Food that young kids can cook

It is apt that I'm blogging this while watching Master Chef.

Back in the "olden days", when I left home for the first time, I didn't know how to cook...at all. The first night on my own, after I shoo'ed my parents out (assuring them all the while that I would be fine), I remember walking into the kitchen and thinking "what now?".

I ended up calling a friend asking him "how do you boil an egg?".

Fifteen years later, I am proud to say that I can cook passably well. Not as well as those people in Master Chef but enough to please my family and friends (usually). :P

One thing I've always wanted to do is to involve my children into household activities - including cooking. Tonight, my children, aged 4 and 6, cooked our dinner.

I have found that our journey with cooking together has been very haphazard. There were times when the mess in the kitchen created too much stress for me afterwards to not attempt to cook together again for a long while.

However, in keeping with my parenting philosophy, I am glad that I persisted and we've eventually developed shared understandings and a "rhythmn" in the kitchen.

My children do best with simple, "set and forget" dishes. They also have a definite limit in terms of how long they are able to concentrate in the kitchen. My daughter can stay in the kitchen for about 20 mins. My son about 10 mins. This means that foods that don't require too much preparation are the ones they love to do. Less preparation also means less ingredients. Which is good because they have to be able to remember all the ingredients as they can not read very well. :P

While the kids wash their hands prior, I have found it useful to place wet face washers near them when they're cooking. They use these face washers to wipe their hands during preparation. I don't know if its just my kids but if they get a bit of uncooked mixture/ingredient stuck on their hands, they don't like it. So a wet face washer is handy to wipe up messes.

Tonight, we had Honey Soy Chicken Drumsticks, with rice and steamed veges.

Honey Soy Chicken

In an oven proof dish, mix together honey, soy sauce and 1 clove of crushed garlic.



The way my children remember it is: 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce for every drumstick of chicken. Crushed garlic is last and is stirred in.

Heat oven at 200 degrees. The kids prefer to place the dial at an actual number instead of a line.

Place dish inside oven and set kitchen timer for 40 mins (again at an actual number instead of a line).

Walk away until timer goes off. Mum is the one who takes it out of the oven.

Rice

In a large microwave proof dish, add 3 cups of rice and 3 cups of water. (note that my daughter is the one who cooks this - not because my son can not remember it but the weight of the water and rice is too heavy for him at the moment)

Place in microwave and cook on high for 20 mins.

Walk away. Mum takes it out of the microwave.

Steamed Brocolli

In the steamer pot, place 1 little cup (aka the 1/4 cup) of water then brocolli. Turn on the right stove top and place dial on the biggest flame

Set mum's mobile phone to 10 mins.

Walk away. Mum will take it out of the steamer.

Tonight's result:



And yes, both my children know how to operate the oven, stove, microwave and timer. :) Both of them have learned that these are not toys but are essential tools. They do not touch them any other time except when cooking or reheating.

Do your children cook? What do they cook?