Chapter One

the six o'clock scramble

making it easy to get dinner on the table each night

It's six o'clock in the evening. You have been on the go since dawn. The kids are getting hungry and restless. You want to get a nutritious meal on the table for everyone—fast! So you open the cupboard or refrigerator, hoping for inspiration, and . . . nothing.

A family meal is important to you. You care about nutrition, and you never pictured yourself as the kind of mom or dad who would feed your family something out of a bag, a box, or a can every night. You only have about half an hour until meltdowns begin—for either you or the kids!

How do you feed your family a healthy evening meal they will all enjoy? And how do you do it without having the luxury of being able to spend hours in the kitchen or hire a personal chef?

The Six O'Clock Scramble is my answer to those questions.

Here is the basic plan:

1. The Scramble gives you five quick, healthy, and delicious recipes, including side dish suggestions for each weekday.

2. You shop once a week for ingredients—with the aid of the Scramble's balanced weekly recipes and online grocery lists.

3. With recipes that take thirty minutes or less to prepare, the Scramble promises easy family meals that appeal to both grown-ups and kids.

The Six O'Clock Scramble gives busy cooks a weekly plan to follow. There is no need to think too much at the hectic dinner hour about what to prepare—the menu is ready for you. What's more, there are nutritional analyses for every recipe, so you can tailor the recipes to your nutritional needs.

For each week's menu, there is also a grocery list online to save you even more time. To print out the matching weekly grocery lists for each of the weekly menus in the Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook, visit the Six O'Clock Scramble Web site, www.thescramble.com/cookbook.

Scattered throughout the book are useful tips and suggestions for making dinnertime easier, plus guides to healthy snacks and lunches for your kids.

This cookbook grew out of my online weekly recipe newsletter by the same name. Many thousands of families across the country and worldwide have discovered how much easier weeknight dinners can be if they let someone else plan simple meals for them.

This cookbook is filled with the best recipes from the Six O'Clock Scramble online newsletter, including many subscriber favorites. The menus loosely follow the seasons of the year and the events that shape the year for busy families, such as the beginning of the school year, important holidays, and summer vacation.

All along my favorite recipe testers and cooking assistants have been my husband, Andrew, and our two children, Solomon and Celia. Thousands of subscribers have also given me valuable feedback to improve each family-tested recipe, and many have sent me their favorite recipes to test and include.

These recipes—and the advice and hints sprinkled throughout the book—are tried and true with everyone's families in mind . . . and the loving cooks who want to turn the Six O'Clock Scramble into a successful, even relaxing, time that can bring their family together for a wonderful dinner.

Copyright © 2006 by Aviva Goldfarb