Today’s show is all about the benefits of family mealtime. Sharing family meals is good for body and soul, but making it to the dinner table night after night can be a challenge. To make mealtime a regular reality, I’m joined this week by Brianne DeRosa from The Family Dinner Project.   Brianne DeRosa is the Content Manager for The Family Dinner Project. She’s the co-author of an incredible new book, Eat, Laugh, Talk! The Family Dinner Playbook. This book is over-the-top awesome with 52 weeks of easy recipes and hundreds of conversation starters and hilarious games designed specifically for the family dinner table. In this episode, Brianne and I share our family dinner experiences from childhood AND today, as busy moms. We have lots of tips to make family dinner happen more often, in spite of dealing with picky eaters and hectic family schedules. We’re cutting through those barriers today to give you easy solutions and delicious recipes, like Skillet Chicken with Goat Cheese Sauce. We’ll also tell you about The Family Dinner Project, a non-profit initiative begun in 2010 to champion family dinner as a way to connect through food, fun, and conversation. Join us to learn how your family dinners can become easier and more memorable!   Show Highlights:   How The Family Dinner Project has built a movement of food, fun, and conversation  Brianne’s work at The Family Dinner Project over the past five years, where she manages web and social media content--while being a mom to two sons, ages 10 and 13 What family dinner was like for Liz and Brianne as kids, and what it looks like today Dealing with technology’s assault on family dinner From The Family Dinner Project: resourceful ways to use devices to further the connection between family members Brianne’s new book is filled with resources for families and is laid out to cover 52 weeks of tips and solutions from real families How the book gives weekly strategies for combating the most common obstacles to family Dinner Three of the biggest challenges (and solutions!) that parents face with family dinner: Lack of time: Solutions include managing the family’s schedule, using meal planning and “fallback” meals, trying “split-shift” dinners, and sitting down together for breakfast, lunch, or even a snack. Picky eaters and special diets: Solutions revolve around using variations of “build-your-own” meals, like a taco bar, salad bar, pasta bar, etc. Enhancing the connection piece: Solutions include being intentional about conversations and connecting with each other.t How to implement “fallback” meals with ingredients that are easy to keep on hand What it means to “lean on a dinner village” for meal prep Brianne’s recipe for Skillet Chicken with Goat Cheese Sauce, using boneless, skinless chicken, garlic, crushed tomatoes, goat cheese, basil, salt and pepper, and olive oil. The health benefits of eating family dinner together, both for children AND their parents A random question from the Mason jar about the one pantry item that Brianne couldn’t do without   Resources: How to find Brianne:  www.thefamilydinnerproject.org Facebook: @thefamilydinnerproject Twitter:@FDP_Tweets Instagram: @thefamilydinnerproject Pinterest: @famdinnerproj   Giveaway: We're giving away a copy of Eat, Laugh, Talk! The Family Dinner Playbook; 52 Weeks of Easy Recipes, Engaging Conversation, and Hilarious Games to one lucky U.S. winner. Tell me about your fondest mealtime memory from when you were a kid or your favorite thing about family mealtime today. We'll pick one winner at random on October 16th.   Eat, Laugh, Talk! The Family Dinner Playbook by The Family Dinner Project, Lynn Barendson, Brianne DeRosa, Anne Fishel, and Shelly London   www.superhealthykids.com www.parentsondemand.com www.lizshealthytable.com/podcast  Join the Podcast Posse!