I am a huge proponent of family dinners. It's so important to spend that quality time together as a family and there's definitely something special about a home-cooked meal. Take out can be tempting, but nothing compares to the feeling of satisfaction and love that fills the home when the family sits down together to enjoy a healthy, home-cooked meal.

But let's be honest- sometimes that's hard! The day gets busy and filled with our to-do list, and before we know it, it's dinner time and we're just staring at the clock wondering where the time went. One of the best ways to combat this and get dinner on the table is through the help of your friends! Sounds weird, but there are a lot of ways your friends can help you get dinner on the table.

One of the easiest ways is to do an online recipe swap. A few months ago, a good friend of mine decided she needed more recipes. She created a post on Facebook that basically said to submit 5 of your quickest, healthiest, go-to dinner recipes, and in return she would put them all in a document and send it to everyone who participated. We had about 6 of us participate, and it was great- I used my handy Cookn' program to easily send the recipes to her, and in return I got 25 new dinner ideas to try with my family! If you're not on Facebook, you could simply do this through email. It's a great way to get recipes from people far and near!

You can also hold a good old-fashioned recipe swap party! If you want an excuse to get people together, host a recipe swap! Have everyone bring their favorite recipes (on paper and in hand;) ) and enjoy a fun night sharing recipes and enjoying the fruits of everyone's labors. You can have people do it the old school way by bringing index cards, or you can use your awesome Cook'n program to simply take a picture of the recipe and download it to your Cook'n program! You'll make all your friends jealous- until you share your golden ticket link with them, that is;).

And speaking of Cook'n, the new feature in Cook'n 12 rocks! You can actually become "friends" with someone on Cook'n 12, which allows you to see all their recipes! That's pretty much the easiest way to "swap" recipes ever! I really need to help my mom set up her Cook'n program so I can see all her recipes! ;)

If you want a little more help than just swapping recipes, try swapping meals! You could do this a couple different ways. One is to actually get together and prepare a ton of food! Have everyone come with one or two recipes (that can be frozen), as well as all the ingredients to prepare that recipe for themselves and a few other people (however many people will be at the food swap). Then everyone helps prepare all the food, and you all leave with a ton of prepared meals! The other way to make this work is to prepare your recipe at home and simply meet to exchange the meals. This might be a little less chaotic, but also less fun;).

Since we are talking about swapping recipes, I thought I would share a favorite one with you!

Add Recipe to Cook'n

Whatever your method of madness, swapping recipes and meals is a great way to make dinnertime easier- for you and for your friends! What do you do to swap recipes with friends? Share in the comments below!