5 Hacks for Cooking with Kids
Cooking with kids is a fun experience but, as every parent knows, it can escalate quickly from Instagram-worthy to dramatically wrong. Here are five little hacks to get to the kitchen prepared and avoid tantrums for both little sous-chefs and chefs!
five hacks for cooking with kids – pic credits NickMom
Double the clock
Pairing up with a little sous-chef means that you won’t get around as swiftly as you would by yourself. You will have to explain to your little sous-chef how to carry out their tasks, the ingredients they’re using and occasionally stopping them from touching the hot oven. Factor in a lot of time and don’t get discouraged: the more they cook with you the quicker and more confident they’ll become.
Make it exclusive
Cooking with kids is all about the fun, the learning experience and the tasty food, and a bit less about presentation. Most likely, your end results won’t be as pretty as the picture on the recipe. Serve your creations to those guests who are not bothered by presentation. Surely granny and auntie won’t mind cupcakes with wobbly or smushed icing, if they are baked by loving little hands.
Suit up
In a chef uniform, of course! Build up a whole ritual that includes washing hands and dressing into your chef uniforms. Any washing machine friendly garment will do, or even an old t-shirt of yours. If your little sous-chef gets passionate about cooking together, you can consider splurging a little and get matching aprons!
Keep it roomy
Mixing batter is a simple task that little sous-chefs of any age can accomplish easily. However, even the most disciplined helper will improvise a little helicopter swirl from time to time! Give them a nice big bowl for mixing and, if you want to go the extra mile, use old newspapers to cover up surfaces.
Go child-free
The ultimate hack. If your kid is acting up or is not interested in cooking together, don’t force it. Cooking with kids is meant to be a new and exciting game, if the situation becomes stressful for both chef and little sous-chef, it’s not worth it anymore. Distract your little sous-chef with a toy, a colouring book or the ever-helpful game on your phone and leave the actual cooking for another time.
