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 family time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family time. 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.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
What's Cookin' Mom?
What's for dinner? This is a daily question around here. My eldest son loves food and thinks I'm an awesome cook. Sweet child :) I like involving him in the cooking process and my husband is now doing the same.
If you're having trouble getting your kids to eat what you cook, a great helper is to get them involved in the kitchen. They will want to taste something they took part in cooking and exposure to different food will broaden their horizons and up their vitamin intake!
It's a great idea to let your kids help you cook. My eleven year old recently expressed an interest in cooking. Cooking together helps me pass on my cooking secrets, gets me some help in the kitchen and gets him some exposure to help him make a great husband/Dad someday. I involve him in all aspects of cooking. Even my 3 year old helps with simple tasks like buttering the muffin tins and stirring the cake batter or mixing the macaroni & cheese together.
It's a great idea to let your kids help with the menu planning, too. If they get to choose dinner for one night you can make encourage them to choose something that encompasses all four food groups. If they get to choose what vegetable is on their plate, they will more than likely eat it. You can also get them trying new things by setting extra rules such as: no two vegetables the same in a month and try something new once a month. Incent them however you can, even if you let them choose dessert too.
If you're having trouble getting your kids to eat what you cook, a great helper is to get them involved in the kitchen. They will want to taste something they took part in cooking and exposure to different food will broaden their horizons and up their vitamin intake!
It's a great idea to let your kids help you cook. My eleven year old recently expressed an interest in cooking. Cooking together helps me pass on my cooking secrets, gets me some help in the kitchen and gets him some exposure to help him make a great husband/Dad someday. I involve him in all aspects of cooking. Even my 3 year old helps with simple tasks like buttering the muffin tins and stirring the cake batter or mixing the macaroni & cheese together.
It's a great idea to let your kids help with the menu planning, too. If they get to choose dinner for one night you can make encourage them to choose something that encompasses all four food groups. If they get to choose what vegetable is on their plate, they will more than likely eat it. You can also get them trying new things by setting extra rules such as: no two vegetables the same in a month and try something new once a month. Incent them however you can, even if you let them choose dessert too.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Tag Team Turkey Perfection
Ever had a roasted turkey on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter that melted in your mouth? Ever had a turkey so juicy and stuffing so tasty that you thought you'd gone to culinary heaven? I have that experience each time I cook a turkey. My husband and I tag team prep our turkey and we cook it with love...
No one wants to slave over a turkey that turns out dry and tasteless. I know I don't! We developed this system over time and we find that since we've mastered it, we always get a perfect outcome.
First, get your bread cubed for stuffing the night before. Let it get a bit stale if you can by leaving it out for a few hours or all night but lightly covered with a clean tea towel. Today we had turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving and I prepped the stuffing last night and put it in the fridge and this morning moistened it with some butter and a little bit more spice and it was scrumptious.
My husband handles the bird prepping part. He cleans the cavity with lots of salt water and dries it really well inside and out with a lot of good quality, thick paper towels. Drying it ensures your dressing/stuffing doesn't turn out too soggy.
My husband smears butter underneath the skin in several parts so that the turkey ends up like a Butterball but much less costly and (we feel) tastier. After he stuffs it, he sews the flap of skin over the top end to keep the dressing dry with butcher's twine and fits the bottom end with tin foil to cover the opening.
We then smear the outside of the bird with butter and poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and a little Mrs. Dash and then cover clean brown paper in butter and fit it over the turkey. The brown buttered paper gets the turkey a nice golden brown. Picture attached is our turkey two Easter's ago.
Baste that baby with loving care every half hour until it's done. That's tres important because that's how you prevent it from drying out. We have a neat little gadget that was only $3 that tucks into the breast and pops out when the turkey is finished. Don't overcook it. If you have to get it out because it's done and your vegetables aren't done 'yet', carve it and cover it with foil while you hurry everything else up. Overcooked and underloved turkey results in dry and not very desirable turkey.
Dana's Turkey Stuffing aka Turkey Dressing:
------------------------------------
2 stalks celery finely chopped
1 large onion
2 eggs
1/8 pound of butter
poultry seasoning
Mrs. Dash
Salt
pepper
1 & 1/2 loaves of cubed or torn bread.
Mix it all up with your bare hands and use spice to taste.
Hubby stuffs the bird, I make the stuffing, I spice it as he gives it a full body massage with butter and spice before it goes in the oven and then we take turns basting it. I then make the gravy while he carves it.
Tag team turkey is a turkey cooked with love and we get thumbs up from family and friends every time!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Throwing Some Love Into Sunday Dinner
Growing up, Sunday was dinner usually at my grandparents and it was usually a roast beef dinner with gravy and mashed potatoes and cream corn. I have many happy memories of those dinners and being filled with laughter and extended family. Today, I enjoy Sunday dinners too but don't do it every sunday. Instead I do make efforts to have a nice dinner that's also family time.This means that we sit as a family and have a nice talk, say an extra meaningful prayer and that we always have a nice dinner.
We forgo fast foods, easy dinners and I try to avoid the microwave (which I do most days, anyway) as well and take a little extra eeffort. Too many families never dine together and share the special time of breaking bread together. We try to eat dinner together every night but Sundays I always go through a bit more effort. My boys are still little but I hope that they carry on the tradition when they grow up too.
We forgo fast foods, easy dinners and I try to avoid the microwave (which I do most days, anyway) as well and take a little extra eeffort. Too many families never dine together and share the special time of breaking bread together. We try to eat dinner together every night but Sundays I always go through a bit more effort. My boys are still little but I hope that they carry on the tradition when they grow up too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
