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It’s Monday Which Means Its My Son’s Turn to Cook

By: dmvollmer

Cooking healthy and delicious meals for my family is very important to me. I’m also a foodie and its makes me so happy that I’m raising my son to be a foodie. He’s 8 and loves to taste test different kinds of vinegars, requests Marcona almonds (not just almonds) and can use a piping bag.

He asked if he could cook dinner one night a week so we decided he would be in charge on Monday’s dinner. He picks the menu, writes the grocery lists, preps and cooks the food. We started this at the beginning of September and its been a great experience for both of us.

Why have your kids learn to cook?
  • Important life skill
  • Teaches nutrition
  • Teaches math skillls
  • Great reading (the recipe) and writing (the grocery list) practice
  • Encourages them to explore new foods
  • Teaches food and kitchen safety skills
Bs night to make dinner! Chef salad on the menu. My son has asked to make dinner once a week. He started with chef salad because no cooking was involved. He made the shopping list, chop and prepared the presentation. He was so proud #cookingkids #lovemybo 

Week 1 – Chef Salad

My son was quite smart and chose Chef Salad as his first meal because no cooking was involved – he said he wanted to out simple. The salad was a great knife skills learning experience.
Because of food allergies and food preferences the salad was served as a build your own salad and he had fun with the presentation.

Chef Salad (clean, chop and plate all ingredients)

  • lettuce
  • carrots
  • cucumber
  • croutons 
  • jack cheese
  • cheddar cheese
  • ham
  • turkey
  • Ranch Dressing, Newman’s Own
From A Beautiful Mess App 



Week 2 – Pork, Cashew, and Green Bean Stir-fry

This is one of my son’s favorite meals that I cook – he loves the flavors and that the pork is so tender. Because of a possible nut allergy he’s always had it with peanuts instead of the cashews. We usually leave the nuts out when we cook it and sprinkle on top when served – this way each of us can choose peanuts or cashews.
Recipe is from Cooking Light Magazine

Bacon Burgers 

Week 3 – Bacon Burgers

I have a few cookbooks for kids and my son picked out Bacon Burgers from Eat Like a Dinosaur
(its a Paleo cookbook). For a side he wanted to make onion rings – we love Alexia Multigrain Onion Rings.

It's a Paleo dish but for tonight we're using buns and having fries. Slowly transitioning to Paleo #eatlikeadinosaur

Review – this was a brand new recipe for our family and YUM! These were so good – lots of flavor and juicy.

*we don’t eat Paleo (obviously) but I cook a lot from Paleo cookbooks because of my dairy allergy and I’m working towards more of a Paleo based diet. Often my meal will be Paleo and my family will have a side such as paste, rice or bread.

Paleo Chicken Nuggets- Kids Cooking


Week 4 – Paleo Chicken Nuggets

There are a lot of different Paleo chicken nugget recipes – most use almond flour or coconut flour for the breading and then fry in coconut oil or ghee. We went with coconut flour and cooked in coconut oil. We did use an egg substitute instead of egg for the batter (I have an egg allergy). These were good but still need some tweaking to make them great. Also we should have cooked them at a higher heat but I was a bit nervous with my son frying them so I turned down the heat a bit.

We’re going to try again tweaking the recipe a bit – we’ll share when we have it perfected.

What’s on the menu for October? stay tuned… To see weekly updates our cooking with kids experience follow me on Instagram or Facebook.

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Hi there and welcome to Sweet Shoppe Mom. My name is Dana and my son is Brendan, also known as B. Welcome to our blog where we chat about every day life with tweens and teens.

more about us

Cherry blossoms and koi 🌸 Have you been? First Cherry blossoms and koi 🌸

Have you been? First trip to the @jfgphx for B. He’s become really interested in Japan and hoping to travel there one day so this was a great way to experience a little bit of Japan in Phoenix. Gorgeous weather for exploring the grounds. The cherry blossoms are just started to emerge.

Reduced occupency numbers, distancing and masks required 👍😷

#japenesefriendshipgarden #jfgphx #phoenix #arizona #japanesegarden #momofteens #momofteenagers #teenagersareawesome #boymom #momofboys #arizonamom #visitarizona #visitphoenix #cherryblossom #cherryblossoms #koi #koipond
So this happened earlier this week 💉🦠😷 I So this happened earlier this week 💉🦠😷 I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and have round 2 already scheduled in 3 weeks. My arm was sore the next day but other than that, I felt fine.

So many emotions. Happy. Relief. Overwhelmed thinking about this past year. Amazement for the work the scientists have done to make this vaccine available. 

I was lucky to be able to get a leftover dose that would have just been tossed. I went to a drive through vaccination site and got put on their end of day waitlist. I was #3 and when they counted remaining vaccines, there were 3! 

Use vaccinefinder.com and look for the vaccine hunter Facebook groups for your area to find sites near you. Then find out if they have waitlists. Some you have to go to the site and wait each day. Others have lists and they will call you if there are extras. I’m not an expert (always visit the CDC website for the latest information) but if you have any questions I can answer based on my experience.
Let’s go @padres ⚾️❤️ Great day hangin Let’s go @padres ⚾️❤️ 

Great day hanging out with B at Spring Training. But the WIND was crazy (so thats as good of a picture we could get). 

We had lawn seats and everyone is assigned to their own numbered pod. Limited number of tickets were sold, masks required and everything was cashless. Felt like a very safe experience but a little strange with so few people. Most fans seemed to be from out of town (probably season ticket holders which explains why tickers sold out so fast). Sadly the Padres lost but we still had fun. 

#springtraining #cactusleague #padres #momofteens #momofteenagers #teenagersareawesome #boymom #baseballlife #arizona #phoenix #visitarizona #visitphoenix
Happy March 1st ☘️☘️☘️ It’s Shamrock Happy March 1st ☘️☘️☘️ It’s Shamrock Shake season.

What fun things do you do with your family for St. Patrick’s Day?

We both love chocolate mint and love that because of the green color, it’s become associated with St. Pattys Day. We will eat all the mint creations 😋 This year McDonalds has both a Shamrock Shake and the @oreo Shamrock McFlurry.

We cook an Irish meal or go out to a local Irish restaurant. And then on the 14th, Lucky Charms for breakfast and a usually a fun gift (something green of course).

#march #stpatricksday #shamrockshake #momofteens #momofteenagers
Have you ever been to a food festival? Throwback Have you ever been to a food festival?

Throwback to one year ago, when I had the opportunity to attend Disney’s media event for the Disney California adventure Food and Wine festival. 

6 years ago I attended the AZ Central Food and Wine Experience and was hooked. Spending the day outside sampling food, wine and cocktails. There may be entertainment, a stunning venue or attractions to enjoy. Most years, my weekends January through March are filled with food festivals, the best time of the year. Most are in Arizona but the last two years I headed out to southern California for @disneyland’s Food and Wine Experience. Food, wine, cocktails and Mickey 🍷

Some festivals are kid friendly and others are adults only. But we moms, need to have some things to enjoy without the kids #metime 

What food festivals have you attended? Once things open again and food festivals start again, I hope to travel to other states for festivals (plus Disney’s of course 🙂). 

#disney #foodfestival #disneyeats #disneycaliforniaadventure #visitanaheim #visitcalifornia
Missing that Disney magic. One year ago today I wa Missing that Disney magic. One year ago today I was at @disneyland. We were just starting to hear about this virus in Asia and Europe with a few cases in the US. Was thinking about our trip to Paris in a few weeks (it didn’t happen). 

Excited for the news Disney just announced about Touch of Disney next month. Excited for the vaccine rolling out worldwide. Hoping for a trip to Disney later this year. And that trip to Europe hopefully in 2022 ✈️

#disneyballoons #disney #disneyland #californiaadventure #disneycaliforniaadventure #disneymagic #themeparks #visitcalifornia #visitanaheim #touchofdisney
(Sound on) Would you rather vacation at the beach (Sound on) Would you rather vacation at the beach or the city?

Exactly one year ago today I was sitting on the sand in at Newport Beach 🌴 I was in southern CA for a blogger conference and Disneyland media event so I scheduled some extra time for a get away to the beach. The sounds, the smells, the warm sun and slight breeze...my happy place. 

I also equally love cities, especially NYC and those in Europe. I’m planning a trip for the end of the year (with hopes travel will be safer) and I’m torn between NYC and a Mexican beach resort. I love them both. 

So which would you choose? A city 🏢 or beach 🏖 getaway?

#newportbeach #visitnewportbeach #visitcalifornia #californiadreaming #californiabeaches #waves #wanderlust
What videos games are your kids playing? @rocketle What videos games are your kids playing? @rocketleague is number one in our home the past few months. Have you heard of it? Have you played) I did 🎮 It’s fun but I was really bad at it....I’ll leave the video game playing to my son and his friends. 

Rocket League is basically a soccer game with cars. You can also buy, sell and trade car parts to build your coolest car. 

Playing video games online has been the way my son has been able to hang out with his friends this past year. They chat through a Discord group and it’s so great they have an easy way to connect (A pandemic would have been so much more isolating during our childhood without the internet...call waiting and 3 way calling was just becoming a thing in the 80s 🤣).

Besides Rocket League, my son still plays @fortnite and @minecraft. 

#momofteens #teenlife #gamer #teenagersareawesome #arizonamom #boymom #momofteenagers #thisis15
Did I commit a crime? With B at home for #virtual Did I commit a crime?

With B at home for #virtuallearning and me #workingfromhome we’ve been making an effort to find ways to get out of the house while being safe with regards to the pandemic and supporting local businesses. The past few years local businesses have popped up that we haven’t yet tried so I made a list. B has been wanting to try @urbanbobateahouse at @shopsatnorterra so we took an after school break for some #bobatea 

Now here’s question for you. I removed the boba tea cover from my drink and B was horrified 🤣 I don’t think it was a big deal. BUT apparently in the eyes of teens I committed a crime (he even backed up his claim by snapchatting his friends for confirmation). Let me know in the comments whose side you’re on

#momofteens #boymom #teenagersareawesome #momofteenagers #midlifemom
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