Getting my family together to sit down for dinner is a near-impossible feat, between my self-employed musician hubby's schedule and the fact that every child has their own "Will Never Eat" items, it's a challenge, so anything that will help me with meal time is a welcome treat and that's why I was thrilled to get a chance to review Everyday Cooking from Everyday Homemaking.
Other members of the Crew received:
The Everyday Family Chore System
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As a special offer for my blog readers The author is offering 10% off The Everyday Family Chore System and/or Everyday Cooking (print or e-book) through Labor Day! The code is:
TOS10books
Apply it to as many books in your cart as you'd like, but you will need to shop first, apply the 10% discount code last.
Expires Sept 5.
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What is Everyday Cooking by Vicki Bentley?
The book is written by a busy homeschooling mom of 8 and foster mom to 50, Vicki Bentley, and comes with your choice of a blue or a red cover. The contents are the same with 198 pages of recipes, menu schedules and helpful tips including shopping and cooking equipment tips. I chose blue, and I received a physical spiral-bound copy of the book that has a glossy paperback wipe-off cover. I also received a digital pdf version.
The idea behind the cookbook is to bring families together, even if it's not every night of the week, around the dinner table. Excerpts of this updated and revised version was first shared a Home Education 101 manual about getting dinner on the table the same day you homeschool with easy-to-prepare, nutritious meals that fit within a homeschooler's budget.
There are substitution ideas if you prefer gluten-free or other substitutes included in the book. While the author hopes to present healthy food options, the idea of the cookbook is more to get the family together. The hope is that if a meal takes less than 45 minutes to prepare, or you can include the family in meal preparation, you will be more likely to eat together as a family. So, a lot of the book includes suggestions for meal preparation ahead of time.
Everyday Cooking begins with an introduction and then a couple pages of tips on foods to prepare ahead of time to save time when everyone's hungry. That is followed by Breakfast ideas, appetizers, dressings & drinks recipes and buffet tips followed by blank pages to jot down notes. The next section offer bread & grains recipes including pictures of bread making, and pages for notes. The next section is main dishes & soups & sides, the next section includes recipes for desserts & snacks. There is even a section on homemade vanilla extract. YUM! Finally, there is a section on low-carb/gluten-free pantry helpers, basic measurements & helps meal planning/shopping hints with sample menus and schedules and pages for you to copy and fill in your own.
Tips like these:
The final pages include some wonderful curriculum resources for teaching home-ec type classes. They include:
Basic Cooking Skills Checklists
A 1-2 Week Food & Nutrition Mini Unit
Basic Kitchen Accessories
Kitchen Equipment
One of the final sections includes a section entitled, "The Tortoise and the Hare Run for Dinnertime Race: Slow Cookers vs. Pressure Cookers along with recipes and Pressure Cooker Tips from the author along with a glossary of terms and links to further resources followed by an index for all of the recipes inside the cookbook, information about the author, and more pictures.
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The idea behind the cookbook is to bring families together, even if it's not every night of the week, around the dinner table. Excerpts of this updated and revised version was first shared a Home Education 101 manual about getting dinner on the table the same day you homeschool with easy-to-prepare, nutritious meals that fit within a homeschooler's budget.
There are substitution ideas if you prefer gluten-free or other substitutes included in the book. While the author hopes to present healthy food options, the idea of the cookbook is more to get the family together. The hope is that if a meal takes less than 45 minutes to prepare, or you can include the family in meal preparation, you will be more likely to eat together as a family. So, a lot of the book includes suggestions for meal preparation ahead of time.
Everyday Cooking begins with an introduction and then a couple pages of tips on foods to prepare ahead of time to save time when everyone's hungry. That is followed by Breakfast ideas, appetizers, dressings & drinks recipes and buffet tips followed by blank pages to jot down notes. The next section offer bread & grains recipes including pictures of bread making, and pages for notes. The next section is main dishes & soups & sides, the next section includes recipes for desserts & snacks. There is even a section on homemade vanilla extract. YUM! Finally, there is a section on low-carb/gluten-free pantry helpers, basic measurements & helps meal planning/shopping hints with sample menus and schedules and pages for you to copy and fill in your own.
Tips like these:
The final pages include some wonderful curriculum resources for teaching home-ec type classes. They include:
Basic Cooking Skills Checklists
A 1-2 Week Food & Nutrition Mini Unit
Basic Kitchen Accessories
Kitchen Equipment
One of the final sections includes a section entitled, "The Tortoise and the Hare Run for Dinnertime Race: Slow Cookers vs. Pressure Cookers along with recipes and Pressure Cooker Tips from the author along with a glossary of terms and links to further resources followed by an index for all of the recipes inside the cookbook, information about the author, and more pictures.
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How Did We Use It?
This pic is not a recent picture, but it is a memory we need to get back to as a family. When I received this Everyday Cookbook, I was excited to see all of the cooking and meal planning tips that I think just might help us do the trick to get back to this!
This pic is not a recent picture, but it is a memory we need to get back to as a family. When I received this Everyday Cookbook, I was excited to see all of the cooking and meal planning tips that I think just might help us do the trick to get back to this!
The first thing I did was find the menu planning pages. Then, I handed it to my youngest and ask her to circle recipes that look good to her. I love any help I can get in preparing my children to be on their own, so this was exciting, and I thought it would make a great book to use for a home-economics course as well.
One of the favorite things my youngest child enjoys is cracking and stirring the eggs:
One of the favorite things my youngest child enjoys is cracking and stirring the eggs:
Here are some examples of what my children have cooked for me:
Our big breakfast
My daughter managed to put together a nice lunch. Her mac 'n cheese used shells noodles instead and not the elbow mac suggested in the recipes.
My daughter also made me her version of Italian chicken with pasta with mixed fresh veggies on the side for dinner.
What Did We Think?
Any help with cooking in my house is appreciated. I absolutely hate to meal prep, for one main reason - I have picky eaters. So, my healthy ideas get complaints and are left untouched. It gets discouraging to motivate me to want to cook. So, I welcomed this book and loved so many of the suggestions of prepare-ahead ideas. My husband especially loves the idea of the cook ahead and freeze rice bags.
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Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:
Your post is really great! the video, the images and the description within really catches my attention. I’d love to hear and read more of your articles soon. So far, I have enough for now. More power to you and god bless.
ReplyDeleteKids Tops In India
I'm so glad your kiddos were inspired to cook for the family! Thanks so much for reviewing the book. Check out some of the color photos on our FB page in the food album -- might inspire them to cook even more! :)
ReplyDeleteThey made some great meals. Everything looked so yummy :-)
ReplyDelete