Kids in the Kitchen

My "visual" recipe to help me keep
both kids busy while we cook together

My kids are getting older and I haven't taught them to cook. I have a new goal for us to cook together until they know how to cook meals independently. Along with preparation, I want them to learn meal planning too.

We started this week cooking together again. No one wants to stop their activities to prepare meals, but since we all like to eat, we gather in the kitchen!

I print all my recipes on printer paper (8 1/2"x11") and store them in sheet protectors in a 3-ring binder. Each week when I plan meals, I pull out the recipe for planning the grocery shopping list and then hang it on the fridge.

For each meal we've made so far, I've made a "visual" recipe to help us with the steps. This has helped me keep each child on task without long periods waiting for me.

Since starting this blog, we've had spurts of cooking together, but now is the time to "compleat" their education!

Summer 2014

It's uncanny how everything changes!

Lately, I've been eating for weight loss. I eat my daily salad for breakfast these days (which I love) and I've found that I just LOVE eating a salad for dinner, too! I totally would not do this if I didn't like it, but I love both salads so much I take every opportunity!


So, I've been cooking fewer family meals since I've been eating salad for dinner and my husband has been enjoying salad for dinner, too. That makes cooking for the kids easy...I'm just in a loose place right now.

I am very dependent on my Tuesday meal planning and Wednesday grocery shopping. It is the backbone of my care for my family and I love it! We don't shop on Wednesday night anymore, but in the afternoon and since we go to Costco, we often eat pizza for lunch. The kids select a favorite frozen meal to have on Wednesday night (and the parents eat salad) which makes a nice easy night after a few hours out shopping.


Recently my Mom gave us her barbeque grill and I can't express how much we are LOVING IT! This has also made my life even better in the meal department! My husband is willing to grill Saturday and Sunday nights, so we have marinated chicken one night and hamburgers/hot dogs on the other night. Two more nights I'm not cooking! I never would have guessed! I've done some experimenting with marinades which has been fun and trying to find combinations the kids like. My son is a tough nut, but last week we finally put some cheese on his hamburger (DUH!) along with some Montreal Steak Seasoning and he really enjoyed his burger-yay! My daughter loves meat and eats it all!

I'm handling the changes in our meal routines with ease and don't freak out when I notice a new trend. I've tweaked my worksheets and use them every week to plan meals. I feel like I have a "fluid mastery" of this area of my life! I like to document every now and then on this blog because I enjoy looking back over my process!

Current favorite meals:
grilled chicken tenders
grilled hamburgers and hot dogs
packaged Southwest salad
dinner salad: butter lettuce/Costco quinoa salad/egg/crans/sun seeds/dressing
cheesy chicken casserole

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow! At the last minute, we had our dear friends join us for dinner! I felt like nothing tasted really good, but it was food. My Mom is an amazing cook and the flavors and textures of her cooking are fantastic. I know I can't expect that when she's been cooking for years and years and I'm such a novice.


We decorated the Christmas tree on Friday and did an overnight on Saturday...FUN weekend!

Thanksgiving 2013

This NEVER happens...we aren't seeing my family for Thanksgiving, which means we're on our own. I'm SO excited to prepare turkey dinner for my family! We want to establish some new traditions so we'll be putting up our Christmas tree and decorations on Friday and then Saturday will be a day trip to see another lighthouse.

I've never made a pie. I love to bake, but I've never done a pie. My daughter wants to make an apple pie, so we'll be doing our first pie together! We've got apples and I found this awesome pie crust tutorial.

But I need to pause a moment and compare this year with the last time we were on our own...that was maybe five years ago? Want to know what I did for Thanksgiving dinner? This is so embarrassing to think about now, but I made FROZEN DINNERS. Yep, like frozen turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing and veggies. I'm SO glad I'm not that person anymore!

(IF, by chance, you need a good frozen dinner, this one is awesome! Sadly, they used to have beans with cranberries, but they replaced the crans with carrots!)

Confidence

We celebrated my husband's birthday at a cute cabin in the woods. I cooked for three days for my family-AND LOVED IT! There wasn't a grocery store nearby, so we brought along everything we needed, we even baked cookies while we were there! It was EXHILARATING to provide wonderful meals that my family loves over the weekend, even on the go!

It's pretty amazing to me. I feel like I'm so competent with the cooking and planning now. I can handle interruptions to the status-quo and I'm experimenting with different kinds of foods. I can cook on a camping trip or for an overnight in a cabin. My system is really working and we've been handling all kinds of disruptions to our shopping routine, but we're still going!

I stop my day around 5:30pm every day so I can prepare dinner. We eat around 7pm these days.

I've been thinking more about baking recently, I LOVE baking desserts, and no, not just because I get to eat them. I've been watching some baking videos...cookies and bars. Hmmmm, better do something about that!

I'm soooo amazed at how far I've come. Thank you Lord!

What Doesn't Change is CHANGE

The thing that stays the same is that nothing stays the same! (I think I even started the last post with this statement)!

My husband and I are discussing joining forces and losing weight together, so this busts open my current meal plan. I've been relying on old favorites to plan meals, but it isn't really what we NEED.

Today I took a look at my weekly plan and what we could do differently. Currently, we have dinner at Costco together once a week and then go grocery shopping. I love doing this together! But during a conversation this morning, my husband expressed he doesn't want to eat Costco food anymore...so we talked about keeping the routine, but maybe doing something different (like bringing him a salad).

Here's how I'm changing it up as I look at what we want to do with our summer routine:
Sunday: homemade pizza
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Costco (plus salad?)
Thursday: Chicken Broc Dijon or Southwest Turkey
Friday: special favorite meal (stroganoff, taco salad, chick enchiladas)
Saturday: this day is always different, so it needs special planning (crockpot, sandwiches, out, guests, frozen casserole, chili, etc)

This only really leaves Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday to plan for! WOW! After taking a little time to jot down our weekly plan (we're making some changes there), I can see a little better what needs to change...and I'm welcoming it!

Family Grocery Shopping

It's kinda funny how nothing stays the same...that shows up a lot for me in how we grocery shop!

On March 1st, we moved into a new house, which has turned my routines upside down. Now that we're getting settled, we're shopping on Wednesdays again-together!

I am LOVING this! We meet Dad at Costco on Wednesday nights, do a quick shop before they close and then head over to our regular grocery store which is in the same parking lot (LOVE)!

Cooking just keeps getting better and better and easier and easier. I've really streamlined my planning and my grocery list...I actually look forward to planning now (!!!) because it brings so much peace knowing what we're going to do for dinners each day. WOW, what a change!