Connor has been very interested in helping me in the kitchen lately. So I had two choices, continue to keep him out of the kitchen, with him getting very upset at me, or try to involve him in my cooking, and deal with the extra clean-up. I chose to let him help me.
At first, I tried to just tried to keep him busy. I gave him an empty bowl and spoon one night and that satisfied him for a few minutes. The next night, I gave him a pot with a bit of flour in it and a spoon. He had a blast, but there was plenty of mess. A few nights he was simply content to stand on a chair watching me cook.
Today, I decided to take it s step further, I let him help me cook, or, more accurately, bake. I filled the measuring cups with the ingredients and he dumped them in the bowl. I helped him crack an egg and he put it in the bowl. I mixed the ingredients together and then he used spoon to eat the mix while I was putting it in the pan.
Normally, I pour the batter in a 9x13 pan but I decided to try something different this time. I poured the batter into my mini-muffin tin. There was enough left over to fill two heart-shaped tins. These are part of a set of 6 that were actually tied to the car on our wedding day. Don't worry, they've been cleaned many times.
This is how they turned out.
Notice the 2 missing that I couldn't wait to eat. And sorry for the blurriness, there's a smudge on the lens I can't get off.
Do you involve your little ones in the cooking? If so, what's your best tip for keeping it interesting?
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2 comments:
My kids are involved in helping with almost every meal. They have been for a while now. I usually set everything ahead of time and they help pour the ingredients in if need be or they help to "mix". I have to warn you though. I am not one to be afraid of the huge mess usually left behind! I have discovered that things like meatloaf are the biggest hit. We bought the kitchen gloves (the elbow length yellow ones). They each have their own pair and they put them on and after they have dumped the ingredients they mix away with their gloved hands! They do that for breads, and just about anything that requires mixing. They also love to make mashed potatoes. We use a hand masher and the kids also use a meat mallet sometimes to "smash" the potatoes. They always come out yummy and it helps keep them close while I am busy preparing dinner!
I do the same as you, fill up the measuring cups, then let them dump them in. I usually do the eggs myself just because I don't want to deal with the mess, but I do let my 6-year-old do them sometimes. Something I usually do to keep it intersting is tell them, "Ok, we need 3 of these" and have them help me count as we dump it in. When they're a little older, you can have them look at the recipe and see if they can figure out what goes next and stuff like that. Isn't baking wonderful? I love it!
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