My mom did something with us I think it's worth sharing: When we were in the later years of elementary school, she'd occasionally have us go to the grocery store with a budget and instructions to have a grain, a protein, a veggie, a fruit, and a dairy in our meal. She'd help us cook it, especially tasks involving heat. Later, in middle school and high school when we were allowed to operate the stove and oven and so forth, we each had one night a week that was our night to make dinner. The budget wasn't so much a piece of the puzzle anymore, we'd just tell her at the beginning of the week of there was anything we wanted her to get from the store. It wasn't necessarily a recipe for Michelin star cuisine- there were a lot of 'technically, box mac n cheese is grain dairy and protein' meals- but it was cooking she didn't have to do, and we got a feel for what it took to make dinner both in terms of appreciating the effort and learning the skills. All my siblings and I are fully capable of planning and cooking our own meals, and I give a lot of credit to her for that.
I absolutely love this, if the person I think I will marriage agrees with it which he probably will, I want to put this into practice in the future! Thanks so much for sharing! Your mom seems like a very smart woman!
@@ariellel6123 if it helps, we all were responsible for washing and putting away our own laundry as soon as we were tall enough to operate the washer and dryer as well. Cooking specifically- teach your kids to read recipes. There's lots of cooking specific terminology (simmer, saute, broil, separate, and many many more) that can be confusing when you've never seen the word before, or haven't seen it in that context. Likewise, emphasize that the listed ingredients and amounts are all the recipe calls for- my brother will never live the brownies he thought needed a quarter cup of salt down. Early on, even before either of these, you can have some kid-participatory meals. One I remember was 'mama mia pizzas', or a tortilla, sauce, cheese, and toppings that would get cooked in the toaster oven (regular oven at a low temp should do the trick too, just gotta melt the cheese and warm it through). All of us kids could participate in at least the construction aspect as well as decide what we wanted on our own pizza One thing I wish my parents had been less hands off about once we knew how to do it ourselves: toothbrushing. Just having us brush our teeth together at the same time, well into grade school, I think would have gone a long way to developing that habit (and saved them money on our cavities lmao). Rule of thumb for independent tasks: if it's something that affects health or safety, at least monitor it. But things like laundry, where the meltdown will most likely be 'but I don't have anything I WANT to wear', can be met with 'sounds like you need to do some laundry this evening, I'll make sure the washer and dryer are free for that' Also, tell your kids reasons for things! 'you have to fold and sort your clothes' is an edict. 'we fold/hang our clothes because school doesn't let us have wrinkled clothes, and we sort our clothes to make it easy to get dressed and see when we need to do more laundry' gives them the reasons the things need to be done Kids won't necessarily think those things are important at the time, but knowing there's reasons for things helps in the long run Also, reasons for cleaning up can be 'mommy and daddy use this space too, and leaving your toys out is mean to us' or 'a messy floor could hurt you especially if you need to leave quickly in an emergency' or 'each toy needs a home so you can find it later' Anyway that's my additional retrospective advice lmao
Your last comment made me think of how hard my mother worked back in the 60's and 70's, raising 11 children. She baked 25 loaves of bread a week and planted and harvested a garden every year. Your children will have these same memories of the love that went into their food. Peace!
I have to smile at the premise of this video. That being able to say, “I cooked everything for seven days from scratch“ is video worthy is kind of funny. Both my mother and my mother-in-law would say “I cooked every meal from scratch for 30+ years” :-)
@@pajander So, my Mom didn't see this as a problem. She was innovative, hard working, grew so many foods that we needed, and she baked tons of bread. She was happy. I am grateful that she didn't see raising us as a problem.
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of content I'm missing from UA-cam since I became a dad. I can watch a million productivity/journaling/yoga tips from childless young men, but I feel like there is not enough content on how to handle life when you have kids and a family you have to provide for... Seeing someone cooking for their family for a whole week is the new type of video that can motivate me to become a better person 🌟
I mean the implication being that the productivity vids from the childless men aren't worth much due to the free time they have, can also be applied here This guy is a cooking UA-camr. Meaning that his work revolves around always having a stocked panty and 8-12 hours a day to cook it....and HE even said it's exhausting under those ideal conditions! Your standard 9-5, mon-fri office dude, childless or not isn't going to have that much time and resources available to cook like we see here. And no amount of productivity advice can change that. Personally, I think the productivity content boom is a symptom of how overworked western society is, especially now that BOTH parents in a household need to have jobs to make ends meet...and how we desperately need a restructure of the average working day (e.g. 4 day work weeks etc). This also taking into account things like car culture and commutes that can literally eat away hours of productive time from your day.
Yes i recently came back to watch his videos and come to find out he has a family like me❤ I totally like this type of content. And i feel that this is my favorite video on the internet ❤
lol about journaling. and you are 100% right, this guy is super dad... i love cooking but since having a toddler and going back to work, its a real challenge but I am proud to say we eat at home 95% of the time.
You remind me of my Mom when I was a kid, back in the ‘70s. A single parent, She did all the cooking, managed our little farm and us three kids while working as a nurse. She’s eighty now and still an amazing cook. I showed her this video and she said “Well I sure could have used a husband like that!” Thanks for sharing a week of your life with us!
@@shawnjohnson2833 not that he isn't great but all men should be bare minimum doing cleaning, parenting, cooking, and striving to be a good supportive partner. So she isn't lucky that is how it should be, and he is also getting support too so SHE is great too
That’s so amazing! My dad was an amazing cook and when he died my mom took over and she wasn’t good. I learned myself and started cooking for me and my mom and making our lunches. But I went vegan so now she has to make her own food and she makes lots of cup noodles. I definitely make better food than her
@@TheTalomir Totally agree that men should help and be supportive, but if my husband made 21 meals in just one week for our family, I’d consider myself more than lucky, lol. Especially yummy ones like these. I also have to admit that if I made 21 meals in a week, my husband would be shocked. Haha. Haven’t done that in several years.
@E smith TheTalomir...she is indeed lucky to have him cook for her everyday. Cooking is tedious and cooking delicious food takes a lot of effort. Its tiring. Not many men are lucky enough like his wife to enjoy home cooked food everyday. Many women dont cook nowadays especially when they are working. U seem to have a problem with men getting credit for the work they put in. Be generous. Lots of men will openly proclaim that their wives are crucial to the success they enjoy in life. No doubt his wife must be giving him support. Any good wife would. At the end of the day however, it is his sweat and toil that made everything possible.
@@ryanjones7681 lol ironically it was. I edited the sentence a few too many times to make it shorter, easier to comprehend and more realistic (Originally I wrote 3x) but I forgot to re calculate the percentage. It's 66.66%
Good work. Your make it real, thanks. Makes me think of my grandma. She had 15 kids, and lived in North Dakota. Hot summers, and cooking constantly. She wore a thin cotton apron-like dress. It must have been beastly hot in her kitchen. No refrigeration. They lowered the milk in the well to keep it cool. They had 14 milk cows, and she made lots of homemade soft cheese, and cottage cheese by the buckets full. I can not wrap my head around how hard she must have worked. She could make a good meal out of whatever was on hand, and was a master at it. Thanks for giving testament to the effort to provide home cooked meals. It is constant thought and planning, especially to use up what you have.
I don’t think people who don’t have to think about what to feed a family 3 times a day 7 days a week know how much it takes out of you. It’s a monumental pile of microdecisions and with kids it just can’t wait. There’s a time urgency and if you aren’t feeling great or we’ll rested, it can be really hard. When you said I got to Thursday…I just knew exactly how you felt.
I know exactly what you mean. The daily planning that goes into what to feed my family every day is killing me. I am working on a system that takes the hundreds of microdecisions out of the equation.
no one at gunpoint, except an individual's desire for healthy and fresh food. @@Followmybliss777 if u find a healthy pizaa, sure. you can see from the video - and the comments that complement it - that there is a heavy undertone of healthy and freshly harvested food. if u want to cook your newborn a microwave pasta or ready-made chicken, go ahead. but this guy, and others, are trying to foster healthy bodies.
Yep.. and not to forget all the work before the cooking.. SHOPPING for the food, finding deals, putting meal plans together, and use everything and not waste/throw out etc.. Making sure you always have backups that ur kids WILL eat, etc.. I buy/prep/cook all meals for the family 7 days a week year round, i did it before we had kids because i liked cooking, and im good at it.. But its not like that anymore. It changes when the kids are screaming and the wife is hangry... There is no solution to it.. it is the biggest task in a household no matter what.. Yes u can prep some frozen meals, yea u can eat a premade meal sometimes, but there is ALWAYS a day tomorrow and you have to do it all again.. it never stops. And no you can't just get ur partner to cook half the time, most likely they dont know how to cook very well, and even if they WANT to help it might take 4x the time and they get frustrated or something gets burned and the kids cant wait, the kitchen look like hell etc etc all the cliches... Its more work than if you just did it to begin with.
This is the kind of video I love, seeing how people just DEAL with certain food items. I get so stuck in "I need a recipe for this!" that I often forget about just cooking things and adding them together randomly. Every time I do this, I am alway super happy with how it turns out. Do more of these!
Can vouch for that! And here I thought all the stress was in my head as a homemaker! Lol 😅 after watching this video my heart is humbled on the beautiful insanity that is parenthood
What the f*** are you talking about? he doesn't have a job, his job is to cook and record it. I would make all my meals from scratch also if that was my job.
FINALLY a professional documenting the reality, thank you for this it was so well done and explained. I'd love to see how you'd teach a novice like most of us to be as flexible and creative with the ingredients and leftovers. We eat out a lot as a family and the most cooking I did was through Hello Fresh, which was great but the prep time was a lot (30-40min for lack of experience). This made me understand that it can be way simpler for prep, and eating healthy can be just as tasty as eating out. Thanks for the inspiration!
thanks for chiming in! hello fresh and other meal boxes are a great intro in the home cooking game but eventually the goal should be to break free of recipes. A lot of that just comes from practice and time! keep it up
I know this was a long time ago but just wanted to share my favorite healthy quick easy meal prep meal. I brown up some ground meat, when it’s about halfway through add whatever veggies I have in my fridge to cook and steam in the juice from the meat, add beef bouillon, garlic, salt, pepper, and whatever else you like. Once it’s all cooked that’s it 🤷♀️ sometimes I serve it with bread or rice or tortillas, but usually I just eat it alone. It’s SO easy, takes like 15 minutes. Really simple to change up your flavor profile too, sometimes I go more Asian with soy sauce and ginger. Sometimes more Mexican with taco seasoning and hot chili’s. It’s my absolute favorite cause I make a huge batch, stick the whole entire pot in the fridge and eat it for days. High protein, high veg, low cleanup and low time.
One of the things I really enjoy about your style of home cooking is you don't waste anything. I am guilty of letting so much food go to waste in my refrigerator because I lack the creativity to come up with something to cook. This video inspires me.
The big takeaway from this video, is to prep foods in between meals and make extra. I always make extra because we love leftovers but I don’t always prepare foods in advance; I’m thinking that making foods earlier in the day (when I have more energy), will up my dinner meal game 😊
My Mom tried it, but the pleading of 5 kids - let's have THAT for lunch instead, sucked whatever time she was trying to save out of the room. She did like the crock pot. Sorry kids, not ready till dinner and if you keep lifting the lid, 10 pm. She loved that first I liked helping, then I could do it all and we split the cooking. If I had and idea or a new recipe to try, she was the biggest fan. If she did, then I was.
Dude you are a master at this, the amount of veggies and meals from scratch is amazing, your kids will probably watch some of your videos in 20 years and be extremely grateful for what you did for them!
Cooking fresh, healthy meals for a family is really more challenging than folks realize. Kudos to you for all the love you are putting into those meals! Great meal improv ideas. Love seeing all the fresh veggies from the garden being incorporated into your meals. Thanks for keeping it real. Your kids are beautiful. I also love how you have embraced the change and season of your life. Great lesson for all of us!
This is the most REAL youtube video ever, the cooking parent literally making various meals at the same time for all the family members that don't necessarily eat all the same things. LOL this is my life right here! The meals you made look amazing!
@@LifebyMikeG yeah teach them to clean while they cook is great advice. But get some covers for those garden beds so you grow year round. Reach out to epicgardening I’m sure he could give you some tips
I feel so seen! The amount of work that goes into feeding a family of 5 (in my case--and the kids eat more and more every month it seems) is unreal. Everything about this video is so accurate...the pace of the talking and the cooking and the transitioning between feeding, tantrum-calming, eating, cleaning and then getting right back in the kitchen after either digesting for a mere 10 minutes or the kids go to bed. It's just so much to do! Always on the lookout for ways to help make the process more sustainable because that midweek burnout is real.
Totally with you--- we're a family of 7 and I feel like the cooking keeps going! I love it and wish I can just wing each meal instead of following recipes as much as I do!
It’s a hell of a lot of work, but it’s so important to me that my family eat nutritious meals. We barely eat out - perhaps one two twice per month - which I think is cheaper in the short and long term, but it’s so expensive in terms of time investment from me.
I used to follow recipes for my meals but after a while, I figured I can put together my meal with whatever I have in the fridge and my pantry. It is very liberating!
This video is timely. You definitely validated just how challenging it is to work, meal/ prep, cook and clean with little ones. I too always get stumped mid week, because of burn out and also still wanting to put something nutritious, tasty, and quick on the table. This video reminds me of how hard it can be, but also how rewarding and gratifying it is to feed the family a good meal despite the hustle and bustle of work and life.
This is the turn I needed this channel to take!!! Seeing the curtain pulled back and watching the ways you implement the techniques, flavor profiles, and ingredients from your other videos in day to day life! It's inspiring and awesome to see a dad cooking for his daughters too! I can so relate to the tantrum counter while mama cooks. 😂
Absolutely love this content, there isn't enough of this out there. Everyone tries to record only the perfect meals, but reality is that half of the time we eat random leftovers, especially us parents who eat whatever the littles one didn't want! Please keep doing what you are doing, great job :)
Love this so much! This is the type of content that we need. I totally felt it when you said that you got to Thursday... The amount of work and effort that takes to keep a family functioning is gigantic and something that a lot of women have been dealing with for the longest time. I love seeing you and your family take it on as a team, so inspiring! 💖
The amazing thing also is with kids once they get old enough they help cook also.❤. We cook about 90% we do eat out once every other week or so. Muffins for breakfast with quick eggs. We do leftover lunches often I wish I was a salad wiz like you. I need to up my salad lunch game
Is it weird to say I have reached a point that I am tired of eating. I think its more that I am tired of cooking. I want healthy, yummy meals but it is such a hard thing to do. Time is hard to come by too. I work all day, then run home to make sure I am making meals that are made fresh and not premade. That takes time. Then you still have the clean up and you need to make healthy lunches. At times I feel I am only working, sleeping and cooking meals. All these meals were fantastic. I will try a few as some I make on a regular. Thank you for putting this out there for everyone to know it is hard work, it's not that you are lazy.
I'm with you brother. That's why at this point I make large portions and figure out how to re purpose them throughout the week. Unfortunately the rest of my family isn't like me, I'm like a dog, I can eat the same thing until it's gone
I love you showing this behind the scenes of typical real life for folks who don’t rely on convenience foods and restaurants. I do all home cooking pretty much 95% of the time for our family (two adults and 17, 9, and 7 year old kids on celiac and type 1 diabetic friendly foods) and I’ve gotta say- the toughest part of it is the dishes. If there was a magical dish fairy who came behind me and cleaned up the dishes I would be much more content 😂
As someone who recently moved out of their parents house, they are going to miss that food when they go off to college or move out! My parents cooked great food, but yours is honestly on a different level.. homemade breakfast, fresh product, homemade bread!? you are doing such a good job, they will be asking you for your recipes before you know it ☺
Thank you for keeping it real and showing us a couple of meals that were just so-so in taste (but definitely higher in nutrition than take-out)! The goal is to feed our families, and sometimes meals are just thrown together in desperation, lol. Thank you for showing how you do this so we can be encouraged to keep cooking!
as a mom of 5 girls who has been cooking for 27 years, it is very consoling to hear you talk like this about cooking. i used to love cooking, and have been in "get something on the table" mode for many many years. thanks for the validation and inspiration to keep on truckin' as well!
I think this inspired me more than any other cooking show I've seen in a while. I loved watching you juggle food for you and your littles. I loved the honesty of the cooking burnout. Loved it all.
You articulated and documented my exact experience week after week with feeding a family of 2 adults, a 5 yo, and a 9 mon old. Thank you for voicing and demonstrating the challenges and inspiration we all need to put food on the table.
Watching you with your 7 day meal prep challenge brings me back to the memories of MY childhood when my mother cooked (and cleaned up after) every meal for 9 of us. Even though I have raised 3 of my own, your video brought brought clarity to what had to have been a monumental task for her. And that was just 1 task in her day. Phew!!!
I discovered your channel this year and you have definitely inspired me to get cooking again. I love how normal your home kitchen is. I love the slight chaos of family life that you guys aren’t afraid to share. I also think it’s so important to show people how to use those leftovers. I don’t know anyone else who does this as authentically as you.
I love that you use everything in your fridge and eat leftovers so there's little waste. Very creative and healthy meals! Thank you for sharing your great ideas!
It's been fun watching your cooking methods change and adapt over the years. You have the right attitude about it - circumstances change and we have adapt, but we don't have to sacrifice quality to do it. Thanks for the "live look" into a week in the life :)
I'm in that exact season of life with 2 littles and I'm a food blogger. All the gun in the kitchen I used to have is now down to just putting anything on the table and that change is really hard when being creative in the kitchen is so fulfilling to me.
Congratulations! As a single Mom sometimes the struggle was just ‘what’ to eat. Leftovers always saved the day. Not reheating but creating something a little different. Now I am taking care of my 94 year old Mom so eating is a little different. Thank goodness my Mom loves leftovers. I even created a Meatloaf Soup which turned out amazing. I also freeze ahead smaller quantities to always have something ready. Finding out that just like little kids , seniors want to eat when they are hungry, not eating by the clock schedule, breakfast, lunch & dinner. I always prep ahead to add flavors & save time. Thanks for all your healthy recipes.. Blessing on you and your family.🥦🧀🫑🥕
Great video, extremely insightful. Got a lot of ideas from seeing how you feed your family healthy and vegetarian stuff, even though we might have different taste palettes. Next go for the hour long plus month documentary video with the challenge!
thank you!!! THIS is how real people need to learn to cook! bits and bobs thrown in all over the place, things cobbled together in all sorts of different combinations, with an understanding of how flavor profiles fit together to make it delicious.
Thank you for doing this video! This is my everyday life and I homeschool my kids ❤. It shows all the hard work that does into feeding a family well! Also the seasons we go through as a home chef. My husband thinks I’m crazy when I long to have a dinner party sometimes just as a creative outlet lol but sometimes you have to go into survival mode just to get a meal out lol
This was an absolutely incredible display of cooking BUT keep in mind this is literally going above and beyond in a seriously impressive way that I do not personally think is sustainable for 20 years lol. One thing we didn't see was big soups which make life a lot easier! Growing up as one of 3 kids with parents that cooked every day for us a big soup is incredibly easy to cook, can use a bunch of leftover ingredients, can taste really good, and can feed a family for multiple meals.
Love how he's difficulty maxxing these meals! A great dad, so creative and lots of variety. Most of us just bulk cook with less variety. My mom would bake a turkey on Sunday, then most of the week was turkey: sandwiches, hash, bbq, pot pie, noodle soup, etc. I tend to grill enough meat on the weekends to serve for dinner all week, and several lunches. Just freeze and reheat when you need it.
i love how you re-use all the things you find in the fridge! Really great example for us all. Thank you for all these great ideas. We also cook 95% ourselves here, but not half as creatively as you. Merry Christmas from Brussels!
Would be pretty neat if you told us the amount of time you spent during the week cooking. We all strive to cook from scratch 100% of the time. To that idea, would be another interesting idea how long it takes cooking 100% everything from scratch during the week in comparison to having these prepped items to huck in and how much faster it is to have this stuff on hand to speed up and ramp up your meals.
My mom could cook a healthy delicious meal so fast. I asked her as a teen how she did it. She told me practice, practice, practice...she started cooking as a youngster helping her mom. 😆
I’m also somewhat curious how much this costs in ingredients😂 i’m fairly sure not every family could afford anything close to this. But it‘s fun to watch and there are things to learn for sure
We cook 100% from scratch, including most of our bread products (pizza dough, bread for toast, muffins, hamburger buns, bagels, etc.) The only bread I buy is a soft bread one of my kids prefers for taking sandwiches for lunch. I spend about 15-20 minutes a day on breakfast (call that 2 hours/week), and about 1 hour on dinner. 2 hours/week to make bread products. 2 hours to grocery shop. 1 hour to put away groceries & meal-prep a couple things throughout the week (Cut up onions, printers, brown meat, etc.). So 2+7+2+1 for cooking or meal prep is 12 hours, plus 2 hours for shopping, and another 1 hour for meal planning and making a list. 15 hours/week to make 100% of our food from scratch. Cleaning up the kitchen is an evening routine for me and my spouse, time to talk about our day and reconnect, but if you wanted to include that, too, add another 7 hours per week, on average. Breakfasts: baked egg casserole, fried eggs & toast, toast with cream cheese, yogurt & fruit, etc. Lunches: usually just dinner leftovers or a sandwich with fruit (my kids occasionally buy school lunch but usually prefer to pack a sandwich & fruit from home) Dinners: routines like Friday night pizza every week, leftovers on Thursdays, breakfast for dinner on Saturday, pasta Wednesday, Taco Tuesday (really any kind of Mexican or Spanish food), etc. help me with menu planning. I make the menu on Saturday morning right before I shop, which is also when I check my pantry/fridge/freezer for what to use up or replace.
Since I don't have kids, I try out your recipes along with others and pass them on to my friends with kids along with making meals for their whole family when I can. My favs recently- Butter Chicken in crock pot with chickpeas & cauliflower, Au Gratin Potatoes and Beef Ribs, Tuscan Creamy Chicken with roasted red bell peppers, Coconut Cream Pie using canned coconut cream and my usual salad with Creamy Citrus Dressing and homemade croutons which I always have for soups. I am experimenting with pickled veggies next and making a type of tahini using sunflower seeds. Like always one of my fav channels to watch.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the inspiration and practical hint you give when using all the little left over portions which so often get chucked out! Hope it inspires people to do the same.
Omg I'm a stay-at-home mum of a 2 yo toddler and another on the way. Your approach made me feel so seen and realize that it is actually hard to cook from scratch every day, all your meals, and keep them nutritious. I've been so worried that maybe I'm just lazy and need a good meal prep or something (that I always fail at) but I love doing what you did in this video and cook from scratch and come up with meal ideas with whatever you have around the house. You've given me some great ideas for our meals going forward! Thank you!
It is great seeing you walking us through all of your day to day thoughts doing the planning and cooking. It is just a wonderful example of mental load and what goes into managing a household. In my family I take on most of the household responsibilities where all of this thinking and planning and cooking, children's appointments etc. are concerned. It is so important you have a minute to yourself to gather your thoughts every day if not you just can't plan out your week and your meals.
Don’t forget to have your kids join you in the kitchen when they get older! Mine are almost grown and they know how to cook from watching grandma, great grandma and me😀👍
You have such beautiful angels! They are definitely worth the work! I do most of the cooking too and that is how my weeks go. I get a nice lunch or dinner maybe twice a month. Every other meal is just survival food. It's a challenge coming up with new dishes. It's nice to see reality! I don't feel so alone and you inspire me on tomorrow's dinner.
Mike, thanks so much for this! My 2 kiddos are similar ages to yours and cooking often feels so much more stressful and rushed than I want it to be. This makes me feel much more normal. And inspired, of course!
The "survival" style of cooking is very relatable. I also cook majority of my food from scratch but I am without kids. It's very reassuring to see that it can be done. Thank you for the video! Keep to the great work
Wow! I appreciated the transparency of how it is a grind by Thursday and how sometimes it doesn’t work out as hoped. I am amazed by how much fresh greens and vegetables are in every meal.
I absolutely love this video. I started watching your videos during the pandemic as a chef that had lost their inspiration for cooking and I wanted to learn a little bit about fermentation. Honestly I haven’t been watching in the last few months because I recently had a baby as well and have been in survival mode but still managing to cook from scratch about 95% of our meals. Really enjoyed that you added in what you were serving the kids because we’re also a family with a six month old it nice to have that inspiration. Would love if you did a video about a few things that are easy to serve your baby and toddler.
I just found your channel and it's awesome! I absolutely love everything about your process. It's a gift to be able to pull together a few items and make a meal. Growing up in a foster home ( My parents ran) we would get commodity boxes. You had to make it work because that would be the main food source. I can make just about anything from left overs or small amounts of food stuff and its good food, that is after all the point. Thank you so much for your tips on the air fryer because I just bought one and wondered what I was going to do with it. I made the most amazing squash fries last night! You Rock!
Being a single dad I can totally feel you. Your vids are super interesting to say the least (in my humble opinion). Mike, it was also great seeing you being human/dad since day-to-day cooking (especially for all ages) is demanding as well as far from perfect. I also love off-the fridge cooking.
I remember when it was an insult to a woman for her to cook for her family. She was called a “June Cleaver” in a negative way. But, just look how much hard work, skill, and thought you put into your family’s meals for the week. I think home cooks are still under appreciated.
Thank you for making this video and sharing the reality of feeding a family because it is so much work every day especially when you are the only one cooking.
As a family if 6, SO much respect thank you for the food inspirations and rawness of getting through meals on the hard days with kiddos and workouts! I found this inspiring and encouraging to say the least! Keep up the awesome job 👏 new sub 💕
I love this video! Just like you, I too normally cook most of our meals and mainly from scratch. Seeing this is almost like outside recognition for what I do for my family. Also I love that you mentioned the tantrums and difference in tastes with toddlers. That's what real life is.
Having homegrown greens is so satisfying. Easy to grow, versatile and a great way to bulk out meals especially when the budget gets tight. Plus you know exactly what you're eating. Must get my next batch growing!
You inspire us! Keep posting more meal prep.. and make a head healthy meals for a family of 4 !!!! I love to see I am not the only one who used to take time to create new inventions with meals.. but now with kiddos in tow ... man!!! the game turns out to be more survivalistic meal making!! It gets tiring by Thursdays .. hahaha I feel ya!!! Yet, t is ALWAYS well worth our while to put on our tables nutrient dense meals for our growing families.
I’m literally over here just nodding my head. I cook all the meals everyday from scratch with minimal take out for my family of 4 and we have 2, 2.5 year old toddlers! This is very close to what my cook plans are during the week, especially with a lot of scratch soups in the winter! Cooking has become survival😂 great tips to elevate a little further. Seriously LOVEDD this video of yours! Super helpful
Great vid, but this is why I like meal prep. Not the usual meal prep, once a week I try to make an extra huge meal, vacuum seal the left overs and freeze. After a couple months of this you wind up with a menu of great home cooked meals in your freezer ready to go.
I really enjoyed this video. I love cooking videos, but it's nice to see someone relate to the struggles I have in my own kitchen like when you need to also entertain a baby or toddler while cooking at the same time. It also shows how much work it is to plan out meals and ingredients and how you need to take into account the different needs and preferences of others in your family. It also helped give me inspiration for things I might try to make for my own family.
I've watched this video multiple times, and I have to say it's my favourite. I love showing REAL home cooking with kids underfoot - I haven't found another channel that includes kid as a fact of life but not the sole focus of cooking. Thank you - from another toddler and baby parent (who loves 'freestyle' cooking).
As a (very happy millennial) parent to a 6 month old, I’m 100% here for a PHC baby-led weaning/purée making/teach kids and babies to love food spinoff channel. Also, freaking adorable kids!
I'm commenting to keep this video at hand. I love this stuff men. So real. Cooking for content is one thing and cooking to survive is a whole other beast. I really love this
Wow. Stunning! I prepare meals for supper and we have the leftovers for lunch .Or else, I cook for supper and we have the leftovers for the next supper. Way less work. Love the way u incorporate so many veggies in your meals. You inspire me😊
This is a wonderful video to watch from a nurse mama farming homestead 2 kids a newborn. I will say when kiddos get big 7&5 cooking becomes fun again but then accidental newborn happen and we are back to survivalist mode of cooking lol been watching your video since kombucha days and great to see you evolving. I need to get my kombucha game back on
I do this everyday. I homeschool my 3 littles. We almost never eat out anywhere. Including prepped food at the grocery store like chicken. I stopped and man it takes planning but it feels so much better to my body
20:08 Welcome to ‘Real Parenthood’! I love you take on the next 25 years but…your grand babies are going to love you just as much!😅 I love your energy and all of your content videos!!!!
Even as a vegetarian I find this really helpful. I'd love to see you do a week of vegetarian meals! Mostly because I'm trying to learn to cook and would love some inspiration
Great video! Especially appreciate that it wasn't all meal planned on a spreadsheet, that you just "went for it" each meal. But also, your commentary at the end was appreciated. We also have young kids and I sometimes mourn the freedom we ised to have to eat whatever, whenever, but there is something really cool about getting in the kitchen three times a day as a family and seeing what we can do with what's in front of us. Keep up the excellent content!
"baby led feeding" just cracked me up! My age is showing. Everything seems to be a process or technique these days. Like most of these techniques baby led feeding is just providing baby with healthy easily eaten food and letting them go at it...which is what everyone did in the past. Now it's been rediscovered. 😂 I enjoyed your video. Thank you!
Kudos to you for cooking while raising children. It is so hard to come up with recipes. I raised 4 kids and I was always in the kitchen. Thankfully, I like to cook, and now I only have my 16-year-old home, but boy oh boy teens like to eat. I am always cooking, prepping, shopping, preparing. It is just non-stop, but it feels good to give her healthy food instead of junk. She likes to cook as well. Get them started in the kitchen early and teach them as much as you can. You make great videos!!!
I really loved this video! I think it shows more of what being a home cook is about in comparison to the more scripted 'watch me do this perfect recipe' videos. A lot of improvising on leftovers and so. Awesome! More of this please :)
I also laughed (absolutely not condescendingly) it just reminded me of when I had a houseful of kids) and the chaos that ensued was just normal. I can tell you that I miss that crazy. I swear I blinked and I had an empty house. It flies by so quick. I don’t know where the time went! Now I’m patiently waiting for grand babies so I can have it all back again. I happen to love cooking. It’s how I share/show my love to my family and friends. But it can get overwhelming at times. It’s nice to see an authentic version of how life really goes. It’s not a staged, beautiful and unrealistic post for the internet. That’s the most appealing part! Happy Holidays!!
My mom did something with us I think it's worth sharing:
When we were in the later years of elementary school, she'd occasionally have us go to the grocery store with a budget and instructions to have a grain, a protein, a veggie, a fruit, and a dairy in our meal. She'd help us cook it, especially tasks involving heat.
Later, in middle school and high school when we were allowed to operate the stove and oven and so forth, we each had one night a week that was our night to make dinner. The budget wasn't so much a piece of the puzzle anymore, we'd just tell her at the beginning of the week of there was anything we wanted her to get from the store.
It wasn't necessarily a recipe for Michelin star cuisine- there were a lot of 'technically, box mac n cheese is grain dairy and protein' meals- but it was cooking she didn't have to do, and we got a feel for what it took to make dinner both in terms of appreciating the effort and learning the skills. All my siblings and I are fully capable of planning and cooking our own meals, and I give a lot of credit to her for that.
Saving this as inspiration for raising my kids, such a smart move from your mom.
I absolutely love this, if the person I think I will marriage agrees with it which he probably will, I want to put this into practice in the future! Thanks so much for sharing! Your mom seems like a very smart woman!
@@ariellel6123 if it helps, we all were responsible for washing and putting away our own laundry as soon as we were tall enough to operate the washer and dryer as well.
Cooking specifically- teach your kids to read recipes. There's lots of cooking specific terminology (simmer, saute, broil, separate, and many many more) that can be confusing when you've never seen the word before, or haven't seen it in that context. Likewise, emphasize that the listed ingredients and amounts are all the recipe calls for- my brother will never live the brownies he thought needed a quarter cup of salt down.
Early on, even before either of these, you can have some kid-participatory meals. One I remember was 'mama mia pizzas', or a tortilla, sauce, cheese, and toppings that would get cooked in the toaster oven (regular oven at a low temp should do the trick too, just gotta melt the cheese and warm it through). All of us kids could participate in at least the construction aspect as well as decide what we wanted on our own pizza
One thing I wish my parents had been less hands off about once we knew how to do it ourselves: toothbrushing. Just having us brush our teeth together at the same time, well into grade school, I think would have gone a long way to developing that habit (and saved them money on our cavities lmao).
Rule of thumb for independent tasks: if it's something that affects health or safety, at least monitor it. But things like laundry, where the meltdown will most likely be 'but I don't have anything I WANT to wear', can be met with 'sounds like you need to do some laundry this evening, I'll make sure the washer and dryer are free for that'
Also, tell your kids reasons for things! 'you have to fold and sort your clothes' is an edict. 'we fold/hang our clothes because school doesn't let us have wrinkled clothes, and we sort our clothes to make it easy to get dressed and see when we need to do more laundry' gives them the reasons the things need to be done
Kids won't necessarily think those things are important at the time, but knowing there's reasons for things helps in the long run
Also, reasons for cleaning up can be 'mommy and daddy use this space too, and leaving your toys out is mean to us' or 'a messy floor could hurt you especially if you need to leave quickly in an emergency' or 'each toy needs a home so you can find it later'
Anyway that's my additional retrospective advice lmao
@@nannatvj couldn't figure out how to tag two people on mobile, see my response to Arielle L haha
I have 2 sons, young teenagers, and I think I'm gonna do this, thanks for the inspo, bless your mom. Greetings from Turkey 🤗
Your last comment made me think of how hard my mother worked back in the 60's and 70's, raising 11 children. She baked 25 loaves of bread a week and planted and harvested a garden every year. Your children will have these same memories of the love that went into their food. Peace!
I have to smile at the premise of this video. That being able to say, “I cooked everything for seven days from scratch“ is video worthy is kind of funny. Both my mother and my mother-in-law would say “I cooked every meal from scratch for 30+ years” :-)
wow thats incredible. sounds like a food factory she was running for your fam
@@PeterBallW it's a just a title of the video, I mention the video that this is pretty much my life all the time. maybe reduced by a few percent
@@LifebyMikeG, no worries and no criticism. I love your videos. It just struck me as funny.
@@pajander So, my Mom didn't see this as a problem. She was innovative, hard working, grew so many foods that we needed, and she baked tons of bread. She was happy. I am grateful that she didn't see raising us as a problem.
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of content I'm missing from UA-cam since I became a dad. I can watch a million productivity/journaling/yoga tips from childless young men, but I feel like there is not enough content on how to handle life when you have kids and a family you have to provide for... Seeing someone cooking for their family for a whole week is the new type of video that can motivate me to become a better person 🌟
Maybe you can inspire other men to do the same
Absolutely agree with this! Being a parent is difficult and we need more raw videos
I mean the implication being that the productivity vids from the childless men aren't worth much due to the free time they have, can also be applied here
This guy is a cooking UA-camr. Meaning that his work revolves around always having a stocked panty and 8-12 hours a day to cook it....and HE even said it's exhausting under those ideal conditions!
Your standard 9-5, mon-fri office dude, childless or not isn't going to have that much time and resources available to cook like we see here. And no amount of productivity advice can change that.
Personally, I think the productivity content boom is a symptom of how overworked western society is, especially now that BOTH parents in a household need to have jobs to make ends meet...and how we desperately need a restructure of the average working day (e.g. 4 day work weeks etc). This also taking into account things like car culture and commutes that can literally eat away hours of productive time from your day.
Yes i recently came back to watch his videos and come to find out he has a family like me❤
I totally like this type of content. And i feel that this is my favorite video on the internet ❤
lol about journaling. and you are 100% right, this guy is super dad... i love cooking but since having a toddler and going back to work, its a real challenge but I am proud to say we eat at home 95% of the time.
You remind me of my Mom when I was a kid, back in the ‘70s. A single parent, She did all the cooking, managed our little farm and us three kids while working as a nurse. She’s eighty now and still an amazing cook. I showed her this video and she said “Well I sure could have used a husband like that!” Thanks for sharing a week of your life with us!
Exactly! What a lucky wife he has!
@@shawnjohnson2833 not that he isn't great but all men should be bare minimum doing cleaning, parenting, cooking, and striving to be a good supportive partner. So she isn't lucky that is how it should be, and he is also getting support too so SHE is great too
That’s so amazing! My dad was an amazing cook and when he died my mom took over and she wasn’t good. I learned myself and started cooking for me and my mom and making our lunches. But I went vegan so now she has to make her own food and she makes lots of cup noodles. I definitely make better food than her
@@TheTalomir Totally agree that men should help and be supportive, but if my husband made 21 meals in just one week for our family, I’d consider myself more than lucky, lol. Especially yummy ones like these. I also have to admit that if I made 21 meals in a week, my husband would be shocked. Haha. Haven’t done that in several years.
@E smith TheTalomir...she is indeed lucky to have him cook for her everyday. Cooking is tedious and cooking delicious food takes a lot of effort. Its tiring.
Not many men are lucky enough like his wife to enjoy home cooked food everyday. Many women dont cook nowadays especially when they are working.
U seem to have a problem with men getting credit for the work they put in. Be generous. Lots of men will openly proclaim that their wives are crucial to the success they enjoy in life.
No doubt his wife must be giving him support. Any good wife would. At the end of the day however, it is his sweat and toil that made everything possible.
This is how exactly how normal people cook in real life. Really appreciate this kind of content.
ditto. i don't see it as achievement but my normal life:-(
This is insane. 2x the batch size and eat 2x a day and you cut your workload by 75%
@@tann_man math wasn't your best subject eh?
@@ryanjones7681 lol ironically it was. I edited the sentence a few too many times to make it shorter, easier to comprehend and more realistic (Originally I wrote 3x) but I forgot to re calculate the percentage. It's 66.66%
@@tann_man eh, 75% might have been right. It's more than twice as efficient to make half as many meals.
Good work. Your make it real, thanks. Makes me think of my grandma. She had 15 kids, and lived in North Dakota. Hot summers, and cooking constantly. She wore a thin cotton apron-like dress. It must have been beastly hot in her kitchen. No refrigeration. They lowered the milk in the well to keep it cool. They had 14 milk cows, and she made lots of homemade soft cheese, and cottage cheese by the buckets full. I can not wrap my head around how hard she must have worked. She could make a good meal out of whatever was on hand, and was a master at it. Thanks for giving testament to the effort to provide home cooked meals. It is constant thought and planning, especially to use up what you have.
wow epic stuff Gale! thanks for commenting in
God that sounds terrible lol
@@Followmybliss777literally dude, who tf would want to do that every day of their life. 15 kids plus no support is rough
I don’t think people who don’t have to think about what to feed a family 3 times a day 7 days a week know how much it takes out of you. It’s a monumental pile of microdecisions and with kids it just can’t wait. There’s a time urgency and if you aren’t feeling great or we’ll rested, it can be really hard. When you said I got to Thursday…I just knew exactly how you felt.
Yes, I feel the same way! And Thursday is usually leftovers night in our house for that reason!
There is such thing as a frozen pizza. No one is forcing you at gunpoint to cook lol
I know exactly what you mean. The daily planning that goes into what to feed my family every day is killing me. I am working on a system that takes the hundreds of microdecisions out of the equation.
no one at gunpoint, except an individual's desire for healthy and fresh food. @@Followmybliss777 if u find a healthy pizaa, sure. you can see from the video - and the comments that complement it - that there is a heavy undertone of healthy and freshly harvested food. if u want to cook your newborn a microwave pasta or ready-made chicken, go ahead. but this guy, and others, are trying to foster healthy bodies.
Yep.. and not to forget all the work before the cooking.. SHOPPING for the food, finding deals, putting meal plans together, and use everything and not waste/throw out etc.. Making sure you always have backups that ur kids WILL eat, etc.. I buy/prep/cook all meals for the family 7 days a week year round, i did it before we had kids because i liked cooking, and im good at it.. But its not like that anymore. It changes when the kids are screaming and the wife is hangry... There is no solution to it.. it is the biggest task in a household no matter what.. Yes u can prep some frozen meals, yea u can eat a premade meal sometimes, but there is ALWAYS a day tomorrow and you have to do it all again.. it never stops. And no you can't just get ur partner to cook half the time, most likely they dont know how to cook very well, and even if they WANT to help it might take 4x the time and they get frustrated or something gets burned and the kids cant wait, the kitchen look like hell etc etc all the cliches... Its more work than if you just did it to begin with.
This is the kind of video I love, seeing how people just DEAL with certain food items. I get so stuck in "I need a recipe for this!" that I often forget about just cooking things and adding them together randomly. Every time I do this, I am alway super happy with how it turns out. Do more of these!
You do an excellent job juggling all your responsibilities!! You make it look easy, but it is very stressful. It's good time management.
Can vouch for that! And here I thought all the stress was in my head as a homemaker! Lol 😅 after watching this video my heart is humbled on the beautiful insanity that is parenthood
of course it's stressful when you must earn money for capitasilm and taking care about family in same time
@@capitan_uebish mb. John yj
its the editing that makes it look effortless
What the f*** are you talking about? he doesn't have a job, his job is to cook and record it. I would make all my meals from scratch also if that was my job.
Any husband, wife, or parent preparing this much delicous, nutritious food on a weekly basis is a damn super hero!
🎊 mate I have a (Mystery Box) package for you, Text the above username for acknowledgment,.
Its a full time job! But I love it
FINALLY a professional documenting the reality, thank you for this it was so well done and explained. I'd love to see how you'd teach a novice like most of us to be as flexible and creative with the ingredients and leftovers. We eat out a lot as a family and the most cooking I did was through Hello Fresh, which was great but the prep time was a lot (30-40min for lack of experience). This made me understand that it can be way simpler for prep, and eating healthy can be just as tasty as eating out. Thanks for the inspiration!
thanks for chiming in! hello fresh and other meal boxes are a great intro in the home cooking game but eventually the goal should be to break free of recipes. A lot of that just comes from practice and time! keep it up
I know this was a long time ago but just wanted to share my favorite healthy quick easy meal prep meal. I brown up some ground meat, when it’s about halfway through add whatever veggies I have in my fridge to cook and steam in the juice from the meat, add beef bouillon, garlic, salt, pepper, and whatever else you like. Once it’s all cooked that’s it 🤷♀️ sometimes I serve it with bread or rice or tortillas, but usually I just eat it alone. It’s SO easy, takes like 15 minutes. Really simple to change up your flavor profile too, sometimes I go more Asian with soy sauce and ginger. Sometimes more Mexican with taco seasoning and hot chili’s. It’s my absolute favorite cause I make a huge batch, stick the whole entire pot in the fridge and eat it for days. High protein, high veg, low cleanup and low time.
One of the things I really enjoy about your style of home cooking is you don't waste anything. I am guilty of letting so much food go to waste in my refrigerator because I lack the creativity to come up with something to cook. This video inspires me.
The big takeaway from this video, is to prep foods in between meals and make extra. I always make extra because we love leftovers but I don’t always prepare foods in advance; I’m thinking that making foods earlier in the day (when I have more energy), will up my dinner meal game 😊
My Mom tried it, but the pleading of 5 kids - let's have THAT for lunch instead, sucked whatever time she was trying to save out of the room. She did like the crock pot. Sorry kids, not ready till dinner and if you keep lifting the lid, 10 pm.
She loved that first I liked helping, then I could do it all and we split the cooking. If I had and idea or a new recipe to try, she was the biggest fan. If she did, then I was.
Dude you are a master at this, the amount of veggies and meals from scratch is amazing, your kids will probably watch some of your videos in 20 years and be extremely grateful for what you did for them!
His kids will be reading this in 20 years Hi! 😂
Cooking fresh, healthy meals for a family is really more challenging than folks realize. Kudos to you for all the love you are putting into those meals! Great meal improv ideas. Love seeing all the fresh veggies from the garden being incorporated into your meals. Thanks for keeping it real. Your kids are beautiful. I also love how you have embraced the change and season of your life. Great lesson for all of us!
N>jm
This is the most REAL youtube video ever, the cooking parent literally making various meals at the same time for all the family members that don't necessarily eat all the same things. LOL this is my life right here! The meals you made look amazing!
Yeah, but imagine how awesome it's gonna be when your kids are old enough to cook with you. :)
🤯you just blew my mind
Yeah, I’ve cooked for my parents countless times.
@@LifebyMikeG before you teach em to cook teach em to clean or one day you’re gonna wake up to a huge mess cuz they tried to make you breakfast
I love cooking w my kids and now they can do a lot !
@@LifebyMikeG yeah teach them to clean while they cook is great advice. But get some covers for those garden beds so you grow year round. Reach out to epicgardening I’m sure he could give you some tips
I feel so seen! The amount of work that goes into feeding a family of 5 (in my case--and the kids eat more and more every month it seems) is unreal. Everything about this video is so accurate...the pace of the talking and the cooking and the transitioning between feeding, tantrum-calming, eating, cleaning and then getting right back in the kitchen after either digesting for a mere 10 minutes or the kids go to bed. It's just so much to do! Always on the lookout for ways to help make the process more sustainable because that midweek burnout is real.
Totally with you--- we're a family of 7 and I feel like the cooking keeps going! I love it and wish I can just wing each meal instead of following recipes as much as I do!
It’s a hell of a lot of work, but it’s so important to me that my family eat nutritious meals. We barely eat out - perhaps one two twice per month - which I think is cheaper in the short and long term, but it’s so expensive in terms of time investment from me.
I used to follow recipes for my meals but after a while, I figured I can put together my meal with whatever I have in the fridge and my pantry. It is very liberating!
This video is timely. You definitely validated just how challenging it is to work, meal/ prep, cook and clean with little ones. I too always get stumped mid week, because of burn out and also still wanting to put something nutritious, tasty, and quick on the table. This video reminds me of how hard it can be, but also how rewarding and gratifying it is to feed the family a good meal despite the hustle and bustle of work and life.
This is the turn I needed this channel to take!!! Seeing the curtain pulled back and watching the ways you implement the techniques, flavor profiles, and ingredients from your other videos in day to day life! It's inspiring and awesome to see a dad cooking for his daughters too! I can so relate to the tantrum counter while mama cooks. 😂
Absolutely love this content, there isn't enough of this out there. Everyone tries to record only the perfect meals, but reality is that half of the time we eat random leftovers, especially us parents who eat whatever the littles one didn't want! Please keep doing what you are doing, great job :)
Love this so much! This is the type of content that we need. I totally felt it when you said that you got to Thursday... The amount of work and effort that takes to keep a family functioning is gigantic and something that a lot of women have been dealing with for the longest time. I love seeing you and your family take it on as a team, so inspiring! 💖
The amazing thing also is with kids once they get old enough they help cook also.❤. We cook about 90% we do eat out once every other week or so. Muffins for breakfast with quick eggs. We do leftover lunches often I wish I was a salad wiz like you. I need to up my salad lunch game
Is it weird to say I have reached a point that I am tired of eating. I think its more that I am tired of cooking. I want healthy, yummy meals but it is such a hard thing to do. Time is hard to come by too. I work all day, then run home to make sure I am making meals that are made fresh and not premade. That takes time. Then you still have the clean up and you need to make healthy lunches. At times I feel I am only working, sleeping and cooking meals. All these meals were fantastic. I will try a few as some I make on a regular. Thank you for putting this out there for everyone to know it is hard work, it's not that you are lazy.
I’d love to see three or four of these a year.
"Cooking is much more survivalistic" As a family of 6, I feel this in my soul
I'm with you brother. That's why at this point I make large portions and figure out how to re purpose them throughout the week. Unfortunately the rest of my family isn't like me, I'm like a dog, I can eat the same thing until it's gone
I love you showing this behind the scenes of typical real life for folks who don’t rely on convenience foods and restaurants. I do all home cooking pretty much 95% of the time for our family (two adults and 17, 9, and 7 year old kids on celiac and type 1 diabetic friendly foods) and I’ve gotta say- the toughest part of it is the dishes. If there was a magical dish fairy who came behind me and cleaned up the dishes I would be much more content 😂
that's awesome! and your kids seem old enough to help with the dishes :)
fairy is called a dishwasher 😹👌
There are four other people in that house and you're telling me none of them can do the dishes?
As someone who recently moved out of their parents house, they are going to miss that food when they go off to college or move out! My parents cooked great food, but yours is honestly on a different level.. homemade breakfast, fresh product, homemade bread!? you are doing such a good job, they will be asking you for your recipes before you know it ☺
Easily my favourite video of yours to date. I appreciate the reality of home cooking being shown!
You from across the pond?
@@msjkramey depends which side of the pond you're on
@@samiant5199 lol true. You British?
Thank you for keeping it real and showing us a couple of meals that were just so-so in taste (but definitely higher in nutrition than take-out)! The goal is to feed our families, and sometimes meals are just thrown together in desperation, lol. Thank you for showing how you do this so we can be encouraged to keep cooking!
I want to see all the dishes and cleaning version of this video lol
need to install a dish cam
only available at Only Pans
@@1will2killaahhhhhh😂😂😂😂😂 you suck😂😂😂😂hilarious
That's a really good point though. The job doesn't end with the meal.
@Stephanie Reed hopefully someone else will wash dishes! My husband and I try to split cooking and washing but we don't have kids yet! 🙃
thank you for show casing how much work it is to feed a family and ensuring they get the nutrions they need by home cook meals!
as a mom of 5 girls who has been cooking for 27 years, it is very consoling to hear you talk like this about cooking. i used to love cooking, and have been in "get something on the table" mode for many many years. thanks for the validation and inspiration to keep on truckin' as well!
I think this inspired me more than any other cooking show I've seen in a while. I loved watching you juggle food for you and your littles. I loved the honesty of the cooking burnout. Loved it all.
You articulated and documented my exact experience week after week with feeding a family of 2 adults, a 5 yo, and a 9 mon old. Thank you for voicing and demonstrating the challenges and inspiration we all need to put food on the table.
Watching you with your 7 day meal prep challenge brings me back to the memories of MY childhood when my mother cooked (and cleaned up after) every meal for 9 of us. Even though I have raised 3 of my own, your video brought brought clarity to what had to have been a monumental task for her. And that was just 1 task in her day. Phew!!!
I love how much veg you get into your meals. Your family is lucky to have you as the main cook of the family
I discovered your channel this year and you have definitely inspired me to get cooking again. I love how normal your home kitchen is. I love the slight chaos of family life that you guys aren’t afraid to share. I also think it’s so important to show people how to use those leftovers. I don’t know anyone else who does this as authentically as you.
I love that you use everything in your fridge and eat leftovers so there's little waste. Very creative and healthy meals! Thank you for sharing your great ideas!
It's been fun watching your cooking methods change and adapt over the years. You have the right attitude about it - circumstances change and we have adapt, but we don't have to sacrifice quality to do it. Thanks for the "live look" into a week in the life :)
I'm in that exact season of life with 2 littles and I'm a food blogger. All the gun in the kitchen I used to have is now down to just putting anything on the table and that change is really hard when being creative in the kitchen is so fulfilling to me.
Congratulations! As a single Mom sometimes the struggle was just ‘what’ to eat. Leftovers always saved the day. Not reheating but creating something a little different. Now I am taking care of my 94 year old Mom so eating is a little different. Thank goodness my Mom loves leftovers. I even created a Meatloaf Soup which turned out amazing. I also freeze ahead smaller quantities to always have something ready. Finding out that just like little kids , seniors want to eat when they are hungry, not eating by the clock schedule, breakfast, lunch & dinner. I always prep ahead to add flavors & save time. Thanks for all your healthy recipes.. Blessing on you and your family.🥦🧀🫑🥕
I loved this video. Done is better than perfect. Good parenting, is parenting that's done. The only thing is doing our bests. Thanks for your channel.
Great video, extremely insightful. Got a lot of ideas from seeing how you feed your family healthy and vegetarian stuff, even though we might have different taste palettes. Next go for the hour long plus month documentary video with the challenge!
hmm, sounds equally temping and exhausting at the same time.
I would 100000% watch that.
thank you!!! THIS is how real people need to learn to cook! bits and bobs thrown in all over the place, things cobbled together in all sorts of different combinations, with an understanding of how flavor profiles fit together to make it delicious.
Thank you for doing this video! This is my everyday life and I homeschool my kids ❤. It shows all the hard work that does into feeding a family well! Also the seasons we go through as a home chef. My husband thinks I’m crazy when I long to have a dinner party sometimes just as a creative outlet lol but sometimes you have to go into survival mode just to get a meal out lol
Totally with-- cooking and homeschooling is definitely sooo much time but absolutely rewarding also!!
This was an absolutely incredible display of cooking BUT keep in mind this is literally going above and beyond in a seriously impressive way that I do not personally think is sustainable for 20 years lol. One thing we didn't see was big soups which make life a lot easier! Growing up as one of 3 kids with parents that cooked every day for us a big soup is incredibly easy to cook, can use a bunch of leftover ingredients, can taste really good, and can feed a family for multiple meals.
Respect for you. Cooking every day but still have passion. Especially for your family. Mad Respect!
Good job on all the veg and the rock star kitchen abilities. Thanks for a lot of cool tips
Love how he's difficulty maxxing these meals! A great dad, so creative and lots of variety. Most of us just bulk cook with less variety. My mom would bake a turkey on Sunday, then most of the week was turkey: sandwiches, hash, bbq, pot pie, noodle soup, etc. I tend to grill enough meat on the weekends to serve for dinner all week, and several lunches. Just freeze and reheat when you need it.
i love how you re-use all the things you find in the fridge! Really great example for us all. Thank you for all these great ideas. We also cook 95% ourselves here, but not half as creatively as you. Merry Christmas from Brussels!
Would be pretty neat if you told us the amount of time you spent during the week cooking. We all strive to cook from scratch 100% of the time.
To that idea, would be another interesting idea how long it takes cooking 100% everything from scratch during the week in comparison to having these prepped items to huck in and how much faster it is to have this stuff on hand to speed up and ramp up your meals.
My mom could cook a healthy delicious meal so fast. I asked her as a teen how she did it. She told me practice, practice, practice...she started cooking as a youngster helping her mom. 😆
Since you are interested in food, have you heard of the Save Soil movement before? #SaveSoil #ConsciousPlanet
@@savesoil3133 I don't know anything about it, but a short search brought up this article on how the Save Soil movement isn't a good bet.
I’m also somewhat curious how much this costs in ingredients😂 i’m fairly sure not every family could afford anything close to this. But it‘s fun to watch and there are things to learn for sure
We cook 100% from scratch, including most of our bread products (pizza dough, bread for toast, muffins, hamburger buns, bagels, etc.) The only bread I buy is a soft bread one of my kids prefers for taking sandwiches for lunch.
I spend about 15-20 minutes a day on breakfast (call that 2 hours/week), and about 1 hour on dinner. 2 hours/week to make bread products. 2 hours to grocery shop. 1 hour to put away groceries & meal-prep a couple things throughout the week (Cut up onions, printers, brown meat, etc.).
So 2+7+2+1 for cooking or meal prep is 12 hours, plus 2 hours for shopping, and another 1 hour for meal planning and making a list.
15 hours/week to make 100% of our food from scratch.
Cleaning up the kitchen is an evening routine for me and my spouse, time to talk about our day and reconnect, but if you wanted to include that, too, add another 7 hours per week, on average.
Breakfasts: baked egg casserole, fried eggs & toast, toast with cream cheese, yogurt & fruit, etc.
Lunches: usually just dinner leftovers or a sandwich with fruit (my kids occasionally buy school lunch but usually prefer to pack a sandwich & fruit from home)
Dinners: routines like Friday night pizza every week, leftovers on Thursdays, breakfast for dinner on Saturday, pasta Wednesday, Taco Tuesday (really any kind of Mexican or Spanish food), etc. help me with menu planning. I make the menu on Saturday morning right before I shop, which is also when I check my pantry/fridge/freezer for what to use up or replace.
Since I don't have kids, I try out your recipes along with others and pass them on to my friends with kids along with making meals for their whole family when I can. My favs recently- Butter Chicken in crock pot with chickpeas & cauliflower, Au Gratin Potatoes and Beef Ribs, Tuscan Creamy Chicken with roasted red bell peppers, Coconut Cream Pie using canned coconut cream and my usual salad with Creamy Citrus Dressing and homemade croutons which I always have for soups. I am experimenting with pickled veggies next and making a type of tahini using sunflower seeds. Like always one of my fav channels to watch.
geez...your multi-tasking is next level, especially with the kiddos. I aspire to be like you one day lol
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the inspiration and practical hint you give when using all the little left over portions which so often get chucked out! Hope it inspires people to do the same.
Omg I'm a stay-at-home mum of a 2 yo toddler and another on the way. Your approach made me feel so seen and realize that it is actually hard to cook from scratch every day, all your meals, and keep them nutritious. I've been so worried that maybe I'm just lazy and need a good meal prep or something (that I always fail at) but I love doing what you did in this video and cook from scratch and come up with meal ideas with whatever you have around the house. You've given me some great ideas for our meals going forward! Thank you!
It is great seeing you walking us through all of your day to day thoughts doing the planning and cooking. It is just a wonderful example of mental load and what goes into managing a household. In my family I take on most of the household responsibilities where all of this thinking and planning and cooking, children's appointments etc. are concerned. It is so important you have a minute to yourself to gather your thoughts every day if not you just can't plan out your week and your meals.
Don’t forget to have your kids join you in the kitchen when they get older! Mine are almost grown and they know how to cook from watching grandma, great grandma and me😀👍
You have such beautiful angels! They are definitely worth the work! I do most of the cooking too and that is how my weeks go. I get a nice lunch or dinner maybe twice a month. Every other meal is just survival food. It's a challenge coming up with new dishes. It's nice to see reality! I don't feel so alone and you inspire me on tomorrow's dinner.
Mike, thanks so much for this! My 2 kiddos are similar ages to yours and cooking often feels so much more stressful and rushed than I want it to be. This makes me feel much more normal. And inspired, of course!
Stay strong
The "survival" style of cooking is very relatable. I also cook majority of my food from scratch but I am without kids. It's very reassuring to see that it can be done. Thank you for the video! Keep to the great work
Wow! I appreciated the transparency of how it is a grind by Thursday and how sometimes it doesn’t work out as hoped. I am amazed by how much fresh greens and vegetables are in every meal.
Honestly one of the best cooking videos I've ever watched. Inspiring, educational, and full of real life at the same time!
I absolutely love this video. I started watching your videos during the pandemic as a chef that had lost their inspiration for cooking and I wanted to learn a little bit about fermentation. Honestly I haven’t been watching in the last few months because I recently had a baby as well and have been in survival mode but still managing to cook from scratch about 95% of our meals. Really enjoyed that you added in what you were serving the kids because we’re also a family with a six month old it nice to have that inspiration. Would love if you did a video about a few things that are easy to serve your baby and toddler.
I just found your channel and it's awesome! I absolutely love everything about your process. It's a gift to be able to pull together a few items and make a meal. Growing up in a foster home ( My parents ran) we would get commodity boxes. You had to make it work because that would be the main food source. I can make just about anything from left overs or small amounts of food stuff and its good food, that is after all the point. Thank you so much for your tips on the air fryer because I just bought one and wondered what I was going to do with it. I made the most amazing squash fries last night! You Rock!
What a wonderful video! The little girls warmed my heart.
Being a single dad I can totally feel you. Your vids are super interesting to say the least (in my humble opinion). Mike, it was also great seeing you being human/dad since day-to-day cooking (especially for all ages) is demanding as well as far from perfect. I also love off-the fridge cooking.
I remember when it was an insult to a woman for her to cook for her family. She was called a “June Cleaver” in a negative way. But, just look how much hard work, skill, and thought you put into your family’s meals for the week. I think home cooks are still under appreciated.
Thank you for making this video and sharing the reality of feeding a family because it is so much work every day especially when you are the only one cooking.
As a family if 6, SO much respect thank you for the food inspirations and rawness of getting through meals on the hard days with kiddos and workouts! I found this inspiring and encouraging to say the least! Keep up the awesome job 👏 new sub 💕
This is the kind of cooking I aspire to. I have loved your channel for years and appreciate how it has transformed as your life has changed.
I love this video! Just like you, I too normally cook most of our meals and mainly from scratch. Seeing this is almost like outside recognition for what I do for my family. Also I love that you mentioned the tantrums and difference in tastes with toddlers. That's what real life is.
Having homegrown greens is so satisfying. Easy to grow, versatile and a great way to bulk out meals especially when the budget gets tight. Plus you know exactly what you're eating. Must get my next batch growing!
Love how you make meals real down to earth! Keep up the good work!
You inspire us! Keep posting more meal prep.. and make a head healthy meals for a family of 4 !!!! I love to see I am not the only one who used to take time to create new inventions with meals.. but now with kiddos in tow ... man!!! the game turns out to be more survivalistic meal making!! It gets tiring by Thursdays .. hahaha I feel ya!!! Yet, t is ALWAYS well worth our while to put on our tables nutrient dense meals for our growing families.
More family food please this was great!
I’m literally over here just nodding my head. I cook all the meals everyday from scratch with minimal take out for my family of 4 and we have 2, 2.5 year old toddlers! This is very close to what my cook plans are during the week, especially with a lot of scratch soups in the winter! Cooking has become survival😂 great tips to elevate a little further. Seriously LOVEDD this video of yours! Super helpful
Great vid, but this is why I like meal prep. Not the usual meal prep, once a week I try to make an extra huge meal, vacuum seal the left overs and freeze. After a couple months of this you wind up with a menu of great home cooked meals in your freezer ready to go.
i make several big meals usually based on meat that require long hours of cooking and freeze...the only way to survive
I really enjoyed this video. I love cooking videos, but it's nice to see someone relate to the struggles I have in my own kitchen like when you need to also entertain a baby or toddler while cooking at the same time. It also shows how much work it is to plan out meals and ingredients and how you need to take into account the different needs and preferences of others in your family. It also helped give me inspiration for things I might try to make for my own family.
huge respect to you, feeding myself can get quite troublesome as is, I could not imagine feeding 3 other people every single meal every day!
Single mothers do it everyday :/
I've watched this video multiple times, and I have to say it's my favourite. I love showing REAL home cooking with kids underfoot - I haven't found another channel that includes kid as a fact of life but not the sole focus of cooking. Thank you - from another toddler and baby parent (who loves 'freestyle' cooking).
As a (very happy millennial) parent to a 6 month old, I’m 100% here for a PHC baby-led weaning/purée making/teach kids and babies to love food spinoff channel. Also, freaking adorable kids!
I'm commenting to keep this video at hand. I love this stuff men. So real. Cooking for content is one thing and cooking to survive is a whole other beast. I really love this
Love how he said “survival mode” and then made a incredible spread. Dads rock.
Wow. Stunning! I prepare meals for supper and we have the leftovers for lunch .Or else, I cook for supper and we have the leftovers for the next supper. Way less work. Love the way u incorporate so many veggies in your meals. You inspire me😊
I live in the middle of nowhere and have to cook all of my meals 24/7. God I miss my takeout but it’s made me a really good cook!
This is a wonderful video to watch from a nurse mama farming homestead 2 kids a newborn. I will say when kiddos get big 7&5 cooking becomes fun again but then accidental newborn happen and we are back to survivalist mode of cooking lol been watching your video since kombucha days and great to see you evolving. I need to get my kombucha game back on
I do this everyday. I homeschool my 3 littles. We almost never eat out anywhere. Including prepped food at the grocery store like chicken.
I stopped and man it takes planning but it feels so much better to my body
You home school your kids? They get private tutors?
20:08
Welcome to ‘Real Parenthood’!
I love you take on the next 25 years but…your grand babies are going to love you just as much!😅
I love your energy and all of your content videos!!!!
Even as a vegetarian I find this really helpful. I'd love to see you do a week of vegetarian meals! Mostly because I'm trying to learn to cook and would love some inspiration
Great video! Especially appreciate that it wasn't all meal planned on a spreadsheet, that you just "went for it" each meal.
But also, your commentary at the end was appreciated. We also have young kids and I sometimes mourn the freedom we ised to have to eat whatever, whenever, but there is something really cool about getting in the kitchen three times a day as a family and seeing what we can do with what's in front of us. Keep up the excellent content!
The only missing piece from this video: your toddler screaming "DON'T WANT IT" and throwing whatever you just gave her on the floor
i love this type of video. for real, showing up every day is what cooking is actually about for home cooks.
This is the most productive man I’ve ever seen. Wish I had someone like this to do all my cooking🤤
It is refreshing to see how real a professional chef eats and feeds his family!
"baby led feeding" just cracked me up! My age is showing. Everything seems to be a process or technique these days. Like most of these techniques baby led feeding is just providing baby with healthy easily eaten food and letting them go at it...which is what everyone did in the past. Now it's been rediscovered. 😂
I enjoyed your video. Thank you!
Kudos to you for cooking while raising children. It is so hard to come up with recipes. I raised 4 kids and I was always in the kitchen. Thankfully, I like to cook, and now I only have my 16-year-old home, but boy oh boy teens like to eat. I am always cooking, prepping, shopping, preparing. It is just non-stop, but it feels good to give her healthy food instead of junk. She likes to cook as well. Get them started in the kitchen early and teach them as much as you can. You make great videos!!!
I really loved this video! I think it shows more of what being a home cook is about in comparison to the more scripted 'watch me do this perfect recipe' videos. A lot of improvising on leftovers and so. Awesome! More of this please :)
I also laughed (absolutely not condescendingly) it just reminded me of when I had a houseful of kids) and the chaos that ensued was just normal. I can tell you that I miss that crazy. I swear I blinked and I had an empty house. It flies by so quick. I don’t know where the time went! Now I’m patiently waiting for grand babies so I can have it all back again. I happen to love cooking. It’s how I share/show my love to my family and friends. But it can get overwhelming at times. It’s nice to see an authentic version of how life really goes. It’s not a staged, beautiful and unrealistic post for the internet. That’s the most appealing part! Happy Holidays!!