5 Creative Ideas for Making Family Cooking More Fun
Mealtime doesn't have to be stressful when it's all hands on deck
Cooking for a family can be a chore. Kids complain about the food. Parents feel pressed for time to put a healthy meal on the table. Mealtime ends up being stressful.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Growing up, family dinners were a time for conversation about our days, our joys. It was a place to remind people of upcoming events or activities, or changes to those dates. Our Nana sat at one the head of the table and Dad at the other. Eating quickly didn’t get you any closer to dessert or being excused.
Here are 5 creative ideas for making family cooking more fun.
#1 Let everyone choose a meal.
Even kids know what they like to eat. Make mealtime planning a whole family activity. Invite each person to choose a meal for the upcoming week. You may run into a few bumps with younger children who always choose chicken fingers or pizza. If this is the case you have a few options. You can provide them with a list of three to five menu items to choose from. Or, give them an age-appropriate cookbook that you can read through together and they can choose their recipes from. You may be surprised what they come up with. This strategy is also a great way to motivate children to try new foods.
Encourage older children to look at the weekly flyer for coupons or sales. That way they can help you save money when they’re making their menu choice. If they’re old enough, they can also help prepare it.
#2 Make ahead meals.
Make ahead meals are great time savers. You can make them, freeze them, and then warm them up for an easy mealtime. However, make ahead meals also offer something else. They offer you the opportunity to ask your children to help with the preparation.
Slow cookers and doubling one-pot meals to generate left-overs are other strategies you can try as well.
#3 Make it themselves.
In our home, my sisters and I had tasks – setting the table, clearing away any left overs, and doing the dishes-drying-putting away. It included us in the overall meal, not just the action of eating.
When children are old enough, ask them to be responsible for a meal. You may have to make the occasional schedule adjustment if they have an afterschool activity. However, this is a fantastic lesson in responsibility. And you’ll be surprised how much fun your child can actually have when they’re given this responsibility.
My Cooking Badge for Brownies was a variation of Ratatouille that my Mom made when she needed to use up vegetables in the fridge. I now use almond or cashew butter instead of peanuts.
Not all meals are going to be delicious. Use this as a learning experience and be supportive.
#4 Get everyone involved.
Some meals are just made for group involvement. For example, the “make your own tacos” night. Buy the toppings that each family member likes. Then let everyone stuff their own tacos. This is great for a family game night or weekend meal when you have a lot of time to laugh and cook.
#5 Make breakfast for dinner.
Go crazy, through convention out the window, and make breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, eggs, waffles, smoothies – you name it, it’s all good. Who says breakfast can only be served in the morning?
There are many ways to get the whole family involved and to make family cooking fun. Adapt your strategies to the ages of your children. Offer support but let them learn and make mistakes too. Cooking teaches many life skills including planning ahead, improvising and of course refining our experience from trial and error.
