Today food preparation is not just for grownups; children too can discover various points while helping you in the kitchen and concurrently inculcate good eating habits. While kids are in the kitchen helping you in various food preparations, they can acquire a basic knowledge of various nutrients including minerals and vitamins found in greens, meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, and so on. In this way, they will realize what is good for them and they naturally tend to eat well balanced healthy foods. You can even teach your kids how the food is prepared perfectly, avoiding any sort of undercooked or overcooked food. Kids can attempt easy and simple dishes like salads and starters in the beginning and later you can involve them in preparing full meals including party lunches and dinners. Doesn’t it sound interesting and yummy !
Letting the kids know about the health benefits of all sorts of fruits and veggies, we are not only inculcating the habits of healthy eating in them but also educate them to stay away from all forms of harmful processed unhealthy alternatives that are basically junk foods. Apart from this, teaching kids about the advantages of healthy balanced meals and disadvantages of processed junk food will slowly and steadily develops the taste for steamed, nutritive, and organic food items, and soon kids will start enjoying them like anything.
Food preparation activities for children can be organized at schools or at home. At schools, a family cooking event can be planned where the kids can do some basic cooking without fire or with the help of their parents. At home, you can involve your kid in cutting and chopping of vegetables and fruits, mixing of batters, or in marinating meat. But, here it is really necessary that in all types of food preparation activities kids should be accompanied by adult either the teachers or parents. It is good if you get some kids’ friendly chopping and cutting tools from the market.
So…next time when you prepare any sort of meals..call your kids and let them help you in the kitchen with their tiny little hands. Now.. the question comes what food preparations should be done to involve and encourage the kids before they start actual cooking. To get your kid begin with his or her cooking journey, try something quick and simple. Try making some vegetable and fruit salad to help them get started in the kitchen. Purchase a wide range of fresh veggies and fruits consisting of nourishing green leafy veggies, peas, broccoli, and bell peppers, etc. Include succulent fruits like melons, various sorts of berries, peaches and plums, and so on.
Ask them to chop using plastic knives and kids’ friendly cutlery, mix all of the fruits and veggies together. Teach them to garnish the salad with mint or basil leaves. Children love sprinkling, so ask them to sprinkle some salt and pepper or if they love sweet, allow them to sprinkle some granulated sugar on top of the salad. When it comes to serving, use unbreakable colored salad bowls and spoons to serve.
You can even ask them to prepare ice-candies with fruit juices or even Popsicles. Blend different kinds of fruits in the blender, add in the little sugar if you want, pour in the popsicle moulds and let them freeze in the refrigerator.
Kids can also help you in baking tasks. You can involve them in mixing batters, pouring the batter in the muffin cups, or doing the frosting of cakes and pastries for instance.
As the process of cooking progresses, parents or teachers can explain the nutritional benefits of various ingredients used in a particular food preparations, and the importance of various minerals, vitamins, nutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in human body. If you want, you can also educate them about the consumption and digestive cycle and how various complex nutrients are broken down into simpler compounds, and then absorbed and utilized in the human body for various purposes.
And, at the end, a quiz session can be organized with questions like which fruit is rich in vitamin C or what are the vegetables that grow under the soil level. It is essential to point out a few basic instructions like washing the hands and wearing kitchen aprons and use of kitchen towels before the beginning of cooking.