What if we cooked together? All children love to hear this phrase, synonymous with gluttony … and patrols announced! However, we often hesitate, for fear of being faced with a battlefield. But cooking repainted with flour, breadcrumbs or chocolate is not inevitable. Follow our tips for cooking with your children, depending on the age of your little chefs!
"Mom, what are you cooking?"
And if you take advantage of the curiosity about your child, uncertain weather or forced confinement to have a good time with him and at the same time initiate him to cooking?
Too often there is a lack of time, but when you can take advantage of every moment to have a good time with your child, you should not miss this opportunity: prepare the meal with him is a beautiful one! A moment of sharing, learning and above all transmission that many parents have already adopted.
These are precious moments that can transform a routine task into a moment of sharing, listening and having fun if everyone gets involved. In this study, the parents' testimonies are rich in lessons.
Before attacking the recipe, let's do the shopping together!
" Sometimes we shop together to buy the products from the menu chosen together, and the fact of doing this all together promotes a smooth meal. "
"The kids run with me most of the time but it's more of an educational moment to read the labels and make price comparisons, learn to manage a budget. "
“I recommend the detour through the market. Colors, smells. They can touch and even taste. They know where these seemingly questionable vegetables come from. "
"I voluntarily make my son choose the vegetables he wants to eat, which encourages him to eat more vegetables. "
Indeed, shopping is not necessarily daunting if you make it a moment of discovery, learning, sharing and awakening.
There are two golden rules so that cooking with the family is a moment of relaxation: the chef in the kitchen is you, and no one else (we listen to the instructions); and we are here to have fun above all: choose simple recipes, and take the time to do them well.
The same recipes are not offered to 3-4 year olds and to 4-5 year olds, who are more skilful and more patient. The 6-8 year olds, with their asserted autonomy, can prepare a cold dish on their own, and the "grown-ups" from 8 to 10 years old will even manage to cook a simple dish.
Cooking with a 3-4 year old child
Young children aged 3 to 4 like discover : making shortbread cookies is a bit like making plasticine!
Their favorite gestures are to stir, sift and crush, which is enough to make a simple cake.
- In practice, to cook with toddlers
Weigh in advance the necessary ingredients and put them in trays (preferably in glass, it's healthier): no risk of error and the end result will be there faster. Take large and large containers (salad bowls) to avoid splashing. If your kitchen is too small, use the dining room table right away: sitting on his usual high chair or booster seat, the child will be more stable and at the right height!
– To measure his gestures
– To obey a simple order
– To respect hygiene: wash your hands, wear an apron, so many reflexes which are then acquired for life.
– He becomes familiar with new ingredients: he will love to sniff spice bottles and discover the smells !
- Avoid in the kitchen with a very young child
Recipes whose realization exceeds 15 minutes, their attention time being limited. Recipes with egg whites to beat in snow, the noise of the electric mixer can scare some children. Recipes using a lot of cutting and / or an open flame, too dangerous to watch!
Super easy recipe ideas for children aged 3 to 4
– Mashed potatoes
– Melon and ham skewers: you cut, it assembles!
– Shortbread
– Muffin
Cooking with a 4-5 year old child
The child's gestures are made more precise and more delicate : it can more easily handle the rolling pin (there are some at its size, like these, available on Amazon) and make funny dishes: pizza, puff pastries, butterfly cake, snails in dough … It's the reign of imagination, it's up to you!
- In practice for cooking with children from 4 to 5 years old
He can locate the figures on the measuring glass, the balance … So make the measurements with him !
Dedicate equipment adapted to its size: small spatulas, plastic bowl …
Listen his tastes: some children are "rather sweet," others "rather salty"!
– To focus longer,
– To respect the order of the steps to obtain a result,
– AT be independent : offer to wipe the dishes while it cooks!
- Avoid in the kitchen with a child from 4 to 5 years old
Aim for a recipe that is too complicated: they are still small
Make him cook a food he hates above all: the kitchen must stay a game, not a punishment. However, do not miss this opportunity for him to discover as many new foods as possible. A certain complicity will be created between you!
- Easy recipe ideas for 4 or 5 year olds:
Pizza: here is an idea that they will love on a pizza dough made together or already prepared (depending on the time you have) let the tomato sauce spread and choose the ingredients that will make them happy and that will please the other members of the family: mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, ham for a classic pizza but why not blue cheese, nuts and arugula, or shrimp with crème fraiche and peppers for a seafood pizza?
Or :
Croque-monsieur
Pear clafoutis
Sand roses
Cooking with children 6 to 8 years old
At an age when neophobia (the fear of new things) is at its peak, cooking with them can open up new horizons for them … and convince them to come back to their preconceptions.
- In practice for cooking with children from 6 to 8 years old
The big change is their dexterity with a knife, of course a classic table knife with round end and serrated teeth is enough, to always use in your presence. Perfect for cutting ham and especially fruit! To chisel herbs, think of scissors in a glass: it is safe and effective.
They also learn to cook, in your presence, with certain electrical devices: waffle irons, sandwich press, or even pancakes, which they adore!
– To read at school, what a change! We take this opportunity to decipher the recipe together before launching.
– To develop your artistic sense: arrange colors nicely in a salad, cut and place the fruit on a base of pastry …
To channel their autonomy and enhance their independence, suggest that the children prepare part of the meal alone : you are only there when needed!
- Avoid in the kitchen with a child from 6 to 8 years old
Force him to do this activity if he doesn't want to,
Choose a recipe requiring many break times (like bread or brioche), because they are impatient to taste the result!
- Simple recipe ideas for ages 6 to 8
Homemade cheese croquettes: you cut pieces of mozzarella and it is responsible for dipping the pieces in flour, eggs and breadcrumbs. You will take care of the cooking.
Sandwich clubs: ideal for working your imagination.
The appetizer bites are perfect: without cooking, simple to make, they require little dangerous material. In addition, the result, beautifully artistic, is rewarding: what pride to bring to the table a dish made all by itself "like a grown-up"!
Waffle dough: he can make the dough under your control, and have fun pouring the ladle dough into the waffle machine, but you remain in control of the cooking. To vary the pleasures, include grated zucchini in the waffle dough, it's delicious).
Apple pie: he can make the dough by himself, you take care of removing the heart from the apples and he slices them. Then have fun distributing them together on the dough.
Easy recipes for children 8 to 10 years old
Almost anything goes! If your child cooks regularly, he can have fun taking care of the creation of a meals from A to Z, from starter to dessert, based on simple but tasty recipes.
- In practice for cooking with children from 8 to 10 years old
It can use almost anything in the kitchen … provided you are there! Watch out for blenders, robots, and sharp utensils, of course.
It is its size that conditions a lot of cooking activity: it can turn on the oven, but to use a hob or cook on gas, you have to wait until you are big enough not to have your face too close to the heat source.
– The math while having fun. This is an opportunity to learn how to change the proportions of the recipe (and if I add an egg, how much more flour will I need?).
– To exercise dexterity : to them the dishes where you have to roll or swaddle. Papillotes, rolls in bricks, or even samosas for the most skilful, will amuse them … and delight you!
- Avoid in the kitchen with a child from 8 to 10 years old
Don't make cooking a feminine or masculine activity! Offer as much cooking to a little boy as to a little girl. Taste is a unisex pleasure.
- Other easy recipe ideas for children aged 8-10
Apple turnovers: cutting in a circle and folding requires thoroughness.
Wednesday noon bento: Breaded fish sticks and already cooked vegetables that need only be warmed up before nibbling with your fingers.
Savory cake or quiche: enough to make room for their inventiveness.
Spring roll: exotic cuisines change them from the canteen, and everyone can compose their roll à la carte.
Stuffed vegetables
Roquefort pear papillotte: a nice surprise at the opening. It's up to them to play for the most fun folding!
Useful cookbooks for cooking with children
And to never run out of recipe ideas to make with your child:
See also:
The 6 galleys of family meals
5 tips validated by parents for 100% successful meals with children
8 easy recipes kids love