Mom, make me some food...

It started very early with my boys... I wanted them to enjoy good food. But most of all I wanted them to feed themselves so I taught them to cook.  Of course you have to lead by example by eating well and planning meals. I wish I had a site like HealthyKids 15 years ago. Check out their videos and meal planning, it's fun and yummy.
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When they were little I them figured out. .. My oldest son picked at his food and couldn't slow down long enough to take the time to eat but my youngest would sit in his highchair and play with food and have a great time eating.  As they grew I would channeled their energy into little jobs in the kitchen. ​

Whether it was stiring dry ingredients or cutting strawberries with a plastic knife or learning to crack an egg (with many failed attempts) I followed all the kid recipies and had them help me. It doesn't always go well but I am happy for every time they worked with me in the kitchen.  Now as teenagers it's a skill that seems rare, so may of my friends say their kids won't eat well or do more than make a bowl of cereal.  But my guys use all the kitchen gadgets: toaster, blender, jucier, panni press, all the pans and the knives.( But sometimes I find my good knives in the garage used for something other than cooking - argh... )

I do my best to buy ingredients not processed food. But I do get the occasional frozen pizza or box of pot pies and frozen burritos.  But with the constant "volume" eating of growing, extremely active teenagers I keep the basic ingredients in stock for lunch meat sandwichs, burritos and pasta basics with lots of fruit and protein milkshake frozen fruit as much as possible. It slows them down a little and helps with the grocery bills. 

I still do a lot of the cooking, especially at dinner but the boys feed themselves breakfast and lunch, They make omlettes, pasta, waffles from scratch and just about anything that will wrap in a tortilla. The best reward was my oldest was going through a phase of how he was too cool to pack a lunch at home before surfing or skating for the day.. He was going to go OUT to eat. Then he realized how he spent most of his work money on food and he didn't want to have to leave the skatepark or beach to get food. (Yes, this is the one who couldn't slow down to eat when he was little) .  He came home and said "Mom, check out all the stuff I got at the grocery store for 15 bucks... a loaf of bread, lunch meat, cheese and avocados, I fed a bunch of guys it was awesome!"   "Amazing" I said.  remember its all their idea and you had no influence on this... ha ha ha
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