The ten year-old got a new cookbook for her birthday, The Kid’s Cookbook from William Sonoma. I had the kids go through the book and pick out a few recipes to try. I didn’t want to he leave the little one out and lead him to think cooking is only for girls, and he was totally game. The first choice was the Big Blueberry Muffins which was a great choice, we needed a portable breakfast to take to the hotel on our weekend in Michigan.
Advanced prep is key to an enjoyable experience for all involved. I got all the ingredients out on the counter before hand to make putting the recipe together easier, and most importantly me from losing my patience. The kids could then easily measure the necessary ingredients without having to dig for them. The three year-old had fun counting each scoop (though I was sure to count along too as he get can tend to count 3, 4, 5, 19). Reading through the recipe in advance and finding age appropriate tasks to dole helps keep the arguing over jobs to a minimum. This particular recipe was simple enough to allow them to do pretty much everything by themselves, no complicated steps, no mixers. The hardest part of was getting the batter into the muffin cups, but a ice cream scoop made easy work of that.
While getting to eat them fresh out of the oven is a great reward, nothing beats the instant gratification (and taste) of licking the batter.
We had a great time! They loved helping and were pretty proud of their creation. They of course loved how they tasted too, thumbs up from both of them.
Getting the kids involved in the kitchen eases the power struggle when it comes to meal time and them deciding they don’t like something they have yet to even try. We are going to get them involved in dinner menu planning by giving them each a meal to select each way. Maybe I will hear less of “What’s for dinner?”.
