Dinner for Busy Moms

It's 6 p.m. . . . do you know what your family is having for dinner?

WHITE PLAINS, NY, DATE, 2010-"Chew" on these statistics from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University:

The pressure-cooker that is parenthood means the family dinner has virtually disappeared. Today, less than half of American families eat dinner together-despite the fact that 98 percent of moms say it's important. And when they do, most evening meals last less than 30 minutes and are often lacking in proper nutrition.

It's no secret moms are stretched. Thinking about what's for dinner-let alone a starch, a vegetable, a fruit, a fiber, and an entrée is hard enough when you need a GPS navigational device to track every person's whereabouts thanks to soccer practice, piano lessons, tae kwon do, or art class.

Study after study proves time spent gathered at the kitchen table is a significant way to strengthen family bonds. Counted among the benefits are higher quality of food, better nutrition and portion control, as well as emotional nurturing, sense of belonging, better grades, less delinquency, and overall family unity, not to mention cost savings. With the recession in full swing, there's a definite shift towards saving money and staying home, making the dinner hour more important than ever.

All of which sounds great in theory, but how does one make it work-and stick? The answer: Dinner for Busy Moms, a new book full of Mom-tested strategies from those who deal with mealtime mayhem on a daily basis, with a hefty dollop of chattiness, a portion of humor and cups full of honesty.

Dinner for Busy Moms is not a cookbook, but instead it is a strategy guide filled with tips from "regular moms" on everything from how to streamline food shopping and organize your pantry, to how to get kids more involved in the process. Written in an easy-to-read voice, with an abundance of sidebars, it's a quick, magazine-like read about finding sanity and making dinnertime work . . . together. And yes, frozen pizza and ordered-in Chinese on the table do count as family dinner. Author Jeanne Muchnick's message: It's not about what you're serving that matters, it's that you're sitting together in the first place. (Though, ideally the author would love for moms to spend as much time scheduling their kids' after-school activities as they did on making dinner a priority.) (And yes, she points the finger at herself as well.)

Muchnick admits she's no Martha Stewart. She has a messy house, a car full of snack wrappers, a huge stack of books and magazines by her bed just itching to be read, and a crazed, multi-tasking life she calls "controlled chaos." What she is diligent, about, however, are mealtimes...especially after her youngest daughter point-blank confessed years ago that going to her aunt's house-where Jeanne's sister makes dinner and the family eats together-was better than being home. "It struck a chord," says the Westchester, NY, mom of two, "And made me realize I needed to be better about the needs of my family, rather than my work deadlines. I -and actually still am-often so busy with work and errands and life in general that dinner became something that fell by the wayside."

And so: this book from a writer who's been contributing to local and national publications for more than 20 years. A graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Muchnick landed her first job as an editorial assistant at Seventeen Magazine and from there went on to Good Housekeeping, Woman's World , BaBY Magazine, and Woman's Day Special Interest Publications, with stints in between in the housewares and travel trade press. Her work has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines including Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, Parenting, Pregnancy, Woman's Health & Fitness, Bride's, Modern Bride, Endless Vacation, The Daily News, The New York Times, The Journal News, InTown Westchester, Sprout.com, momcentral.com, familyfun.com and Westchester Magazine. She lives in Larchmont, NY with the "chaos" that is her life: husband, Mark, two teenaged girls, a dog who sheds, a very large mortgage, and a coffee machine set to brew by 6:30 a.m. so she can "deal." In fact, she promises if you buy her book-or help promote it-she'll brew YOU coffee. Or at the very least, bring dinner.

Dinner for Busy Moms is the second in a series of "For Moms books by woman-owned publishing house, Plain White Press. The White Plains, NY publisher, herself a busy mom of twin teens, recently published Soccer for Moms by Kerrie Paige, has plans to debut Music for Moms by Eileen Oddo later this year. Most recently, Plain White Press published See Mom Run, a collection of blogging mom's most harried stories, compiled by blogger and RoleMommy.com founder, Beth Feldman.