With all the talk of how we should help kids stay healthy, my mind keeps returning to the same idea: Teach them to cook! In my home, the kitchen is an extension of the family room, and my three preteen boys have helped me cook since they were small.
Teaching your kids to cook doesn’t mean that you have to turn them loose on their own. It just means letting them play an active role in meal planning, preparation--and cleanup. Training petite chefs is easy. Here are eight tips to get you started:
- Keep it clean. Teach good sanitation habits early. Teach them the basic hand washing techniques--I always tell my culinary school students to sing one round of “Happy Birthday” while washing their hands. Even though your kitchen is not a professional one, encourage the dress of a chef: hair pulled back, no jewelry, and closed-toe shoes.
- Mix it up. Start them with mixing and kneading tasks. Herb blends and spice rubs are a great idea as a first mixing experience--just makes sure they wash their hands when finished and keep hands away from eyes and mouths if any hot spices are involved.
- Savor the experience. I would encourage you to start with savory ingredients and save the sweet recipes for later. Remember when you started feeding your infant real food and the pediatrician suggested starting with vegetables? It's the same principle. One of my first memories in the kitchen with my mother was making chicken pot pie--it is still one of my favorites! For a healthier version try this made-over chicken pot pie.
- Sweeten the deal. Once you are ready to move to sweet recipes, I would start with smoothies--let them experiment with different flavors. Try adding some protein and fiber to the mixes by adding yogurt, ground flax seed or wheat germ. Encourage eating of the season by selecting seasonal fruits and vegetables. Visit local you-pick-it farms so that they see where the food is coming from, or better yet, start your own garden.
- Herbal remedy. Bits of unidentified green objects on a plate can be intimidating to a child. Purchase herb clippers and ask your petite chef to help with the meal by cutting fresh herbs. If you don’t have the clippers, just use a clean pair of kitchen scissors. Encourage them to taste each herb and tell them which flavors pair well with which foods.
- Start chopping. When your chef is ready to cut vegetables with a knife, choose a small ,non-serrated paring knife. Start with semi-soft vegetables and fruits like cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, bananas, and peaches. Once they feel comfortable with these, move to harder, dense vegetables like carrots or potatoes. I would reserve any very hard winter root vegetables such as butternut squash or yams for adult hands only. Try my Roasted Root Vegetables as a way to get kids to try new vegetables.
- Make it a teaching moment. Make the experience an extension of the classroom. One of my fondest memories with my mother was International week at my grade school. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I choose France and asked my mother to help me make chocolate éclairs. The basic éclairs are made with pate au choux pastry dough--a big undertaking for an 11 year old, but with her help they were a success. I remember how she helped me multiply the recipe so that we tripled the ingredients to make enough for the whole class. I did not know it at the time, but it was a valuable lesson in math. Now with my own children, the world has changed and foods brought from home are not encouraged in their school due to food allergies. So I have taken that same concept and applied it at home creating an International Day. We let our kids pick a foreign country and have them research the native dishes. We make a field trip to an international grocery store and explore. Chicken Enchilada Stacker is a great beginners recipe--though they'll need some help from mom or dad.
- Choices, choices, choices! The more variety you offer, the more likely your kids will eat a variety of foods. Don’t be discouraged if they won’t try or don’t like the new foods the first time. According to research, it may take up to five times of trying a new food to accept the flavor and texture. One way I make this possible with my kids is that once a week we have a “Build Your Own Night.” Whether it is tacos, sandwiches, or salads, we pull together as many healthy ingredients that we can find in the kitchen to offer as much variety as possible.
Our favorite is Pasta Night: My kids love pasta night. I prepare whole grain pasta, and we steam broccoli, carrots, and asparagus--really anything that is in season. I sauté chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and onions and grate hard cheese (like Parmesan or Romano). You can even add chopped, cooked chicken breasts, browned lean ground beef or turkey or even lean sausage. Then everyone jumps in to create their own “pasta ala me” dish! (This is a great way to make one meal into two--the next morning you can make a vegetable-stuffed omelet or create a quick vegetable puree that you can use in soups or spreads for sandwiches.)
What was the first recipe you ever cooked with your children? Do you cook with them regularly? If so, what are your favorite foods to cook together?
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Comments
Now the Grandchildren are in my kitchen helping and making messes. LOL
I love it when they are here. Report
he did know because his job at home was on friday nite was "Italian"
he did good the other 3 kids cooked early even "fried chicken"
there were 4 kids
MAY YOU SMILE TODAY Report
Thanks for the suggestions! Report
Great article!! Report
Cooking and food was how my family bonded. we talked about what we were cooking. we talked about it when we ate. we talked about what we were going to eat for the next meal. It still is an important part of my family's social life. I can't imagine having a meal where we didn't talk about the meal !
So, what was the first thing my mom taught me to cook ? She taught me to make my own pasta. We still have the pasta machine that rolls out the dough and cuts it into linguini. It's got to be close to 50 years old, but it works great !
I still love to cook and all my neices and nephews are/were taught to cook. Everyone in my family can cook.
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Not only is cooking good for teaching math - it is good for science! You find a protocol, weigh, measure, add in proper sequence and at the proper time. You can also learn about chemical reactions and biological processes such as fermentation. Both of my sons passed chemistry with flying colors. Report
I now teach preschool & we do a cooking project evey week. This week we will be making our own mini pizzas. The children will flatten a bit of dough then add their own toppings. We usually have onions, peppers, olives, & mushrooms for them to choose from. We encourage them to try 1 new taste--put 1 pepper on the side to see if they like it. We do have pepperoni available, but limit it to 1 slice per person. Mozzerella cheese and tomato sauce are also available.
In the past we've made pumpkin pie--including roasting our own pumpkin. We take the time to smell each spice as well.
It's a great vocabulary builder too. Most of my preschoolers use the terms recipe & ingredients correctly in conversation. They are also learning the names of common foods & cooking utensils. Report
The first time my son couldn't come home for Thanksgiving - due to school and work schedule he called me up to get the step by step for making a turkey. He was cooking for a bunch of the guys in his situation. When I called later to find out how it turned out, he said "better than yours mom!". He has no problem calling when he's in the mood for something - even calling me while I was away asking how to make potato pancakes - which I never made. I called two people - Mom and my Jewish friend Ellen - there is nothing like a Jewish potato pancake. He was pleased with this results again. Report
My grand-daughter (almost 3 yrs.) and I have already started a tradition of working together in the kitchen. I'll put ingredients in cups ahead of time so she can add the items into the recipe when it's time to cook. She takes great pride in the fact that she's "cooking".
This year we started a vegetable garden. My grand-daughter is getting a charge out of watching how much the plants have grown since she helped plant them in egg cartons a few weeks back. We've talked about how the baby plant will be transferred in the garden outside when they get bigger, how the garden needs to be tended, that we can use the vegetables in meals, and how the vegetables help build strong bodies. The time spent is not only educational but a chance to bond and create wonderful memories for both of us. I know I truly enjoy the time together. Report
My youngest son started out with mom. She loves to bake and he wanted to know how to make cookies. Making cookies was just complicated enough that a six year old couldn't get it all to come out right without mom's help, so we weren't over run with chocolate chip cookies.
When my oldest son first tried his wings when he went to college, the refrigerator in his dorm held milk, cereal, canned soup and packets of peanut butter and crackers. His unit was the only National Guard Artillery unit deployed to Iraq during Desert Storm. He made it back without injury, but now his dining habits consisted of bags of MRE's (Meals, Ready to Eat).
When he returned home and to college, our youngest was starting college. They decided to get a two room apartment so they could "have their privacy" (read, so mom and dad wouldn't know what they were doing).
They disagreed about what constituted a meal, so they split the kitchen. Oldest son had half the refrigerator and two shelves in the pantry and youngest son had the rest. Things started getting hairy when oldest son started snitching leftovers.
One thing I will always remember is going to their apartment for some reason, walking in and finding my son eating Cheerios in beer. They didn't have any milk and he didn't want to have his younger brother mad, so he had cereal and used the only flavor he had for liquid.
Since his marriage, he has learned to make a tossed salad and to cook meat on the grill - he only burned things the first two times he tried. He asked dad for a grilling lesson and he's been all right since then. Report
Boy, did that impress their girlfriends!
Now they are both excellent cooks. Report