Kids in the Kitchen - New Year Resolutions

Welcome to my first post of 2017. To all my avid readers (Hi Sara!) I hope this year will be as happy and prosperous as can be, despite (or perhaps because of) all the uncertainty and change that is happening, both globally and here in my little world.

So, who's made New Year's Resolutions? And more to the point, who is still keeping them, 22 days in?

This year, mine was less of a sacrifice, and more of a lifestyle change - and not just for me. I thought it was time to get my kids in the kitchen more. They have helped out with various cake decorating, and brownie making in the past (those bowls are licked clean each time), but now they are getting to an age where they can be slightly more independent, so they each have a cooking day. Saturday and Sunday, one of them will cook (with my help of course, they can't have all the fun!). They alternate the Sunday Roast, so every Saturday is a new dish for the family to eat together, cooked by a 10 or 11 year old. It's all simple stuff, nothing too taxing, but these are the skills they are going to need one day and I hope that by making it fun now, they'll have my love of food and be able to eat well, healthily and adventurously for the rest of their lives.

So far we've had Pasta Carbonara, Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Chicken and Bacon Roulades, Beef Kephtedes, and Chicken Shish... As well as several Roast Chickens!

It means we cook together, chat together and eat together more often as a family. Obviously I help with the hot oven and pans, but most of the peeling and chopping is done by them (slowly and carefully!). Some days it's planned down to the last carrot, other days it's just whatever we find in the fridge (hence the Roulades - nobody wanted to venture out to buy a chicken, so we used up chicken breasts and bacon). They are also more inclined to eat it, since they made it themselves... no complaints so far!

It's fun! Try it...

Beef Kephtedes

Chicken Shish

Next week - lasagne...