New Year’s Resolution: Make Cooking at Home a Family Affair!

Check these 10 tips to help make cooking a family affair. You will have fun while teaching kids valuable life-long skills!

1. Get organized: Take some time each weekend to plan what you’ll eat for a week and let the kids pitch in. This will help with the grocery shopping list and you’ll likely get fewer food complaints from the kids! The extra time spent planning will also help reduce panic about what to make for dinner on weekdays.
2. Stock up your pantry: Having a stocked cupboard makes home cooking speedier than you can say. “I’ll take it to go!” For tips on what to keep handy, check Better Together’s shopping tips.
3. Buy a cookbook and pick a recipe you’d like to cook together. Review the recipe with your kids. Introduce any new cooking terms, utensils or foods.
4. Start on a weekend when there’s a bit more time. That could be Friday night or Sunday brunch. Assemble ingredients and equipment on the counter before starting to ensure a smooth and fun cooking session.
5. Let the kids take over! Based on your kid’s manual dexterity and previous experience helping in the kitchen, tasks can range from washing to measuring to peeling with a vegetable peeler to kneading to cutting to reading the recipe. You are the best judge!
6. Be patient and relax!  Kids need to practice and will get better at cooking with time and be able to help you on the weekdays.
7. Set up some kitchen safety rules. These rules, however, should not take away the fun from cooking, but rather make sure kids are aware of the basic rules that will prevent accidents and make the experience enjoyable for all. Check Better Together BC for kitchen safety tips.
8. Have an adult supervisor with kids at all times.
9. Do not short-order cook! Introduce new items with familiar ones. When kids are involved in the cooking, they tend to be less picky with eating too!
10. Keep it simple! Meals don’t necessarily have to be complicated affairs. No matter what your cooking skills are, you can always prepare something with your kids. That could be as simple as making tuna or cheese sandwiches!