Kids Cuisine

Like many food-inclined people, I have my list of my top kitchen goals for this year.  Some of them require mastering a new skill, or utilizing a cookbook more.  Others are focused on eating healthier, utilizing whole grains, and discovering every single vegetable at the farmer’s market this summer.   What I failed in when making my list was thinking about my food goals in line with my kids.  After giving it some thought, I’ve decided that my number one food goal this year is to stop being a control freak in the kitchen.

Plain and simple, I choose what we eat.  I do the menu planning, shopping, and most of the preparing, so it makes sense that I’m the one who decides what we eat and when.  However, recently I’ve been listening to those little voices that ask specifically for tacos or sloppy joes or pizza.  The amazing part of listening to those voices is that they eat what gets prepared — even more so if they help prepare it.  So, my top resolution this year is to incorporate my children in the menu planning as much as possible.  I fear we may end up with plenty of pizza nights from my youngest, but I suspect that my daughter will come through for me and do some requesting out of the ordinary for her, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

By giving my children a say in what gets prepared for dinner, I’m also helping to educate them in making wise food choices.  When the requests become food like hot dogs and chicken nuggets, we can do some exploring and find the best homemade chicken nuggets that we can.  When planning a salad, I can suggest that my daughter choose a vegetable she has never tried before.  Or how about making those croutons ourselves instead of buying the ready-made package?  I’m also hoping to wrangle in my daughter and her new-found love of reading to actually look through cookbooks with me and point out recipes to try.

I’m incorporating my children into the kitchen this year.  What could be a better resolution than that?