Spend a Night In With the Kids

It's a modern fact of life that working parents often find it hard to squish in quality time with their kids, even at weekends. For the kids themselves, the week is chock a block with classes, games and homework, while parents find themselves juggling long commutes and mundane tasks, both in and out of the office. Late evenings are the ideal time to catch up with our kids, by watching a fun movie together, playing a board game or even better, rustling up a yummy dinner together.

It's less hassle than you might think to invite your kids to help make a great evening meal by encouraging them to try their hand at a few essential but relatively harmless tasks. It may at first be quite tough to deal with their childish enthusiasm in trying to learn everything at once or their offers to help with the difficult tasks. If there are many kids in the family, then there could be real trouble on hand. Parents should work out an amicable schedule or delegate the tasks, so that each child gets to enjoy their time in the kitchen.

Encouraging children to help out with cooking and cleaning enables them to understand and appreciate the value and the goodness of homemade food, and to realise that home cooked food is as interesting and tasty as that from a restaurant. The experience also allows them to use kitchen tools safely and confidently, and learn how to prepare food for themselves and others.

Children can experiment with several simple recipes to cater to their tastes, while at the same time helping their parents to prepare a special dinner. Tempting meals usually contain a decent dose of butter and cream, making the meal really sumptuous. Dinners are no exception. Experimenting with a cheese and onion pie with a dash of Anchor butter, and Anchor dairy real cream or pepperoni pizza served with cream dips and a delicious dessert of Banana bread is a great way to spend an evening with the kids, getting them both to help prepare these recipes and relish them as well!