I cook almost all of our meals. That sounds a lot more involved than the reality of toast for breakfast, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, soup or pasta for lunch, and chicken, salad, bread and fruit for dinner. Once a week I prepare a one-pot meal that feeds us for three or four days. I start one pot meals about three hours before dinner; all the ingredients go in our dutch oven where they simmer, with occasional stirring, until they are ready to eat right when my husband comes in the door. I bake cookies and homemade bread once a week, and pies, cupcakes, muffins, tortes or chocolate mousse whenever we have fruit or cream that is about to pass its expiration date. By cooking 99 percent of our meals, I can control the amount of fat, sugar and sodium my family ingests while keeping our food expenses low.

My kids love cooking. One of the many ways I keep them occupied indoors is to ask them if they feel like cooking. Their eyes light up and they scurry over to the kitchen to don aprons and select plastic spoons and knives from their dedicated kitchen drawer. The two of them stand on step stools beside me while I mince garlic, rinse basil and spinach, and saute onions. They take turns whisking eggs and always have their own piece of bread dough or pie crust to roll out and bake in little patty pans (my daughter actually turns out creditable creations, my son's piece winds up half eaten and smushed into the counter).

They especially love growing some of the ingredients they cook with. Today they harvested leaves from our superabundant basil plants, then helped mince garlic to make pesto as a special surprise for their father. They are also much more likely to eat food they have cooked themselves, and I eat the same foods they do since it is easier than cooking separate meals. I especially love that our garden produce is organically grown and pesticide free; eating fresh food helps them build good habits that will keep them healthy throughout their lives.

Cooking also helps educate my children about finance. Many kids don't understand the relationship between money and possessions because of the widespread use of credit and debit cards. Because my toddlers accompany me and their father on excursions to pick up last-minute vegetables on our walks around South West Hoboken, they see us use cash to make purchases, so my older child is already begging her father for money and hoarding quarters in her Curious George tin bank. I explain that their father and I have to work to earn money to buy things for them, so that helps cut down on the separation anxiety that makes it so hard for my husband to leave the house in the morning.

My children love sweets, but they eat them in moderation because I always make sure they have eaten a healthy meal before doling out the low-sugar cookies I bake. In addition to eating low-fat, partially organic, low-salt meals, they also know what sweets are and treat them as the indulgences they are. It makes me really happy to see my kids voluntarily turn down a second cookie.

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://hobokenmomcondo.com/momblog and follow her at http://twitter.com/zhobokenmom