To officially kick off The Family Dinner Project, we recently hosted a dinner for some of the Boston-area families who are participating in our initiative.  Six families attended the event at the Boston Center for Adult Education.

Chef Mary helped the families prepare their own enchiladas.  She chose this menu because enchiladas are easily customized to suit each person’s taste and dietary preferences.

Macy and Gus added corn, cheese, chicken and black beans to the tortillas.  Each family worked together to make their own pan of enchiladas.

Nia and Jamari, both 10, did a fantastic job filling their enchiladas. Chef Mary’s convenient pre-packaging of the ingredients in plastic containers made it easy for the kids to join in.

Ciaran, who is 4 years old, also had a great time helping assemble his family’s meal.

Shelly London, our project team leader, rolled up her sleeves and helped prepare the meal, though she admitted to the families that she rarely cooks and is sometimes known to have cereal for dinner!

After Chef Mary heated their enchiladas for about 25 minutes, Marie and Eileen dug into their pan and a bowl of Chef Mary’s lime-confetti coleslaw.  The recipes for both dishes plus dessert are on the Family Dinner Menus page.

During dinner, the families chose activities from the Fun and Conversation sections of our website.  For example, one family used the conversation starter, “What is your earliest memory?”

Sally and Jared continued their conversation while enjoying Chef Mary’s delicious berry crumble for dessert.

The families also discussed their goals for improving their family dinners.  Shawn and the other attendees filled out the Goals Sheet, which is in the Getting Started section of the website.

Nia and the other kids who were old enough also filled out their own Goals Sheets.  These sheets will help guide the families as they plan their meals and dinner activities over the next few months of our pilot initiative.

The dinner was a very fun (and delicious) way to kick off our new initiative.  Thanks to all the families who attended for making it such a wonderful night!