I love to cook, and I love to cook with my kids! There is nothing like picking out something fresh, cooking it up for dinner and sitting down to a meal you made yourself.
I had to learn to cook when I was young because my mom was an awful cook! I had eight little brothers and sisters, and all of the boys had bad food allergies. Besides that, we were very poor, so I had to get creative. I was just a teenager and I was in charge of feeding the whole family with $40 a week!!
Chicken was cheap. We ate a LOT of chicken, since beef was expensive! I learned how to cook with special ingredients like coconut milk and rice flour since my brothers couldn’t have milk or wheat. I couldn’t use a lot of salt with cooking either because it irritated their stomachs.
My husband laughed a lot at me when we got married. He likes salt, and he LOVES beef! I thought the way you cooked with beef was to buy one little tiny thing of ground beef and divide it in three small pieces. One went in a pan with a bunch of oatmeal, tomatoes, eggs and ketchup for meatloaf. Another went in a pot to cook with three big jars of spaghetti sauce and I would make a mess of noodles and some French bread.
Last I would make tacos, and this is what really made him laugh! I would put two big cans of refried beans in the pan with the last tiny bit of cooked ground beef and a package of taco seasoning. He took one bite and put the taco down. “Honey” he said, “WHERE is the MEAT?”
I thought that was how you were supposed to cook! He took me to the grocery and bought me a steak. I had never had steak! He grilled it for me and made me a stuffed baked potato and corn on the cob. I was hooked!
Now we always have plenty to eat. My kids get to come in the kitchen and make cookies from scratch on Sundays, and we always offer to make fancy treats for school parties. My husband lets them grill out with him, and guess what? They like steak, too! Now my girl AND boys love to cook so we spend weekends cooking together as a family.
I was laughing so hard at the part about where’s the meat! When you are poor you come up with ways to stretch anything!
For some reason my mom has never taught me how to cook. So when i get married my husband cooked. He teach me some of his recipes. Now I cook fine but still hate it so much! i think it is a good idea to teach children how to cook and show they that it could be fun, not the obligation.