You Too Have a Live-In Chef!

If you’re like me, you hate to have to stop working to figure out what to have for dinner that night. It’s at these moments I always wish I had a live-in chef. Then one day it occurred to me, I have not one, but two live-in chefs looking for something to do!

So, instead of stopping my work for the afternoon, I asked my kids:

“Would you like to pick out what we have for dinner?”

“Yes!!!!!”

Before they could answer that they wanted ice cream sundaes and chips, I explained that they’d need to do the following:

1. Pick out a dinner recipe from a cookbook.

2. Check to see what ingredients we already had.

3. Make a list of ingredients we needed from the grocery store.

They jumped at it! I quickly learned that what’s a chore for me is fun for my kids!

So while they busied themselves in the kitchen looking at recipes and checking for ingredients, I kept busy at the computer. It was a win/win situation. I got more work done and didn’t have to think of yet another dinner idea. They relished the responsibility and got to pick a meal they were sure to like.

After they made their decision and the list was completed, we all went to the grocery store. It felt like an outing, instead of an errand!

When we got back home, they couldn’t wait to start making the chicken nuggets with honey-mustard dipping sauce from Emeril’s There’s a Chef in My Soup! cookbook.

Not only did my kids enjoying cooking dinner, especially when they got to shake the chicken in a bag of seasoned corn flakes, we loved the meal too!