So... since Jimmy and his brother, who were the cooks of the house, have been gone, I've been getting a lot of stuff like fish sticks and chicken nuggets and microwavable burgers and junk for dinners. But I started thinking that maybe eating that way is actually more expensive and not too healthy at all. So I became a little ambitious, and decided to try learning how to cook!
I found this site called Meals Matter. (This is totally not a sponsored post, by the way! I really did come across this site while Googling "quick easy meals for kids" or something like that!) They have a large database of recipes that people have submitted. You can do a search, checking off which things you are looking for in a recipe, such as which meal is it for, which ingredients you want to use, what nutrients are most important for it to have, etc. Then, the database spits back a list of recipes that match your qualifications. I did a search for dinners that were simple, quick, and kid-friendly, and I got a list of about 70 recipe ideas for dinners!
They also have a Meal Planning tool, so when you see a recipe you like, you can send it right to your Meal Planning calendar. And then they have a tool that takes the specific meal you're planning and makes you a grocery list of all the ingredients you're going to need!
So the other day I tried this site out for the first time. I found a simple recipe for shepherd's pie, that involved canned bisquits and instant mashed potatoes. Still sort of processed food, but it did involve cooking! I copied the grocery list, and this afternoon the kids and I stopped off at the grocery store for the things we would need... ground beef, a jar of gravy, canned biscuits, and a can of peas. (We already had instant potatoes!) I cooked my shepherd's pie and served it to Little Bear and Pufferfish!
Little Bear actually saw me in the process of cooking the shepherd's pie, and she thought it looked really gross. She swore she wasn't going to eat it. But she loved it, and actually ate seconds! Plus there's plenty more for tomorrow!
Jimmy would be proud, don't you think?! I'm going to try making something else on Monday!
If you have any quick, simple, kid-loved recipes, let me know so I can add them to my Meal Planner!
