Kids Cooking Classes: Teaching kids the essentials skills and nutrition

*So excited to see one of my articles featured in this months

Good Living Magazine Tampa Bay. 

To see and read the article in the magazine you can click here. It is on pages 37-38. 

My youngest daughter, Graci,  who is 10 years-old couldn't wait for me to take her to the Kohl’s Cooks for Kids classes. Ever since her older sister, Randi, who is now 12 years-old attended the class two years ago, Graci has begged me to take her.  

Randi cooking dinner.
She took the class when
she was 10. Now she is 12.

Graci sees her sister taking over the kitchen these days cooking fabulous meals for our family and wanted to learn the basics of cooking like Randi did when she went to the cooking classes.

Grace Polson and Graci washing dishes
after making a meal during one
of the classes.

Kohl’s Cooks for Kids, is a free children’s nutrition and cooking course sponsored by Fit4AllKids at All Children’s Hospital for kids ages eight and up. It is one night a week for five weeks. The classes fill up pretty fast, so you have to register in advance.

 Parents attend with their child, so you learn together lessons about healthy eating. Parents are mainly there to help and supervise, but the kids do all the work and cook the food. They also wash the dishes!

Graci receiving her certificate the
last night of class. She is with
Amanda Babonas, Terry Edwards and
McKenna Lalomia.

The classes usually have about 18 people including the children and their parents. Graci had the same instructor Randi had from two years ago, Terry Edwards or as the kids call her "Miss Terry." You can tell she loves teaching kids about cooking as her enthusiasm is seen each week talking to kids about nutrition and healthy eating. She also had two wonderful assistants who helped out with Graci's classes, Amanda Babonas and McKenna Lalomia.

Each week the children learned about the five food groups and why we need to eat from each one. As a parent, getting my kids to eat healthy foods can sometimes be hard, but during these classes something magical happened. They are now eating foods they would never even try before.

Graci making cheese quesadillas in class.

The one rule Ms. Terry had is the kids have to try  at least one bite of the food they make. If they don’t want any more that’s ok, as long as they tried it. What’s funny is some of the kids said “Really...do I have to try it?” and by the end of the night they were asking for more food.

Each week, one of the kids at each table is picked to be the chef for the night. Being the chef is something all the kids love. The chef is in charge of cooking the meal. Graci was chef for two of the weeks meals, the Asian lettuce wraps and white chili. Both recipes were easy and prepared in less than 30 minutes.  

Graci practicing her
cooking skills at home.

The kids had to chop, cut and dice everything including the peppers and onions. The parents made sure they didn’t slice any fingers. The kids also measured all the ingredients using the measuring spoons and cups. Once everything was ready, the kids put it in the pan for Graci to cook. Once it was finished, everyone tried it.  The kids couldn’t get enough of it. They loved it.

Each week, the kids took home the recipe for the meal they made and for homework the kids had to make it for their family and share it with a friend. During the course of the five weeks, the kids were given cooking utensils to help in the kitchen. They received an apron, measuring spoons, apple corer slicer, potato peeler, pizza cutter and a cook book.

I highly recommend these classes.  Not only did we learn about nutrition and cooking, but I was able to spend quality time with each of my daughters and we met new friends. Now we have a quick, simple and healthy meals my daughters and I can make together at home. I also saw how my oldest daughter's cooking has taken off since this class two years ago. I call her "Chef Randi" because she is in the kitchen cooking all the time. I can see Graci will be the next chef in the family, now that she's learned the essentials of cooking and enjoys it.

There are several classes offered each year throughout Pinellas County. Kohl’s is a big sponsor of All Children’s and helps with this program, so it is free to families. To find out more about Kohl’s Cooks for Kids go to www.hopkinsallchildrens.org or to register for a class you can email achFit4Allkids@jhmi.edu.

Easy and healthy meals delivered to your door

Fresh ingredients delivered to our front door 

I don't know about you, but every night it is a hassle to think about what to cook the family for dinner. I work from home, have two young kids and I am busy running my girls to extracurricular activities after school, so making a healthy meal sometimes gets put on the back burner.

I have been trying to get my meals for the week on Sunday and make them ahead of time or find simple recipes for the crock pot. It's hard because when I go to the grocery store with some of my new recipes, sometimes I don't know what some of the ingredients even are that I am trying to find. It can get frustrating. I also overbuy the amount of food I need and end up wasting food sometimes.

HelloFresh box with 3 meals

I have seen advertisements for meals that get delivered to your home by a company called HelloFresh and decided to try it out. How could I resist with a $40 off coupon? I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know anyone else who had tried it yet, so I decided I would see how it worked.

The regular cost for a family of four with three ready to make meals including the meats and shipping  is $105. Since I had the $40 coupon, it was $65. This is a service you sign up for and the food can get delivered weekly, monthly or whatever you want and on the day you want it delivered. It works out to be about $8.75 per person per meal if you buy for a family of four three meals a week without any discounts. With the $40 off the fist box it ended up being $5.41 per person per person per meal. You can also buy the meals for a                                                           family of two. 

Here are the boxes each meal came in
plus the meats 

I had it delivered on Monday, so we could have the meals during the week. I couldn't wait for the package, because I was excited to have healthy meals at my fingertips. When the box arrived, I was very impressed. Each meal had it's own separate box labeled with the ingredients inside. The meats were separate. The package also included a card with each recipe including photos. I love photos because then I know what to do and what it should look like when finished.

Randi last year
learning how to cook at
All Children's Fit4Allkids

Last year my 11-year-old daughter Randi, took the AllChildren's Fit4Allkids cooking classes and learned the basics for cooking. I decided this might be fun for her to do since she loves to cook. We tried it out and she did great. I helped her a little and oversaw the process, but overall she was able to make the meals on her own. It was an experience for her and the whole family benefited from the wonderful healthy meals. Randi made sausage and broccolini orecchiette with pesto and apricot-glazed chicken. These two meals were scrumptious. The cook time was suppose to be 30 minutes. It took Randi about an hour. I think as we make more meals we will get faster.

Randi cooked this
sausage and broccolini orecchiette with
pesto

I will say the portions were also really good. The sausage meal gave us leftovers for another day. I think it tasted even better the second day.

Loved Randi's presentation of
apricot-glazed chicken

I decied to try my cooking skills and
made the Lemongrass beef stir-fry

Overall, this was a pleasant surprise to my cooking dilemma. I have everything delivered right to my door and it's fresh. I don't have to look for ingredients at the store and I don't waste food. It's awesome! The meals are so simple, even my 11-year-old can cook them, and it's a great way to share the cooking experience.

I also found, I can share a special code with friends and they get $40 of their first box and I can get $20 off my next box. You can also send up to four friends a free meal after you get your first two orders. I thought that was pretty good too. Here's the code to start today and get $40 off your first box. Got to HelloFresh and enter this code X7TYB3.

Cooking fresh and healthy meals just got easier

HelloFresh came right to the door with ingredients and recipes

I don't know about you, but every night it is a hassle to think about what to cook the family for dinner. I work from home, have two young kids and I am busy running my girls to extracurricular activities after school, so making a healthy meal sometimes gets put on the back burner.

I have been trying to get my meals for the week planned out on Sunday and make them ahead of time, but that doesn't happen too often. What frustrates me is sometimes is trying to find the ingredients for some of the recipes. I also overbuy the amount of food I need and end up sometimes wasting food.

I have seen advertisements for meals that get delivered to your home are already prepared and some you make. I decided to try out a company called HelloFresh. They deliver all the ingredients for healthy meals to your door and you prepare them. I also a coupon for the company, so why not try it out. 

Randi at All Children's Fit4Allkids
cooking classes

Last year my 11-year-old daughter Randi, took the AllChildren's Fit4Allkids cooking classes and learned the basics for cooking. I decided this might be fun for her to do since she loves to cook.

You get to pick how many meals you want for the week and the day you want the food delivered, so I chose three meals and a Monday delivery, so we could have the meals during the week. I couldn't wait for the package, because I was excited to have healthy meals at my fingertips. When the box arrived, I was very impressed. Each meal had it's own separate box labeled with the ingredients inside. The meats were separate. The package also included a card with each recipe including photos. This made it easy for Randi since everything was laid out and she could follow along with the photos and now what the meal should look like when she finished.

Randi made the first recipe, which was sausage and broccolini orecchiette with pesto. She washed all the vegetables, cut them up, boiled water and cooked the vegetable and sausage. I helped her a little with the pasta, but other than that she did everything. The whole meal took about an hour. The card said 25 minutes, but since we were doing this the first time it took us a little longer.

Randi's apricot-glazed chicken

What was impressive to me and my husband was her presentation of the meal on the plate. It looked just liked the photos. And it tasted fabulous.  Even my other daughter, Graci age 10 who is a little picky when it comes to food, liked it.

She was so happy how everything turned out and so proud of what she accomplished, she couldn't wait to cook the next day.  The next meal was apricot-glazed chicken. This meal was even better and her presentation on this one was outstanding.

I enjoyed helping oversee the process, but overall she was able to make the meals on her own. I look back at the wonderful impact the All Children's Fit4Allkids family cooking classes had on Randi and am thankful for it. What's amazing is it is the classes are free and offered to kids throughout Pinellas County. Click here to enroll for a free class or call 727.898.7451. 

Overall, this was a pleasant surprise to my cooking dilemma. I have everything delivered right to my door and it's fresh. I don't have to look for ingredients at the store and I don't waste food. It's awesome! I found something my 11-year-old can cook, and it is a great way to learn and share the cooking experience. The whole family benefited from these wonderful healthy meals.

If you would like to receive $40 off your first order of HelloFresh put in the code X7TYB3.

***I did the math and the regular cost for a family of four with three ready to make meals including the meats and shipping  is $105. Since I had the $40 coupon, it was $65. This is a service you sign up for and the food can get delivered weekly, monthly or whatever you want and on the day you want it delivered.  It works out to be about $8.75 per person per meal if you buy for a family of four three meals a week without any discounts. With the $40 off the fist box it ended up being $5.41 per person per person per meal. You can also do for a family of two.

Click here for my previous story about All Children's Fit4Allkids.  

Kohl's Cooks For Kids Free Family Cooking Class

I thought I would pass this information about a Free family cooking class. It is sponsored by All Children's Hospital Fit4AllKids' and Kohl's for Kids.

It is a special 5-week series of cooking designed for children ages 8 and up. It focuses on good nutrition, making healthy choices and gaining valuable culinary skills.

These classes help children gain confidence in the kitchen and parents get an opportunity to make mealtime family time.

The classes start on January 22nd.

To enroll call 727-767-2014 or email Fit4AllKids@allkids.org

The classes are from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p., at
Anona Aftercare Center at Anona Methodist Church, 13233 Indian Rocks Road, Largo, FL 33774.

For other classes and information about Fit4AllKids click here.