week 8: COOKING A FAMILY BBQ
duration: 1 hour DINNER PREPARATION
This week, we will spend some family time in the kitchen. Cooking with kids is lots of fun and comes with lots of added benefits. It teaches your children all sorts of valuable skills, from knife skills to meal planning to budgeting and time management.
They learn how much effort goes into cooking a family meal, which makes for grateful diners. (Truthfully, my kids now think twice before expressing their annoyance when they learn I didn't cook their favourite spaghetti bolognaise, they definitely seem to appreciate my cooking much more since we started cooking together).
And your fussy eaters are much more likely to eat their dinner, if they cooked it themselves.
So let's start building those kitchen skills, here is your template to this week's challenge:
Cooking With Kids | A Family BBQ
1. choose what to cook
I love flicking through my recipe books (I own hundreds...) and let the kids choose whatever they fancy. Apparently this builds confidence and self-esteem (added bonus!), but for me it's really about getting their buy-in into the project. I've seen firsthand that allowing them to put the menu together, really motivates and excites them. (Of course you can steer this a little by giving them choices or by giving them full control over one specific dish only).
Now, I know that not everybody is comfortable in the kitchen, nor does everybody always have the time and patience to figure out what the cook.
So, to save you time and to make this challenge easy and effortless, I took the liberty to write up a simple but fail-safe menu for your family cooking experience...
2. prepping | tasty burgers and chicken drumsticks
I opted for hamburgers, since they're incredibly easy and fun to make and who doesn't love a good burger? Same goes for chicken drumsticks, fast to prepare and fast to cook. Add some side dishes of your choice (I chucked some fries in the air-fryer), and voila there's your dinner menu.
THE BURGERS
This is practically a no-cut recipe, except for the sun-dried tomatoes. Depending on your kid's age and capability, you might want to handle that part.
- Dust a baking sheet with some flour
- Slice the sun-dried tomatoes
- Put the minced beef into a mixing bowl
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes and capers (5 tsp) to the mince
- Stir in a dash of onion powder and a splash of worcestershire sauce
- Crack the egg and add to the bowl
- Season to taste and mix everything up
- Make patties with your hands, add a little flour if you find the mixture too sticky.
Now they're ready to go. Kids can wash their hands and move on to the chicken.
THE CHICKEN
This recipe is suitable even for the smallest kitchen helpers, since we only need to do a little seasoning.
- Put the drumsticks into a shallow baking dish
- Pour over olive oil
- Dust with paprika powder
- Season to taste with salt and pepper
Time to take the hamburgers and drumsticks outside and to clean up the kitchen.
3. cooking on the barbecue
If your children are too young to cook on the barbecue (like mine), keep them busy with setting the table and putting out all the accompaniments for the burgers (think sliced gherkins, lettuce, ketchup and mustard).
- Cook the burgers on a hot barbecue for 4-5 minutes each side until cooked through and lightly charred on the outside. If you like, you can also toast the bread buns for 1 minute on the cut side.
- Meanwhile, cook the chicken the same way.
4. bon appetit!
Put everything out on the table and serve at once. Kids will love building their own burgers (mine used gherkins to turn their patties into funny faces...) and am pretty sure you will enjoy this family dinner too. Bon appetit!
week 8: cooking a family BBQ - results
This was definitely a rewarding challenge, for all of us. I enjoyed watching the kids having fun making the patties and joking around with their gherkins. The biggest reward came at the end of the meal when my son shouted: This is so yummy! It's the best ever! This is now my 3rd favourite dinner!
Yes, cause let's be honest, nothing can beat the spag bol and pizza of course. 🙂
join me for next week's challenge:
Tourist in Home Town
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here's the schedule again:
12 weeks, 12 screen-free activities
- 1Rainbow Nature Crafts | 1st April
- 2Gardening with kids | 8th April
- 3Kids Forest Rangers | 15th April
- 4DIY Unicorn Headband Crafts | 22nd April
- 5Animal Encounters | 29th April
- 6Kids Vegetable Garden | 6th May
- 7Beach Combing & Crafts | 13th May
- 8Cooking a family BBQ | 20th May
- 9Tourist in home town | 27th May
- 10Forest Scavenger Hunt | 3rd June
- 11Overnight camping trip | 10th June
- 12Discover the Underwater world | 17th June
Karin Louzado is a Dutch expat mum of two who helps parents navigate parenthood in this digital age. Join the 12 week screen-free challenge and learn how to simplify family time.
