Time for cooking??

TIME?  who would have ever known how wonderful it could be to have time.  I am experiencing things that I had no idea I have been missing out on.  Now employed by Canvas Corp I am enjoying life like I have never before.  That little statement is so simple but so HUGE for me personally.   I now have no stress,  enough time in the day to breathe, task lists that are manageable and no employee needs...  I had no idea that having TIME I would actually enjoy cooking with my kids.  I have always thought that cooking was a waste of time, it stressed me out and annoyed me that we were making such a huge mess.  It takes TIME to cook!  I should be answering and responding to emails not cooking and making dirty dishes. Change is awesome! 

Slowing down has me coming up with some great ways to enjoy time with my kids.  Here is my latest idea to get my kids to eat better, learn how to cook and spend quality time with them individually.   All three of my kids are horrible eaters.  Dillon (age 15 and 6'1" LOL) eats just to survive protein only.    Kaitlyn (age 11) is the best of the bunch and at least tries new things eats fruit and a couple of veggies, still not the best eater.  I am constantly amazed how may strawberries the girl can put down in a day. NOW lets talk about ALLY.... WOW I'm not even sure what to say.  She is the worst eater... ever!!! I dare any one out there to top this one.  In fact some one that beats this I will personally send you a bottle of new Plane Jane Stained Glass!  She survives on Milk, Sour Cream and Onion chips, Velveeta Shells and Cheese,  lunch for school is a ham and cheese Lunchable.  Ohhhh and how can we forget CANDY the girl loves Chocolate!

Here is where I came up with my idea.  I am so bad at buying the magazines at the grocery store checkout line.  I refuse to even put my hands on the gossip magazines but no matter how hard I try I love to look at the food.  I have no idea why, knowing I have not liked to cook for so long.  Lets not even start talking about the pounds I have put on.   Eating fast food and dining out over the years of owning a business only because it was quicker and kept the dirty dishes to a minimum, both of which took time.   I have built up an amazing amount of cookbooks and magazines, every holiday and party you could imagine is covered.  Storage is an issue... LOL

 Ok so here is what I have come up with. Once a week one of the kids picks out a dinner menu and desert.  They then make the grocery list, shop for the groceries, cook and finishes up by doing the dishes.  The biggest challenge I have is getting the other 2 to try the dinner.  Of course if they don't eat they miss out on desert.  Having desert in our family is a HUGE perk.  While the kids were growing we never made desert so this is the present at the end of the meal.

So lets talk about tonight's dinner.... LOL!  I.... think it was a huge success.  Take a look at these blackened burgers....

OK so the blackened was not seasoning but a grill that was set to high.  The pasta and potato dish was awesome.  Of course I am such a pushover i put the onions and red papers on the side so that I could at least get them to try the dish.  Sigh...  Dillon of course laughed at me and Ally ate 3 noodles until she realized that "Ranch" was on the noodles.

So I guess I have some work to do to get them to broaden their  branch out on their food choices.  Here's to the next meal.