Cooking With Kids

I decided to dedicate the entire month of May to healthy eating, food and family and cooking with kids. 

One of the cornerstones of happy families is food and mealtimes. Sometimes they can be chaotic, hard to acheive and very stressful. 

We all know that putting healthy meals on the table and eating together as a family can be a very serious challenge for modern families. 

One of my favorite childhood memories is cooking with my Mom. I still remember the retro, blue, small kitchen infused with aromas of roasted meat, fresh dill, and baked goods. I remember neighbors and family coming over and sharing food with us very frequently. My Mom was an excellent cook and baker. I guess I was naturally interested in the kitchen activities and my Mom was not opposed to me being an active participant and an experimenter. I made my first full course meal for the whole family at the age of ten. I also was given a chance to bake simple cakes and lick the batter, the bowl and the spatula. What fun times...I grew up in a family where everything was made from scratch and homemade was the gold standard. My grandparents had a farm and everything was wholesome: they grew almost everything and made their own pickles, preserves, bread, pastas, yogurt, butter, you name it...

Cooking with kids can be a daunting task like many other things but in my opinion it is well worth it. Kids learn by doing. Sure, they create more messes, they take up more time but hey, when you see the pride in their faces after they accomplish something in the kitchen you forget about the cleanup, at least for a short while. I think the overall benefits overweight the minuses. 

I do let my child “help” me in the kitchen but not as much as I would have liked. 

Today, I am going to share a child-friendly recipe that we created with my kid. My 5 year old daughter did 90% of the work. 

Fresh Asparagus and Potato Salad

• a couple of medium boiled potatoes (yukon gold)
• one bunch fresh asparagus
• red onion or scallions
• salt
• freshly ground pepper
• paprika
• dill 
• olive oil
• lemon juice

Hard boil the potatoes. Peel and cut into cubes. 

Put it in a large bowl. 

Wash the asparagus. 

Cut the tough ends and chop into bite size pieces. 

Add it to the potatoes. Sprinkle some salt, paprika, black pepper to taste. Add your red onion or scallions. 

Drizzle it with olive oil and add a juice of one fresh lemon. 

Add your fresh herb in our case dill. Toss it and give it a try. 

The crunch from the fresh asparagus goes well with the texture of boiled potatoes. 

Adult involvement: chop the red onion and boil the potatoes 

Give it a try, you and your kids might like it. 

I hope we inspired you to go to the kitchen and cook with your kids. If you have tips or recipes don't hesitate to share. 

Happy parenting and bon appetite!