What's the yo-yo night? It is: You're on Your Own for dinner.
Sometimes we do this with leftovers by letting everyone decide what they want and sometimes the whole family goes to the store and picks dinner for one. Yo-Yo nights are a great way to get leftovers eaten up and keep the family happy. It might be a masterpiece for one and it might be a can you can open and heat or a frozen entree. It keeps everyone in the family happy and makes for an easy meal night.
Take the stress off and consider a Yoyo family dinner night tonight
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Cooking With Your Kids - Fun And Useful At Every Age
It’s never too early to get your kids involved in the kitchen. There are different age appropriate family activities you can involve your kids in that happen in the kitchen. There can be many benefits to spending time cooking with your kids.
Why Cook With Your Kids?
Cooking can be a great family activity. Kids love to create and the process of food preparation is very creative. Cooking activities can be very imaginative and help your kids find productive things to do at home. Teach kitchen safety and supervise them and you might find that you all have a lot of fun together.
Toddler Activities in the Kitchen
Toddlers love to help stir things and pass you things. They can also help to build sandwiches, put raw toppings on pizzas and help you decorate cooled cakes and cupcakes. Don’t stress about the mess, have fun with it! Wearing old clothes and using a drop cloth such as an old tablecloth can save you mess and stress.
Preschooler Activities in the Kitchen
Preschoolers love kitchen activities such as cracking eggs and decorating just about anything. Your little ones might even be great at helping you spread butter, jam or peanut butter on bread or icing on a cake. Use a rounded spreader instead of a sharp knife of course and supervise. Your child will love the activity! Preschoolers can be very helpful with areas such as greasing the pan and placing the muffin liners into the cups as well.
School-Aged Kitchen Activities
Your 6 to ten year old can really be a great help in the kitchen. Get them to help follow recipes with you by measuring ingredients, stirring and whipping as well as using some of the safer kitchen gadgets like blenders and mixers. They can often make toast or safely remove items from the microwave for you as well as work with items at the stove on lower heat when supervised. Simmering vegetables or making boxed macaroni and cheese with your supervision is a great idea as kids approach the tween years.
Cooking: Fun and Productive
Kids can be not only a great help with prep and cleanup but this can be a great time to chat with your kids. Doing things together gives you more time to communicate with your kids and from a nutrition perspective, get your kids to help you choose healthy meal choices and your cooking time together can be a great bonding and learning experience as well. Having your kids help you prepare nutritious meals will help their eating habits as well because they’ll be more apt to taste something they made even if it is made with healthy ingredients they may have otherwise rejected. Cooking and homemaking skills are also important as kids get older because you'll be teaching them life skills they will use when they eventually leave the safety and comfort of the nest as well.
Why Cook With Your Kids?
Cooking can be a great family activity. Kids love to create and the process of food preparation is very creative. Cooking activities can be very imaginative and help your kids find productive things to do at home. Teach kitchen safety and supervise them and you might find that you all have a lot of fun together.
Toddler Activities in the Kitchen
Toddlers love to help stir things and pass you things. They can also help to build sandwiches, put raw toppings on pizzas and help you decorate cooled cakes and cupcakes. Don’t stress about the mess, have fun with it! Wearing old clothes and using a drop cloth such as an old tablecloth can save you mess and stress.
Preschooler Activities in the Kitchen
Preschoolers love kitchen activities such as cracking eggs and decorating just about anything. Your little ones might even be great at helping you spread butter, jam or peanut butter on bread or icing on a cake. Use a rounded spreader instead of a sharp knife of course and supervise. Your child will love the activity! Preschoolers can be very helpful with areas such as greasing the pan and placing the muffin liners into the cups as well.
School-Aged Kitchen Activities
Your 6 to ten year old can really be a great help in the kitchen. Get them to help follow recipes with you by measuring ingredients, stirring and whipping as well as using some of the safer kitchen gadgets like blenders and mixers. They can often make toast or safely remove items from the microwave for you as well as work with items at the stove on lower heat when supervised. Simmering vegetables or making boxed macaroni and cheese with your supervision is a great idea as kids approach the tween years.
Cooking: Fun and Productive
Kids can be not only a great help with prep and cleanup but this can be a great time to chat with your kids. Doing things together gives you more time to communicate with your kids and from a nutrition perspective, get your kids to help you choose healthy meal choices and your cooking time together can be a great bonding and learning experience as well. Having your kids help you prepare nutritious meals will help their eating habits as well because they’ll be more apt to taste something they made even if it is made with healthy ingredients they may have otherwise rejected. Cooking and homemaking skills are also important as kids get older because you'll be teaching them life skills they will use when they eventually leave the safety and comfort of the nest as well.
Four Must-Have Kitchen Gadgets For The Busy Bee
Whether you work at home or work outside of the home, time saving kitchen gadgets are something everyone can benefit from. Here are some great gadgets that can save you a significant amount of time in your kitchen. You might have some of these already and putting them to use can save you time and effort, especially during the work week.
Crockpot
A crockpot is the busy and working person’s dream. Not only does it mean you only have one pot to wash but assembling something quickly in the morning will mean a nutritious and tasty meal waiting for you when you get home from work. Crockery creates a great flavour and they are very easy to clean. There are some great online resources for crock pot cooking. You don’t even have to do it in the morning, you can prep food the night before and keep your crockpot in the fridge and plug it in before leaving for work in the day.
Freezer
If you have a large freezer, you can save yourself significant amounts of time in the kitchen. When you have time to cook large batches of food, you can save yourself meal prep time later on. Families who make good use of their freezer can eat less fast and processed foods. This also works great when you find freezer friendly food on sale. Stock up and save money!
Standing Mixer
Imagine mashed potatoes that mash themselves and the ability to reduce the wrist action needed for baking and other kitchen duties. A free standing mixer can be a great kitchen gadget.
Food chopper/ Food Processor
This kind of gizmo can save you significant amounts of time chopping, slicing and dicing. It can shred cheese, mix liquids and save your eyes from tearing up with onion chopping. Although some are big and bulky, they can be a great time saver in the kitchen for a busy cook. Even the smaller manual kitchen choppers are very useful and quite inexpensive.
Time Saving In The Kitchen
You might have some of these kitchen gadgets already that aren’t being put to good use. A bit of time on the weekend spent on organization in your kitchen will go a long way during the week. Consider prepping salad fixings and cooking extra batches of food for weekday eating and you’ll find yourself spending less time during the week on meal prep without sacrificing taste and nutrition.
Crockpot
A crockpot is the busy and working person’s dream. Not only does it mean you only have one pot to wash but assembling something quickly in the morning will mean a nutritious and tasty meal waiting for you when you get home from work. Crockery creates a great flavour and they are very easy to clean. There are some great online resources for crock pot cooking. You don’t even have to do it in the morning, you can prep food the night before and keep your crockpot in the fridge and plug it in before leaving for work in the day.
Freezer
If you have a large freezer, you can save yourself significant amounts of time in the kitchen. When you have time to cook large batches of food, you can save yourself meal prep time later on. Families who make good use of their freezer can eat less fast and processed foods. This also works great when you find freezer friendly food on sale. Stock up and save money!
Standing Mixer
Imagine mashed potatoes that mash themselves and the ability to reduce the wrist action needed for baking and other kitchen duties. A free standing mixer can be a great kitchen gadget.
Food chopper/ Food Processor
This kind of gizmo can save you significant amounts of time chopping, slicing and dicing. It can shred cheese, mix liquids and save your eyes from tearing up with onion chopping. Although some are big and bulky, they can be a great time saver in the kitchen for a busy cook. Even the smaller manual kitchen choppers are very useful and quite inexpensive.
Time Saving In The Kitchen
You might have some of these kitchen gadgets already that aren’t being put to good use. A bit of time on the weekend spent on organization in your kitchen will go a long way during the week. Consider prepping salad fixings and cooking extra batches of food for weekday eating and you’ll find yourself spending less time during the week on meal prep without sacrificing taste and nutrition.
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