Cooking With Kids: 6 Tips to Keep You Sane!

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Cooking with kids, it’s like a Communism, good in theory but bad in practice. Kidding! Sort of. Okay so I truly believe that cooking with kids is essential and should be done as soon as a baby can walk. No joke. Kids need that hands on experience to learn about food and how to prepare it properly and it’s a great time to engage with your kids in a fun way. However, man can it be messy and stressful.

There is a an easier way though. With a little preparation and organization (two things I’m honestly not good at but in this case I make an exception, lol!) you can have a fun and stress-free time in the kitchen with your kids. Okay not completely stress-free but way less stressful than normal.

Gather Ingredients Before You Start

Gathering the ingredients ahead of time is one of those preparation things I never actually want to do. I want to get started and grab stuff as I go but that is always a bad idea. As I go to the cabinet to grab the vegetable oil, my four year-old is opening the baking powder and no it’s all over the floor. Or I go to get the chocolate chips for the pancake batter and she stick her finger in it to taste and now she’s crying because raw pancake batter does not taste good. Whatever the case may be, gathering my ingredients ahead of time is always the smartest way to go.

What about premeasuring, you ask? Well that depends on the situation for me. I want to teach my four year old the proper way to measure flour and which cups she needs to measure liquids so if we’re cooking by ourselves, I don’t premeasure. However, before she was 3, I always premeasure the ingredients because I knew she didn’t have the fine motor skills for it. I also premeasure today if we’re baking with a friend because having two 4 year-olds in the kitchen is chaotic. Whenever my younger daughter is baking with us I also premeasure for all of the above reason combined, lol!

Choose The Right Recipes

Please do not attempt a recipe that you find complicated for your first cooking session with your kiddo. Keep it simple! I love the cookie mixes by Betty Crocker that only require a few ingredients and make about 12 cookies. They are easy to work with and don’t produce an obscene amount of baked goods. Have you made a batch of regular chocolate chip cookies recently? The recipe yields 5 dozen cookies. That’s 60 freaking cookies! We don’t have time for that with kids! Things like boxed cake mixes are great or even a fruit salad. My daughter recently made a fruit salad with me on my Facebook page and we both had a ton of fun.

Lower Your Expectations

Cooking with kids is not the time to make Grandpa’s 80th birthday cake or the 50 cupcakes you need for the bake sale. When you need to be efficient and get the job done, don’t feel bad tell your kids they can’t help. However, when time does permit, let them whip something up! Just don’t expect to bring it as an Easter dessert. If it doesn’t taste good or you suspect egg shells are in it, you won’t be scrambling to find something else to serve at a big event. Low expectations are key to cooking with kids.

Let Them Do It!

Preschool age kids always amaze me with how much they can actually do. If you just let them try, you’d be surprised with how well they can complete a task. The problem is, we usually can’t relinquish control long enough to allow them the space to figure it out. trust me, I’m guilty of that myself!

My friend Colene introduced me to the Curious Chef Knives about two years ago. She used them with her daughter Lilly and told me they honestly couldn’t cut skin. I immediately grabbed a set from Amazon and was thrilled with how well they work. Since my daughter was 2.5, I’ve been letting her cut food with these knives and she absolutely loves it! They come in three sizes and she’s able to easily hold and use the smallest one.

Teaching my kids good knife skills is something I find very important. These knives are super safe but I’m still constantly teaching my daughter how to properly hold a knife and how to tuck her fingers in. Proper knife skills are essential when cooking so when I’m cooking with kids, I give them their due. Her skills are a work in progress but I’m happy that she’s able to perfect them at a young age.

Cracking eggs is another thing I taught her to do at a young age. Sure it was a pain in the butt at first because I was fishing shells out of almost everything we made. However, she got better and now she can do it with a 90% success rate of no shells in the bowl. You gotta let them practice if they’re ever going to learn to do it correctly.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Try Again!

Typically your first time cooking with kids might not be all sunshine and rainbows. Truthfully, I’d be shocked if it was. Things will get spilled, messes will be made and headaches might ensue😂 But your kids will have a blast and they will learn something. Each time will get easier! I promise that much is true.

Their skills get better and they gain so much confidence after each dish is complete. So if you’ve given it a go in the past and it was a hellish time, try again. Set-up the ingredients ahead of time, have low expectations and let them do it. You will enjoy yourself when you see how much fun they are having.

Don’t Forget About The Clean-Up

Just as important as it is to teach your kids to cook is to teach them how to clean-up after themselves! We love using our handmade kitchen step stool because our kids can use it as soon the can stand-up on their own. Use it for the cooking and the clean-up! Fill your sink with soapy water and as soon as your goodies are in the oven, get to work. Show your kids that cleaning up after themselves is part of cooking.

Teaching your kids kitchen habits form an early age will help them be more successful in life. My mom taught me to meal plan when I was only 12 years old! I’m truly grateful that I had that skill my whole adult life. She wasn’t as great as teaching me the cleaning up part which is why I’m the Undomestic Mom, lol!

I hope these tips help give you some confidence to get in the kitchen with your kids and have fun! With a little preparation, the right mindset and a few useful tools, you can truly have an enjoyable experience. Let me know in the comments below what you love cooking with your kids!