cooking with kids

here are a few things i have found helpful when involving kids in cooking & baking. it can be so hard and require SO much patience so a few ideas:

1. dont worry tooo much about raw egg! i dont want to be responsible for your child getting salmonella but there is a lot of food that has raw egg in it (meringues, hollondaise sauce, mayonnaise, licking the left-over batter etc). For sure wipe hands but no need to freak out too much when you see those little egg covered paws heading for the mouth.


2. give them their own cookie tray, mixing bowl or ball of dough next to yours so they can copy you and you can relax about what they do with it or what it looks like








3. give them raw food to play with (eg. a bowl of pasta, bowl of flour or some butter on a chopping board!) and some fun utensils or pots and let them do what they want - you can always put it in the bin afterwards.. or keep in a tupperware pot for next time. 



4. set them up at the sink with some water play. kids love pouring, wiping, splashing!












5. give them snacks to eat so they're not chowing down on your ingredients - cucumber, cheese, carrots (you can even let them chop up the snacks - a whole courgette and a kids knife will keep them busy). a favourite in our house is frozen peas.



6. have lots of tea towels or cloths around so you can quickly wipe sticky or eggy hands or spills on the floor. you can throw them all straight in the wash afterwards. that way you'll feel less stressed about spills, stickiness and mess while you're cooking. make sure you have plenty and can grab them easily.
this photo is from ONE session of cooking with the kids!
7. do lots of licking - its a delicious & fun part of baking AND it buys you time to do finishing touch-ups and get things in the oven. 
8. let them play with the saucepans
9. let them wash up while you cook - they love it.... for a short time. and it is probably a good habit for the future

10. i am terrible at this but give yourself plenty of time so you can go at a leisurely pace, talk about what you're doing, explore utensils and not get impatient with spills etc.

11. have a pint.. or three.. you deserve it!

2 comments:

  1. What a great post. I love the new tab design of the blog too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. they are so cute!

    http://lovekids360.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete

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