Our local Golden Corral offers a special meal discount, and a free program, for kids on Tuesday nights.  The meal prices for children on Tuesdays is great: kids 3 and under eat for free, 4-10 can eat for $1.99 , and kids 11-12 can eat for $3.99   Where else can you go out to dinner and enjoy an activity together for those kind of prices?

We have been to a couple of the Tuesday program events for kids, and each time we went we had a lot of fun.  I need to write a story about the great time we had when the fire department was there, but today it is all about Cat In The Hat.



During March of each year, folks everywhere celebrate the publishing birthday of The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Suess.  He first published the book in March 1957.  So it is no surprise that this past week at Golden Corral, Kid’s Night was also a celebration of Cat In The Hat.



Dr. Suess (Theodore Suess Geisel) published the book Cat In The Hat in response to a challenge from a friend who told him kids were not interested in reading boring books compared to the excitement of watching cartoons on TV.  So he set out to write a fun story for first graders, using simple rhyme and fun graphics to re-capture the interest of children to read story books.  You can read more about the history of Dr. Suess here and here .



Our kids had a lot of fun and were able to do various crafts, and watch the Cat In The Hat movie in one of the party rooms at the restaurant.  There were also door prizes given away every half hour. 



We were able to bring our puppet craft home to finish with our own Cat In The Hat fun.  We are reading Cat In The Hat at home this week, and watching the learning program on PBS Kids too.  I’ll write about the puppets we made in a future story.




What’s On The Plates?

Golden Corral has a huge assortment of food to choose from.  Some of it is healthy, and some of it is not a healthy choice.  I always talk to the children about choosing a variety of protein, healthy vegetables and fruits, and one desert.  I talk with them about not wasting food, and only taking portions they want to eat.  I explain it is better to take one and eat it than take two and waste it.  Though I want them to make healthy choices when we eat out, they don’t always practice what I preach.  Heck, I don’t always practice what I preach either!

I was personally pleased with my food choices for myself and the 3, and 4 year olds. I plated up their food for them.  But Daddy and the older children filled their own plates.  Some family members did not take advantage of the variety of healthy options available to us.

Dad’s plate: Steak, salad, shrimp, pizza, and corn.  Desert: piece of fudge.

Mom’s plate: collard greens, broccoli, okra, sweet potatoes, roast with broth and cooked carrots.  Desert: slice of chocolate chess pie ala mode (vanilla ice cream).

The 3 and 4 year old plates: chicken leg, mashed potato, carrots and broth from the roast, corn, macaroni and cheese.  Desert: chocolate dipped cookie and ice cream.



The plates of the boys ages 7, 11:  Pizza, meatloaf, and shrimp.  Desert: Ice cream, Chocolate dipped cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, and chocolate dipped marshmallows.  

The plate of boy age 9: Pizza, shrimp, mashed potato, and rolls.  Desert: Ice cream, Chocolate dipped cookies, strawberries, and marshmallows.

I did get the 11 year old to try a bite of roast, okra, sweet potato, and a bite of collard greens from my plate.  He is more willing to be adventurous and try a variety of things. I was pleased with his willingness to try them.  The 9 year old said he was going to get a salad, as he has done in the past when we ate there, but I never seen the salad manifest on the table.  Oh, we are going to need to have another talk about what to choose when we visit this buffet.



Besides a huge buffet of food options, there is also a huge buffet of desert options too.  They have both regular and sugar free deserts to choose from.  I personally choose the regular deserts and do not like the taste of the sugar free deserts at Golden Corral.  But if I had to choose a sugar free desert there, I would choose the blueberry pie.  I know a lot of folks with diabetes eat at Golden Corral and they are able to serve the diabetic community by offering the sugar free desert options.  I just wish they used stevia, and lohan and other healthy sugar free sweeteners rather than artificial sweeteners.  They honestly could make their food options so much more healthy by keeping their ingredients natural.

My favorite regular desert they offer is the Chocolate Chess Pie.  I have tried to make it at home, but I have not been able to get it right, or at least not just like Golden Corral.  I plan to practice a new recipe again soon and see if I can master making a healthy version of it myself.



Golden Corral has an assortment of items to dip in their chocolate fountain too.  This is way to big a temptation for our kids.  We limited the younger kids to one item and the older kids to three items to choose to dip in the melted flowing chocolate.  Dipping the items in the fountain is half the fun of eating them. 



I like having the opportunity to show my children a variety of different foods and encourage them to try eating something we don’t usually eat (or have had little exposure too) such as the collard greens or okra.  I also like the fact that we don’t have to wait a long time for the foo
d to be prepared as it can be hard for toddlers and younger children to wait very long.  Having a craft or party to enhance our learning and fun together makes this family outing that much more special.

Kid’s Night at Golden Corral is an inexpensive way to feed and entertain a large family.  We hope to stop in again for a future Kid’s Night soon.


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Link and Learn
ABC and 123
Sharing Time
Raising Homemakers