Written by Elizabeth Rietz

Let’s face it, cooking at home is a lot healthier than eating out. This is certainly an important lesson to teach our kids, and one that we wholeheartedly support here at Generation Orange, we want to inspire kids to learn to cook and enjoy the food they make. As I’m seeing with my own little one, it’s never too early to start.

Here are some simple ways you can get your toddler interested in the concept of cooking:
• Start reading cookbooks together. Go for the ones with pictures and read through the recipes. I love hearing my daughter exclaim an “Mmmmmmmm” while looking at cookbook pictures. Even better when she happily points out “broccoli….yummmm.”
• Engage them in the kitchen / encourage imaginative play. Give them kitchen utensils to play with while you cook dinner to mimic you. Or get them involved in the process with a small job like stirring.
• Get messy. Give them some real hands-on experience. I recently let my daughter stir batter for muffins and help spoon the mix into the muffin pan. It was an absolute mess, but she loved it so much that she cried when the muffins had to “go bye-bye” in the oven.
• Let them watch. My daughter loves for me to pick her up to show her what I’m doing, especially when it involves the Cuisinart or KitchenAid mixer.
• Share the goods and eat together. I actually still remember the first “cake” I made at age four. And then, the pride of seeing the finished product emerge from the oven and enjoying it with my mom.

If we can get our kids in the kitchen and excited about cooking, it will go miles in helping them make better food choices throughout their lives. And most of all, you may inspire a passion for cooking like my parents and my childhood cooking teacher instilled in me.

Check back for more tips on cooking with kids!