Bring Family Mealtimes Back To The Table 

Are you interested in bringing your family mealtimes back to the dinner table and creating some wonderful childhood memories for your children? Well then, you’ve come to the right place.

This is a fun, free newsletter for anyone interested in learning about, or continuing with, family meals that are comforting, quick, easy and delicious for the whole family. I’ve been inspired since I was a little girl helping my grandmother in the kitchen to preserve the tradition of those family mealtimes. Gathering around the table with the family and sharing a great meal brings back some wonderful childhood memories for me.

I’m passing on those same family mealtime traditions to my children and I hope to inform, inspire and teach you just how much fun it can be to create easy weekly meal plans to help you get in the kitchen and start cooking some wonderful meals with your kids!

Just what’s in The Busy Mom’s Kitchen Newsletter!

You too can stay inspired with my free newsletter! — offering a wealth of traditional weekly meal plans, easy family recipes, frugal tips and ideas to get you and your family cooking.

Recipe Ideas:

Of course you’ll need some recipes to get you started with feeding your family comforting and nutritious meals! The focus of my recipe suggestions are based on everyday meal planning strategies to create quick, easy and delicious meals for your family that are frugal and allow you to stock your freezer with extra meals. All the recipes I share, are tested in my kitchen by myself and my children. If the recipe passes through my picky eaters, as a “hit”, then we’ll share it  here with you!

I also include fun little tidbits such as recipes and ideas for holidays, birthdays and parties. I have taken many of those “go-to” unhealthy fast foods and meals and learned to make them with tasty, healthy, beautiful ingredients to create same style meals and snacks that your kids and family will ask you to make over and over again.

Help for Busy Parents:

You’ll find helpful tips and suggestions for making it all work, from planning meals, to grocery shopping, to cooking, and more!

I occasionally also send out special deals, kitchen gadget ideas, recipes, or content to my readers. As a special thank you for subscribing, in your first weeks of subscription, you’ll receive a FREE e-Course on Cooking with Kids where I share with you how to combine those cooking skills and share them with your kids. Kids of all ages can learn how to help in the kitchen.

My newsletters are sent out bi-monthly in text or html format. Please be assured that your email address will not be given or sold to any outside entity or intruders. By signing up to the Busy Mom’s Kitchen newsletter, you will receive the Busy Mom’s Kitchen newsletter only. I will never spam you or send any other unsolicited content. If you wish to unsubscribe to the newsletter at any time, the link is always provided at the bottom of each newsletter content page.

Warmest regards,

Noel

Sign up today and receive my Cooking With Kids Tips Hints and Recipes E-Course FREE

You know the pleasure you get from preparing and serving something that your family loves?  Children can experience the same satisfaction when they help prepare food for themselves, their friends, or the whole family.  It builds their confidence and self esteem and you can get dinner done while spending quality time with them.  Just make it fun.  Kids will eat what THEY make!

Cooking With Kids Tips, Hints and Recipes E-Course shares fundamentals on how to cook with kids, even the busiest parents can carve out a couple of hours each week and develop a ritual of cooking together as a family. Although it can sound like a chaotic project to many parents, the rewards are many – especially when they become old enough to cook you dinner….

Once you sign-up, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Check your junk mail if you don’t receive it within 10 minutes! If you do not receive the test message, please let me know!

If there is anything in particular that you would like to learn about, please feel free to let me know by sending me an email, or by participating on the Family Meals Matter Cooking Club page on Facebook.

Thank you for choosing Noel’s Kitchen Tips Busy Mom’s Kitchen newsletter as an informative resource. I look forward to receiving your comments and feedback.

This is a “quick but real” soup – it’s simple for the older kids to help make, perfect start-to-finish time of 20 minutes for a busy weeknight, and contains just a few simple ingredients found in your pantry.

Quick Tomato Soup with Crunchy Garlic Croutons

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 slices of leftover garlic bread*
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup onions, minced
• 1 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes
• 1 cup milk
• Salt and black pepper
• Fresh basil, optional
• Fresh dill, optional

*sourdough bread works wonderfully too – just cut into cubes, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and bake in oven until desired crunchiness.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the bread on a cutting board. Next, cut into cubes (kids ages eight and up can do this). Place the cubes on a baking sheet and bake.  The desired crunchiness is a matter of taste: keep an eye on the croutons and let your child determine when ready (5 to 10 minutes).
3. Add 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the minced onion, the two garlic cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir over medium-low heat for approximately 10 minutes, or until the onions become very soft and your kitchen smells really good.
4. Open the can of tomatoes and place the tomatoes and their juice into a food processor or blender. Add the cooked onions and garlic. Puree until smooth.
5. Pour the pureed mixture into a saucepan. Heat it slowly, stirring occasionally. When it’s warm, slowly drizzle in the milk. stir until combined.
6. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. If desired, a a few shakes of salt and pepper to taste. If you have fresh basil or fresh dill, snip tiny bits into the soup with kitchen scissors.
7. Put the croutons into a big bowl in the middle of the table and let everyone float a handful in their bowls of soup.

Cooking Tips:

• Parents should be in charge of putting the baking sheet into the oven and taking it out.
• Blades on a food processor and blenders are extremely sharp, so parents should remove the food from either type of kitchen appliance.
• In the summer, when you have an abundance of tomatoes in your garden, substitute 3 pounds of fresh tomatoes. Core them, cut into chunks, cook in a covered saucepan over medium heat for 15 minutes, and proceed with the recipe.
• Croutons are always popular with kids, so my recommendation is to make extra and keep them around for salads, and of course snaking.

Teaching young children how to cook,  I think, is one of the greatest accomplishments; not just for your children but for you the parent as well. Children may often look awkward or clumsy stirring or chopping, but that’s okay. It’s a proud site to see as a parent the pleasure and pride they show in their accomplishments.

Today’s guest post is from Kristen Swope. Kristen is sharing the joys of cooking with children and how you can get your kids in the kitchen.

Enjoy today’s post!

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In most households, dinners are approached with great haste—popping mac and cheese into the microwave or ordering pizza. The scenario is common in households where parents have their hands full and can’t bear the time spent chopping onions.

Parents aren’t to be blamed, though. Managing the household is a difficult task—a job that often falls on the shoulders of mothers. With the economy we have today, most families need both parents to work, and there is no one to focus on the house. Because of “home fast food”, we are slowly and inadvertently creating a house full of picky eaters.

To reverse this trend, home managers (that’s you, Mom!) should get their kids involved in preparing meals. Sounds like a daunting task, right? It is, if you think about the mess that’s about to happen, but if you approach this activity with the mindset of helping your kids learn life skills, then things are about to get different.

The Road to Healthy Living

Learning how to cook and appreciating the processes that bring good food to the table pave the way to a healthier lifestyle. In a country where fast food rules, the ability to cook changes the way children see diet. Obesity in children is growing simply because there is easy access to junk food. By cooking with their parents at home, children will discover that nutritious food is not boring, and that with a little bit of creativity, they can make a dish that delights both the eyes and the palate.

When children learn the process of cooking, they will value the way food is transformed from something so basic into something scrumptious. In addition, they learn about food safety by constantly needing to keep hands, food, knives, and utensils clean. If you teach them the importance of hygiene in everyday living, having to be so cleanly in a kitchen will show them how cooking is a part of life.

An Opportunity to Bond as a Family

With all the daily activities that keep us busy, it’s essential for families to wind down and just enjoy each other’s company. Spending time together in the kitchen is a great way to foster healthy family relationships. It’s also a great opportunity to talk to kids and discover more who they are.

Create new dishes together or revive an heirloom recipe. By cooking alongside each other, family members nurture and preserve family traditions that they can pass to the next generation. This is also a great time to indirectly teach values that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to talk to your children about.

Boost Your Child’s Confidence

Contrary to what most people think, young children love to help around the home. Even if it takes them ages to do a task, the mere idea of completing a job is a great boost to children’s confidence. When children cook, they learn about every little step involved. Measuring, sequencing, and cause and effect are just some of the practical skills that children learn when they help in the kitchen. The life skills they learn from you are things that will help them through when they become adults. In addition, when children help in the kitchen, they feel like they are an important part of a team.

Get Them Involved Today

It’s never too early to teach kids the joy of cooking. You can teach the basics to a child as young as four or five years old, like washing fruits and vegetables. As they grow older, you can teach them the more complicated tasks of slicing, measuring, and heating.

Cooking at home is healthier and less expensive than eating artificial foods or getting take out. Cultivate good family relationships and preserve your traditions by letting your kids help in the kitchen. Things might be a bit messy at first, but the extra hand in the kitchen will someday be feeding you.

Kristen works as a freelance writer for Backyard Ocean, an online store for above ground swimming pools, inflatable pool toys, and accessories. A work-at-home mom, she loves to cook and spend time with her daughter in the kitchen.

Hosting a Kids Holiday Cookie Swap? These Easy Peanut Butter Balls are sure to be a hit!  No baking required.  I love to bake with my kids as I’m sure most of you do too.  Baking with kids is a fun way to get the little ones in the kitchen and teach basic skills like measuring, math and of course making a mess and cleaning it all up. So why not bake a batch of your kid’s favorite cookies together? 

Easy Peanut Butter Balls

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup honey
• 2 cups powdered milk

Optional Coatings:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Cocoa Powder
• Crushed Reeses pieces

Directions:

1. Mix peanut butter, honey, and milk together in a large bowl to form very thick mixture.
2. Refrigerate mixture for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Using a Tablespoon or small ice cream scoop, scoop mixture out andr oll mixture in small balls about the size of a walnut.
4. Roll the balls in either the crushed cornflakes, finely chopped nuts, powdered sugar, cocoa, or Reeses pieces
5. Place on waxed paper and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Yum! Need I say more? I love baking during the holidays. I love to bake and share with my family and friends. Baking something for someone is an inexpensive way to say you thought of them, you care about them.  Homemade from the heart~It’s basically a great gift idea!

There are also many recipes that make great holiday gifts that require no baking at all. That’s why I love the recipe I’ll be sharing with you today. It requires no baking at all. It can involve the kids in the kitchen. It is an easy recipe for any time of the year.

This is our first year participating in 4-H. The kids are old enough now to participate in the individual clubs they are interested in. Our 10-year old son is participating in Archery and Rifle Shooting, and our daughter is just as eager to participate in this club, but unfortunately she misses the cutoff starting age by just a few months. She has signed up for the Creative Arts Group, where the kids will be learning cooking skills, recipes and sewing.

Individual No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

This week they learned how to make a No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake. Each club member made their own individual small cheesecake (2-3 servings) from this recipe (filling ingredients doubled). This is a very kid-friendly recipe that’s safe for the young ones to participate in and doesn’t require the heat from the oven or stove. Our daughter is excited to make this dessert again for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Baking for others at the Holidays can become a sweet traditions for all involved!

Today I’m sharing that super easy recipe for No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Here’s how:

I also re-made the recipe without layering the filling. So for our Share Our Holiday Table today, I thought adding these individual cheesecakes to our family holiday sharing list and deliver them to the Food Bank and Abused Women and Children’s Shelter.

Do you have a baking tradition? What do you bake? What No Bake Recipes are your family’s favorite? Does your family share your holiday table with others? When do you deliver? I would love to know what you do and how!

Is there something that you would like me to write about?  If you need to get caught up on day(s) you missed they are all listed below:

Share Our Holiday Table~A Season of Sharing With Others