How to Schedule Raddish

Raddish is a cooking experience for your whole family! Hear tips from other Rad families on how they schedule cooking together into their busy lives.

At the beginning of each month, you’ll receive an email with the shopping list for your next Raddish kit. With this in hand, take a look at your family calendar. Pencil in time for grocery shopping, special cooking nights, or any upcoming family birthdays you might want to cook for!

Each month, our kits center around seasonal, global, creative, or holiday themes. Within each kit are three recipes (plus a bonus recipe online!) that can either be:

Spread Out Over the Month - OR - Cook One Big Meal

Great things to keep in mind are your child’s age and skill level, as well as their interest level and attention span, in order to determine which method works best for your family. Whether you’re cooking one recipe at a time and incorporating our monthly lesson plans or hosting a special family dinner and cooking all three recipes for one full meal, there are various advantages to each approach.

We turned to seasoned experts, our current Rad Families, to see how they choose to schedule Raddish!

1. Spread the Recipes Out Over the Month

“We make one recipe at a time, usually one Raddish a week, and reinforce the culinary skills or science of it for the whole week. That way the kit lasts 3+ weeks until we get the next kit!” - Michelle

“My kids are 8 and 5. We do one recipe a week. We allow an extra hour for prep. Because they want to do EVERYTHING and are complete novices.” - Carrie

“We homeschool for Pre-K, Kinder, and 4th grade. We received our first box and have set aside Raddish Wednesdays. The plan is to do one full lesson and recipe a week, so we can enjoy it all [month] long. The last week of the month we will host family to [sample] our dishes.” - Kayla

“Our plan is to do one recipe per week, breaking it up over three days. The first two days we incorporate the online lesson material, and the third day we get to our recipe. We can recap what we learned throughout the week as well for better retention.” - Andrea

“We almost always just do one [recipe] at a time. I'm working with a seven-year old boy with ADD. One is plenty and we almost always enjoy it through the whole process. Gives us four times to cook together in a month, too.” - Kailin

TIP: Choose easy complimentary dishes when preparing sides or mains.

2. Cook One Big Meal

Cook three recipes on the same day or night - great for special occasions and hosting guests!

“My children use cooking all three recipes in one meal as training in good time management. They read through each recipe first, then figure out a timeline for cooking each dish to have them all ready to serve at the same time!” - Leslie

“We LOVED the fact that the Irish box was a “full meal” - my kids had their grandparents over and made soda bread, soup, cottage pie and the pudding...it's so much fun for them to share with family!” - Andrea

“We love doing them all on one day... I usually just pick a Saturday or Sunday when we don't have other plans and make a day of it. We shop in the morning and then pick a recipe to make in the afternoon as a snack/ appetizer before we move on to the rest later. If there is a dessert, we might prep that in the afternoon too.” - Rebelee

TIP: Schedule at least 2-3 hours of active kitchen time! consider preparing one dish ahead of time.

We Recommend Spreading the Recipes Out Over the Month 

This will allow your family to gain the full experience of each recipe. Use our online lesson plans, along with the educational information and Featured Culinary Skill on the back of every recipe card, to create a more comprehensive lesson for each dish!

Regardless of how you choose to schedule Raddish, a few TIPS FOR SUCCESS in the kitchen include:

• Before you begin: Read the recipe from beginning to end. Gather your ingredients and tools as listed on the recipe guide.

• Have realistic expectations about how involved adults will be in helping along the way. It's okay to work together! The level of skill and independence will alter the amount of prep time.

• Clean as you go: Use any downtime, such as waiting for water to boil or your lasagna to bake, as an opportunity to wipe down the counter or wash a few dishes.

• Practice patience: Take breaks as often as needed or get family members together to work as a team.

• Remember to laugh and have fun... kitchen mistakes are an important part of the journey!