Simple Cooking: Time to Teach and Talk

Cooking with children is an important parenting activity.  It is a good chance to teach and discuss. The cooking doesn’t need to be fancy.  Very young children can help measure ingredients and stir.  As soon as children can handle a table knife they can also learn to cut up fruits and vegetables into small pieces for family salads.
   When they can spread with a table knife it’s time to teach how to make a sandwich.  If your children are not allergic to nut spreads like peanut or almond butter, they are ready to move toward helping themselves.  Nut butters go with almost anything. They can be spread on vegetables like celery or carrots. They can be slathered on fruits like apples, pears, and banana halves.  This is a perfect way to sneak in protein. Two tablespoons have 210 calories, 7 grams of protein, and 1 gram of sugar. Look for no sugar added.
  Nut butters make delicious easy sandwiches with bananas, pickle spears, apples, pears, low sugar jelly, or mashed berries.
  It’s also a good time to talk about reading food labels. Preschool children can learn to recognize protein, and different vitamins and minerals on all labels of food they eat. They can also look for ingredients that are not nutritious like sugar, salt, and fat.
Calorieking.com is a research tool that breaks down nutrition value of foods including those in restaurants.
Tortilla Sandwiches
  The tortilla is an easy all purpose base.  Cooking with tortillas involves eventually putting them in a toaster or microwave so children will need supervision.
Any nut butter combo sandwich can be rolled in a warmed whole wheat tortilla wrap. Children find them easier to handle than a cut up bread sandwich.
  Here are a few other possibilities. Spread cream cheese on a warm tortilla. Add an optional thin slice of ham, turkey, or chicken, and raw shredded carrots. Roll up and eat. If children like scrambled eggs, scramble two, add ½ cup shredded cheese and a few small pieces of lettuce.  Children may like the warm lettuce better than the texture of raw lettuce.  Roll up in a warmed tortilla. If you have spaghetti and meat sauce leftovers, warm them up, add cheese and place in a warmed tortilla.
Tortilla Pizza
 For a tortilla pizza, you’ll need 1 small flour tortilla, 1 tablespoon spaghetti sauce,
2 tablespoon shredded cheddar cheese, meat and vegetables, if desired. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese. With supervision, children can lay tortillas on a cookie sheet.
Broil for 2 minutes and watch carefully. These can also be microwaved on high for ½ minute.  Cut up or roll when cooled. 
Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest