Cooking With Your Kids (Yes, It Can Be Fun!)

Parenting: hectic schedules, never-ending to-do lists, and many responsibilities.

There’s barely any time for fun activities with my kids. Luckily, weekends are perfect for parent/children activities.

When it comes to choosing a fun activity with my kids, I go for cooking because it’s a teaching and bonding opportunity at the same time.

If you want something new to try with yours, I highly recommend this activity! You’ll notice the difference the more time you invest in cooking with your kids.

Guiding Your Kids 

Some parents avoid cooking with their kids because they make a mess and flip the kitchen upside down. However, that won’t be the case if you guide them.

They should have specific, simple tasks that you manage. You’ll also have to keep a close eye on them throughout the whole cooking process, from start to finish.

In my home-cooking activities, I made the mistake of frequently being distracted: answering the phone, sending a quick email, or leaving the room for a moment.

And you can probably guess what can happen in this short time.

Kids like to figure out how things work. That’s why guidance is essential.

Prepping the Food

Think of cooking with your kids like you’re teaching a class. It should be positive and smooth.

First, decide on a recipe, and then explain in steps what you’ll be doing and why you’ll be doing it.

There are many safe ways your kids can help with cooking without hurting themselves. For example, they can help gather the necessary ingredients and place them on the kitchen counter. Leave the heavy, bulky, or hard-to-reach items for you to handle yourself. They can also help wash and measure (and if they’re old enough, cut and melt) the ingredients.

In each step, remember to manage, guide, and control the chaos.

Cooking the Food 

Parents usually choose a recipe that needs to be frozen before consumption for fear that their kids will burn themselves or set the kitchen on fire. However, there aren’t many healthy and frozen dishes.

Kids need to be given more credit, though. They can listen and follow instructions when they’re guided.

In the cooking part of the recipe, put a chair next to the stove for them and let them stir. Or, turn the oven light on and have them look into the oven through the glass.

It’s wonderful how we can teach and encourage our kids to eat healthy food just by spending time cooking with them and enjoying the meal as a family.

Benefits of Cooking With Your Kids

Cooking with your kids is beneficial for many reasons, but I want to highlight these three.

1. It Encourages Them To Eat Healthily

Kids learn through experience.

I guarantee that your kids will learn to love their veggies if you choose a delicious recipe that includes vegetables. They’ll feel more involved and more motivated to finish their plates.

2. You’ll Have Family Bonding Time

You can create bonding time and great memories with your kids while cooking since we all love food and love to eat.

Maintain a positive environment even if your kids mess up. It’ll be okay.

3. It Gives Them Self-Confidence

Kids appreciate themselves the moment they succeed in something.

It’s truly a proud moment.

So, when your kids are great helpers in the kitchen, commend them for that. It helps build their self-confidence.

Tips for Cooking With Your Kids 

As a mom, I enjoy cooking with my kids and having conversations about food. I get to teach them about the nutritional values of fruits and vegetables. However, it was a learning experience for me as well.

One time, my daughter was in the kitchen, standing on a chair by the sink and washing carrots. I left the room for a few minutes. When I came back, her whole shirt was soaked. I still don’t know how she did that.

Kids experiment when they notice you’re not around.

A few important tips I would give are:

• There should be tasks that they know they can help with and other tasks they’re not allowed to do, like using a knife or handling hot pots and pans.
• Keep an eye on them, and don’t leave them alone in the kitchen.

One-Pan Meals

Most parents avoid cooking because of the mess and pile of dishes left in the kitchen afterward.

Try a one-pan meal with your kids.

One-pan meals are cooking the entire meal in one pan – all in the oven. It helps minimize the mess, and it saves time.

To point you to a favorite company of mine that’s releasing pans perfect for one-pan meals, Chef Avenue will be debuting Omnipan on Kick starter in April 2021.

Omnipan are high-performance silicone pans where you can prep food, store it in the fridge, cook it in the oven, and reheat it in the microwave, effortlessly simplifying the entire cooking process. Sign up to reserve your invite and get notified the moment they launch this exciting product!

Wrapping Up

Cooking with my kids has been a blessing and a learning experience. It’s also been very therapeutic.

It’s a time to spend together, have random conversations, and strengthen our family bond.

My kids have learned to eat healthily while also developing basic kitchen skills to help when they’re out on their own.

Sofia is a blog writer, content creator, and translator. Writing and cooking are her two passions.

Image Credit: fizkes