How to Get Your Kids to Prepare Meals for You!

“Don’t touch that, it’s HOT!” — ever heard that before? Brings back old memories… While watching a friend prepare lunch for us, I was taken aback by how she ruled the kitchen.  She had 2 things cooking on the stove, something delicious in the oven, and she had the food processor whipping up the most amazing salad dressing I had ever eaten. 

When her 4-year old daughter — who was also watching her mother with amazement — walked over to the stove to stir the pot, her mother scolded her.  I had to bite my tongue because I’m sure whatever I was going to say would not have been well received.  

As much as I wanted to turn that into a “teachable moment”, I didn’t have the right to critique. But I DO have the right to blog about it later!

Creating delicious meals or even tossing together a quick salad will be a mystery to children if all they do is sit at the dinner table when meals magically appear.  While it will take a little longer to prepare meals when you’re teaching a 4-year old the safety precautions of stirring a hot pot of stew or using a food processor, they’ll learn more safety by DOING than by being told not to do something.

When children want to “help” and be part of the process, they get to own their meals.  They’ll be more inclined to taste new ingredients and learn how to combine them to create new flavors or textures. Here’s a secret: this is a CHEMISTRY LESSON. Besides, they’re part of the family and they SHOULD take part in preparing family meals.

When my girls were young — 10 and 6 years old — our family routine included having each member of the family cook one dinner per week.  The only rule was that there needed to be a protein, veggie, and starch (pre-carb diets!).  Nicole made Chinese Chicken Salad with garlic bread every Monday for months. We loved it and enjoyed having a predictable, delicious meal each week. Jaclyn, on the other hand, learned how to read our family recipes (PRO TIP: ENGLISH LESSON) and even created entrees on her own! At 6 years old, she once made chicken pesto pasta and salad. She even lit candles! 

This also taught them how to prepare ahead of time. They needed to plan their menus and get a shopping list to me by Saturday the week before. At first, this invoked complaints, but they jumped on board when they realized they could get ANYTHING from the grocery store, as long as it was part of a recipe! This of course immediately led to the inclusion of DESSERT in their meal prep, and we all really enjoyed the meals!