Thursday, February 28, 2019

Learning How to Cook

Being somewhat incapacitated today, I asked my lovely daughter if she would make dinner. On the menu was sweet and sour meatballs and rice. When she exclaimed that she didn't know how to make the sauce, I told her the recipe is really quite simple.

First you open the can of pineapple and put the pineapple and the juice in the pot.
Next you take the ketchup and go bthffthphth (ok, so I googled how to spell the sound of a raspberry and it is up for debate, and possibly not even possible). Then you add about four shakes of soy sauce, three big spoons of brown sugar and one glub of vinegar. Cook it with the meatballs on 8 while you microwave the rice.

She looked at me earnestly (or maybe it was judgmentally) and asked me to repeat the recipe and I obliged (bthfffthphth, shake shake shake shake, one-two-three, glub). She repeated back to me,

1 can of pineapple and juice
4 seconds of ketchup
4 shakes of soy sauce
3 big spoons of sugar
1 glub of vinegar

I let her know that you taste it, and if it is sour add sugar, if it is sweet add vinegar, and so forth. She made it and it was perfect. Never mind that I have shelves full of cookbooks, sometimes you just need to learn to go off the page and add a dash of this and that until it tastes just right.

She even made dessert, which after what sounded like a heated argument with Google, also turned out perfectly. She made absolutely divine armpit fudge.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

What Happened When I Let the Kids Do the Grocery Shopping

It started as an off-handed comment from my son about how I should have bought some food item or other, to which I replied that I should bring them grocery shopping with me. Except that I haven't physically been grocery shopping for some time now. I prefer to shop online and pick my order up the next day. Then it hit me, there's no reason I couldn't let the children do the shopping online.

I handed them my cell phone and told them they had a budget of $120, and that they could do all of the grocery shopping for the rest of the week. At age 11 and 13 years old, I hoped that they had a pretty good understanding of meal planning and having a balanced diet. This, I thought, would be an interesting experiment.

Their plan included three suppers and three school lunches, plus snacks. Keep in mind, we weren't starting with an empty fridge and pantry. Here is what they bought:



So, here are the main things I discovered through the process:

1. They are cheap thrifty like their mother. I overheard them several times talking about getting the best price, and looking for specials. They also ran to the fridge and cupboards several times to make sure that they weren't buying something we already had. And while they had a budget of $120.00, their order was just shy of $80.00.

2. They really like pasta. There is pasta for supper.  Every single night.

3. When they have done the shopping, and know what we have, they are more likely to get involved in preparing the meal itself, and packing for school is much easier. This also makes it more exciting to eat at home, thus curbing the temptation to hit the drive-thru. My daughter did a great job making Shake 'n' Bake chicken (with pasta and veggies).

4. They can be trusted. Yes, there were quite a few treats, only two of which I removed from the cart (and one of those they said was a surprise for me--goodbye Mike & Ikes...). However, they did plan some sensible lunches and pasta dinners.

I think they did well for a first attempt. They are building important skills for when they are on their own, and it's one more chore that I can cross off of my list. I think this could become a regular thing. Pass the pasta, please.