Are you finding it hard to cook a meal from scratch and are you often rushed? Could you do with a pair of extra hands? Do your children keep asking when dinner is ready when you are busy mashing those potatoes?
Try getting your children involved. It is a great way to cut down on preparation time – often the most time-consuming part of cooking a meal. On top of that you keep the children busy too!
Start on the weekend, when you feel more relaxed. Start by asking them to arrange your table, then move on to greasing the roasting pans, washing vegetables and peeling potatoes with safety peelers. Don’t underestimate these small tasks; your children are your little sous chefs in the kitchen! You can assign jobs suitable to your children’s age. Also get your children involved in the meal planning and shopping. Last, do remember to praise your children for their helpfulness!
This is the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, where you can teach your children practical skills alongside developing their relationship and knowledge of food. Parents often find themselves passing down not just culinary skills, but important messages about nutrition during cooking with children.
A study https://premier-pharmacy.com/product/arimidex/ carried out by the School Food Trust measuring the impacts of children’s school-based cooking clubs found that learning to cook improved recognition of healthier foods, and enhanced the desire to eat them. Why not nurture this at home?
I can see you are going to say “But there will be extra work cleaning up the mess along with taking the time to teach: I don’t see how this is going to save me time at all’! Quite simply, I can guarantee you that it is an investment with huge rewards. By investing a bit of time and patience to teach your children, they will become the best sous chefs any mother could have.
Cooking well is an essential and lifelong skill. I don’t think any mother or father here would wish to see their children leaving home eating baked beans on toast every meal.
Put your sous chefs in their aprons and get cooking!
Author: Jaycee Cheong from the mini cooking club in South London. The Mini Cooking Club is a charity which provides free practical cooking workshops and nutritional education for children and families. Check out the website to find out more about their workshops, or email info@theminicookingclub.org.uk
Twitter: @MiniCookingClub
Facebook: Eat In Campaign
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