asparagus pizza & little chefs

My dad should open a restaurant, so should my sister.

Come to think of it – they should do that together. In all their spare time.

Truly though, my dad and sister are creative chefs. Don’t worry my mom is not offended by this post – cooking isn’t her favorite, her talents span a million other things. I’m not a talented or creative chef, but I can follow a recipe.

I enjoy cooking – more now than when my kids were younger. I definitely enjoy it more now that our daily pace is a slower (homeschooling) and the kids can easily help out.

We eat 3 meals at home basically 7 days a week. Restaurants are a bit expensive for a family of 7 – 3 of which are growing boys that eat more than adult men! I do a lot of cooking and really don’t like to use anything processed. I am constantly looking to learn new tricks, favorite recipes and such of other moms that are doing a lot of home cooking. So, I thought I’d share something we’ve been doing for about a year now.

I know a lot of families like to meal plan far in advance, but that just doesn’t fit for us. I like to plan weekly and I really like trying new recipes. I also want my kids to learn to really cook before they move out one day. As a result, we have a long list of family favorites, but I also enlist one kid a week to pick a new meal and help cook it. I have a bunch of cookbooks that they can choose from – Pioneer Woman’s cookbook doesn’t quite fit with the rest, but…I like butter. And she’s a fellow Okie.

This week my 6 year old picked out Shaved Asparagus Pizza from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. The picture made it look delicious – YAY for great photography!He helped make everything. We sat down at the dinner table. Before he even took a bite he said, “This is so good!”I probably wouldn’t have picked asparagus pizza on my own.

I’m going to get details wrong here, but just go with it. About 8+ years ago I saw an episode of Oprah that featured a mom and her chef sons. All the boys were phenomenal cooks. The mom told Oprah about how she taught them to cook at an early age. Each week a different son was in charge of a meal. Eventually the boys started doing the meal planning and shopping – always learning more and trying new things in an effort to out-do each other. Basically, they competed to create the best meals and the mom got to eat all those delicious meals.

She was a genius.

I’m working towards that….one asparagus pizza at a time.

***What are your favorite tips, tricks and recipes regarding home cooking with and for kids?