A Lesson In Cooking

I am only in my second year of homeschooling. In that time, I have learned that applying life to school makes it more fun, and less stressful for myself. From laundry, cleaning rooms, and even cooking, all can be applied to school. I'm not just teaching my kids math, reading, and writing, but how to live a fulfilling life. Teaching them how to do their own laundry and cleaning their own rooms, teaches them to care for their own things, while being independent. Teaching kids to cook is a great way to empower them, and get them excited about creating something that they can share with others.

Today, was one of those special cooking lessons for my kids. My kids ages are 9, 7, and 6. They all love to help me in the kitchen, so today, I let them be the cooks (with supervision of course). They learned how to make spaghetti, or as they say basghetti, haha. It is a meal that is made often in our home, because it is inexpensive, and delicious. This is one of those meals I make when I'm busy, or just exhausted, and don't want to spend much time cooking. I use basic ingredients such as spaghetti noodles, Ragu and Prego pasta sauce, and ground beef. I mix the 2 sauces because I like the flavor of them combined.

Now, if I have them, I like to add a few extra veggies to the sauce to add freshness. I have added things like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and garlic. This time I didn't have bell peppers, so the kids just used 5 mushrooms, 1 onion, and 3 garlic cloves.

They sautéd the chopped onion until translucent, then added fresh rosemary, chopped mushrooms, and chopped garlic. When they became tender, they added the ground beef adding salt, and pepper. Using the Mix and Chop from Pampered Chef, they cooked the ground beef until it was brown, and broken up into small pieces. Adding the sauces they cooked their sauce on low for approximately 15 minutes.

They cooked their noodles in a large pot of boiling saltwater for about 5 to 7 minutes. The best way to know if the are done is by tasting a noodle to see if it has reached the desired tenderness. My kids checked theirs about 5 times. Im thinking it was because they were having fun being the taste testers, but hey, having fun was the goal. They strained the noodles, and returned them back to the pot topping them off with a little oil to keep them from sticking together. Placing a spoonful of spaghetti on their plates, they added a spoonful of sauce on top.

We like to sprinkle some kind of parmesan cheese mixer on top. On the side we like to have some kind of garlic toast to soak up the delicious sauce as we eat. We don't always have garlic bread, or even a loaf of bread to make into garlic bread, so we have used left over hot dog buns roasted with garlic butter basted on each half. Don't be afraid to be creative and use what you have. Making food go farther than what they were created for, can be fun, and save you some money as well.

Watching my kids cook, filled my heart with joy. There were so many smiles and laughs that it didn't feel like were learning, but little did they know they learned to follow instruction, how to work as a team, math, and creativity.Today, I equipped my kids some tools to be successful later on in life.

To those readers who are just starting out in this journey, remember to have fun. It will not only be good for your kids, but for you as well. In our home we have a solid 3 hours of sit down learning filled with devotion, reading, writing, and math. Each day we have an additional subject such as history, science, Spanish, art, and computer. After that we do our chores and other fun things like today. Be blessed, stay encouraged, and know you are not alone. Subscribe to my blog (free of charge), and get exclusive tips, do's and don'ts, and encouragement from me in a weekly email.