Cooking For Kids

The challenge in cooking for kids is making healthy food taste good for them. This is much easier to do this by introducing kids to vegetables and whole grains at a young age and continuing to encourage healthy habits while they grow. However, this is often easier said than done.

For most little ones, the problem is often in color and texture rather than taste; other kids simply have a hard time accepting new foods. Finding a way to make the new food fun will help you win part of the battle.

Here are a few tips for getting fussy kids to eat healthy:

All kids love peanut butter and since it is packed with protein you do not have to feel guilty about giving it to them. It’s a win-win situation for both of you. A layer of peanut butter on celery with a few raisins sprinkled on top makes for a deliciously healthy snack. Cold and crispy celery is best. If you can convince your child to try a bite, there is a good chance they will love this treat! If your children like apples, cutting them into slices and offering peanut butter as a dip is another way of getting two healthy foods in them at the same time. The great thing about these two ideas is that there is no actual cooking involved. Who says fast foods aren’t healthy?

Smaller children are more likely to be interested in eating any food that they can first play with. Cut their food up into various shapes - triangles, circles, squares and lines and let them arrange the food on their plate to look like anything they like. You can do this with every thing including vegetables, fruits, bread… even deli sliced chicken or turkey. Make sure they understand that these moments you let them play with their food are different from other meals!

Puree vegetables, add seasonings and make them the sauce you put on your main dish. Make sure the vegetables you use do not have a strong flavor to them, as the object here is to hide the fact that they are eating their vegetables. Some vegetables you might try are cucumbers, celery, cauliflower, squash and eggplant. Be careful with what you puree together as color is going to matter! Hint: A drop or two of food coloring can make all the difference.

When children are involved in the actual preparation and cooking of healthy food, they are much more likely to eat it - or at least try it! Of course you will not want them to handle knives but go ahead and hand them the potato peeler and let them peel the potatoes, carrots and cucumbers. Get them to snap green beans and shuck corn. There are plenty of chores kids, even the little ones, can undertake in the kitchen.

For most crock pot recipes you just put all the ingredients in and leave it alone to cook by itself. For kids this is a great way to get involved in preparing a dish from beginning to end. Get them to peel and grate the vegetable, measure out the condiments and throw it all in together into the crock pot. Then all they have to do is cover up the crock pot and flick the switch to put it on. Any child will want to eat a meal that they have prepared “all by themselves”. If there is any meat involved, you will want to cut it yourself and get it into the crock pot surreptitiously.