Making Cooking a Family Affair
Cooking together is something the whole family can enjoy.
Though it can take some patience, cooking with kids is a great way to engage them.
There are many great reasons to include your kids in your food preparation. It is a valuable life skill to understand from an early age and healthy habits can be reinforced. Your picky eater may be more willing to eat foods that they’ve helped prepare. It is also a fun break from electronics and is a great bonding experience for all ages.
From Today’s Parent, here are some tips on including your kids in the kitchen.
1. Tackle a Dish Together – Browse cookbooks, shop for ingredients, and see it through all the way to plating, which engages their artistic side.
2. Don’t Hover – Fight the urge to follow your kids around with a cleaning cloth. Freedom will make them feel competent and confident.
3. Give Them Power – How should we top the pizza? What should we fill the burrito with? Let kids call the shots and enjoy the occasional “avant-garde” creations that result.
4. Start with Breakfast – Spend a lazy morning making the easiest meal of the day: Eggs any style, Goolsby’s Sausage, and pancakes or waffles. Our latest recipe, Goolsby’s Sausage Gravy Pizza, is a great place to start!
5. Play with Dough – Bake bread, twist up pretzels or try something new to you, like naan or English muffins.
6. Engage Their Senses – Explore food together: Listen to the sound of bacon frying or a bottle of fizzy water when the top is unscrewed. For added fun, blindfold them and have them identify ingredients by sniffing and tasting!
7. Keep it Active – There are so many tasks to keep little hands busy and give kids a sense of accomplishment: sprinkling on spices and toppings; crushing bread crumbs or cereal for coating; juicing citrus; cracking eggs, or even “painting” oil on a pan with a pastry brush.
8. Any Way You Slice It – When it comes to knife skills, safety is key. Start small. Getting your kids to cut mushrooms with a butter knife is a good way to start building their skills.
We probably all have happy childhood memories in the kitchen. Start building those for your family![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]