Being a mom of 18 has taught Jenn Taylor Campbell some kitchen tricks.
Cooking for 18 children is no easy feat — and it’s one most of us couldn’t manage. But Jenn Taylor Campbell, who runs the blog Mom of 18, fed that many mouths daily.
Campbell started with 14 children of her own (a combination of biological and adopted), and then took on four more after meeting her partner, Dane Campbell. While they only had 12 living at home at once, in all stages from in-diapers to high schoolers, having that many people seated around the dinner table certainly dictated meal prep.
“I cooked spaghetti, casseroles, chicken nuggets and fries, and taco nights, like most families, although I wanted the nuggets to be quality and not frequent. I used a Crockpot a lot for shredding meat, like BBQ chicken, carnitas, or pot roasts, and I used a large rice cooker,” Campbell says of how she managed it all. “I also taught the kids to cook, so they could choose what they wanted to make, and we’d rotate.”
Instead of feeling like a short-order cook, Campbell created strict kitchen rules: It closed after dinner (no late-night snacking), post-school foods were leftovers and fruit, and if you didn’t like what was cooked, you could wait for the next meal.
“I really tried to make things we all enjoyed, and I respected the fact that there are foods they really didn’t like,” she says. “I also worked around allergies and sensitivities, so I wasn’t mean about it, just realistic that there was no way I could make everyone happy every day.”
It also meant that meals had to meet everyone’s needs, so when she was training for a run (Campbell is an avid member of the Reno running community), the menu reflected her dietary needs.
In fact, she even gave up bodybuilding competitions when she realized eating for the events was simply too much work.
Campbell also made it her mission to let each child feel special, by rotating their favorite meals and making pizza-and-soda nights a specialty. She also let them pick their own cake each year, which she would make especially for their birthdays. To feed her body while running marathons and competing in fitness competitions, she created healthy meal plans for everyone — foods that served the fitness-friendly family well while Campbell played basketball and the children took on multiple sports.
While cooking isn’t her favorite hobby, it is one she admits she’s gotten rather good at after 30 years of practice — and she started late. Her mother was, admittedly, no chef, and Campbell grew up below the poverty line, so when she turned 18, she had to make learning to cook a priority.
“I had to learn everything myself, and it took a lot of time and trial and error,” she says. “I graduated high school in 1988, so there wasn’t access to the Internet for years. I relied solely on cookbooks and friends who took pity on me and taught me.”
Parenting Pro
In addition to spending 30 years on her own parenting journey, much of Campbell’s other accomplishments revolve around family planning for others.
“Currently, I’m a certified birth doula for all happy births, regardless of where and how you deliver,” she explains. “I’m also a bereavement doula, helping families struggling with grief and loss, as well as an adoption-and-surrogacy doula and breastfeeding counselor,” she shares.
She also is a professional speaker and has more than 15 years of experience in the foster care sector as both a parent and a trainer.
“I have received targeted training on topics such as crisis intervention, drug and alcohol addiction, surviving trauma, and suicide prevention, which has equipped me with a solid understanding of how to serve others experiencing trauma,” she says.
As of December 2022, she’s also the first doula in Nevada to be a Medicaid provider.
In addition to her popular Mom of 18 blog, Campbell published a self-help memoir titled Hello, My Name is … Warrior Princess in 2016. And she has been hosting the Becoming Parents podcast since May 2017.
Leaving the Nest
When her children started to move out one by one, the exodus initially felt painful. Instead of grappling with an emptying-nest syndrome (her nest was still far from empty), Campbell struggled with a different phenomenon — learning to cook for three to five people, instead of 14.
“Although it’s a lot less work now, there are times I miss us all around the table,” she says. “Family dinners meant a lot to me, and they were a tradition I really wanted to create.
“The recipes that the kids really liked have been written down on index cards or copied many times, and my kids call me really often to ask for a recipe,” she continues. “It’s funny when they realize how much or how little time and effort a recipe took. Sometimes they decide it’s not worth the effort, and other times they tell me I was a genius to make something seem like such a big deal when it was really pretty easy.”
Nora Heston Tarte is a longtime Reno resident. You can follow her local exploits and travel adventures on Instagram at Wanderlust_n_wine.
Hamburger, Rice, and Gravy
(courtesy of Jenn Taylor Campbell, Mom of 18 blogger and doula in Reno. Adapted from a Food.com recipe. Serves 6)
1 pound ground beef
½ onion, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup rice
1½ cups water
2 tablespoons Kinder’s Bone Broth Gravy powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Make rice in a rice cooker, according to directions. Set aside. In a large skillet, brown together beef, onion, and garlic. When meat is cooked through and onions are translucent, stir in flour until mixed completely, allowing it to brown slightly. Add Kinder’s Bone Broth Gravy powder and water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve over rice.
