Kids can be involved in cooking younger than most people think, and there are so many good reasons to involve your child in the kitchen. It teaches responsibility, healthy eating habits, and cooking skills. They are not only learning essential life skills, they’re also creating meaningful memories with you.
Children as young as 2 years old can help in the kitchen by asking your child to hand you ingredients you’re prepping for a recipe. They can also assist in rinsing fruits and veggies. Show them how to scrub the produce and chat about the colors and taste. If your child is not ready to use a knife yet, they can help with tearing green at any age. Another option is to replace the knife with kid scissors if they’ve mastered scissors and chop ingredients that way.
My son loves to help in the kitchen and loves the independence it offers him. Kids are so used to being told what to do, the kitchen is a good place to give them freedom of choice with you in the passenger seat, of course. Give them a few appropriate options to cook and let them choose. This is a messy process, but the confidence and knowledge they gain is so worth it.
Below, I am sharing a few of our go-to school morning breakfast recipes that depending on your child’s age, they can cook with little supervision.
Banana Pancake Dippers
This one is so easy and has very few ingredients. All you need are bananas and your favorite pancake mix.
How to: slice the bananas with kid-safe knives then dip into the pancake mix. Next add to your pan to cook, flip, and enjoy!
Egg in a Hole
This recipe can be added to or taken from. The basics are bread, butter, and eggs, but you can add things on top like cheese, vegetables, bacon, sausage.
How to: we like to use cookie cutters to form the holes in the bread, here is where they get to make a choice- allow them to pick from the cookie cutters in your house. Add butter to the bread then add the bread to a heated skillet. Crack an egg in the hole you’ve created and allow to cook on both sides before adding any toppings. Another way they get freedom of choice in this recipe is in the toppings they want on top.
Ham Egg Cups
Again like the recipe above, you can make it your own by adding choice toppings but the basics of what you’ll need is a muffin pan, ham, eggs, cheese, and chives.
How to: Add ham to the bottom of your muffin pan then add cheese. Sprinkle salt and pepper then crack an egg over it all and cook at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Take out and sprinkle with the chives and enjoy!
A few other ways you can get your children involved in the kitchen:
- Get them involved in grocery shopping and look at recipes together to spark their interest in the kitchen.
- Pouring, stirring, mixing are all kid friendly kitchen jobs for younger children.
- Allow them to assist you in dinner prep by chopping fruits or vegetables you may be using or measuring out the liquid and dry ingredients.
- Allowing them to create their own sandwiches. This always encourages mine to eat more on days they’re being picky eaters.
- Cookie cutters and sprinkles when applicable are game-changer in the cooking department if you have younger children.
Do you have a child who loves to be in the kitchen? What is his / her favorite recipe to cook?
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