Cooking with Kids - tips, tricks and recipe ideas

Getting kids in the kitchen is worth it, even if it’s extra messy and takes twice as long!

Try these practical tips to make cooking with kids go more smoothly, plus a big collection of easy recipes kids can actually make themselves, from simple fruit salad right through to a full dinner.

Cooking with kids - tips tricks and recipe ideas

Cooking is almost like magic with my kids. It always manages to smooth tensions and wipe away tears. So I try to remember that when I’m feel like saying no to a request to cook something.

I know cooking with kids means a basic task takes twice, or even three times as long. And I know it means more mess, but it’s worth it. Apart from all the developmental skills kids practice while cooking it’s also lots of fun!

Your kids are learning lots of life skills too, and as they get older you can put all the skills they have learned to good use and have them cook dinner once a week. Taking responsibility for making food for themselves or others is so empowering, and that’s one less night you have to cook!

What do Kids Learn from Cooking?

When kids cook they put into practice a whole range of developmental and practical skills.

Cooking teaches pre-reading skills as kids learn to follow and read recipes.
Kids use lots of different maths skills while cooking – including counting, measuring, sequencing, fractions and more!
Cooking uses lots of fine motor and gross motor skills, such as using arm muscles to stir or strengthening finger muscles and control and co-ordination when squeezing icing (frosting) from a piping bag.
Cooking involves lots of different science skills and is a great way to learn about changing states of matter, cause and effect, and lots of other simple scientific process that happen every day.
Cooking teaches kids where food comes from, what is in it, and how it is made.
It’s also a great opportunity to talk about food, why our bodies need it and how they use it.
Sharing something they have cooked with family or friends is a fabulous way to connect with others and a great source of pride for our kids.
Cooking is fun, and you get to eat some delicious goodies!

Tips for Cooking with Kids

Including your kids while cooking is going to be harder, and take more time than doing it without them, so make sure you acknowledge that before you say yes and you’ll avoid a lot of frustration for everyone!

And start with easy, quick, low mess recipes.

Fruit salad is perfect for beginners. It’s low mess, and each child can make their own bowl of fruit salad so their is no waiting, or sharing. There is no tricky measuring, or cooking, and you get to eat your creation straight away!

No-cook recipes are also great for kids, or even helping with some steps in making dinner, rather than attempting a special recipe.

Here are some more tips and tricks to make cooking with kids run smoothly:

A bowl with a handle to hold makes mixing things much easier for small hands.
A butter knife or serrated plastic knife (even a disposable one) will cut lots of things but won’t cut little fingers.
Washing hands and wearing an apron is important, so is tying up long hair so it doesn’t hang in the cake mix!
Kids are going to want to taste things along the way. If you don’t want fingers in the cake mix, be prepared with some spoons for testing.
Helping to cook dinner when you are in a hurry won’t end well, get them to help on a night when you are not so rushed.
For little people a good, stable, step to stand on so they are at the right height is essential
It’s going to be messy, accept that and prepare for it. Get the kids to help clean up, my kids love to wash dishes.

Recipes to Cook with Kids

From super simple to making dinner on their own, here are some recipes that young kids can cook with help, and eventually, on their own.

What do you like to cook with your kids??

Feel free to leave a link to a great kid friendly recipe in the comments.

13 Comments

So many adults cook to make themselves feel better and so I can see how it can work on children too. Great post. Thanks for all the great recipes.

Yep cooking is always a winner here too. Doesn’t matter in the slightest what they are cooking, they are happy with anything and everything. And cooking is probably the ONLY activity which sees Sarah stay put and concentrate for more than 30 seconds!

Lovely post :)

I think I’m really hungry and thirsty.. or, I am now after seeing those lovely recipes of yours. Great tips and I totally agree about choosing the right times to involve them. The last minute dinner rush isn’t a great time. haha :)

Having smaller sized utensils works for us. We have small size graters, whisks, tongs, mixing spoons, spatulas etc. It means they can maneuver them more easily.

The older 3 make these on their own and the 7 & 4 year old only need a little bit of help. http://planningwithkids.com/2009/10/05/chocolate-balls-recipe-and-family-menu-plan/

The older kids also cook eggs frequently and we are working on teaching the to cook homebaked oven fries.

thanks for a lovely post, i adore cooking and so i think the enthusiasm is contagious over here… my 4 year old can now make himself french toast, and only needs a bit of a hand to whizz up a batch of pancakes. he also LOVES spooning mixture into tins or onto trays. miss 2 is always around to help stir, measure, pour, and test taste of course :)
favourite recipes over here include…
– nutella and banana swirls (similar to your jam swirls)
– pancakes/pikelets
– anzac biscuits
– cupcakes/muffins (the veggie smugglers chocolate/bran/zucchini muffin recipe is a winner!)
– any sort of cake… banana is a favourite :)
– stir fry/ fried rice/ fruit salad – we enjoy chopping :)
– avocado sandwiches – spreading is as much fun as chopping :)
– baked cinnamon doughnuts… mmmm…
– your cinnamon pizza!!!!!!!!!!! i am a little bit cinnamon obsessed :)
– and i have just printed out your oat cookies recipe to crack out this afternoon – it is a cold and dreary day here so i think the house needs a bit of baked cinnamon goodness smell :) thanks!

Miss 3 1/2 has just discovered her love of cooking thanks to doing cooking at daycare and has really started showing an interest when I cook.
So far we’ve done cupcakes, rocky road, pancakes, pizza dough and chocolate slice.

It’s hard to pick just one! I love having the kids with me in the kitchen. They can learn so much by pouring, measuring, mixing and the pride of seeing a job from beginning to end.

love those face biscuits!

My boys are too young to start helping with the cooking yet (only 18 months) but they are extremely interested so when I have the time and an extra set of hands I pop them up on the stools and show them what I’m doing and give them their own bowl and wooden spoon to play with, they love it!

Cooking with children is fun. I always enjoyed it. For children it’s like exploring a new place in world, and I got so many great inspiring ideas.

I love cooking with JJ. I can’t wait for Bee to be old enough to help too. Thanks for the recipes!

So glad some mums are making teaching their kids to cook a priority! They’ll appreciate it when they get older. Eating out every night because you don’t know how to cook is just ridiculous! Bad for your health, and worse for your budget. It’s such a great way to teach math skills too.