how I cook every meal for the week (family of 4)

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.

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!

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of content I'm missing from Youtube 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 🌟

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!

This is how exactly how normal people cook in real life. Really appreciate this kind of content.

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.

Yeah, but imagine how awesome it's gonna be when your kids are old enough to cook with you. :)

You do an excellent job juggling all your responsibilities!! You make it look easy, but it is very stressful. It's good time management.

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!

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.

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 😊

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!

Any husband, wife, or parent preparing this much delicous, nutritious food on a weekly basis is a damn super hero!

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!

Love how he said “survival mode” and then made a incredible spread. Dads rock.

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!

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 😂

"Cooking is much more survivalistic" As a family of 6, I feel this in my soul

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 want to see all the dishes and cleaning version of this video lol