What About Family Members Who Don’t Like to Cook?
Cooking is an interesting art. Introduce cooking as an art, rather than a drudgery or a chore. If the example set by older family members is positive, children pick up the same attitudes about cooking. One way to encourage togetherness is to create a family calendar for regular meals. Allow each family member their “day” in the kitchen when they can lead the cooking team to prepare meals. Arrange the schedule so that meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner are prepared by each family member. Spend time together perusing recipe books with family. This is a great way to help children and adults become familiar with recipe formats, various ingredients and cooking preparation times. Children and adults learn to cook French, Italian, southwestern and oriental cuisines by studying recipes and ingredients. Also, focus on the presentation and style of meals.

Thai Chicken Satay: Most children love finger foods and chicken, so convincing them to eat a traditional Thai satay should not be too difficult. Prepare the satays with the traditional blend of spices, but make sure to keep the peanut sauce free from heat so that the peanut flavor comes through for children’s palates.

Italian Pasta: Rather than making plain spaghetti, introduce children to bolder Italian flavors by offering several sauces at the table to choose from. Include a traditional marinara, a fresh pesto and perhaps a ratatouille. Having the choices will be appealing and help you figure out which sauces children like best.

Curried Burgers: Indian curries are a difficult thing to get children to enjoy, but the secret is to introduce the spices in everyday foods. Make hamburgers from scratch, but include saffron or curry powder when making them. Your family will quickly learn to appreciate the exotic flavors.

The essence of hibachi is in the culture that created it. In the Asian culture, the partaking of food is often seen less as a means of survival and more as a pleasurable experience – a luxury to be enjoyed with friends and family. Hibachi is all about showmanship with elaborate spectacles and acts that can often prove dangerous to the unprofessional. However, the true charm of hibachi lies in the ability to entertain you while you wait for your food. Rather than your children simply sitting and waiting for their meal to arrive, they are treated to an exciting act as a trained chef prepares their food both with style and flourish. And the only thing more enjoyable than watching a cook perform is getting to eat the food.

Just be warned – hibachi can get a little expensive if you aren’t prepared, but the food and the show are worth it.

One dinner meal that can please even the pickiest eater is paella. Paella is a spanish rice dish that can be served with vegetables, meat or seafood. There is also mixed paella that can incorporate both meat and seafood as well as vegetables. Paella is easy to make and often the most time consuming aspect of the dish is cooking the meats that will be used.

Mixed Paella:

1tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil 2-1/4 teaspoons paprika 1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano salt and black pepper to taste 1-1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil, divided 2-1/4 cloves garlic, crushed 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1-1/2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice 3/4 tsp saffron 3/4 bay leaf 3/8 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped 3 cups chicken stock, 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil 3/4 Spanish onion, chopped 3/4 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped 3/4 pound chorizo sausage, casings removed and 3/4 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

In a medium bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons olive oil, paprika, oregano, and salt and pepper. Stir in chicken pieces to coat. Cover, and refrigerate.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and rice. Cook, stirring, to coat rice with oil, about 3 minutes. Stir in saffron, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a separate skillet over medium heat. Stir in marinated chicken and onion; cook 5 minutes. Stir in bell pepper and sausage; cook 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp; cook, turning the shrimp, until both sides are pink.
Spread rice mixture onto a serving tray. Top with meat and seafood mixture.

Rice flavored with saffron or yellow rice can be used to make this recipe a little faster

I cooked spaghetti al dente. In a large bowl mixed some chopped onion, bell pepper, tomatoes and shredded cheese. To this mixture, I added some boiled and diced chicken breast. Once I had mixed all of this in a large bowl, I spread it out in a casserole baking dish and baked it in a preheated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes. When the top is golden brown and the cheese is nice and melted, it-s done.

The great thing about this dinner was that I never had to call my family down for dinner because they came running as soon as they smelled it. It was a delicious meal. When I served it with a side of green beans, it made the nutrition level jump sky high too!

It makes a mom feel good when all the plates at the table are cleaned off. The icing on the cake was when one of my boys told me, it was the best dinner ever and asked for a second helping!

Children play hard during the day and need a hearty lunch to keep their bodies healthy. Lunches mainly remind me of sandwiches, soup, and salads which are quick and easy to prepare. Other lunch ideas could be quesadillas with leftover chicken, beef, or turkey, cheese and vegetables. Make your own pizzas using English muffins, pizza sauce, and pizza toppings in your kitchen. Lunches are meant to be light and healthy to give children their vitamins and minerals.

Depending on how you were raised the last main meal of the day was called dinner or supper. This was the best meal of the day I thought with so many options to choose from: spaghetti to chicken alfredo to tacos to grilled steaks and hamburgers and many more choices depending on the main staple of meat is in your diet with your family. The last meal was the hearty one to carry you through the evening until the next day.

Healthy recipes for children can be found in books, internet, friends, your creation, and family. With a little thought, preparation, organization, a nutritious, healthy meal can be made for family and children all around.The information party rocks on: English Muffin Mini Pizzas & Pizza Pasta Recipe

Teaching kids about healthy foods and nutrition will be easier if they are in the kitchen helping you. They’ll be more likely to eat it if they helped make it.

Cooking together can begin by looking through recipes together and choosing something new to make. You can look at ethnic recipes which are popular with other cultures and will teach your children about their world along with a lesson on food.

You can even turn one night into ethnic food night and find information on the culture whose recipe you are making. This is just one idea on how to make food fun for everyone and spend quality time together as a family. The important thing about cooking together is that you are connecting with each other. This has become more of a challenge in recent years since everyone is running in different directions.