Cooking For Kids: An Online Guide

This is a great resource for families - we need to see more in-the-kitchen, practical solutions for real life people.

To your health and success,

John Sifferman NSCA-CPT

Nice website to browse on Ali, thanks. I also think we need to get our kids more involved in the kitchen and growing more vegetables because if they don't see us preparing meals at home, they're vastly more likely to grow up relying on unhealthy take-outs and of course land up feeling their children the same way too. And so begins a vicious cycle.

I was speaking to an American architect who was telling me that he recently had a request to build a kitchen-less house because the family don't need one because they don't cook.

Good website to browse. I was glad to see the "american-style" pancakes recipe had good old whole eggs and milk in it. Little kids need that fat and too many are being put on defacto diets as soon as they start eating just because their parents are doing fat-free everything.

Interesting comment about kids needing to be involved with what they eat. My 11 year old walking in the kitchen about 2 days ago and said, "You know mom I think when we help make the dinner we are more likely to eat it, because we know what went in." I then mentioned that when we go to the local farm where they grow veg, that they are more likely to eat the vegetables when they have picked/dug them up themselves and he said "You're right about that!"

I'm not perfect - there are certainly days when they see me pull a pizza box out of the freezer because I'm desperate and out of time (at least their favorite pizza is spinach!). But even on those days there's usually enough in the fridge to throw together some kind of salad and they can help with that.

I agree. Don't boot kids out of the kitchen. Whenever kids have ownership and participation in something, they also take more pride and interest in it. That's why they take better care of their bicycle (and car later on) when they raised the money for it themselves. Plus, the kitchen is a great learning environment from exploring new foods, to food preparation, to letting your kids teach you things they've discussed at school. Let them safely and age appropriately cut up vegetables, add things to the mixing bowl, crack the eggs, etc. There's a reason the wee little ones would rather play with the pots and pans than the cheap, plastic toys you bought them at Wal-Mart...they want to be with you and they want to be involved.

Ali,

Thank you for pointing to that article. It is absolutely, 100% true in my mind that getting our children involved in the kitchen with healthy cooking will lead to lifelong results.

I can recall when I was about the age of the young boy mentioned in the above comment from soozeequeue, cooking with my grandmother. Being from the south, that cooking often included frying and adding some bacon grease for flavor, even to healtier foods like collard greens.

Today, as an adult, those smells and flavor ellicit a response that makes me feel good inside, likely because of the close relationship I had with my grandmother and spending time in the kitchen.

If we replace those smells and tastes with healthier fare (don't get me wrong, I would not go back and change one thing about cooking with my grandmother!), the results we will have on our children's eating habits may last many, many years into the future.

This article is a great start to helping build that life long foundation.

Thanks again, Ali!

The Nutrition and Healthy Living section of the California-based Meals Matter website also has information on age-appropriate cooking activities.

http://www.mealsmatter.org/CookingForFamily/Planning/article.aspx?articleId=47

The free, non-commercial (no advertising) site also features meal planning tools like a searchable 20,000+ recipe database, meal planner, shopping list generator and personal online cookbook.

I don't have kids, but I do remember being a kid and I used to love to get involved in cooking. My dad used to cook dinner for us when my mom worked the evening shift and I always liked to help. We'd make vegetable soup or Spanish rice or a nice big pot of chili. I don't really think we ever thought vegetables were "yucky" because my dad made it seem like they were valuable ingredients in the recipe. He was never forceful about making us "eat your veggies!", but if we didn't want to eat a certain vegetable, he made us at least try them once.

My parents also let us cook by ourselves once we were older...they encouraged us to try new recipes (I remember making a fantastic mushroom and wine soup once) and they encouraged us to always be trying new things. I remember watching a cooking show once when I was about 12 where they made artichokes. I begged my dad to let me try them next time we went to the store and he let me buy two of them. We made them the way they made them on TV, but we decided that they were not the tastiest things in the world and we never really tried them again.

Not only does cooking with your kids help to teach them about nutrition, it's just plain good social bonding. I remember making homemade pudding for dessert with my dad...it was kinda fun to stir the pudding and make sure it didn't burn and we knew it was going to taste so yummy when it was done. Even now, when I go back home to visit my folks, it's fun to bake with them and catch up and just chat.

Wow Ali Great Article!

I completely agree. I don't have any children, but my mother always had us participate in the kitchen when I was younger. It is a great way to teach children what they are eating and it gets them involved in their diet early on. I think so many people lack common knowledge and don't understand how to use food for energy and also make it tasty.

Thanks for the food for thought :)

I think its a great experience for children

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Toni

The best way to get your kids involved in cooking is to stop feeding them.