Boys in the Kitchen

Random Rant
First I have to start by saying...What a beautiful day! I love it outside today. I have spring fever so bad, and days like today make me want to start clearing out my gardens and getting things planted. There are a bunch of boys in our cul de sac playing basketball, and through my open windows I can hear kids laughing as they play outside. I love it.
I went to the gym this afternoon, while Ty was in school, and it was empty. At one point I was the only person in the cardio cinema (which I love by the way...Today's movie 27 dresses). Everyone is outside.

Boys in the kitchen

So, lately I've been having a problem. I have realized that I hate dinner time. Not so much cooking the actual meal, but coming up with what to cook. Then there's the clean up. Yuck! So a couple of weeks ago I instigated the "Boys in the Kitchen" program.

I have always said, that since I didn't have any girls, I was going to make my boys the catch of the town. They will know how to cook and clean and do all of those things that all of us wifeys always want our hubbys to do, but they rarely do.
So, I've periodically had my boys help me with dinner and the oldest 3 have actually learned to make a few things on their own (spaghetti, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches, and anything that can be warmed in the microwave)

The "Boys in the kitchen" program was my creation on one of those nights that I couldn't come up with anything to fix for dinner, and no one had any ideas. Nothing sounded good to any of us. But everyone was hungry and complaining about that. So Eric made a chart. This chart lists all of the boys (even Tyler) and gives each of them an opportunity each week to discover dinner. They are to decide what we are going to eat, and they each help me cook it.

We have been doing this for 2 weeks now, and I LOVE it. Not only is the meal already decided (sometimes a month in advance for those who are planners) but the boys are learning cooking skills at the same time. Plus the big bonus...nobody complains about what we are eating. We have been eating all of their favorites, and everybody knows that it will be time for their favorite meal soon. I've even been a little bit surprised about their choices in meals. Some we haven't made in ages (make your own pizza night), and some are things I never thought any of them liked (like the beef stroganoff we had last night).

Even Chase and Tyler have been helping with the preparation. Anything they can do without getting hurt. They love it, and look forward to their meal night.

I figure we'll give it a couple more weeks of eating what they love, and then we are going to start discovering cook books. There will be at least one meal a month that they have to find from a cookbook (or on-line recipe site). We'll start branching out.