Cooking Time Is Family Time: Cooking Together, Eating Together, and Spending Time Together

Cooking Time Is Family Time: Cooking Together, Eating Together, and Spending Time Together





Every parent knows how hard it is to come home from work and get a satisfying dinner prepared quickly. All too often, kids are ushered out of the kitchen and sat in front of the television (aka, babysitter). Author Lynn Fredericks was stuck in this typical family rut and finally said, "No more." She started inviting her kids into the kitchen to help her prepare dinner, and it changed her family forever. Her kids were willing to eat new foods (even greens), since they helped make it themselves. More importantly, she got to spend more time than ever with her kids, talking, laughing, experimenting with new cuisines, and just enjoying being together as a family.

This ground-breaking cookbook will teach any parent how to do the same thing. The introductory chapters and 125 recipes are written in a step-by-step format. First, parents must adopt the right frame of mind -- don't worry about small spills and the extra time it takes. Directions specify which steps are right for younger kids and which are more challenging, for older ones. The whole family will enjoy preparing Seafood Risotto, White Bean Raviolis, and Thai Chicken and Broccoli.

This is a cookbook for every family. 'What parent hasn't struggled to find new and fun ways to spend time with his or her kids? Based on her own experience, Lynn Fredericks shows parents how."Have fun and stay with the process." This is one of Lynn Fredericks's rules for including your children in meal preparation, an essential aspect of involving the whole family in a meal. There's more to sitting down to dinner, after all, than setting the table, putting finished dishes on it, and pulling up a chair up. Somebody has to do the cooking. In the Fredericks home, that somebody is everybody.

The first two stages of including children in the entire process of making a meal are "Don't worry about the mess," and "Don't worry about how long it will take to cook." What's so wonderful about Cooking Time is Family Time is that Fredericks never loses sight of her own mantras, particularly "Have fun and stay with the process." That's the mantra that enlivens all her recipes.

Written by a single mom faced with getting food on the table for a six-month-old and seven-year-old, both boys, Fredericks saw the precious time she had with her kids slipping away. After she came home from work, her attention was devoured by getting out a meal. Their attention was devoured by TV. So Fredericks began including the toddler in her kitchen chores. And the two of them giggling eventually attracted the older brother. After a few months, Fredericks writes, "I started to notice a remarkable new dinnertime dynamic: we were laughing a lot!"

Duck Breasts with Berry Sauce. Does that sound like a kid recipe to you? This is not a cookbook filled with patronizingly-titled recipes dumbed down for what some author wants to think of as kids. These are real recipes for real families. Challenging recipes from all parts of the world. Fredericks shows you how to start working with your children, no matter what their age, so they can participate in the kitchen and in the shopping, and become the equal partners in a family that they really are.

The reward is simple: more time with your children. As Fredericks says, "If you take the premise of this book seriously and give it a try with the right frame of mind, you will find more time to laugh and learn about each other on a daily basis as you enjoy more healthful and delicious meals together." --Schuyler Ingle









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