Cooking up Connection with Your Kids

Ready for some chef-worthy ideas for kid-friendly cuisine and connection? Christmas break is right around the corner – a great time to come together intentionally in the kitchen. Let’s get cooking!   

Research compiled by the National Library of Medicine shows that “family meals play a protective role in children and adolescents’ nutrition, weight status, risk behaviors, well-being, and academic achievement.” Maryville University also notes the importance of creativity in overall child development as well as mental and emotional well-being.  

So, if we know that eating together and being creative are both important, why not combine them? Cooking together with children can be a great way to learn skills while bonding as a family. Shared time in the kitchen offers a casual, natural environment that fosters conversation and fond memories.  

But where’s a busy parent supposed to start? A lot of times all we have time for is a quick, frozen pizza and salad – which is totally fine, by the way! To make things easier, let’s round up some food-and-fun ideas with kids to get those creative juices flowing. 

What’s on the Menu for Food? 

Cooking with kids can be as simple or involved as you want it to be, depending on the age and interest of your children. Here are a few options to try: 

Breakfast 

• Banana Pancakes: With just four ingredients, this pancake recipe is perfect for little ones who have shorter attention spans.  

• Egg and Cheese Breakfast Quesadilla: This unexpected breakfast entree allows older kids to work on whisking, flipping, and cutting skills. 

• Peanut Butter Energy Bites: My teens enjoy making these protein-rich energy balls for a breakfast on the go. We make them together in the afternoons and have them handy in the fridge – so they can sleep in ‘till the last minute!  

Lunch 

• PBJ on a Stick: Preschoolers can help stack these fun lunchtime kabobs, working on both fine motor and patterning skills.  

• Turkey Pinwheels: Kids can help develop their confidence in spreading, sprinkling, and rolling while making these no-fuss pinwheels together.  

• Filled Potato Skins: Make these easy, six-ingredient potato skins together ahead of time and freeze them for an easy lunch later.  

Dinner 

• Chicken Fajita Pasta: This fusion of Mexican and Italian delights the palate and provides ample opportunities for kids to measure spices. 

• Hawaiian Chicken: This little recipe packs big flavor! Prep time is minimal, allowing for relaxed conversation while you toss a side salad together. 

• Frito Pie: What kid is going say no to chips for dinner? But this delicious recipe is also packed with protein and fiber – and it’s straightforward enough for teens to take on the role of head chef. 
  

What’s on the Menu for Fun? 

While fixing the food, don’t forget the fun! A little bit of initiative and forethought goes a long way in creating that connection that you truly crave in the kitchen. Here are some ideas for making the most of that elbow-to-elbow time: 

• Roll the Fruit: While you’re waiting on the water to boil or the oven to beep, roll an orange or other fruit back and forth to each other on the counter. Whoever has the orange shares a highlight (or lowlight) from their day.  

• ABC Story Spoon: Lay a spoon in the middle of the counter and spin it. The person it points to says a sentence that starts with the letter “A” and spins the spoon again. The next person builds on the story with a sentence beginning with the letter “B”, and so forth. What wacky tale will you concoct?  

• Beet “Tattoos”: Cut cooked beets into fun shapes, then stamp them onto your skin for a “tattoo” that will wash off with soap and water.  

• Smelling Bee: Kids may enjoy a variation of YouTube’s Dude Perfect game, the Smelling Bee. Blindfold your kiddos, pull out various ingredients, and see who can guess correctly by smell. Wrong guessers are eliminated until a single champion emerges. 

• Role Model Salad: While prepping your meal, have family members think of people they look up to, write their names on slips of paper, and toss them in a bowl like a salad. Then, as you eat, take turns pulling out the papers, describing the person, and talking about the qualities that make them admirable.   

• Hot Potato Selfies: Set a short timer on one of your phones while cooking. When it goes off, the person closest to it has to stop and take a selfie with whatever food they’re near, then reset the timer. When you sit down to eat, share all the silly photos with everyone.  
  

What’s on the Menu? Memories!  

I’ll be honest – I do not like cooking whatsoever. But I love cooking with my kids. Not because of the food we make. (And definitely not because of the mess we make!) But because of the memories we make.   

I have four sons, each with differing levels of interest in the kitchen. My oldest loves to cook eggs in any form, and I always keep some on hand so that I can act as sous chef for his impromptu breakfast creations. His breakfast burritos could win an award!  

My second son doesn’t cook often, but when he does, he wants to do something elaborate and time consuming. We’ve bonded while mixing up matcha cookies and learning how to pan-sear peppers for fresh salsa. Mac ‘n’ cheese from scratch isn’t usually on my to-do list, but if he asks me to help him grate fancy cheeses that I can’t pronounce, the answer is always, “Yes!”  

My first twin regularly slides into nightly meal prep to break the pasta noodles into the pot or “fluff” the salad with the “claws”. And my second twin is a baker, often making cakes and cupcakes for special and not-so-special occasions alike; I’m allowed to act as his “assistant”.  

While each son’s style in the kitchen is different, there’s a common ingredient of togetherness that I adore as a mom. We’re there, side-by-side, creating something delicious for the day while also creating something meaningful that will last even longer. It’s at the stove that they open up about their day. It’s across the counter where I get the “tea” on their friendships. It’s over the mixing bowl that we laugh over mistakes and make adjustments. That’s the wonder of cooking with my kids – those seemingly small connection points that rise like bread in a warm oven.   

So, I personally agree with the research – meal time with kids is important. But cooking with them is even sweeter.