for another hungry reader.

To win,  please leave a comment with your top recommendation for a successful experience dining out with kids.

You can also link to this giveaway on your own blog or post to Facebook or Twitter (@jessicaAPISS) for additional entries.

I will draw the two winners randomly from all entries on Thursday September 8 at midnight and I will personally mail the two winners their certs.

Disclosure: Rockville Restaurant Week is an advertising partner of A Parent in Silver Spring and a promotional partner of The DC Moms, where I am an editor. I was provided a gift certificate for The Potomac Grill to use towards my family’s dinner, and the certificate reflected the discount we would have received during Rockville Restaurant Week. No further compensation was received for this post, and all opinions are my own.

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own.

For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Only I would agree to be in a fashion show a few months after having a baby and weighing 25 more l-bs than usual. I agreed to walk the Runway for Moms on September 30th at the Embassy of Nigeria because this is such an amazing cause: All funds raised will assist orphans in Africa through United for Kids Foundation (UKF), a 501c3 organization committed to fighting poverty and illiteracy through education and social welfare programs in Nigeria.

But dude, I am very large and in charge these days. While my family may insist there is just more of me to love, and baby Alice may be digging on my massive, milk-producing boobs, I have to say…

It is go time.

I’ve got to lose some weight.

I have done it before. Through hard work after the other kids, I finally got back into my size 8 dresses. (Because honey, I will never be skinny. A healthy, average BMI is the best this chick is ever going to achieve.) After my second child, I lost the last of the baby weight by increasing both my exercise and protein intake, and cutting out the empty white carbs and sugar. My breakfast, lunch and dinner staple became nonfat Greek yogurt.

I even contacted a Greek yogurt company back in 2009 for more information because I wanted to blog about this wonder food! I guess this was before mom blogging really took off, because they only responded with a “Keep on purchasing our product!” email. I did. So this summer when Dannon and the Clever Girls asked if I would “try out” their product and write about it, I was totally ready to go.

I used to have go to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to track down plain Greek yogurt in a nonfat version, but thankfully, more mainstream companies (and shoppers) have embraced this tasty, low calorie, high protein staple. Dannon’s Oikos Greek yogurt is now stocked on the shelves of major grocery stores, and I really love the authentic taste (they use the old school Greek straining process). It is filling and the plain favor (my favorite) provides 15 grams of protein per serving, but is only 80 calories.

You feel full after 80 calories. And it has TWICE the protein of regular old lowfat yogurts. It’s the bomb.

If you prefer sweetened yogurts, the fruit flavors are still only 130 calories and have 11-12 grams of protein.

You should try this yogurt yourself, for free! Dannon Oikos is offering a coupon for a free cup on www.facebook.com/oikos.

So enjoy your yogurt, have happy workouts now that the kids are back in school (state-mandated childcare, woo-hoo!) and please cross your fingers that I don’t break that catwalk at the end of the month!