Our friends at www.gozney.com have some great advice on why it is important to start cooking with your children.
Getting your little ones involved with cooking not only helps you with the food prep but it also encourages child development by improving their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills.
Getting them hands on helps them build healthier habits as they’re more likely to try new foods by being exposed to a variety of ingredients. Cooking together can also improve their language and mathematical skills by reading instructions and counting measurements, so you can continue your children’s education even out of the school setting.
🧑🍳 It’s time to get messy
Cooking foods that you can get hands on with – like pizza – throws up plenty of opportunities for the kids to get involved with, from the dough through to the toppings. Ditch the mixer and let everyone get messy with the dough and crush those tomatoes by hand
🥕 Sneak in the good stuff
Getting the kids to eat their 5 a day can be challenging at the best of times but getting the little ones involved in cooking their own food is an amazing vehicle to make those things more desirable. Opt for colourful veggies to encourage them to get excited about these healthy ingredients, or you can even just throw in whatever spare veg you have to hand.
🍽️ Encourage interactivity
Themed dinner nights are a great way to get children excited about what they will eat. For example, you could base your theme on your family’s favourite movie or even create dishes to look like your favourite animal. A blindfolded tasting session is another a fun way to get the kids to try new and different flavours. You could even set this one up as a game with a scoreboard to see who can identify different foods by taste.
🪴 Grow your own
Growing your own fruits and veggies develops a brilliant respect and understanding of ingredients as well as being fun and education. Cress and herbs are the easiest to start with and can even be done by a window. If you have an outdoor space you can use it to grow a variety of delicious and nutritious foods like tomatoes, peas, onions and carrots.
