Chef Molly's ideas for introducing your children to meal preparation:
- Get your children interested by involving them in the planning process.
Choose recipes, make shopping lists, and go shopping together. - Make your kitchen kid friendly.
Bring in a stool or chair so that the cooking area can be reached by your children; use non breakable measuring cups and bowls; have cooking utensils that are easy for them to manipulate, like a plastic serrated knife, small whisk, spatula, and spoon. - Read the recipe together.
This will give you an opportunity to reinforce math and measurements, and organize all of your ingredients and tools. - Work through the recipe together step by step.
This will reinforce the importance of following directions in order and will allow your children to ask questions along the way. - Have fun and get your hands dirty.
Avoid getting upset if the recipe doesn't go exactly as planned, have fun with it, the important thing is that your cooking together. Let your children get their hands dirty by doing tasks like kneading dough, etc.
Have a question?
Ask the Chef
What is the best way to get my kids interested in cooking?
Visit us often, share your own tips and watch our InFocus videos for new tips on cooking with your kids. It's a family affair!
Some favorite websites for more ideas of recipes to prepare with or for your family:
Monica Pope's Eat Where Your Food Lives
Kitchen Window
Spatulatta
NPR's The Splendid Table
Mark Bittman, The Minimalist
Recipes for Health
Chow
Eat This, Not That
What is the best way to get my kids interested in cooking?
Visit us often, share your own tips and watch our InFocus videos for new tips on cooking with your kids. It's a family affair!
Some favorite websites for more ideas of recipes to prepare with or for your family:
Monica Pope's Eat Where Your Food Lives
Kitchen Window
Spatulatta
NPR's The Splendid Table
Mark Bittman, The Minimalist
Recipes for Health
Chow
Eat This, Not That
Dear Chef,
What are some creative ways for me to get 9 yr old and 12 yr old boys to even begin to like any vegetables? They do not like any vegetables at this point except for corn... Please help!
Thanks,
Emmy
Dear Emmy,
First step is to involve them in the process of selecting and preparing meals. A great place to start with veggies is on a pizza, but one you let the kids help make. They get to put something they already love on it (corn?), if they agree to try something new, like maybe kale or spinach. Watch our site for recipe and ideas to engage your kids in cooking!
Chef Molly