Kids In The Kitchen

I know I've talked about it before, getting the kids in the kitchen.

It's just something that they really enjoy. And I really enjoy having them in the kitchen too. So our latest effort to have more kitchen time started when Maya brought home this Better Homes and Gardens (not so) New Junior Cook Book from school one day several weeks ago. She considered it a great library find. She was quite excited about trying out some recipes in it.

After flipping through it myself, I was not so excited. The recipes weren't exactly on the "healthy" side of the spectrum (for example: in the meat loaf recipe above you use instant mashed potatoes instead of the real thing) and I knew that likely the book would sit on the cupboard all week and then just go back into the her backpack and back the library where it had come from. ho-hum...

The more I thought about her excitement through the week, the guiltier I felt. I had to find a way to foster that enthusiasm and work some special time in the kitchen into our weekly schedule. So I came up with the idea to have one supper a week where one of the kids gets to pick the meal and prepare it (with help from me). Maya was first with her library cookbook and she picked the meatloaf frosted with potato recipes (above). Instead of the instant potatoes, I just made sure I had extra mashed potatoes from Sunday Lunch. Yum! She and I made the spinach strawberry salad and heated frozen veggies too. We had a blast!

The next week it was Colter's turn...
He wanted to try the little personal pizza's from the same cookbook. So when I made bread that week, we used the extra dough for the pizza's. Colter can't have any dairy so on his little pizza's we used this. He also made the salad to go along with the pizza pretty much by himself. I always say that food tastes so much better when someone else makes it. True again!

Then last week was Kyla's turn...
Kyla chose her Meat Sauce Recipe from her 4H cookbook. She's required to make a certain amount of recipes from her book each year so this was a great chance to try something new. I had a spaghetti squash in the oven and she made a double batch of this meat sauce so we could put some in the freezer for quick meal sometime later.

(Nice swim goggles for cutting onions Kyla. You remind me of your Father.)

So we're back to Maya's turn this week. She has decided she wants to make PW's Chicken Pot Pie from her cookbook. Should be good! I'm excited to try it too!

Happy Week to you,
Alison