Cooking With Kids: How to Get Your Kids More Involved in The Kitchen

Remember back on December 31st when you made a resolution to get yourself and your kids cooking more? I am so happy to be here to offer a few of my favorite tips!

Before we jump into cooking with littles, here is a snapshot of me. My name is Megan and I live in Seattle with my husband and our two sons. Jack is 3.5 and Max is ten months. Both of my boys have been cooking and baking with me since they were newborns in the Ergo. We even brought birthday cake to the hospital for both of them when they were born, Jack chocolate cupcakes and Max a three layer chocolate cake and these cookies! I own over 40 cookbooks that I use regularly and constantly check out other cookbooks from the library. My current favorite cookbooks include Simply Real Eating and Milk Street. My background also includes being a teacher and a love for working with kids and teens and their families.

Here are my five top tips for cooking with kids:

Find age appropriate tasks. As your kids get older they will be able to handle more. Have your four year old measure the flour while your two year old gets to dump. Let them stir the batter for pancakes or mix the chocolate milk. When cooking veggies, have your kids put the chopped veggies into the pan. Age appropriate tasks can also be extended into having your littles help with the before meal set up and the post meal clean up. They can set the table with napkins and utensils and clear their dishes from the table and empty the clean dishwasher. To unload the dishwasher, Jack matches the silverware. The earlier we can get our kids involved in cooking as well as the cleaning the better!
Be prepared. Pre-read the steps of your recipe and have ingredients ready to go. Kids can help measure, dump, stir, and chop once you have everything out and organized. By having everything ready and thought out before you start, there is less commotion and chance for mistake.
Talk and explain. Why? What’s that? How come? What’s next? Can I try that? Kids ask lots of questions because they are trying to process how this world works and they think we know all the answers. Tell them what you are doing while cooking and if possible, explain why. We are cutting the vegetables so they cook faster. We need to boil the water to cook the noodles for mac and cheese. We need three cups of flour so we need three scoops of the one cup. A simple explanation is sufficient – explanations do not have to be Food Network worthy!
Expect a mess, not a masterpiece. Most of our cooking and baking gets messy. I am learning to accept it while actively inventing ways to make it less so. For example, let’s take sugar cookies. Kids love them. Have them help make the dough. While they are busy playing dress up or building towers, cut and bake the cookies yourself. Once cooled and you all are ready to decorate the cookies, place a few on a rimmed baking sheet or large plate so frosting and sprinkles are contained. I put frosting in quart size zip top bags, and my mess-saving tip here is to tie the top with a rubber band so frosting does not leak out the top. Jack can then frost to his heart’s content! We still have a small mess, but much less than if we had used a knife to spread the frosting.
Practice, practice, practice. Start with simple recipes and grow from there. You and your kids will gain confidence together. Alix is a fan of her mini waffles for Quinn. Have your little pull up a chair (put the back against the counter), let them scoop the waffle mix, water and eggs. Stir. The adult or older kids can do the waffle iron. Let the littles top with berries, chocolate chips, nuts and/or whipped cream. A fast, easy and fun way to start the weekend as a family.

This is our favorite chocolate cake recipe. It makes a dozen cupcakes and is a delicious Valentine’s Day dessert!

Jiffy Chocolate Cupcakes

1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup cold water
1 T vinegar
1/3 cup flavorless oil. I use vegetable oil. I have never tried it, but you could use melted coconut oil.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners. I highly recommend these for the pans and a set of scoops for dividing the batter evenly. Fun and festive cupcake liners are inexpensive, easy to find, and always a hit with kids!

Whisk all dry ingredients together. Pour in wet ingredients and stir to combine. Divide evenly amongst cupcakes. Bake regular size cupcakes for 17 minutes and mini cupcakes for 8 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Frost with frosting of choice or enjoy plain.