Teaching My Boys to Cook (Eat Well, Spend Less)
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Teaching my boys to cook is a great way for us to eat well and spend less, while they live under my roof as well as after they fly the nest.
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Ever since my firstborn could stand up on a kitchen chair, we’ve encouraged our kids to help in the kitchen.
(That’s he and I almost ten years ago. We were remodeling our kitchen, but that didn’t stop us from cooking up a storm together.)
Now that the older ones are older, I’ve realized that I haven’t done the best job in making them independent in the kitchen. In fact, the older kids have been usurped by the littler ones who want to help. We haven’t moved too far past someone standing on the kitchen chair helping mom.
Only the names have changed.
When Shaina told me last month that her five year old could bake cupcakes unassisted, I realized the error of my ways. In the name of a clean kitchen and conserving resources (ie ingredients flung about the kitchen), I’ve kept my children in the dark, or at least not allowed them to fend for themselves.
This month, as part of my Pantry Challenge and my food goals for the year, I set about to change that.
I just can’t do it all. Therefore, teaching my kids to cook will help us to eat well and spend less while they live in our home. I won’t be the sole cook and bottle washer or as tempted to run for take-out on a night when I’m just too tired. I can call in the reserves!
And teaching my boys to cook will help them to eat well and spend less once they leave our home as young men. They’ll be able to fend for themselves, be independent of restaurant fare, and possibly woo the girl, too.
While my younger three are 7, 5, and 3, and still quite suited to being assistants, my older three are definitely cooking school candidates. At 9, 11, and 14, they love to eat and are perfectly able to make part or all a meal.
If they know how.
So, that’s the mission I’m on. It hasn’t happened in three weeks’ time. No, I think this will be a year-long goal, but I’m hoping that by this time next year, I’ll have some full-fledged sous chefs on my hands.
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
1. Create a recipe book that is easy for them to access.
I enlisted FishBoy11 to help with this project: a family recipe book that everyone could access. My recipes are all over the place. How could they know that some are only online while others are on ratty recipe cards in my grandmother’s handwriting in a binder on the second to the top shelf of the bookcase in the schoolroom?
Yes, I’m complicated.
So, at the beginning of the month, I printed out copies of the month’s meal plan as well as the recipes to go with. He created dividers as well as a book cover, and compiled them all in a binder. Cool.
2. Enlist a child’s help with kitchen prep whenever possible.
A lot of my cooking this month has been hodge podge lately due to the Pantry Challenge. But, one thing that has been constant has been prep work as concerns all the fresh produce we get each week in a subscription box. Everyone is pretty eager to see what each week holds as well as to taste what’s included.
Kitchen prep lessons have involved juicing lemons, making lemonade, washing spinach, peeling sundry root vegetables, and otherwise exploring this world of strange and new fruits and vegetables. What WILL we do with those rutabagas and lemon grass, anyway?
As a result, the kids are learning about the produce as well as the techniques used to prepare it.
3. Offer cooking tutorials often.
As I’m cooking dinner each night, I’ve been more intentional about including a child in the prep work and/or offering a tutorial/running commentary about how to make a certain dish. I’ve given the rice pilaf lecture at least twice in the last three weeks.
I figure that repetition and visuals are helpful to learning and if I’m right there while someone’s stirring the pot, they will become more comfortable in the kitchen.
What’s next?
As the month draws to a close, I’ll be enlisting their input on the meal plan for February as well as their help in a round of freezer cooking. Yes, this should be interesting….
But, I think that teaching my boys to cook and making them independent in the kitchen is a worthy goal for the year and a great way to eat well and spend less!
This post is part of an ongoing series about how to eat well and spend less. Along with some fabulous foodies, organizers, and frugalistas, I’ve been bringing you suggestions on how to eat like a king without becoming a pauper to do it. This month we’re discussing our food goals for the year.
From wasting less in the kitchen to saving money on healthy foods to eating better for baby, we’ve gotcha covered on all manner of tasty resolutions.
Be sure to check out what the other ladies are sharing this week or browse their archives:
- Aimee from Simple Bites
- Amy from Kingdom First Mom
- Carrie from Denver Bargains
- Katie from Good Life Eats
- Katie from Kitchen Stewardship
- Mandi from Life Your Way
- Shaina from Food for My Family
- Tammy from Tammy’s Recipes
I love this plan!
My two girls are 4 and 6. I try to enlist their help as much as possible (usually for weekend dinner or weekday treats… I find that having them help with dinner slows down the whole process and becomes counter-productive in a number of different ways). I’m impressed with your “letting go” if you will.
Well, we’ll see how it turns out! Ask me in a year!
I created a “family” cookbook for my two daughters after they moved out on their own and gave it to them for Christmas a couple of years ago. I have added a few recipes over the years that they have requested. It is a great way to make sure they have the recipes that they enjoyed as children. I also do a monthly menu as a way to control the expenses for my husband and I – if you would like to check it out please feel free to visit my blog –
http://cdm-arewethereyet.blogspot.com/
Would love to hear from you!
Thanks for this post. I have to admit that due to my obsessive tendencies, I tend to do all the cooking myself. I think it is high time, I started to include nine year old Lilly in more of the kitchen adventures. She loves to cook and is interested. I have to be willing to let her help and learn.
Love to hear what you’re doing with your little ones.
Thanks to some Divine inspiration when my oldest was 18mo., I’ve been making cookbooks with them since *they* could stand on the chair. I got a binder for each of them, and then every time they participated in preparing a recipe, I would make a journal entry, followed by the recipe.
In the years that followed, they began to make their own journal entries and copy their own recipes (from my sources) and even make up some new ones!
With each milestone of success, I’ve taken a photo and pasted on the back of a page. M1’s first banana bread by herself, M2’s mushroom risotto… They have a documentation of their journeys, and useful cookbooks when they grow up and start their own homes.
Can’t take credit for the idea, but would feel criminal not sharing the joy of a similar experience with others.
What a wonderful keepsake. Wow!
Being a 4-H agent, my son learned to cook at an early age when he came with me to many classes. As a Boy Scout, he perfected his outdoor cooking skills. As a teenager, he learned to prepare quick and easy snacks (since he was so hungry all the time!). Now that he has gone to college and is living on his own for the first time, he has decided he really needs to KNOW how to cook – it seems all those lessons along the way didn’t sink in until he became dependent on himself. So over Christmas break, he became my right hand man and learned to cook some of his favorite meals. I only wish I had started him early on this path and been more persistent in making sure he really could cook the dishes all by himself. I applaud all of you who are starting to do this – it is much better to take baby steps than to try to teach it all in a couple of (stress filled) weeks!! Good luck!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Time for me to step it up, I think.
I have three boys and one girl and we, too, have barely moved beyond the kitchen chair helper post. But last month I taught my 11 year old son how to “make” Annie’s Mac & Cheese. The first time he took the initiative felt like we’d entered a new realm – the sun shone, angels sang, hope sprang eternal. Boxed mac & cheese, I know. Baby steps.
Every victory counts!
I have taught my kids to help cook and work on being independent in the kitchen since they were tiny, mostly because I love to cook myself. Now that I work part time, they are lifesavers for me with having dinner ready on the nights I am later. I’ve been blogging about some of their recent exploits — come on over and check it out. One of the recipes is even one of yours!
My oldest is a terrific helper — chief potato peeler and onion chopper! 🙂 My other son is just starting to show interest, and it’s great to see him make his own lunch! 🙂
BTW, we LOVE rutabagas. I cut them up and boil them — like potatoes. Then I have a helper mash them with a potato masher, adding a little butter and salt. Fab – u -lous!
I will keep that in mind. I’m grilling chicken tonight, so we will have to just mash the turnips and rutabagas that we have left — before we get more tomorrow. LOL
I am trying to work on this as well!! I have a 4 and 6 year old that LOVE to help in the kitchen but I rairly let them. Thanks to my daugters Girl Scout leader we found tastofhome.com/kids a great website with kid friendly printables with recipies (very easy and good for the youngers)
Sounds like a great resource. Thanks for sharing it!
My kids love to help me bake, but I was thinking the same thing as you. They need a little more time in the kitchen. I’m planning on giving them one meal a week to make for dinner. Thanks for some great ideas!
I keep saying I’ll do that, and then the 5pm rush starts and I forget.