Teach Your Children

If we're going to get this childhood obesity thing under control we have to do more than just sign our kids up for a bunch of sports and activities.  Teaching them about food is pretty critical.  I'm sure this comes as no surprise but we talk alot about food in our house, and we sit down together for dinner at least five nights a week, sometimes seven.  Hayden is especially into it and even asks if his chips have trans fats in them and things like that.  I love it.  Yesterday Phoebe had a major hankering to get in the kitchen and cook something.  It was kind of late and we were going to whip up a pizza for dinner so she settled for picking out a recipe to make in the morning for breakfast.

They settled on a Ham and Egg casserole (I'm going to spare you the recipe details as it involves a can of cream of chicken soup and hard boiled eggs).  Not counting the 20 minutes it took to hard boil the eggs, it took over 1 hour and 45 min for them to make this casserole totally on their own (I was was kicked out of the kitchen at one point and told no peeking).  We decided it would be more appropriate to call it brunch.  Hayden diced ham and phoebe peeled eggs.

They read the directions on the tube of biscuits and baked them until they were nice and golden.

They worked awesome together as a team.  I overheard things like "Hayden can you chop the eggs while I grease to pan?" and "Phoebe, go clean off the table while I put the food on the plates".

Hayden made me send proof to Nana that he was no stranger to chopping with a real knife.

Phoebe decided to find a table cloth and set the table for this lovely family brunch.  They really took alot of pride in their work, that is for sure.

She even tied the place settings with a ribbon (she really is a chip off the o'll Nana).

They decided to serve cut up strawberries and blueberries along with their casserole.  It was a lovely addition to a rather rich casserole.

Phoebe prepared a tray to bring everything out to the table.  I have no doubt that these kids will be perfectly prepared to entertain guests when they have homes of their own!

Finally the brunch was served.  They suggested that we "cheers", they felt so accomplished (and rightfully so!).

Here are the featured chefs, so pleased and ready to eat.  Of course we were all totally starving at that point.  They're already talking about "next time".  If your kids are still at home, no matter what their age, get them talking about and helping out when it comes to food.  When these little birds fly the nest, they won't need to hang out in a McDonald's parking lot. (They'll probably be cooking good food for all of their friends!)