I have always had a slight heart attack when my kids got anywhere close to the kitchen while I was cooking.  I was so worried that they would get cut, burnt, or flattened by pots and pans.  As my oldest starts to get more curious, I see my kitchen as less of a danger zone.
 
He just turned 3 a few months ago and is a picky eater.  He would eat peanut butter and jelly for every meal if I let him.  Unfortunately for him, I'm the type of mom that cooks one meal and if you don't eat it, then you don't eat at all.  I recently noticed that he gets excited to eat whatever I'm cooking as long as he's had a hand in making it.
 
I still make sure to keep him away from the stove, but he helps me get the ingredients ready.  No matter what I'm making, I can find some way for him to get excited about helping.  Usually it is simple things like stirring or pouring ingredients into bowls from the measuring cups, but he can't wait to tell everyone we know that he helped make the meal.
 
He never used to eat chicken and dumplings, but last week I had him help me roll the dough in flour and he thought that was the best job ever.  He even had to call my mom to tell her that he was helping.  I was more than excited when he ate every bite on his plate that night.
 
It might be more time consuming and messy, but having my "little helper" in the kitchen is worth it.  We're having fun bonding time and he's finally eating more than PB&J.  Seeing him beam with pride makes me want to bake all day.

By Guest Blogger Dee from Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

I'm not sure about you but for me the last thing I want to be doing in the summer is spending the hot afternoon in the kitchen coming up with a great meal for my family. But they still have to eat. And I would still like them to have nutritious meals, not just peanut butter and jelly.

For all of those reasons and many more, I long ago decided to prepare our meals for the entire month on one day. One day? Are you crazy? Perhaps, but I find that it saves me so much time and energy each and every day. And it gives me so much more time to be enjoying my family at the pool instead of at the stove.

I make a plan for the meals that we will be having, shop for the groceries, and bunker down for a day (perferably a cool day) to prepare a months worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners for our family of four. This summer I came up with a menu that doesn't even require me to turn my oven on during my cooking day! There are healthy summer meal ideas like fruity breakfast burritos, frozen fruit cups, and buffalo chicken wraps that my family loves to eat.

And it saves me time each and every day so that I can spend more time with my children. I simply defrost the meals and throw them on the grill or in the slow cooker on the day that they are needed. We return home and have a meal waiting for us or only have to take the short time to grill the items. It is a win-win situation for everyone!

Making meals this way not only saves me time it also saves us a lot of money. And the only thing better than having more time in the summer to play is having more money available to play with!

We all want summer to be fun and relaxing, but let's face it, our jobs as moms still keep us very busy. Do yourself a favor and take some time to prepare some meals and freeze them so that you and your family can spend more time together enjoying the sun, the pool, the park, the beach or whatever it is that you love to do!

By guest blogger Tricia Callahan
http://onceamonthmom.com