Kids in the Kitchen!

 Summer is winding down! We are getting lazy, a little stuck in our ways and a little too used to Momma being home and doing all the things! My kids are typically great eaters!  However lately, there has been a lot of "I don't like this" and "I didn't want this" and my favorite from Stori, "you need to make me some good food"!  Umm...who are you people and where did my kids go? 

Once I found myself in the middle of the epic "there are kids that have nothing to eat! They have to dig through dumpsters to find food and drink from dirty water" speech, I knew something had to change.  After my flesh calmed down, because I surely just wanted to holler "you ungrateful people!" I began trying to figure out what I could do to help my momma heart out and to teach them a little something. 

I thought back to a conversation with a friend who has everyone in her family pick out one meal a week and tell her all the ingredients she needs to buy.  I figured we could give it a shot!  I dread planning a menu, so now I have assigned the kids two nights a week. SG and Lu get one night and Noah and Stori get another night. Their job is to find a recipe, tell me what I need to get, and cook their meal that night. 

I really was hoping this would give the kids some sense of responsibility and maybe just a little appreciation for the people who make their food!  

So here is night number one, Lu and SG.  The girls decided one would choose dinner and one would choose dessert.  Lu choose to make Mini Lasagnas and salad. She was pretty excited about all the cheese!

We had to use egg roll wrappers instead of wonton wraps...and she may have been a little heavy handed on the cooking spray, but she did it!

And our salads were so delicious!

Bonus, SG decided to make ice cream and cool whip for desert!  I splurged with the brand name ice cream and it was oh so yummy!  I can't say this will solve all our meal problems, but it sure was sweet to watch them contribute to the family.  To see them learn how to find meals and prep.  It was a struggle for control freak mommy to not intervene when I knew all those lasagnas were going to have "soggy bottoms" (to quote our favorite British Baking Show), but the pride they had in doing it themselves was worth it!

We may be eating some interesting meals in the future - I've heard some of the ideas, but I'm willing to give it a shot if it helps the way we all treat one another and reminds us of just how blessed we are...SG has since prayed for the "kids who have to dig through the trash for their food" (at least she was listening to me!)

We'd love to know if you have any easy kid recipes to share!

Prayers, Praise and Pink

~Carly