Cooking with Toddlers

[creations]

This is a fab idea for when he is a bit older.  Atm he would just empty them all over the floor so we stick to his plastic fruit and veg for pretend cooking but I'm going to remember this idea.

[creations]

Little update. It took ages for our dog knife to be delivered so I wasn't able to report on it sooner.  It looks cuter than the very basic and functional looking pampered chef knife but I think on balance I'd go for the pampered chef one.
The dog knife has a little rubber/plastic tail that sticks up and I've found it prods DS's wrist/arm when he is cutting, he doesn't like it prodding him.  The blade is also shorter so it's not quite as functional as the pampered chef.

That said, he has used the knife and I've involved him with chopping veg for our regular meals (more so than doing LO activity cooking sessions).  Amazing how he 'instinctively' knows the edge is to be avoided (even though with this knife he wouldn't get hurt) and he is careful where he positions his fingers when holding the veg to chop.  I still help him hand over hand.
Funny the other day I did a little with him then backed off, he oh-so-quickly showed me you don’t need any knife at all to cut mushrooms into the size required, you can just break them   He's not stupid eh!  He prepped all the mushrooms and put them all in a tub ready for me to cook.  I've mainly sat him in his highchair for these short cooking activities rather than take his little table through to the kitchen.

We have also used the duck scissors successfully.  The spring action works a treat so DS only needs to squeeze together rather than the regular together-apart scissor action.

He is so much more interested in getting involved with the real cooking.  At our cooking class he likes the cutting part but totally loses interest when just required to decorate something.

[michaeljacknnugg]

Glad you're having success!

Yes, I find asking DS to decorate something is less popular than 'real' cooking. They know when they're being really involved! That's great for us because it means the meals get made rather than cooking as an activity filler.

[Papaya]

Glad you're both enjoying the knife! F has helped me with bread a couple of times recently and has really enjoyed measuring out the flour and "squishing" the dough. Today we made bread rolls so then had to roll out little balls She'll happily be involved in making bread far longer than she'll play with play dough.

Good idea about the mushrooms (not really your idea, but DS's ) - maybe I can put F in charge of them and she can just pull them apart.

[amayzie]

Ok- so after you take a moment to VOMIT at the title of this blog- i saw it and thought it might have an idea or 2 that you mightn't have tried- OR you'll think you could have written it!!

http://raisinghomemakers.com/2011/cooking-with-preschoolers/

Not really a feminist manifesto as such...

[michaeljacknnugg]

Well, that was worth a read...but why are only girls allowed to learn to cook?!?!?!?

I'm trying to 'raise a good husband' here!!!

[amayzie]

I'm trying to 'raise a good husband' here!!!

I know!! I had to laugh!!

[TB9]

Just joining in to get some new ideas for cooking with DD!  She loves to help out, and has a very dull toddler knife that she uses to "chop" things.  She mostly helps with prepping veggies for salad and stuff and measuring out ingredients for salad dressing and bread.  She loves using the salad spinner after we've washed the lettuce for salad!  We made pizza last week, which she really enjoyed, but mostly ate her fill of the toppings as we were putting them on the pizza so that she didn't want much of the pizza once it was ready to eat

This week I plan on making some oatmeal raisin cookies with her, my recipe says to use the mixer to cream the butter and sugar but I think we will do it by hand so that I don't have to worry about DD sticking her hand in while the mixer is running.  Also will be tricky to get DD to keep her hands out after the raw egg goes in...gotta try it sometime so they learn right

[Papaya]

I'm all for raising good homemakers, but I want my boys (if I have any) to make their future homes good ones too!  The author does say herself though that she only has girls so that's why she writes about girls. Interesting read anyway

[creations]

We made pizza last week

Here too.  I used the home made naan bread as a pizza base and DS chopped cherry toms, mushrooms etc for the toppings.

We do eggs here.  I made sure I have a wet wash cloth ready for if/when he dips his finger into it but mostly he does follow the instruction not to touch.  We've made eggy bread several times and a few days back scrambled egg although he only ate one mouthful of that.  He rarely eats eggs but the eggy bread has been a big hit recently so we keep making it to get a bit of protein into him.

We made a pudding last week.  It was an adaptation of a German apple pudding, we used bananas and blackberries instead of apples as I had so many and the bananas had ripened beyond the point that any of us likes to eat them.  I think it's possibly the ugliest pudding you could serve up, but tasty!  Nana and DP were raving over it (nice with some icecream!) and DS had a huge portion.  It's nice for DS the following day just served cold too so none of the fruit went to waste.  Nana was amazed DS had made it and been telling all the relatives!  The proud grandmother!

Cheese sandwich has been a big hit here.  Sandwiches are often looked at with suspicion by DS but when he made it himself (grated the cheese, spread butter and mayo, snipped spring onion, chopped toms and cut sandwich in half) he ate the lot with great enthusiasm.
He's also made his supper veg a few times, peeling carrot and chopping into batons, then dumping into the steamer, snapping asparagus, and mangetout just gets dumped in as it is.  he was saying and showing me 'snap, snap' with the asparagus when he was eating it so the idea of doing the cooking certainly had an impact.
Unfortunately he got a bit wild (prob OS, and tired by that point) when washing up and I had to take him from the kitchen.  Bit of a foot stamp tantrum over that but it wasn't safe to have him stood up on a chair grabbing all sorts, going wild.  I have of course opened a can of worms letting him stand on a chair at the work surface because the thought had never occurred to him before and now he knows he can get at anything.
All in all going well here.

Katy, I haven't had a chance to look at the site you posted yet but I'm with the rest of you that boys need house skills too.  Who wants to marry a man who doesn't vac, cook, wash dishes and do the laundry?  besides, teenagers need all these skills when you kick them out of the house to fend for themselves

[gogomama]

Great update Creations Sounds like your DS is a natural. Do you mind sharing the pudding recipe?

I have of course opened a can of worms letting him stand on a chair at the work surface because the thought had never occurred to him before and now he knows he can get at anything

lol..that happened here too, still happens actually. I had to find new hiding spots for lots of things

[creations]

German Apple Pudding Cake (recipe off the internet but I don't have a link for it)

4 apples peeled, sliced
1 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla or almond essence
2-3 tsp butter
2 cups boiling water

oven 200 deg C. 40 min

In a deep 9 x 9" dish
MIX sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon
ADD apples, coat in the flour mixture
ADD milk and essence
STIR
SMOOTH surface
DOT with butter
PLACE on oven rack then ADD boiling water
DO NOT STIR
BAKE 40 min

That's the basic recipe (I can rarely follow a recipe properly). I made this without sugar and it was fine.  I also added 1/2 cup of dried fruit and used vanilla extract rather than essence.
I also put a baking tray on the shelf below to catch any over flow!

DS's version Blackberry and Banana Pudding
4 or 5 ripe bananas, chopped
1 cup blackberries (we had so many I froze them and used them from frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 cup milk
4-5 tsp butter
2 cups boiling water

Same method only when we stirred the fruit into the dry flour mix we also mashed some of the banana up a bit.  I don't think we needed the sugar but I had forgotten that I'd successfully omitted it the previous time I made with apples.  I could also taste the salt in this so I think I'll reduce it next time.

For the measuring out I gave DS a smaller measuring spoon to scoop the sugar and flour with, then put the larger cup/half cup measure inside the mixing bowl so any spillages were caught when he tipped out his scoop.  I think there was just enough involvement to keep him interested, measuring, chopping, adding and mixing the fruit in the dry mix.  He did lose interest just before the milk went in (think he needed a wee!) so i did that part on my own and he came back and half joined in for the butter being dotted on top.

I positioned his little table right in front of the oven for this cooking session.  Watched him like a hawk too but the table prevented him getting to the oven which was preheating.  He also enjoyed wiping up the table and floor to clean up when we were done.

[michaeljacknnugg]

Ah, that's lovely! So glad he's enjoying it.

Had a fab session today, completely unplanned. Went out in the garden and a few veg were ready. DS decided we should make them into soup, so we added a few bits from the fridge and did! He joined in with everything, even stirring on the stove. Tasted along the way and then wolfed a bowl down. Amazing considering he's not really into veg at the moment.

Days like this make me feel like maybe I'm doing something right :-):-)

[creations]

Ooh that sounds wonderful!
Would you believe, DS has never had soup.  Every now and then I think about making some and serving with some bread for him to dip but I never get around to it, partially because I keep thinking he won't get enough to eat.  He's not particularly good with a spoon or open cup yet so I have visions of soup all over the place and a hungry little boy at the end of it.  I should try it though as I used to make lots of soups.

[TB9]

DD loves soup!  When I portion it out into her bowl I just give her more of the veggies, meat, noodles and not so much broth so she doesn't have too much liquid to contend with.  She's also a big dipper, so she loves dipping her toast or crackers into it.  I will have to start making soup with her once the weather gets a bit cooler here