Fun foods to cook together?

[jenfl]

Nearly-3 year old DD and I have the day to ourselves tomorrow, and I was thinking of cooking something with her. She and I do muffins often and she and DH do pancakes. I don't want to do pizzas, because she had some today.

Something we could do in the morning and enjoy for lunch would be great, but so would something we could have for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.

Any suggestions?

[Bea]

Egg salad sandwiches.

I say this because my 2.75 year old loves to crack and peel the hard boiled eggs. He can chop them with a blunt knife add mayo, dijon mustard and Heinz salad cream with minimal help, splat it on bread AND he eats it

He's been peeling eggs since he was around two...does a fabulous job. It's actually his job in the kitchen now.

[limabean]

Popovers are fun, fast, and easy! The recipe (from Pretend Soup, my very favorite kids' cookbook, which comes with picture-based recipes that my non-reader can easily follow ) is:

2 T butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
butter, jam, or syrup for topping

Preheat oven to 375*F.

Brush the insides of 12 muffin cups with melted butter.

Break eggs into mixing bowl.

Add milk and mix well.

Add flour and salt and whisk until well blended.

Pour or ladle batter into muffin cups, filling halfway.

Bake 30 minutes.

Remove from muffin pan and prick with fork to let steam escape.

Serve with butter and/or jam for spreading, or maple syrup for dipping.



DS and I like to make this with the same cookbook's Noodle Soup (ramen with spinach, mushrooms, corn, and peas added to it) for lunch sometimes -- we both really like it!

[ashleyhaugh]

my 2.5 yr old ds loves egg salad (well eggs in general, lol), i dont know why i never thought of letting him help me make it. he loves helping in the kitchen, but i dont get to let him as much as id like too

[PatchChild]

Quesadillas are a big hit here. Smoothies in the blender. Baking anything at all.

[sapphire_chan]

Lina enjoys:
disposing of vegetable scraps (I cut, she clears)
spooning spices into the cooking food(she's 18 months so stuff ends up sort of weird as she insists on another spoonful)
whisking eggs
rinsing rice
pouring water into stuff

So we end up doing a lot of stir fries and veggie omelets.

At age 3, I'd expect a child could also use a grater set firmly on a bowl to grind down onions, carrots, or cheese into little pieces.

I'll use my food processor for bread dough mixing and Lina loves to try to pour in the flour and operate the machine, but she is sooo bad at it that I'm going to keep distracting her from that for another few months.

[sapphire_chan]

Actually, looking at what you and your dd have already done, how about going through a cookbook together and picking something? Do it now so you have time to hit the store for more ingredients.

[honey-lilac]

Snapping green beans!

[SparklingGemini]

Muffins
Bread
Pretzels
Fruit Salad
Homemade Butter
Skewers(Fruit or something savory)
French Toast
Homemade Tortillas
Cheese Straws
Crab Cakes
Breadsticks & a dip
Bean Dip(We use cannellini beans, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh parsley. Yum!)
Guacamole
Vegetable Soup
Falafels
Chili
Bagels
Homemade chicken strips/tenders
Turkey Burgers
Fish & Chips(You could do sweet potato fries as the "chips")

I could go on and on, really. The door is wide open when cooking with kids.

[calpurnia]

We made banana bread yesterday. DD had a tantrum when we put the mixture into the loaf tin, because she wanted to wear the loaf tin on her head

[honey-lilac]

That's big in our house too. Good thing we have enough pots and pans in the cupboard for everyone to have their own baking helmet. (Well, the kids anyway, I don't really want one. )

[foodymama]

DD loves helping make biscuits and using the biscuit cutter. She likes helping make anything that she knows she can lick the beaters off afterward!
And I newly discovered she loves helping make granola. She likes mixing it, patting it on the tray and then licking off the spoon with honey on it! As you can tell, we sample everything, that' the best part about cooking!