Can anyone share some good baking recipes for cooking with children?
My children are now 11 and 12, but when they were younger, I used to allow them to plan supper one time a night. I have a food pyramid on the fridge and we could make their meal as long as they picked on thing from each catagory. The kids love making up the menu, making the shopping list, and then shopping for the items. They became familiar with fruits and vegetables. They can plan a healthy meal and even if they didn’t like it they would eat because they planned it!
I did allow them to help with cooking when it was appropriate!
A favorite recipe for them is Octopus hotdogs on Ramen waves….although not nutritious it is cute and great to make. Prepare ramen noodles add a couple drops of blue food coloring to make them waves. Boil the hot dogs, when done slice up the end to make tenacles. Put ramen on the plate. Spread tenacles out over the waves to create a hot dog octopus….make sure to add a fruit desert and a veggie. Serve with chocolate milk and you are sure to get smiles!
Try letting your child decide what is for dessert. If they choose cookies, have them help bake. A fun and easy recipe for kids is the no bake cookie. My kids loved this.
2 cups sugar
¼-cup cocoa
½-cup milk
¼-pound butter
1-teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
½ cup creamy peanut butter
Three cups old-fashioned oats
Cook on medium heat until it starts to boil and remove. Add vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oats. Stir well. Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper until cool.
I have cooked with my 2 sons aged 3 1/2 and 22 months. Believe me after cooking with them you really don’t want to eat what has been made. Try making play dough with just flour and water. At this age it’s more about mixing and pouring then eating the results. Get some savoury biscuits (rice crackers) and cheese spread. Have the children decorate them with bits of fruit and veggies to make faces. This is a good healthy snack. Make your own muesli with fruit and oats, the mess is easy to clean up and they get to mix, pour measure and count. I know that they arent “baking” recipes but they are still cooking ideas to share with your little ones. Good luck and have fun.
I went and bought a heap of new cooking books recently, ones for recipes that my kids could help me with. I was really surprised at the range of recipes in there, some I actually found difficult, then used their recipe and it was really simple. The recipes range from family meals to desserts, cakes, on trays (or however you spell it) I like The Little Monster Cookbook by Jan & Michael Salmon & Woman’s Weekly Cooking with Kids. I would really invest in these books, they aren’t expensive either. They have really good hints and the recipes are really nice! Oh and I recently found a copy of Roald Dahl, Revolting Recipes. I know it sounds gross, but it has the recipes from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, and all his other books. It is a bit of fun, my kids enjoy eating Snozzcumbers!!
