Kids have an inquisitive mind and love being involved in everything around them. Cooking is one of the best life skills they can learn for sustenance and this experience can be made fun for them.
Toddlers can start with the basics while elder ones can try their hand at more innovative ones. You can introduce them to different vegetables and teach them colours, their health benefits etc. while they cook. They can know about simple operations like cutting with a butter knife, arranging, and decorating using their imagination.
Let us explore some simple recipes that are easy to put together and don’t require parental guidance all the time.
Sandwiches
Sandwiches are the easiest snacks for kids to make and can be both tasty and healthy. The best part is that you can make it a learning and creative process for them. Let them give their inputs on what to add and choose what suits their fancy.
Here are two simple sandwich recipes that are perfect for kids to try their hand at.
Cheese sandwich
Ingredients:
Bread slices – 2
Cheese slice – 1
Dried oregano – ½ teaspoon
Chilli flakes (optional) – ½ teaspoon
Butter – as required
Procedure:
Take the bread slices and grease them with butter on one side. Keep one slice on a plate with the non-buttered side down and neatly arrange the cheese slice on it. Sprinkle oregano and chilli flakes on it. Cover it with the other bread with the buttered side in.
Chocolate sandwich
Ingredients:
Bread slices – 2
Banana slices – 4-5
Chocolate spread – as required
Procedure:
Apply chocolate spread generously on one side of the bread slices. With the plain side facing down keep one bread slice on a plate. Arrange the banana slices on it and cover with the other bread, chocolate side in.
You can eat both these sandwiches as it is or cut them in half with a butter knife and enjoy them.
*Tip: You can replace the bananas with any other fruit of your choice.
You can use flavoured cheese slices for a change of taste.
Chaat
This might sound ambitious but chaat is one thing kids love to eat and make too. There is no fixed recipe and one can add any ingredient of one’s choice. Most of the preparation can be done beforehand hence the actual making process doesn’t take too long either.
Chana chaat
Ingredients:
Boiled white watana (ragda) – 1/2 cup
Boiled potato (mashed) – 1 small
Tomato and onion (finely chopped) – 1 small
Tamarind and mint chutney and sev for serving
Salt and chat masala – as required
Procedure:
Mix the boiled white watana and potatoes and make a layer with them on a serving dish. Spread finely chopped onions and tomatoes on them evenly. Add tamarind and mint chutney as required (little supervision would be good here) and top it all with sev. Sprinkle salt and chat masala to complete your dish.
Dahi puri
Ingredients:
Puris – 8-10
Boiled, mashed and salted potatoes – 2
Salted dahi (beaten) – 1 cup
Tomato and onion (finely chopped) – 1 small
Tamarind and mint chutney and sev for serving
Salt and chat masala – as required
Procedure:
Make a small hole on one side in all the puris in the centre and take them in a serving dish. Fill the mashed potato in the centre while keeping half the puri empty for other ingredients. Add the dahi, onions and tomatoes. Tamarind and mint chutneys and sev can be added as per taste. A sprinkle of salt and chat masala in the end and your dish is ready.
*Tips: You can additionally add farsan in the garnish to enhance the taste.
Be quick in completing your dish after adding dahi or the puris will get soggy.
Muesli and honey chocolate balls
Ingredients:
Muesli (flavoured or otherwise) crushed- 1 cup
Honey – as required
Melted chocolate – 1 cup
Coconut powder – 1 cup
Procedure:
Mix the crushed muesli and honey together such that they have a binding consistency. Roll them into balls. Elders can help out the kids in this. Spread the coconut powder in a plate. Take one ball and dip it in the melted chocolate such that it is completely covered. Remove it with a spoon and directly roll it in coconut powder. Keep it aside. Prepare other chocolate balls in the same way. Refrigerate the ready chocolate balls for an hour for setting.
Tip: You can use crushed dry fruits in place of or along with coconut powder.
You can use oats, cornflakes, wheatflakes etc in place of muesli too.
You can make the balls beforehand and keep them.
Hope you liked the recipes. Do let your kids give them a try and enjoy themselves. Even if they aren’t perfect, remember that the attempt counts!
This is also a good activity to do when we have kids over at our place. Although it tends to get a little messy. But even kids as young as 3 yrs understand the concept of clean-up and happily help with it.
One of my kids loves messing around in the kitchen and Im going to try these during the winter break. Do you also have some tips on how to get kids to clean up the kitchen after this? 🙂
Glad you liked the recipes, Swati. I hope you have fun trying them out in the winter break and later too.
Kids cleaning up the kitchen it bound to make it messier, isn’t it? 🙂
On a serious note, you can ask them to get rid of solid waste like fruit peels, etc, keeping things where they belong and putting away utensils when they’re done using them. This should be a good start.
Hope this helped. Thanks for your comment!