Ben Makes Dinner

 Recently Ben was looking through a children's cookbook and picked out something he wanted to make.  He proclaimed to me that he wanted to make dinner.  Alright.  Ben is 9.  This idea, of course, is going to take a lot of oversight and work for me.  But I didn't want to squash his enthusiasm.  My mother-in-law also encouraged me not long ago with the idea of letting the children plan, shop for and cook a meal.  So I told Ben that what he had chosen was good, but it wasn't enough.  He needed to pick something else to go with it and it had to be approved by me.  Then he picked something else that was very suitable as well, since he was determined that he would do it all himself, and we set a night to do it.  He did great.  He really did do everything himself with just some consulting by me.  He made something called Crispy Chicken Bites.  You can see him dipping chicken breast pieces in flour, then egg, then panko bread crumbs and laying them on the baking sheet, above. 

 Here he is mincing the garlic for the the sauce of his other choice, Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce.

 All done!

He even mixed up the dipping sauce for the chicken bites.  His dinner was truly delicious and he was so pleased.  Way to go, Ben!