317. Picky Eaters, Kitchen Helpers: Simple Strategies for Family Mealtime | Madison Wetherill of Cook at Home Mom

Simple Farmhouse Life

Lisa Bass

Home & Garden, Leisure

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Getting your kids involved in preparing dinner doesn’t have to feel chaotic or complicated. Madison shares how simple, flexible meals transformed her family’s evenings and helped her kids become more adventurous eaters. We talk about handling toddler pickiness, the family rule that ends short-order cooking, and what kitchen help looks like at every age. Madison also walks us through her weekly meal-planning rhythm, her must-have tools, and the everyday ways children can join you in the kitchen. If you’ve been wanting to bring more connection and joy to family mealtime, Madison has strategies for you!

In this episode, we cover:

Madison’s shift from diet-specific recipes to flexible family-friendly meals and why simplicity matters for busy home cooks
How she builds variety into her meal rotation without overwhelming herself or her kids
A peek into raising adventurous eaters—plus how she handles the one child with strong preferences
The family rule that has eliminated short-order cooking and empowered her kids around food choices
Why “safe foods” and low-pressure exposure can be game changers for picky toddlers
A fresh perspective on toddler pickiness and the biology behind why ages 18 months–3 years are notoriously tricky
Practical ways to keep toddlers busy in the kitchen while giving older kids meaningful cooking responsibilities
What real kitchen help looks like at different ages— from stirring and slicing to reading recipes and starting the rice
Madison’s weekly meal-planning rhythm and the favorite meals she relies on during busy seasons
Her must-have kitchen tools (and why she uses the Instant Pot as a crock pot) to keep dinner fast, flavorful, and low-stress
Everyday ways kids can join in beyond cooking: setting the table, putting away groceries, learning about food sourcing, and more

View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube.

Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make this show possible!

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Join my FREE masterclass to learn my 4-step framework for making money on YouTube

Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my Simple Sourdough course

Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my Simple Sewing series

Turn your content creation dreams into a profitable business with my YouTube Success Academy

Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my Daily Sourdough cookbook

CONNECT

Madison Wetherill of Cook at Home Mom | Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Do you have a question you’d like me to answer on the podcast? A guest you’d like me to interview? Submit your questions and ideas here: bit.ly/SFLquestions.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Sometimes I have to just remind myself, like, if I want him to help in the future when I actually
0:04.3	need him to help, I got to start now with like letting him help. And so I might be like,
0:08.4	oh yeah, can you like make the rice or can you stir the rice that needs to be stirred a little bit?
0:13.0	And again, it doesn't have to be like, hey, can you go make the potato side dish for dinner?
0:18.0	It's like, give them one task. Oh yeah, I need the parsley. Can you grab it from
0:21.4	the pantry? And so I would say like let your kids help in the smallest way that you can think of.
0:27.1	My name is Lisa, mother of nine and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone.
0:32.0	On this podcast, I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities.
0:36.8	I help you learn
0:37.5	how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my course's simple
0:42.2	sourdough in the simple sewing series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my
0:47.2	business course, YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes
0:51.6	and description box below. Now let's get into the show.
0:58.6	Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today we are having on Madison Weatherill from
1:03.9	Cook at Home Mom and we are going to be talking about making mealtime a family affair.
1:09.5	So getting kids involved, what that looks like in the
1:11.8	kitchen, ages on when they can be helpful or, you know, age-appropriate tasks. We're also going to
1:17.9	talk a little bit about picky eating. If you hear little tiny baby hiccups during this episode and you're
1:23.6	not watching on YouTube, that's because little Miriam's in my lap and she does that.
1:30.2	Now, I tried to get her down to go to sleep, but of course that's not going to work out that
1:35.5	I should know better after nine children that that doesn't work. So she'll be in my lap and you
1:39.6	might hear little baby coos and hiccups and burps, but we'll get through this interview. I think you're
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lisa Bass, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lisa Bass and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.