We’re starting over at our house! Just like we did with our “first set of kids” we are teaching our new 5-year old Bonus Boy how to cook. Here are the favorite simple recipes we are using to help him learn kitchen skills!
Hopefully, you won’t get too tired of hearing me encourage you to teach your kids to cook. :) Obviously, it’s more important that you teach them to love the Lord and love people. Focus on that first.
But also, eating is something we must all do every day of our lives. Your kids need to know how to prepare simple foods (or complicated foods, if you are my 19-year old). It’s a much-needed skill, and guess what?
After putting in hours of effort, making lots of messes, and having a blessed mixture of frustration and fun with my oldest four kids – they can all cook. It is fantastic. The work involved was entirely worth it. And when all is said and done, we made a lot of awesome memories (and Monkey Bread).
Sometimes now, they feed me. Often they feed themselves. They will someday feed their wives and children. This is beautiful!
Now, we’re starting all over again. This little one moved in with us when he was four. He has become the 5th Coppinger Boy! If I have the audacity to make food without him, he can’t possibly understand why. “But I wanted to help you!” Well, who am I to argue with that?
He cracks eggs, makes messes, helps measure ingredients, makes messes, stirs carefully, makes messes – well, he’s also learning how to use a broom and dustpan. ;)
Teaching Kids to Cook is Messy
So what? I like a clean kitchen, but now that I have teen and adult kids who can cook, I realize more than ever that the messes from when they were little are just part of the teaching process. If I expect a mess from the little one in training, then I’m less frustrated when a mess inevitably happens. If we happen to crack, pour, and stir correctly so as to avoid a mess, well, that’s a bonus.
Ready for some kid-friendly recipes?
Simple Recipes to Help Kids Learn Kitchen Skills
Here are some of our favorite simple recipes we are using right now to help teach our 5-year old basic kitchen skills. He helps measure, pour, and stir. As we work, I talk through everything we are doing so that he learns the vocabulary of cooking and the reasons we do what we do.
- Simple Strawberry Fluff Salad
- Simple Cookie Dough Treats
- Grilled Pizza Tortillas
- The EASIEST Frozen Yogurt Bites
- No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Cookie Bites
- No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites
- No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bites
- No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
- Any of these Mixes
- Any of these Popsicles, Milkshakes, or Smoothies
In addition, he helps:
- Crack eggs for Scrambled Cheese Eggs (he cracks it, then hands it to me to open it into a bowl).
- Put frozen fruit and mixed greens into the blender for Smoothies.
- Do whatever he can with whatever I’m making because he really wants to be a part of all of it! So if possible, I always try to find him a job while I’m cooking or baking.
Looking for more help and recipes as you pull your kids into the kitchen with you?
- Grab our new and improved Teaching Your Kids to Cook eBook!
- Here’s our Kids in the Kitchen discounted eBook collection.
- This Kids Cook Real Food eCourse is fantastic! It is well worth the investment for all that it offers to your family!
- Our Chocolate Covered Kids Cookbook and Resource Pack is filled with helpful tips, instructions, and of course, recipes!
If you really want to go all in and teach your kids to cook this summer, I encourage you to invest in Katie Kimball’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. I used this course with Malachi and plan to use it with Bonus Boy too. It is FANTASTIC!!! Get the details here. And pick up her awesome FREEBIE —>
What are your favorite foods to make with your kids?
Hi Laura- just curious, have you had any issues with getting him to try new foods? I have a 5 and 4 year old. My 5 year old eats basically anything, but my 4 year old gives us a fight on literally everything. We do not cater to picky eating, so he knows he doesn’t have a choice….but still. I want trying new foods to be enjoyable and fun. I get him to help prepare this stuff as much as possible, but he still gives us a fight:) any tips or ideas would be so appreciated!
Not sure if this will help or not, but here’s how we’re helping our 5 year old try new things: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/get-5-year-old-eat-fruits-vegetables
In addition, we’ve learned to encourage our kids to try new foods but not make it too much of an issue. There are many foods our kids (especially the younger one) just does not like. But as they get older, they tend to like more if we continue to have them try it every once in a while.