4 Tips for Cooking With Your Kids!

Hey guys!
Since we made home made pizza today, it inspired me to do a post about cooking with your kids. As I was thinking about what I would say, I thought it would be great to tell you some simple things that I have learned while cooking with Charlie. Here are my 4 Simple Tips for Cooking with Kids!

Strategy!
Plan what you're going to make, go shopping and when you get home organize the ingredients. Going through the store I have Charlie memorize three or four ingredients and I have him recite them back to me. This helps him with memory and it gets him used to thinking about food, so the actual  food is always a part of it, and it's not just about the doing part. This is also great for teaching follow through!

*Remember to wash hands before cooking! :)

Keep it Safe!
Kids love helping, which is great, but make sure they are aware of the dangers of a hot stove/oven and sharp knives. This is an obvious one, but can't go without mentioning. Anything can happen in a split second! I always do the prep work and let Charlie and Wesley do the easy stuff. They get to mix and dump etc. but I always do the cutting and putting things in the oven, stove. I also don't let them stand too close to the oven. Charlie slipped one time and got a second degree burn on his index finger. Took 2 weeks to heal and I was a mess!!! It's NOT worth it!

Keep it Simple!
Simple steps and a simple recipe that doesn't take 3 hours to make is what we go for. Simple gadgets are always great, spoons, bowls, mixers, blenders- hey they can push the buttons- and spatulas all work great for little hands and developing fine and gross motor skills! Also, it builds a child's self esteem to accomplish something- no matter how small it seems to us- it's big stuff to them! So, mixing, pouring, sifting, dumping, whisking, poking, patting, touching, any verb you can think up, they love it! It's easy to make a kid grin from ear to ear when you pat them on the back for an accomplishment- what a great memory it is for you and them- and a good self esteem booster to boot!

Keep it Special!

Introduce new ingredients or a family specialty! This teaches them about food that is good for them, that they can make things all by themselves (they don't always need to go out to eat) and that Grandma So-and-so made this for you when you were a kid! And what a palate it helps to develop! Picky eaters? Not in my house! We eat everything except liver...and goat cheese- but hey, I try. My kids don't really turn their noses up to much and that's probably because we make everything sound deeelishes! Kale? Awesome! Broccoli? They steal it off my plate. I make things healthy and fun- and that's all you have to do!

Take the time to spend with your kids because one day they'll grow up and give you 

just the same amount of attention you gave to them!

"I made this one!"

If a messy kitchen is what it takes

To spend my day with you,

Then I would bake ten thousand cakes

And smile the whole day through

If time with you meant dishes for days

and living in the sink,

Then I would wash and scrub away

And never even blink

If I had to have a dirty floor

from teaching you to cook

Then I would sweep and never care

of how much time it took

If all I ever did with you

was play and run and swing

My heart would be full of joy

And all the good you bring

~Kelly Moore~

8.25.12

Seize the day!
Capture every moment and keep it forever!

~Kelly

Butterfly...

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been. 

We could never fly!