It’s a fact, kids love to snack and they are more likely to eat foods they make and can take ownership in, so let’s use the opportunity to satiate their cravings and at the same time teach them about healthy food preparation?
There are so many ways they can help in the kitchen, from rolling out dough, to tearing lettuce, to mixing the batter, and especially taste testing!
Keep reading for recipes your kids will love including tips and tricks for how each kid based on their own age and abilities can help make their favorite healthy treats.
We love this recipe for Mini Quiches for kids to cook in the kitchen.
They don’t require utensils to eat, can be eaten at room temperature and both kids and adults love them. The best part is that you can get your kids involved in the making.
Kids can crack eggs, whisk the mixture and roll dough. There are so many more ways your kids can help out in the kitchen. Here are a few ideas you might like to try.
Kids love to eat with their hands and taste as they go.
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Choose foods that have some nutrients so you won’t mind if your kids fill up on them, even if it means they don’t eat so much at dinner. Have them drain and rinse a can of beans. Let them shell peas or edamame, it’s okay if more make it in their mouth than the bowl. For these Fava cakes, kids can peel the skin off the Fava beans if you can’t find them peeled in the store.
Kids like to cut and rip.
Halloumi SaladLet them tear the lettuce. If you have a plastic lettuce knife they can even help cut the lettuce up. Either way, they have fun and you can get cut lettuce that won’t brown easily. Bonus, they might just love this grilled cheese salad too.
Clean the mushrooms.
Stuffed MushroomsThe chefs say not to clean your mushrooms with water, rather wipe them with a damp cloth. This is a perfect task to delegate to a little one, they are good at wiping off all the dirt. A perfect task when making stuffed mushrooms, they may even be able to stuff the mushrooms for you.
Get a small serrated knife with a plastic handle.
Wavy KnifeKids can easily cut small vegetables with this knife that is not too sharp and creates a wavy chip look for any vegetable. I like it for cucumbers.
Whichever recipe you choose, get the kids to help with the heavy lifting. They love to mash.
BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE DATE TRUFFLES
We love these truffles because they look so glamorous and kids absolutely have a blast making them. The fact that they are made up of only 2 ingredients and achieve sweetness and texture from dates, makes these treats even better. Kids can roll and coat the truffles.
There’s nothing as exciting for kids as the sensory experience of mixing ingredients and crumbling it over vibrant, delicious fruit.
No mixer needed for these easy to make veggie filled treats. Great option for picnics, lunch boxes and after-school snacks.
If you haven’t noticed, I am obsessed with halva and its flavor profile. Ever since moving to Israel I am using Silan (date honey) and tahini in and on everything. These granola bars use a little bit of regular sugar, oats, tahini and silan and then you can add anything you want. You can make them gluten free by using gluten free flour.
MORE: Homemade Vegan Granola Bars
Homemade Goldfish Crackers are surprisingly easy to make. With just six healthy ingredients –almond flour, salt, baking soda, cheddar cheese, olive oil, and egg, they make a fantastic gluten-free snack for kids.
MORE: The Best Snacks for School
HUMMUS AND PEANUT BUTTER CUCUMBER SAMMIES
These delicious mini cucumber sammies are filled with an interesting combination of peanut butter and hummus. It is the perfect flavorful protein packed sandwich filling. If you need to add some carbs to your snack, pop it on a thin cracker.
MORE: 15 No-Cook Recipes
These are the perfect alternative to mini pizza bagels. About the same size and gorgeous for a cocktail party or fun for an afternoon snack.
MORE: Best Snacks to Pack for School
A great way to have fun with your fruit, and eat it too!
MORE: Getting Kids to Eat Fruits and Veggies
The best part about galettes is that they are not supposed to be perfect. These are the best desserts to make with kids, they can roll the dough, cut and mix the fruit and even fold over the dough to make that classic rustic tart.
Gingerbread cookies are a guilty winter comfort food pleasure, but Raw Gingerbread Bites are a guilt-free and healthy fix for that cookie craving. After blending the ingredients together, let the kids help to roll them out and shape them.
You can add flavor and texture buy mixing in semi-sweet chocolate chips, coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans), blueberries, or pumpkin puree – YUMEEEEE!
MORE: Snacking in the Kitchen the Healthy Way
Raw cookies are the best to make with young kids so you don’t have to worry what they might accidentally put in their mouths. with these healthy cookies it’s all good.
GLUTEN-FREE BLACK BEAN BROWNIES
The only problem with making this with your kids is that the secret ingredient won’t be so secret. But they are really healthy baked goods you should make for your kids.
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When I think about food and my childhood I remember the times where I had to peel, what felt like, enough potatoes to feed a football unit, and setting the table dishes for and doing the dishes of an army. Okay so the truth was far less dramatic, there being only 6 of us. It was also not so Cinderella, for I enjoyed coming up with the dessert. When ever we had a family night and I was in charge of the dessert I was the happiest. I would plan for days.. struggling to think of something AMAZING. How could I make something new out of what we have had for weeks or months before…. Maybe it wasn’t a new recipe, but it was defiantly not going to look like the same old bowl of ice cream… I smile as I remember how happy I was. A happiness not brought on by the dessert itself, but however by how my family warmly embraced what ever strange thing I brought to the table…. even if it didn’t always come out quite how I wanted it to.
I remember every year making cookies for purim with my mother and siblings in lots of different fun shapes! They were always so much fun!
Everytime we had a snow day from school, my mother would take us into the kitchen after hours of playing in the snow and we would bake chocolate chip rice krispy cookies. It was such a wonderful tradition that I have continued this tradition with my children!
I remember waking up on Sunday mornings to make homemade tofu pancakes with my dad. I would help put the ingredients in the blender and he would fry them up. He always made the last one big and flipped it in the air.We also made a fruit sauce in the blender to pour on top of the pancakes. It was such special father daughter time that i let up on the complaining about how healthy the food he made was!
I have such fond memories of coming home every friday from school and there would be a big bowl of dough rising and waiting for me. Waiting for me to say the beautiful bracha and braiding them as well. This would be a traditional friday task for me in the kitchen. My mom would pt up the dough before she went to work and i would braid them when i came home from school.
My mother taught me how to make chocolate cake when I was 8, and I then made it every week for Shabbos. Sometimes I would make it when the babysitter was there, and I’d pretend that I was preparing it on my own cooking show ;).
Growing up, my mom tried to get me to help out in the kitchen, but despite her best efforts, I’d finish the job she gave me and I’d disappear to read. I remember what a treat it was the few times she made cinnamon buns.
I was in university already when I’d visit my grandmother once a week, and sometimes we’d bake. I wrote down with speed everything she put in the mixer. Blueberry pie, nothings, komishbroit.
I have always loved cooking and baking, and its probably due to the fact that my mother always let me help, I was her sous chef so to say! Sunday mornings would be fun, when I would make homemade pancakes, or french toast from leftover challah from Shabbos.
My Grandmother loved teaching us her age old recipes. Including kreplach, stuffed cabbage, challah and cakes.
Because of this, now that Im older, I feel experienced in the kitchen, and enjoy it so much more.
My mother would let me experiment in the kitchen as long as I cleaned up after. I started making chocolate chip cookies at a young age even though my mother never really made them.
My mother and I didn’t often cook or bake together. But the one time a year we would, was for Purim. My mother and I would bake banana cake and chocolate cakes in loaf pans and later distribute it for Mishloach Manos.
I remember rolling out challah dough with my grandmother. She used to use the leftover dough to make kindel with fruit and raisins and cinnamon buns. I used to hope she had a lot of leftover dough so I could make these delicious pastries. I try to sometimes do this with my kids also as is so fun to play with challah dough and be creative.
I remember when my Grandmother would roll up her sleeves and make the famed “fankes”, or chanukah donuts that my family looked forward to every year. Every inch of the counters would be covered with donuts. My sisters and I would help my Grandmother, especially when it came to eating!
My Grandmother also made the best Challah in the world. Growing up, I would savor every bite- the crunchy outside and soft, warm inside. It was just perfect! I remember one night when my sisters and I asked my Grandmother to teach us how to make a six braided challah. It was too late to start making a dough, so we took out playdough and eah of us, following her instructions, made playdough challahs! We took pictures and had a great time.
My Grandmother put love into everything she made. These are memories I will cherish forever…
I remember my mother buying us a children’s cookbook. We were so excited, and wanted to try out every recipe in there(which we eventually did). My favorite by far was making and eating the napoleon ice cream cake.
I remember when I was young and helping MyParents in the kitchen. They asked me to hand them the “flour,” so I kept looking for it. It was only after they wondered what was taking so long that they clarified and told me the “decorative flower” for the plate’s display. We all had a laugh about that 🙂
I have so many many fond memories of cooking with my mom in the kitchen.
Making potato kugel-as a little girl and as a teenager I would rush home from school on Friday and peel the potatoes for my mother while she hand grated them into a large pot. It always came out tasting amazing!!
Cookies-Every holiday, Jewish or secular my mom would make shape cookies-torah scrolls, groggers, shofars, driedels, squirrels, pilgrims, etc. and hand them out to family and neighbors. I would carefully measure the ingredients for the dough and out into the mixer, help roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters to make shape cookies. The best part is watching my mother make shape cookies now with my three year old daughter the same way I did. By the way, not one cookie was ever left over!!
I LOVED making peanut butter cookies with my mom and my sister. We always loved making the criss cross indentations with the tines of forks on the top. YUM!!!
I remember making matza balls for shabbos every week as my contribution to Mom’s chicken soup!
a fond memory i have of cooking as a child was with my nana. she used to come to visit for extended periods of time during the year and we would always look forward to her borekas! when i was old enough she let me roll out the dough,and grate the cheese with the cheese grater! i felt so grown up and ecstatic that everyone loved “my” borekas!
Great article! Thank you!
Purim baking was always fun-before the theme craze started we’d make layered Neapolitan cookies every year. And we always got to cut out the hamentaschen circles with the plastic orange cup. One year we did “take out” theme with burger chocolates patties, green coconut lettuce, bun cookies. When we made the french fry cookies I got to stay up super late and eat all the broken ones. 🙂
Non-purim…I went through a phase where I ruined everything. And i mean everything. I did the baking soda/powder switch, the salt/sugar, accidentally dumped in wrong ingredients…you name it! Yet I was still allowed to keep trying week after week. I have the best Mommy!
Wow…you have me wwwwaaaayyy down memory lane! 🙂
When I was a child, I used to love using the bread machine to make fresh breads. Egg bread was my favorite! Some of my fondest childhood cooking memmories are of that bread machine, and I still use it!
I remember making pesach pancakes, called bubula, with my grandmother every year. We still love them even more than regular pancakes!
My favorite memories in the kitchen when I was a child would be baking bread with my mom! I had a miniture iron stove with little iron pots and she would give me a small knot of dough to roll with my little wood rolling pin (which my little girls now use). I would roll and braid and roll and braid. I love to cook because my mother always welcomed me into the kitchen and now my 9 and 11 year olds love the kitchen too and my little 4 year old is my newest helper in the same kitchen I learned to cook in! We love to make fun food and think the smiley pancake pan looks amazing!!
That is a great idea, I love the memories. Thanks for sharing.
My fondest memory of cooking as a child is making apple pie with my grandma. We would make the dough, layer the apples really thick, and top it with meringue! It was so delicious and I was so fascinated by how she could create something so wonderful out of such strange raw materials.
A fond memory I have of cooking as a child is baking with my mother. She taught me fractions before I ever saw them in school. She would ask casually, as we were measuring ingredients, “how many half cups make a whole cup?” “how many quarter cups are there in a cup?” etc. I am now an actuary!