Cooking with My Daughter

Guest Blog post by our Donor Relations Manager, Monica Taylor

A month or two ago our family decided that our ten year old daughter was going to start making dinner once a week.   Truth be told, we've had a lot of "breakfast for dinner" meals with not much deviation from the following menu: scrambled eggs, pancakes, and bacon.  Yes, bacon.  Lindsay has gotten a little adventurous a few times with adding fruit and yogurt to the line up, but not having had much experience with making meals before, cooking these foods felt comfortable for her.  Oh, and full disclaimer, this is part of her list of chores that she does to earn an allowance each week.

Having just started here at Hunger Free Vermont, I was inspired to present the idea of making a more healthy meal to my daughter, and to my surprise, she was interested.  We set out to make salmon with rice and vegetables, all foods she does like to eat.  I was her partner in the activity and that worked out well, as I love to cook, we spent more time together than we would have if it was a regular pancake dinner, and she felt comfortable stepping outside of her comfort zone knowing that I was there to possibly extinguish a pan of unintentional salmon flambé!

The dinner was tasty and pretty healthy, certainly more nutritious for us than the 3 (or 4) pieces of bacon we'd likely have eaten had the menu not changed!  We had fun that night cooking together and she certainly felt proud.  It likely has not completely set a new tone for Thursday night dinners, but all steps forward (even small) I welcome.

This post is part of our month-long blog series in celebration of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' "National Nutrition Month." This year's theme is, "Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day," so each of us here at Hunger Free Vermont will take a turn to share a personal goal, story or fact regarding nutrition through daily blog posts throughout the month.