Cooking with Kids

Learning to cook is an important part of life.  I have heard so many stories of kids leaving home and having no idea how to cook.  Worse they have no idea what to do in a grocery store.  Well I am going to make sure that does happen with my boys.  If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that Sam is not an issue on this front.  He is even one of the big reasons why I am having problems losing wieght, the kid can bake.  He has even been working on knowing how to grocery shop.  He is capable of looking for what the best deals are.  His favorite thing now is when we go to the store that I give him his own list and he goes off with his brother and teaches him how to do it.  I like it because my shopping is getting done twice as fast now.  He even knows how to use coupons, LOL.  Love it! 

Gabe is a whole different story.  He is just learning his skills in the kitchen.  Gabe is a really smart kid he just needs a little more supervision in the kitchen because he is still the kid that will grab a hold of the hot pan handle with no oven mit.  Ouch!   I want to give him more independce in the kitchen though because that is important to his self esteem.  For christmas I wanted to give him his own cookbook that would assure more independence for him.  I spent a few days searching and I found The Do It Myself Cookbook.  What a great cook book, the recipes are so easy for the kids to follow on their own.

Here is a picture of the way the recipes are set up.  This is actually the recipe that he did.  It is Peanut Butter, Strawberry, and Coconut on Cinnamon Bread.

As you can see he takes his cooking very seriously, look at the focus on his face.  He really loves being able to cook.  It is one of his goals to work on this year.

Showing off the completed sandwich.  He is very proud of his work.  I mean wouldn't you be look how good that sandwich looks.  It was very yummy too!

On a side note the kids did all of their grocery shopping for this recipe and stayed well within my budget.  I was thinking of trying to make a cooking segment each week.  It will feature recipes that the kids have made on their own or with very little help.  What do you think, Let me know if you like this idea.