Cooking at home is a great family activity, especially if you have children. It is a good way to spend quality time with your children and also teach them about cooking and stimulate their creativity in the kitchen. First, find recipes that are easy for you to do and also offer an opportunity for your children to help out with. With the easier recipes, you have more time to answer your children’s questions and curiosity and provide them with simple tasks to start with and master. A favorite of mine which is usually always a hit with the kids is making pizza! With pizza, they learn how to stretch the dough to the pizza pan and then apply the pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and other toppings of their choice. This is a great choice for kids as they really get to interact and also cook up one of their favorite things to eat!! Plus it’s much cheaper than buying the ready-made pizza at the pizzarias! If you make more pizza than you need, you can freeze it and have ready made snacks or meals for those days when time is at a premium and the kids won’t complain if they get to make more pizza than usual!!
Another great food choice for family share day is making cookies. Have the kids pick out the kind they really like to give them that sense of importance. Once the cookies are made, I’m sure you’ll have help in getting rid of them and you can also give some to your friends. Cookies usually freeze well, so you can freeze the extras for later and avoid having to buy the store-bought brand. Homemade cookies always taste better anyway!! Around the holidays, sugar cookies are perfect for the kids to decorate and the only supplies needed are cookie frosting and sprinkles. It’s really fun to see the creations they come up with!! To avoid a big mess, find a good size area and put newspapers down. Most of the mess can be thrown out with the newspapers, but I don’t know about the frosting and sprinkles that find their way on hands and faces!
Besides cooking with the children, this is a great opportunity to teach them the importance of cleaning up the kitchen after cooking. They can sweep, do dishes, etc. and be sure they know the importance of wiping up any cooking oil or water spills to prevent falls. Besides spending quality time, you have the chance to instill the sense of responsibility and the importance of keeping a neat and tidy kitchen!
If you compare the costs of eating out with cooking and eating at home, I’m sure you’ll find a considerable savings when cooking your meals at home. Not only this, but if you cook a large meal, you can freeze the rest as another meal at a later date, or freeze in several small quantities which can become lunch for work, etc. The crock pot is really handy for cooking up larger meals such as chili, chicken soup, and a roast with plenty of vegetables(healthy!), etc. Investing in a crock pot is only a small investment but the savings you’ll experience will far outweigh the cost of the crockpot.
If you are interested in eating healthy like many people are these days, a good way to get your vegetables all year long is to buy up large quantities in season, then chop them up and freeze them for use all year. You can also stock up on beans, lentils, tofu, or other vegetarian protein sources, and try new soups and stews with your vegetarian protein. You can even experiment with various spices for different flavors and find the ones you like the best. Using these protein substitutes will save money and are also very healthy food choices!
Finally planning your grocery needs in advance will save on additional trips to the market which cost in money and time. Many times you can find sample grocery lists online which will help you keep all your needs together and avoid missing items. I hope this episode has given you some ideas of how the kitchen and home cooking can help you spend quality time with family and also save money! These are just a few ideas and I’m sure you will be able to come up with more with just a little thought. In the meantime, have fun in the kitchen and I’ll be back soon with another blog real soon!!
