Involving your children with simple meal preparations in your home will positively impact them forever. In a world where processed food is marketed to kids and childhood obesity is on the rise, we as parents have a real chance to positively influence children in their eating habits and food choices from the beginning. Besides learning self help and social skills, they are also learning problem solving, sequencing, math, and chemistry, among other things while cooking. Learning to cook healthy food for oneself and others inevitably promotes good self esteem and healthy food choice preferences. Plus, it is just plain fun for kids. Most kids I know will jump at the opportunity to help out in the kitchen. Just this weekend my 5 year old prepared her first batch of sauteed crimini mushrooms with her daddy as a side to our now traditional Sunday morning "English" breakfast. She never really liked mushrooms until she helped prepare them herself, and she was incredibly proud to have cooked something that our entire family was able to eat together.
I have always been a food lover. Not only was I blessed with a mother who can cook just about anything, but I was blessed with a mother who lived in Italy for a few years and learned northern Italian cooking firsthand from her Italian neighbor, who resided in the same building. While my parents were living in Italy, my mother was pregnant with me and so I was born in Parma, Italy. I am not Italian by blood, but my parents, having enjoyed their time their so much, made it a point to always let that experience remain part of me, even though I was so young. For the first 2 1/2 years of my life, I was presented with some of the best meats, cheeses, pastas, and vegetables that Italy has to offer. Simple, healthy, and wholesome cooking at its best. Lucky for me, after we moved back to the USA, my mother continued to provide my siblings and I with meals that leaned more towards the Italian diet than anything. At an early age I learned to appreciate the tastes of a variety of different foods. My mother cooked our meals and we ate as a family as much as possible. Of course there were foods that did not fancy my taste as a child, but I was always encouraged to try them and as I got older, began to enjoy them and appreciate them. As I got older, my mother would show me certain techniques and easy recipes that I could prepare on my own. Just those little bits of time spent with her in the kitchen stuck with me and as I got older and was on my own at college and afterwards, being able to cook some smart, healthy, and flavorful meals for myself became one of the greatest gifts my mother has given me.
In today's New York Times, there is a Question & Answer with Rachael Ray, talk show host and host/cook of the Food Network show "30 Minute Meals" about involving kids in cooking. In Rachael Ray Wants Kids in the Kitchen she makes many good points about this subject that I not only agree with, but have also witnessed myself. Among them are:
- Exposing your children to what you do in the kitchen is a feast for their senses. Smell and sight play an important role in appreciating taste, so if you want your children to eat certain foods, let them watch you prepare them.
- Today's children need to be steered away from processed foods and have healthy diets that can only come from using fresh and natural ingredients.
- Being able to provide a good meal for yourself is very empowering, and even moreso if you can provide it for others in your family, thereby boosting self esteem and independence.
- You can use different types of utensils such as plastic knives and forks to make cooking and food prep safer for smaller children.
- If you get a little creative with food, you can entice your children into trying new things and teach them to learn to appreciate certain flavors and textures as they get older.
So all you parents out there, get your kids involved in the kitchen. It will provide you with quality family time and provide them with a multitude of positive life skills. And while they are playing around in the house with the TV on in the background, keep a food network or cooking channel on in the background. You'll be surprised how much of it they take in and how interested they become in creating their own meal and trying new foods!
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