When brilliant parenting ideas don't work...

When you have picky eaters you try all kinds of sneaky things to make them try new food. When I say picky, we are fortunate enough to have two children who love raw fruits and vegetables - so it could be worse - but they are not too keen on trying new things or anything cooked for that matter. My mom bought us a kids' cook book, full of fun ideas and appealing photos. I let the children choose a recipe and they were very excited about cooking their own supper.

They chose a recipe for fish/mashed potato croquettes. They cooked and flaked the fish, made the mash, formed the patties into fun shapes (dinosaur, heart, fish and a cake to be exact). I breaded and fried them and well, that was as fun as it got. After swearing up and down that they would eat every last bite, they barely nibbled the crispy edge and declared that altough it was nice they really didn't want to eat it. In other words, we think it's gross but we enjoyed cooking.

So reverse psychology doesn't always work out but at least we had a blast in the kitchen and hopefully the love of cooking will stick.

Cooking up a storm

When Max is in school I find it makes my life a lot easier if I make a menu for the week and just do one big shopping trip. It saves money too, I don't think I've ever gone into the grocery store for one thing and come out with just that one thing - have you?!

When we have company coming I also like to spend a day or two making large batches of food and freezing it. So when you've had a long, fun day (shopping!) with your visitors you don't have to worry about cooking. My sister and brother-in-law are coming to visit at the end of September so today I spent the day filling up the freezer.

I made pot roast in the slow cooker and while that was cooking I got to work on turkey, corn and black bean chili and a double batch of marinara. One half of the marinara got mixed with spicy Italian sausage and penne pasta. Sprinkled lots of parmesan on top and put it in one of these - They go straight from the freezer to the oven to the dishwasher. Brilliant things. The other half of the marinara got frozen for later use in chicken parmesan. I tend to make recipes up but if you want the recipes I'd be more than happy to share them.

Of course I made extra large batches so that I could take out enough for us to eat this week too. Now, if only I could get someone to clear up the giant mess I've made in the kitchen......