The food revolution at our house

I've really been enjoying Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" that begin Friday night on ABC. And I was inspired to teach my daughter to cook as a result. Granted, she's only four, so we're starting slowly. I am hoping that by giving her more responsibility in the preparation of our meals, she will be more apt to try new things and be excited about things like... vegetables!

Last night's dinner was veggie pad thai, so I had her help me chop the vegetables. Cabbage, green onions, carrots... she chopped like a pro! (Granted, I oversaw this one very carefully and for the cabbage, I assisted her with my "mommy" knife!)



Once all the veggies were prepped, we cooked the rice noodles, then combined everything in the wok. I gave her the very important job of adding all the chopped veggies into the mix and stirring the sauce in. We dished up servings for the three of us, then set the table so everything was ready when Clean Fresh Hubby got home from work.



It took a little longer to pull dinner together with the help of my "assistant," but she was so proud of herself that it was worth the extra time. And this morning, when she woke up, the first thing she asked was if she could cook again. So I let her make the breakfast smoothies. Literally running down the stairs, she added the fruit, protein powder, honey and OJ to the blender, then mixed it to perfection.

I'm happy to see her excited about all the possibilities cooking offers, and the fact that she ate several bites of the pad thai felt like significant progress from her usual fare of Morningstar chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and PB&J. Best of all, she actually wanted to do the dishes, so I gave her the soapy sponge and let her go to town.

Who am I to stand between a girl and a sink of dirty dishes?