I'm pathetic

Every other Sunday I cook for the next 2 weeks. I’ve been doing this for about 6-8 months and it works well for our family. I spend one full day (with lots of Donn’s help) cooking to have great home cooked meals for the next two weeks. Some are casseroles and are frozen, some are just chopped veggies and seared meats and sauces or broths that are combined into 1 bag then frozen until the day they get put into the crock pot. Whatever the meal is, it totally works for our family. There is no standing around the night of “what do you want for dinner?” We buy meat when it’s on sale and tailor the menu around what we have or what works for the budget that 2 week period. SUPER SYSTEM for our family.

All that said, this Sunday was a “cooking day”. We woke up and I told Owen that he was going to cook with us. He didn’t argue (yeah!) and we got started. He opened seasoning packets and measured out sauces. Then he did some stirring. We were on recipe 3 (out of 12) and I told him that for each recipe that he helped complete I would pay him an allowance. He asked how much and I told him I would tell him at the end of the day. I wanted to keep him motivated but if it wasn’t enough I didn’t want him to quit. I then walked over to Donn and whispered “YES, I’m paying him to hang out with me” I walked to the sink and said “Yeah, I’m pathetic.” Owen heard the ‘I’m pathetic’ comment and loudly said “NO YOU’RE NOT!” It made me very happy that he defended me.

About 30 minutes later a friends mom called and he was invited to have a playdate (second of the weekend – I’m bragging) so I let him off of kitchen duty. He had a great time on his play date and I loved getting to spend the time with him that I did.

Cost per meal:
Ingredients: $10.00 (approximately)
Labor: $1.00 (cost to have it prepped with Owen)
Time spent with family having home cooked meal each night: PRICELESS!