I love baking and cooking things with my kids.
I've figured out ways over the years to include them and have them help so that they feel included and we both enjoy the experience. My kids are three and 6 months. My three year old is great at washing veggies, dumping ingredients into a bowl, counting things and stirring. The baby is thrilled to sit in his high chair with a stack of measuring cups watching all the action. I'll give him Cheerios to snack on and we talk to him about what we are doing.
We had a really great experience making some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins last week. I premeasured all of the ingredients so they'd be ready for Olive to dump in. I'd describe the item I wanted her to pick up and dump in so that things were added in the right order. I'd say... "I spy something brown and sugary. What looks like brown sugar?" or "I am looking for something that is white and comes in a tiny spoon. It's called baking soda." Then she'd add in the ingredient.
I do not do this EVERY time we bake together, but it was fun to change things up a bit and have it all premeasured. It made the process go really quickly and Olive loved being more involved than usual.
Sometimes I just measure as we work our way through a recipe,
sometimes I have her grab ingredients for me out of the pantry
and other times I have her help me scoop out the finished product.
It doesn't really matter how you include your kids in the kitchen - just do it!!
Sometimes I just measure as we work our way through a recipe,
sometimes I have her grab ingredients for me out of the pantry
and other times I have her help me scoop out the finished product.
It doesn't really matter how you include your kids in the kitchen - just do it!!
Our cute assistant just wanted to play with a hanger this day. Babies are silly like that.
REPLICATING THIS AT YOUR HOUSE:
You could easily do this with your kids or kid friends as long as you have a
STOOL or chair they can stand on to reach the counter.
You could easily do this with your kids or kid friends as long as you have a
STOOL or chair they can stand on to reach the counter.
Lots of MEASURING CUPS and SPOONS for all of the ingredients.
Set up a few BASIC RULES.
Our rules were to add one ingredient at a time, let the adult turn on the mixer and try not to spill the ingredients since they were already measured out.
We made healthy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins together. They were fine, but they definitely tasted "healthy" if you know what I mean. I won't share the recipe because we won't be making them again. However, I do have a delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe that I'd recommend you use instead.
We also whipped up some Breakfast Bark together last week.
It was such a simple recipe that I knew it would be a great one to do with a toddler.
1 individual sized container greek yogurt
handful of granola
frozen fruit
drizzle of honey (bc I used plain greek yogurt)
drizzle of honey (bc I used plain greek yogurt)
Spread the yogurt on a plate that will slide into your freezer. Top with frozen fruit and then granola. Press the fruit and granola down into the yogurt. Let freeze for several hours and break apart. Enjoy this healthy tasty snack. We have a bag of it in our freezer right now.
Our helper was thrilled to help with the measuring cups.
It's time to link up with my favorite Tuesday Talk Ladies along with All Things Pumpkin!
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Olive looks so proud to be your special helper! This brings back so many memories of when my big kids were little. :) And yes, I know exactly what you mean about the muffins tasting healthy. I hate when that happens! Have a terrific Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteOlive looks so proud to be your special helper! This brings back so many memories of when my big kids were little. :) And yes, I know exactly what you mean about the muffins tasting healthy. I hate when that happens! Have a terrific Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteThat yogurt bark sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips on including little ones. I give our 10 month old grandson plastic mixing bowls and spoons and he makes a great drummer!
ReplyDeleteThat bark looks amazing! I love that you pre-measured things to make it easier. Such a clever idea for cooking with kids. They get to help more and you don't have to second guess what and how much of what made it in.
ReplyDeleteHi Whitney!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday! I have tried a few pumpkin muffin recipes that weren't that great as well and I actually just posted my favorite muffin recipe last week! I hope you check it out. I also LOVE the looks of that breakfast bark! I know my kids would gobble that up :)
Lisa
Oh healthy muffins. You're such a let down! Lol!
ReplyDeleteI feel like we're almost to the place where cooking with Abigail isn't stressful anymore and is actually just fun. FINALLY! :P
I heard about Kidstir recently while listening to one of my favorite podcasts do an episode on kids in the kitchen. You need to check out kidstir (it would make a great gift for Olive from a family member).
ReplyDeleteSuch a good idea to premeasure things for Olive!
ReplyDeleteYour breakfast bark recipe is AMAZING!! What a great idea!! My girls love to bake in the kitchen with me....and since they are older...I love having them read the recipe and measure out things themselves...lots of great learning taking place while we bake up a yummy treat!! :)
ReplyDeleteL is soooo into "me help you do it!" with EVERYTHING. She's a cute little kitchen helper too and my go-to chore for her is the pepper grinder. hahah She's a terrible stirrer and I cringe when she insists on helping with that. I made greek vanilla yogurt-strawberry-blueberry bark this past summer and it's still in my freezer. It's so yummy but it's not like it can be out for long before it gets melty so I always forget it's there. THe breakfast bark look awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fun way to make cooking or baking with little ones more manageable.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to get the kids involved! Noah loves to help me cook and bake. He must be soaking it all up because he's getting better at telling the difference between the flour and the sugar and remembering the names of the spices :)
ReplyDeleteI love this. I love the tip of measuring everything beforehand!
ReplyDelete