Hooray, one of my latest inventions is to stop all the complaining during the dinner meal. "How many more bites do I have to eat?" "What is this...yuck!" "When are we having spaghetti?"
Well, I gotta tell you...these meal time discussions have begun to decrease since we have started KIDS COOK DAY.
Strategy: each child has their own day where they decide what they want to make (with sides) and you assign them a night. For example: Jacob made beef stroganoff tonight and last week made lasagna and cream puffs (from scratch), Sperry is in charge of tomato soup with banana bread and last week made fruit smoothies and spaghetti. Carter cooked hamburgers on the grill and wants to make chili and this week he's going to make Falafels with Tahnni sauce and steamed zucchini. They can go for a dessert if they want. Cook the recipes that you are comfortable with and short. I'm trying that they make things a lot from scratch and it gives us a chance to talk one on one about life and kitchen safety.
Here's a few tips: ask them for their favorites, buy the groceries for it, give them ideas, let them look through cookbooks. Get the no cook lasagna noodles, keep making things that they can learn to like. Carter last night found out he will now eat cheeseburgers.
We try different ethnicities (it's easy and doesn't always involve pasta). While your kids are learning...you can learn to cook new things too. Some of my favorites are: Greek, Indian, Mexican, Thai and Japanese find out what you like.
This is an investment in your future: one day they will be able to cook for you and you won't be yelling, "what is this...yuck".
