Cooking with Kids
By Beth Ann Bentley, iLunchBox.com
Cooking with kids requires lots and lots of patience. You have to get yourself mentally prepared, because:
· All will not go according to plan.
· There will be a big mess that you yourself will be cleaning up.
· The final product will not look great, but it still may taste OK.
· Your “helpers” may quit on you part of the way through.
All of this does improve as you cook with your kids more and find out if they like it. If you don’t think you will have the patience to cook with your kids right now, hold off until you do. This way you will both enjoy the experience. However, if the kids are still pestering you to make something, let them play with play-dough or keep a tube of pop-and-bake biscuits, crescent rolls or cookie dough handy and let them be in charge of that. I used to keep some leftover pastry or bread dough in the freezer and bring it out whenever I was baking and let the kids roll it out, cut it and put it on a sheet.
If you are looking for some easy ideas of food to make with your kids, here are some recipes we have done. You will have to make a judgment call on how well your kids do in the kitchen and which recipes they can handle. My 10-year-old can scramble eggs, my 8-year-old makes sandwiches, and my 6- and 4-year-olds can add ingredients to a bowl and cut out cookies. Each child is different.
About the author: Beth Ann Bentley is a management and marketing professional focusing on the food and beverage industry and website marketing.
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