Food

Food

2 min Read

Get your kids cooking in the kitchen

Childwithcheesypolentasticks - get your kids cooking in the kitchenOne of the biggest
challenges for parents
is getting dinner on the
table and making sure
kids will eat it. We want to encourage
you to get your little
ones to help out in the
kitchen. Being able to
help prepare their meals
and, in turn, recognize
how to eat well, children
can start to take charge
of their eating habits.
Here are some resources
to help get you started.

Book review:
Everyday Kitchen for Kids

What’s the best way to encourage
your kids to get into the kitchen and
learn how to cook? By letting them
take charge of their favourite dishes.
In Everyday Kitchen for Kids, the
follow-up to the award-winning, international
bestseller Kitchen for Kids,
author and mom Jennifer Low helps
children do just that. Her recipes are
written for kids to read and follow
step-by-step themselves. Although
it’s all real food – think real fish fillets,
coconut curry chicken, banana
bread and whoopie pies – none of
the methods call for sharp knives,
stovetop cooking or small motorized
appliances.

In her previous career as a magazine
food editor, Jennifer saw scores
of cookbooks and noticed that something
was missing. “In helping my
kids learn to cook,” she says, “I came
to realize that so-called ‘cookbooks
for children’ were anything but.” She
remembers the instructions in these
books and the practical problems she
saw in them: “chop the carrots carefully”
(using a knife?!) and “stir the
pot of simmering liquid” (by standing
on a chair to reach the stovetop?!)

Jennifer envisioned a different
kind of kids’ cookbook. With Everyday
Kitchen for Kids
, no longer will
children have to ask, “please, can you
make…?” Instead, adults will be saying
to their children, “Wow! You made
this yourself?!”

Online resources

Try Jennifer’s delicious
Mac ‘n’ Cheddar Cheese recipe. Then
check out the video of food editor Julie
Van Rosendaal’s son Willem as he
attempts to make his own culinary
masterpiece.

Dairy Farmers of Canada’s new
website, FamilyKitchen.ca, also aims
to arm kids with the essential life skill
of cooking. The website features
simple tips, ideas and recipes to help
parents create the family kitchen and
get their kids cooking.

Originally published n ParentsCanada magazine, February/March 2013.

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