COOKING WITH CHILDREN: KIDS IN THE KITCHEN

Children learn by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling, and listening. They love to help prepare food and cook because they can use all their senses. Children like to eat the foods they make. Plan ways the children in your care can help you. Be sure to consider the age of the child.

Two-year-olds are learning to use the large muscles in their arms. They will enjoy activities such as:

• scrubbing vegetables and fruits
• wiping tables
• dipping vegetables and fruits
• tearing lettuce and salad greens
• breaking bread for stuffing
• snapping fresh beans

Three-year-olds are learning to use their hands. Try activities such as:

• pouring liquids into a batter
• mixing muffin batter
• shaking a milk drink
• spreading peanut butter on firm bread (This may be messy!)
• kneading bread dough

Four- and five-year-olds are learning to control smaller muscles in their fingers. Offer them experiences such as:

• rolling bananas in cereal for a snack
• juicing oranges, lemons, and limes
• mashing soft fruits and vegetables
• measuring dry and liquid ingredients
• grinding cooked meat for a meat spread
• beating eggs with an eggbeater

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

1. Good cooks of all ages always wash their hands before cooking.

2. Tell children to wait until the dish is done before sampling it. This will help prevent illness.

3. Expect spills and messes.

4. Children have short attention spans. Give them quick, simple jobs, and give instructions one at a time.

5. Children get excited and forget. Repeat directions as often as needed.

6. Young cooks need constant supervision.

7. Give children jobs to help with cleanup.

RECIPES FOR HELPING HANDS

ONE-BOWL FRENCH BREAD

Children love to knead and shape dough. Allow plenty of time for the children to do as many tasks as possible.

3 to 3 1/2 cups unsifted flour
1 package dry yeast
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons soft margarine
1 1/2 cups very hot water (105-1150F)

Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and undissolved dry yeast in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add margarine. Add very hot water gradually to dry ingredients. Beat 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap.

Let rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes. Stir dough down and turn out onto heavily floured surface. After washing children's hands, flour them and have them knead dough until it is smooth. Shape dough into one large oblong or let the children experiment with different shapes and sizes. Try pretzels, animals, letters, numbers, or holiday shapes.

Place on a greased baking sheet and let rise (40 to 50 minutes for a large loaf, less time for small shapes). Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (40 minutes for a large loaf, 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown for small shapes).

TASTY TORTILLAS

flour tortillas
cooked ground beef, cheese, refried beans and other vegetables for tortilla filling

Give a tortilla to each child. Fill with cooked ground beef, cheese, and/or vegetables.

WALDORF SALAD

1 stalk celery
1 apple
1 cup seedless grapes, cut in half
1 banana
1 orange
1 cup low-fat lemon yogurt

Have children wash the celery, apple, and grapes. Children can peel the banana and orange. An adult should cut the fruit and celery into bite-size pieces. Have children place fruit and celery in a large bowl. Add yogurt and mix well.

FUNNY, FRUITY PIZZAS

low-fat mozzarella cheese slices (1 slice per child)
English muffins, sliced in half (1 half per child)
fruit (an apple, banana, orange, or seedless grapes)

Have the children wash the fruit. Children can peel bananas and oranges or pluck grapes from their stems. An adult should cut the fruit into small pieces.

Split the English muffins. Give each child one half. Have the children place a slice of cheese on each muffin. Toast the English muffins until the cheese melts. Have each child top his or her muffin with fruit.

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Van Horn, J. E. (Ed.) and L. Horning (Ed.) (1995). Cooking with children: kids in the kitchen. In Todd, C.M. (Ed.). *Family child care connections* 4(6). Urbana, IL: National Network for Child Care at the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

How to Get Toddlers to Eat Healthy

The toddler years can be one of the most difficult periods for most parents to go through. That is due to the fact that such young children are only just figuring out how to communicate with others, but can easily and frequently become distressed when we don’t fully understand them. Another contributing factor is the simple fact that toddlers are learning how to express their feelings more openly, which can often times result in pouting or throwing a temper tantrum. Due to the toddler’s discovery of independence, one of the most trying issues most parents deal with is getting their toddler to eat healthy. In fact, getting toddlers to eat healthy often times calls for imaginative and creative thinking on mommy’s part.

One of the easiest approaches of getting your little one to consume nutritious foods is by allowing him or her to exercise his or her her newly found independence by making choices. This doesn’t suggest that you bring her to the grocery store and allow her to choose each and every thing that she desires. You do need to guide her. For example, while you are in the food store, present her with the choice of getting apples or grapes. Then, whichever she chooses will go in the shopping cart. These are each wholesome foods that she can have at snack time. So, when snack time comes around, grab the fruit and say excitedly, “Look! Let’s eat the _____ you picked out!” Most of the time, your child will be delighted to eat the food she helped pick out.

Another way to get your tot to eat healthy and well-balanced meals is to prepare food creatively. For example, many moms are learning how to get their fussy kids to eat vegetables by pureeing them and mixing them in with foods they love. A great example of this is pureeing butternut squash and mixing it in with the cheese mixture for macaroni and cheese. Or you can sneak a bit of cauliflower in with mozzarella cheese in a homemade pizza or mix it in with mashed potatoes. Add vegetable juice to meat by injecting it in with a flavor injector. Yet another good idea is to add a little bit of raw spinach to fruit smoothies – I”ve been doing this for years without detection. While these ideas may be brand new to you, there are, in fact, several cookbooks out there containing tasty recipes using these methods.

Just like each and every child is completely unique, there are many different things that will work for each girl or boy. And so, when healthful eating is your mission, find things that work and use them for as long as you possibly can. You might have to adjust strategies in the future, but until that time occurs, remain consistent with what works well for your children.

Bonnie L. is the founder of A Kid Place, visit at www.akidplace.com and check out our blog at http://blog.akidplace.com/.

Healthy Snacks Kids Love

Supplying your children with healthy snacks is important to providing good nutrition, supporting lifelong healthy eating habits, and helping to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. With just a little planning ahead, healthy eating is easier than you may think. The following snack ideas will be fun for children to prepare with your assistance.

1. Fruit Kabobs

First, cut fruit into bite-size pieces. I find that the best fruits for making fruit kabobs are cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries and watermelon. Next, slide pieces of fruit onto drinking straws (much safer for little ones than metal or wood skewers). If you have difficulty sliding the fruit onto the straws, then first poke a hole through each piece with a skewer before sliding the pieces onto the straws. Serve with yogurt or fruit dip for dipping.

2. Veggie Pillows

Chop carrots and celery and then mix them together in a small bowl with ranch salad dressing. Then, cut a slice of pita bread in half and fill each pocket with the veggie mixture.

3. Monkey Milkshakes

To make a yummy milkshake your kids will go ape over, blend 1 cup of vanilla ice cream with 3/4 cup milk, 1 small banana and 4 to 5 tbsp. chocolate syrup in a blender.

4. Ants on a Log

Stuff celery with cream cheese or peanut butter and then, top with raisins.

5. Yogurt Parfait

Layer yogurt with blueberries, raspberries or mandarin oranges, or all 3 if you like in clear, see-thru cups. Top with granola.

6. Veggie Wraps

To start, spread a little cream cheese on one side of each tortilla. Kids would probably have fun spreading it themselves with their fingers. Then, fill it with your child's veggies of choice. Some good ideas are grated carrots, shredded lettuce, shredded cabbage, alfalfa sprouts, sliced peppers or diced tomatoes.

7. Veggie Sculptures

This is a really fun idea to encourage children to try new vegetables. First, cut up an assortment of vegetables. Using cream cheese or peanut butter, have your children "glue" the vegetables together to create architectural structures, shapes or anything else they can think up. When they are done, have them take their works of art apart and eat the vegetables.

Who says healthy eating can't be fun?