Underestimating Children: Cooking for the Very Young

Huh.

I haven't quite dared. We bake -- cookies, that kind of thing. She "helps" me with many things by sitting on the counter and stirring, or pouring, etc. Oh, pizza! I let her make a pizza all on her own (fresh dough that she squooshes, then puts on the sauce, etc.)

Would be interested in getting ideas for toddler-friendly recipes.

Sozobe--

Most of my toddler cooking dealt with vegetables because the father of my toddlers was not a Good Example.

If the Sozelet is careful, show her how to use a potato peeler--and keep an eye on her.

Cleaning green beans--notice they are no longer "string" beans?

Washed greens have to be dried. A wee one can swing a closed strainer or blot the greens gently with a tea towel.

All manner of semi-convenience foods need stirring. Jello is a good place to start--and use a glass measuring cup so that she can see the stirring job is over when the jello crystals are dissolved.

Instant pudding is another food that can endure a novice mixer. Stirr--or put the milk and the pudding in a jar and roll until mixed.

I've never been one to pound meat to tenderize, but if a toddler is picky about eating meat, hand the kid a mallet and put on your ear plugs.

Good luck.

When my daughter was about 4 years old she taught me how to make "Microwave grilled-cheese sandwiches".

Toast 2 slices of white bread
Butter one side of each slice after toasted
Place one slice of american cheese between the toast slices - buttered side of the bread toward the cheese
Put in microwave and cook for "one click" (which on my old microwave oven was 30 seconds. ).

She was always a big fan of grilled cheese sammiches.

Aw...

Great ideas, Noddy!

If it's helping rather than creating start to finish, she definitely does a lot of that. Peeling eggs and suchlike. (Nimble little fingers.)

I like the instant pudding and jello ideas for really making it herself, though.

Smart kid, fishin'!

Dunno...first thing I learned to make as a kid were crepes, so I figure get 'em cooking, those young 'uns

My niece started helping me with pizza somewhere around two...and is pretty smart about cooking now as a teen, altho she has retrogressed re adventuresomeness. Unfortunately she only really gets to cook when she visits me, which isn't often, due to distance. Her father has his 'let's buy a bag of nuts' ways, and her mother, after coming from Africa and making long cooking stews, is now doing lots of fresh food for her diabetic new mate, and my niece doesn't get to help there. My ex, who was a better cook than I when he did cook, had an excellent way of building a whole meal around a theme, and having it be delicious, has a new wife who doesn't let my niece get involved, and he has disappeared from the kitchen (I hear). And in the recent past, her dad (bag of nuts and raisins) had a girlfriend who was a caterer, who liked, according to niece, lots and lots of fat in everything. (Niece watches that, and works out...) None of these people let her go in the kitchen, re buying the food and cooking a meal. Sigh.

So when she visits me, we hit the grocery store on the way from the airport, and go to it. She always starts with Rosemary Chicken....one of the easy things I taught her long ago.

Bread, water and a GAG is a good diet!

Fishin' that used to be one of my favorite sandwiches to make while babysitting kids. We called them "stuck cheese" sandwiches.

Hello friends! Long time no see (senior portrait season, ya' know).

Little Mo and I cook all the time. The biggest difference is the use of fingers instead of "tools'.

Here's our favorite recipie from The Mad Professor Science Experiements:

1 cup room temp. butter
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. almond extract
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cream of tartar
food coloring

Mix butter, egg, sugar and extracts
Add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar
Break dough into chunks and mix food colorings in
Use like playdough
Bake in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes
Cool and eat

The dough cooks best when it's about a half inch thick!

I really recommend this "cookbook" for anyone entertaing kids. A lot of the recipies aren't edible but they are all really fun!