Austin's Dinner From Start to Soup

I have been doing my new plan of teaching the boys to cook for the last three weeks. I am loving it. Cassidy remarked to me yesterday that I have the easy meals. My response? You bet I do! I am teaching them the hard meals, so we have something tasty, and I am riding on the easy meals. If I choose to get fancy, then I can pick a new recipe to try. But in the meantime, I am enjoying knowing what I am cooking - whether it is a prefrozen spaghetti sauce, or an easy make meal!

Today was Austin's day to make Chicken and Rice. He is nine years old, and he found this a very simple recipe with which to begin learning to cook.

Saucy Chicken

1.5 cups ketchup
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vinegar
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tsp onion powder
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Put the chicken breasts in a casserole dish (or two casserole dishes, in our case) and spread sauce over chicken. Cover. Bake in 350* oven for about 1 hour. To check for doneness there should be no pink inside chicken.

Rice

1/4 cup butter
parsley, basil, oregano, pepper, salt
3 cups uncooked white rice
can of chicken stock

Melt the butter in a pan. Add a couple shakes of spices. Add 3 cups of uncooked rice. Lightly brown, while stirring around in butter. Add can of chicken stock. Add 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Turn down to Low. Put on lid and let cook for about 20 minutes. (do not open) Fluff with fork when done.

Check out all the "Learning Skills" that happen while training to cook.

Reading and Comprehension Skills

Learning Food Names, While Collecting Materials

Learning to Read Fractions, Use Measuring Cups and Spoons, and Measuring Accurately

Austin read the first ingredient: Ketchup - but did not read that he needed 1.5 cups, so he began pouring the ketchup into the bowl. "How much are you going to use?" I asked him. LOL.

Mixing His Ingredients

Goofy Austin - Look Mum! Frozen Chicken!
Science: Learning About Salmonella Poisoning

Pouring the Sauce On: Ratios

Learning How to Operate the Oven Controls Safely

Making Rice: Learning and Identifying Different Spices

The Finished Product

Austin did a wonderful job and the meal was delicous!

This was the specially cooked extra chicken breast and leftover rice. This ziploc bag will be put in the freezer, until I am ready to make a new soup. The last time I made a soup with one chicken breast, it fed us for three lunch times, and I was feeding eight children and myself! How do I make one chicken breast last so long?


I add ten chopped up carrots, six chopped large potatoes, 3 stalks of celery, 1/2 cup or more of barley, 3-4 cups of mixed beans (see below), any other leftover veggie bags from the freezer (up to about 3 cups), 2-3 cans of tomato soup, 3-5 cups of water (depending on how thick you want it - or how long you want it to last).

I spice this up as I see fit. I taste it and then throw in pepper, parsley, basil, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and sea salt. I adjust it to my taste.

Depending on the sauce you had the meat or chicken or meatballs in will dictate the overall flavour of your soup!

The second day the soup is lessened, so I add more water and another couple cans of tomato soup, and usually some more freezer food - more rice or something else ready and simple to thicken it with. This usually keeps the soup going for two or three days - and my kids eat plenty!

I manage to go from soup to soup in the winter:

meatball leftovers - meatballs soup;
meatless chili - bean, veggie soup;
chicken and rice - chicken and potato soup;
roast - beef barley soup.
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