How To Satisfy The Entire Family In The Kitchen

Ensuring that everyone in the family is satisfied after a meal is important, especially for children. Children can be fussy eaters throughout their maturing stages. Hence, knowing some simple tricks to make food enjoyable for everyone at home will ensure that they eat what is given to them, which will save you time and stress. 

If you are someone that lacks the knowledge of how to satisfy everyone at home in the kitchen, here are some useful ideas. 

cooking with kids

Create simple recipes

Most children dislike complex recipes. Therefore, it is a good idea to make simple and yummy recipes. 

For instance, following a simple oven grilled cheese recipe will help you make a delicious meal for the family while using up staples in the kitchen. No child can moan about such a yummy meal. Hence, the simpler you keep your cooking the less time and money you will spend cooking and the more satisfied everyone can be.

Get the children involved

Should your children often complain about what you make them, then showing them how to cook will help them experiment and find out what they love. 

To get started, it can be useful to get them involved with baking. Baking is fun for kids, so it is a great way to get them involved with cooking at home. Allowing them to get messy and choose a recipe means that they won’t moan and groan when you ask them to help. Instead, they will find it fun and they can start to learn how to cook, bake, and play with ingredients. 

Ask everyone their favorite meals and create a weekly plan

If you cook what you love every day, then how are you supposed to satisfy everyone at home? Asking your family what they love to eat means that you can make weekly rotas and ensure that everyone gets a meal that they enjoy. That way, the food preparation can be easy (as you can all eat the same thing) and everyone will be happy. 

When there are dietary requirements, it can be useful to create that person/people their own dish so that they can be fulfilled while everyone else eats what they like too. Or, you could change your usual recipes so that everyone eats the same. Hence, the people with requirements can be satisfied and your cooking time is reduced. 

Create themed nights

Although you won’t have time to have themed dinners every night, it can help to introduce them once or twice a week. Creating healthy meals for the family can be the plan throughout the week. Then, creating a themed treat night at the weekend can help everyone have something to look forward to. 

Creating a themed night will bring everyone together and spice things up in your kitchen, at least once a week anyway. You could opt for Mexican or Indian if that’s what your family loves. Then, you can alternate them each week. Or, go all out and introduce a new cuisine from around the world each week.

Kid Friendly Cooking: Chocolate Macaroon Snowballs Kit with Kidstir

Looking for a fun family activity or a great gift for kids this holiday season? Get kids in the kitchen with Kidstir’s single or subscription cooking kits. Each month brings a new box with 3 step-by-step recipes, kitchen tools, and a brand-new, activity-filled Foodie Fun magazine. In addition to mastering tasty recipes, kids learn hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, improve math and reading skills.
cooking with kids

This month’s theme is “Our Merry Table” and includes recipes such as vegan Spaghetti & Beetballs, a guide on how to make your own oat flour, a DIY dog
treat guide, delicious gluten-free Macaroon chocolate snowballs, and more. Please let me know if I can send samples or images for any stories.
cooking with kids
The items in the box include a small child size oven mitt, small spatula, and many recipe cards. This is not one of those kits that include the food and other items that you will need to cook the food and recipes, you will have to buy those things on your own.
kidstir
Every months has a different batch of recipe cards, based on what time of year it is and holidays and things such as that. I have no idea if they change up the oven mitt and spatula- both boxes I got had them in it (Oct and Nov boxes) as well as recipe cards for the Day of the Dead and holiday themed things like latkes and eggnog. They might always have that, I’m not sure.
If you are looking for a monthly box of recipes to ty out, this is the site for you.  Check out this site or you can visit Amazon and pick one up. Enjoy!

Kids’ Treats – Must have Book for moms

kids treats cookbook

My girls and I absolutely love to cook and bake in the kitchen. With school back in session, it seems to be harder and harder for us to find the time to be able to do it. I for sure try to make sure we get a chance at least once a weekend to do it. With the Kids Treats cookbook, you will find an endless supply of ideas that are sure to please all the little ones in your household.

About Kids Treats Cookbook:

Katie Wyllie is the creator and editor-in-chief of the popular parenting, cooking, and craft blog, Made to be a Momma. She has contributed to Kitchen Daily, The Apron Blog for The Home Depot, and many others as a guest blogger. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

Nutter Butter Teddy Bears, Creamsicle Cupcakes with Umbrellas and Flip Flops. Jiggly Jello Popcorn. This imaginative cookbook encourages parents to grab their kids and head into the kitchen to make deliciously creative bites they’ll both enjoy. Featuring step-by-step instructions for 50 tasty treats, each page will guide them as they whip up everything rom wildly cute animal cupcakes to savory snacks inspired by their favorite toys. With kid-friendly recipes for every occasion, little ones will feel extra loved when making and devouring yummy, homemade treats like:

  • Oreo Frogs
  • Rainbow Coated Pretzels
  • Graham Cracker Airplanes
  • Watermelon Cupcakes
  • Snowman Marshmallows

Great recipes:

My girls and I have made a few different treats from this cookbook, but I must admit that we were so hands on and excited about the goodies that we made that I failed to remember to take pictures. So I do apologize and hope to add some pictures soon. Here are a few pictures of the next few treats that the girls have picked out for us to make together in the upcoming weeks!  I can’t wait!

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Purchase:

If you’re interested in purchasing a cookbook for yourself or the children in your life, Head on over to Amazon and get a copy!

Quick Start Homemade: Book Review

I was sent a copy of Southern Living’s Quick Start Homemade to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

SouthernLivingQuickStartHomemade

 

It is not very often that a recipe book comes along that contains so many easy and budget friendly recipes in it that I had a hard time choosing which to try out for the review. Quick Start Homemade by Southern Living was such a book.

Quick Start Homemade features recipes that are hearty and delicious. The book allows you to make all the recipes using commonly found ingredients and cooking techniques that are fitting for just about any level home cook. The book contains 101 recipes for commonly made home-style meals with an extra spin on them to break up the ordinary.

 

The Good:

The book included a ton of great photos. I was always told in college when I went to culinary school that the #1 rule of food presentation was “You eat with your eyes, first”. This book gets that. The pictures are bright, bold and you can practically smell the recipes through them.

I enjoyed how the book broke down meals into colored sections so you could easily find the section you were looking for. These were broken down into categories such as pasta, pizza, eggs and so on. There were not only dinners in it, but also great dishes for lunch and brunch.
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Let’s Get Cooking With Our Kids

 

Disclosure- I received the below in order to facilitate my post. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” tab for more information.

It’s always good to get kids to help with household chores, and giving children a good basic knowledge of cooking, kitchen skills, and know how is not only important for later in life but also a fun way to bond. Get some fun and interesting (and easy) kitchen wares in stock, and make dinner as well as lifelong memories. (Kids will also have a great sense of pride when the food is presented,)

 cooking

Let’s start with the basics- pots and pans. Keep it eco-freindly and safe for the kids by using products that are non-toxic. Some easy to find, and easy on the wallet (but still safe and high quality) choices are the Green Pan and Twiztt collections. You can get all the basics that you need online or in stores near you. Voted “Best in Europe”, the Green Pan is ceramic, non toxic, and contributes to your healthy and sustainable lifestyle. It’s non-stick Thermolon is heat resistant, which means that if you overheat your pan, even up to 450/850, no toxic fumes will be released and the coating will not blister or peel. The food slides off easily (please follow directions, this is not a traditional non-stick pan) while not adding unwanted chemicals to your food. It is easy to clean and store.

For more, go to http://www.green-pan.us or a local Target store.

 green pan

Twiztt by Joan Lunden was created with the consumer’s safety in mind- simple, afforadable, and healthy. With no nasty chemicals, this product is truly organic. Made with Thermolon healthy ceramic non-stick coating, it is easy to cook with and not create a mess. These are food kits with simplicity in mind, each set comes with all you need to make a meal with ease. For example, The “Cook, Cut, and Serve” set is complete with stainless steel lid with adjustable steam release knob, melamine bowl for table top presentation. It also keeps food warm and functions as safe pot holder, as well as doubles as serving & mixing bowl. This set also arrives with an easy to clean and sustainable bamboo chopping boar which fits on the melamine bowl, for easy food collection and preperation. All but the cutting board are dishwasher safe.
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