Cooking with Kids – Digging to Dishing up

I imagine those with children are looking for ideas to keep them occupied so they can work from home and hopefully stay sane.

This could mean reading, puzzles, board games, art etc. It could also mean teaching your children to cook or to help you in the veggie garden.

It might be a hard sell, especially to some older children. But no doubt rewarding to grow your own food; to see an improvement in their cooking skills, to spark an interest in nutrition, to introduce new flavours and textures to family meals and perhaps making breakthroughs with picky eaters.
Exciting stuff.

The tasks delegated to children will differ and be determined by a few factors i.e. age, food preference and the child’s overall interest in food.

Try giving younger children tasks like cracking and whisking eggs, measuring ingredients, mixing dressing, using scissors (safe ones) to chop ingredients i.e. fresh herbs.

Slightly older children might have more involvement. They may even get to choose the food you create or champion the main meal one night a week on a regular basis. This is fantastic, try to encourage them to pick a recipe that the whole family can eat and enjoy.

It’s also a great time to experiment with new flavours and cooking techniques. Try to add spices, ingredients and textures you normally wouldn’t cook with. This may feel impossible or you may have tried this before. Just remember, it can take a few times (i.e. 12-20) before a child will accept, or even try certain foods. So maybe not impossible, just an endurance event that requires training, patience and mental strength.
 
The sooner children know about where food comes from the better.
 
If you have an existing vegetable garden encourage your children, especially if they are young, to help you collect and wash the veggies.

If you don’t have a vegetable garden, could you? If a child is involved from digging the garden to dishing up, you would hope two things.

One, they’re encouraged to eat the food grown, especially as they have been a part of the process.
And two, realise that vegetables don’t start their life looking supermarket chic - imperfect and covered in dirt more like.

It all sounds very textbook; clean, green and easy and I hope it is.
But I understand that it may not be. If any of these suggestions are simply not an option for your family, no drama.
Do your best to eat well during this time and hopefully have genuine connection over meals together – there’s a lot to be said for that