02/06/2023
My TOP 3 tips for cooking with kids 👩🏼🍳🤪
I love cooking and I do it a lot, and with 4 kids in the house most people assume I just love cooking with my kids. I do not.
I’m a very tidy person and having my kitchen, yes its MY kitchen, in complete chaos is a hard situation for me to swallow but I’m learning just like them.
I do believe though that cooking with your children is essential for a few reasons.
Firstly they learn that food doesn’t just ‘appear’ on the table and that there is work behind every meal and snack.
Secondly, it strengthens their relationship with the food they eat. This can be particularly helpful if you have a picky eater. I usually find they are much more eager to eat something they have created themselves.
These are some tips that are helping me enjoy the process with them because it’s something they truely love doing and it can be fun, you just have to lower your expectations a little.
1. Be mindful of your recipe - although a 2 year old will tell you “I can do it” 50 times a day, we know the truth. Cooking can be a time for them to try and learn new skills but don’t try create something that’s require precise measurements or techniques.
2. Bless the mess - this is my biggest struggle when cooking with my kids because I’m very tidy in the kitchen so while they are helping I don’t even try to keep the counters clean but we have a rule that once we are done they need to give me 10minutes space to get tidied up properly, after they’ve ‘helped’ tidy up a little of course.
3. Embrace grown-up utensils -My kids use the same knives as me when helping to prepare food. Albeit they are never freshly sharpened when it’s their turn, but this way they learn to respect the knife, how to move slowly and where to place their fingers. They take it much more seriously than if they have a blunt utensil and saves a lot of tears from frustration. Have you ever tried to cut a carrot with one of those kids knives?
So go get in the kitchen with those crazy little humans. Expect it to be mental and if it isn’t that’s a win. If it is then you’re just right, again, and no one listened to you for the 40th time today so no change there 😜