Let’s get cookin’!   

Having your kids help out with meal preparation benefits both you and your children.

It gives you an opportunity to teach your kids about the advantages of healthy eating, while spending some quality time with them (and putting them to work!).

By preparing simple snacks and helping out with meal prep, your children gains exposure to healthy food at a young age, something invaluable they will take into their adult lives.

Safety First

Before you start cooking with your kids, it’s important to go over some ground rules:

• Give your children a “safety tour” of the kitchen, highlighting what tools and dishes they can use.
• Keep appliances and knives out of reach (unless you have a knife set made specifically for children, like this one).
• Give your children some special tools for cooking with; for example: plastic measuring spoons and bowls, easily accessible ingredients, and a rolling pin.
• Teach your children to never sample the food—especially when it’s hot!
• Teach your children about proper hand-washing techniques.

Make Cooking with Your Kids Fun

Get your little ones involved in the meal planning process by having them select ingredients and even meals. Take them to the grocery store and show them what ingredients can go in each meal, for example, a healthy pizza. Have them pick colorful vegetables for the toppings.

If they turn their nose up at the idea of vegetables, show them how to cut them into fun shapes!

Before you start cooking, remind your kids about hand washing and get them outfitted in aprons (if you can get matching aprons like these, that’s even better!).

Even your youngest child can help with:

• Washing the vegetables
• Spreading the pizza sauce
• Putting pizza toppings on
• Setting the timer on the oven (with help)
• Cleaning up

As your children get older, give them more responsibility by allowing them to measure, mix, and eventually help plan meals. School-aged kids will feel confident as they prepare their own healthy snacks such as sliced cheese and apples, almond butter on celery, and yogurt with fruit.

Some other ways I like to get my kids excited about their food is letting them juice their fruits, make their own smoothies, have fun with fondue or use chopsticks.

Sometimes it’s good to play with your food! 

And if you’re still having problems getting your children to eat their vegetables, check out my cookbook How to Get Your Kids to Beg for Veggies.

Leann Forst, MBA, CHC, CEOC — Holistic Health Practitioner

Leann is a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and Certified Essential Oils Coach, holding a Master’s degree from Drake University and a Bachelor of Science from Upper Iowa University. Leann is accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. And she is an award winning author of 2 books “How to Get Your Kids to Beg for Veggies” and “100 Ways to Lose Weight”.

Born and raised as an Iowa farm girl, she moved to Texas in 1998 where she lives with her husband and 2 kids.

As a wife of a brain cancer survivor, Leann has a special interest in anti-cancer nutrition and detoxification. She works with individuals and groups, and speaks regularly at hospitals, schools and organizations to teach people how to attain optimal health by getting to the root cause of chronic and inflammatory conditions, while using healing modalities such as essential oils. Click here to get Leann’s free report, “37 Cancer Facts You Should Know…But Probably Don’t”

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

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