Time to Eat!

So yesterday I told you about how I'm making my kids help out more around the house. Last week I decided that each kid was going to be responsible for cooking dinner one night. Dinner has always been an event for our family. My middle child is extremely picky! I always said I wasn't going to be one of those moms who cooked dinner and then made something different for the kids to eat. Yeah, I was wrong! Over time it became much easier to let the middle child fix herself something to eat rather than have WW III to get her to eat what I cooked. Now that the kids are older, I've decided it's their turn to help. I thought that maybe if they have a hand in cooking it they will be more likely to eat it.

We gave it a try last week. Needless to say the kids were excited but also nervous. They chose things that were simple (and probably not the healthiest - but you've got to start somewhere!). The oldest decided to make beef tacos. The middle child made pizza grilled cheese sandwiches. The youngest made what we call biscuit pizzas where you make mini pizzas using flattened biscuit dough as the crust. (Can you tell my kids like pizza?) All in all they did a good job. And more importantly, they ate.

I told them that this week they each needed to try something a little more complicated. Monday night, the youngest made homemade chicken nuggets with tater tots. I simplified this for her by using shake n' bake seasoning for chicken as the coating. This allowed the chicken to be baked in the oven instead of on the stove. She still had to cut the chicken up and coat it with the seasoning. She did a fantastic job! There wasn't a single piece left at the end of dinner.

Last night the middle child was supposed to make waffles. She is the pickiest eater, so she has a little more time to ease into this. Unfortunately, when it came time to cook, we could not find our waffle iron. We think it got tossed when we moved last year. Guess we'll be needing a new one! Instead we used the batter and she made pancakes. They were so fluffy and tasty! She was able to mix the batter, scoop it onto the griddle pan, and flip them. I could see the pride in her eyes as she realized she could do this. She even went ahead and made chocolate chip muffins & blueberry muffins for them to eat for breakfast this morning!

Tonight, the oldest is cooking chicken alfredo. She loves this dish and is excited to make it. I'm excited that all I have to do is supervise it! This kids cooking dinner thing is off to a great start. I know it will get better and better as time goes by. Maybe one day they'll be able to have dinner ready when my husband and I get home from work!

Do your kids help cook? Do they like it? What are your strategies for dealing with picky eaters?