Teach your family to cook...

I am the Mother of Three sons. I don’t stand a chance at seeing my grandkids as it is… unless my boys marry orphans… like I’ve strongly suggested brainwashed. I have a lot of work to do to make real men of my boys… What is a real man in my book? One who can do all the fixing, building, and if need be… some cooking and cleaning. One should be self sufficient in all areas to be a true Renaissance man… Their Dad is taking care of teaching them to build and fix all things around the house and under the hood of the cars… I’m covering the kitchen and household part… (oh, and yes, I, too, can build just about anything I set my mind to…girls should learn it all too… I have my own set of purple tools…)


Cooking with your kids, at any age, takes patience and the willingness to eat something, in the beginning, that won’t taste as good as it should… and we have to be okay with that… it’s all about trial and error in the kitchen.

Teaching our families to cook is essential to good health. I get soooo upset when I watch programs on TV where grown mothers don’t know how to cook… not even one thing… their freezers are stocked full of frozen masses of processed junk. We have become a heat n go society… THAT’S NOT FOOD! I also must say, that just because someone can open a can of Spaghettios and chuck it into a pan, with the heat on… isn’t cooking either. I want to slap those Mama’s Mama’s for not taking the time to at least teach a favorite family recipe or two to their children. Every child should learn how to cook. Boy AND Girl. No excuses! If Mom doesn’t like or know how to cook… LEARN… crack open a cookbook and READ and follow along until the food is done. “Not liking” to cook is no excuse for feeding the kids badly. I don’t LIKE vacuuming or scrubbing my sinks and floors… but I do it, because if I didn’t… well… that would be a bad example to the kids… AND it would be totally disgusting.

Moms… WE MUST TAKE OUR KITCHEN’S BACK! WE MUST TAKE A STAND… AND WANT TO FEED OUR CHILDREN GOOD, WHOLESOME FOOD! Don’t listen to the commercials on TV… trying to tell us that Fruit Loops are GOOD for our kids now because it has 3 measly grams of fiber! Why don’t they tell you about the pound of sugar that comes with it? It takes no time to boil or fry up an egg, and toast some yummy whole grain, dark, fiber filled bread for breakfast… go ahead and add butter and jam… the kids will burn it off!

Grab some frozen fruit and some milk or yogurt (no Gogurt, real yogurt) and whip up a super fast smoothy. Sneak in some flax seed meal or some wheat germ… and you are in business!

Do your kids love pasta? Teach them how to boil the water, add the salt after boiling, how many ounces per person, and that you never add oil to the water… just keep stirring to keep the pasta separate… then cut up some tomatoes with them, and some onions, and some garlic, salt, pepper and some Italian Seasoning and place it in a screaming hot frying pan with some olive oil… and in minutes you have a delicious, quick, fresh sauce… to pour over the pasta…

Cooking is NOT difficult. It DOES take time however… and it’s time well spent. I hear all the rhetoric from Mom’s.. all the time… “I don’t have the time”, “I’m too busy with work”, “I get home too late, and the drive thru is on my way home”, “We aren’t all home at the same time”, “My kids are picky eaters”, “They won’t eat what I cook, so why bother?”

I have answers to all of those excuses… (come on… YOU KNEW I WOULD!!!) So here they are… in order…

If you have the time to watch TV… you have time to cook… and you can do both AT THE SAME TIME!

Work is work… family time is family time… throw something in a crock pot every day… OR TEACH THE KIDS TO DO IT… and EAT WITH YOUR FAMILY when you get home… decompress… talk… solve the worlds problems… for 1/2 an hour each day or night…

The Drive Thru is Death Row… for all of us.. I don’t care HOW “healthy” they make the food sound or taste… it’s not home cookin’… you’ll save money, fat, time, and YOU will know whether or not YOUR hands are washed after using the restroom… can you say the same for the guy making your kids Happy Meal?

So what if you aren’t all home at the same time… COOK ANYWAY… and show the love… by having something prepared when they walk in… or TEACH THE SIBLINGS to make a nice salad, mix up a vinegrette, and roast a piece of chicken…

Picky eaters are MADE not born. Kids will eat what is put in front of them as long as they know the parent is in charge… encourage to try every food at least once… they don’t have to like it… they just have to try it. Then try it again in a few weeks. Bad eating habits starts young… and if we train our kids palates to taste only things that come from a bag and a window… they WILL turn their noses at fresh food… junk is addictive, it’s proven.


If they won’t eat what you cook, learn to cook it better. Are you over cooking the veggies so they are gray? Are you seasoning the food well? Are you eating a lot of canned produce instead of fresh or frozen? You’d surprised how many kids LOVE steamed broccoli when it’s got a little olive oil and lemon juice on it…truly surprised… AND…. if you teach them to prepare it themselves… THEY WILL EAT IT! They will!

Remember to cook FRESH… and not from a box. Hamburger Helper is NOT cooking. Spaghetti ‘os are not food. Fruit loops aren’t cereal. Kool Aid isn’t a beverage.

Lean meats, fresh veggies, lightly steamed or roasted, lots of fruit, healthy whole grain, seed filled breads, water, green tea, rooibos tea, oatmeal, granola… THESE ARE FOODS!

Your kids deserve the BEST… don’t they? You buy them the best clothes, gadgets, shoes, education, vacations you can afford… why skimp on nutrition… just because you either don’t know how or don’t enjoy cooking meals? Filling their bellies is more than just “filling their bellies”. We need to FEED THEIR BODIES. Every sinew. Every blood cell. Every muscle. Every hair follicle. Their hearts… their minds… their eyes, their reproductive systems… WE ARE RESPONSIBLE for those people we Mother.

An Xbox, or a $500 purse won’t make or help them live longer… but good, nutritious, healing, healthy food… will.

Join me in a Food Revolution… starting in your kitchen. If you live closeby, and want to come over and learn some recipes and you WILL learn how to cook and feed your family… for pennies… and enjoy doing so… I promise… And very soon, I’ll be posting Video’s of my recipes… here in the blog… stay tuned…