Cooking with Your Kids

Once your child is able to hold a mixing spoon and understand that flour isn't tasty, it's time to start cooking in the kitchen. Getting your kids involved in making family meals or baking a tasty treat has many benefits, and is just plain fun. Children that take part in making a mess in the kitchen are also more apt to try new foods, potentially turning that picky eater into a seasoned gourmet!

Benefits of cooking together

When your child helps cook in the kitchen she learns how to follow directions from a recipe, concepts of measurement, and new vocabulary. Parents can also incorporate school subject matter into cooking with their kids. If a child is having a hard time understanding basic addition concepts, finding a recipe that incorporates adding lots of ingredients offers an opportunity for her to crunch some numbers.

Let's face it; almost every kid has made an icky-squished-up face in response to trying something at the dinner table. For some kids, only one or two food items instill the gag reflex, but for others, most items (other than one coveted favorite) aren't allowed past their tightly compressed lips. Encouraging a child to help cook in the kitchen offers the opportunity for her to have a say in what's for dinner, and might entice her to try something new! Your child also takes pride in cooking something successfully, building her self-esteem.

With childhood obesity on the rise, cooking with your kids teaches healthy eating habits and important life-skills needed for adulthood. When all that kids are eating is fast food or items zapped in the microwave, they aren't apt to whip up a fresh pasta salad or reach for carrots and dip. Stocking the cupboards and fridge with healthy food options is another way to get kids active in making better food choices. Adults can also set a positive healthy example by getting in the kitchen and doing some cooking themselves, instead of bringing home a boxed meal for dinner. Have no fear (those of you that find the kitchen to be the most unused room in the house); you and your kids can learn how to cook together!

Get in the Kitchen!

Start with something fun and easy, such as layered lasagna. Lasagna noodles that don't require pre-boiling can be found at most grocery stores along with fresh ingredients such as tomatoes, spinach, ricotta cheese, mushrooms, and whatever fresh ground meat or sausage your family desires. Just like picking toppings for a pizza, kids can do the same with their own unique lasagna. Set up an assembly line with all of kids' favorite ingredients (and maybe a couple that are new, like chopped fresh basil and oregano) so children can help layer the lasagna.

Children can help stir the sautéing ground meat, and add a dash of salt and pepper. Adults can chop 2 cloves of garlic and a small onion and add to the mix. Cook ingredients for 10 minutes over medium heat. Layer fresh sliced tomatoes in a 9 by 12-inch casserole pan, and then have kids help position lasagna noodles, spoon ground meat and spread evenly, and then top each layer with ingredients from their assembly line until the layers reach the rim of the casserole pan.

Pour 1-cup of chicken stock over the lasagna and cover with tinfoil. The lasagna bakes for 45 minutes in a 425-Fahrenheit oven. After 45 minutes, an adult can carefully remove the tinfoil and have kids sprinkle with 1/2-cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Return the toasty lasagna to the oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Children can watch the lasagna through the oven window to see when the top has become browned and bubbly. Remove the lasagna and let sit for 10 minutes, which allows the noodles to soak up all the liquid, and saves the top of your mouths from searing off.

No matter what you create, cooking with your kids is fantastic bonding time. It's an opportunity to have a special conversation, taste new ingredients together, and teach children that food can be a wonderful thing to share with others.