Teaching your kids to cook is important. While all moms and dads inherantly know this, taking the steps to actually teach your child to cook is where we get stuck. I know, it’s much easier to cook on your own without little hands slowwwwwwly peeling the potatoes beside you, but if we teach our children how to cook early, it helps them immeasurably. Not only will it (eventually!) help your prep time in the kitchen by giving the kids tasks to help out, it also helps build confidence and healthy eating habits.
New research from Uncle Ben’s shows one reason why parents may not be teaching their children how to cook early – less than half of Canadian parents feel confident in their own ability to cook. If parents are unsure, how can they be the best teachers for their children? The answer is easy – like anything with parenting, it doesn’t come with a manual so we learn by doing and then share with our own kids. I think by now my own kids know I’m not a top chef, but they know that mom and dad can make some pretty delicious meals, and they’re eager to help, even if sometimes we’re learning together!
We’ve visited local media sharing details about International Cook With Your Kids Day and this amazing contest! Check out one of our clips here:
We found a recipe for Black Bean & Rice Open-Faced Tacos at beginners.unclebens.ca and the kids and I made them together – with each child helping out in a different way based on their age and skills. Here’s the very easy recipe:
- ½ cup dry Uncle Ben's Natural Select Spanish Style Rice
- 6 corn tortillas (we used flour tortillas)
- ½ can no-salt added black beans, rinsed and drained
- ½ can no-salt added corn, drained
- ½ can no-salt added diced tomatoes, drained
- ¼ cup shredded cheese
- 1 teaspoon butter
- Turn a 12-cup muffin tin upside down. Nestle 6 tortillas in teh space between the cups to form a bowl. Kids will enjoy helping form the bowls. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375F until firm and beginning to brown, about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Cook Uncle Ben's rice according to directions on the pack. While the rice is still warm, transfer to a large bowl and mix in the black beans, corn, tomatoes and 2 Tbsp cheese. Let your children be in charge of sprinkling the cheese into the mixture.
- Fill the shells with the rice and bean mixture then top evenly with remaining cheese. Let the little chefs add their favorite toppings like avocado, cilantro or olives.
To further encourage parents to get in the kitchen with their kids, Uncle Ben’s is launching the first International Cook With Your Kids Day on October 15th! Parents in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom are encouraged to set aside time that day to cook together. If you’re in Canada, I have an even bigger incentive!
Until October 30th, 2016, parents can submit a photo featuring their child(ren) accompanied by an adult in the kitchen preparing a rice-based dish together at beginners.unclebens.ca, then share on social media using the hashtag #LookWhatWeMade to be eligible to win one of three prizes of $10,000 which may be used towards a Registered Savings Plan (RESP)! I always tell people, you can’t win if you don’t enter so why not give it a shot?
We have another giveaway from Uncle Ben’s to share right here! One of our readers is going to win an Uncle Ben’s prize package filled with Uncle Ben’s products and cooking accessories totaling $150! What a great way to encourage families to get into the kitchen together! Remember, International Cook With Your Kids Day is October 15th and you have up until October 30th to enter to win $10,000!
My grandkids are great at bagging the compost and they love to lick bowls lol
My 4 year old loves to dump in ingredients and mix.
My boys LOVE to help cook. They are little still but they are awesome at baking and helping to prepare homemade pizzas
My kids help me measure and mix ingredients, and my 9 year old has started making her own lunches for school this year (with parent-approved options to choose from!).
If we are making pizza, I get my niece to put the toppings on. She loves to help in the kitchen!
My grandkids currently help in the kitchen by measuring ingredients,they are 10/11 so this is also very educational.We bake every second weekend items like bun,breads and loaves.And we sometimes prepare a meal.
My niece loves to help get all the ingredients out and help measure.
Right now because of the age, I try to get my granddaughter to mix but all she wants to do is lick and eat whatever she is mixing lol
My kids are learning to cook on the stove – small meals – like french fries and pizza. They love using the microwave. My daughter loves helping to cut up potatoes and cooking meat on the stove for shepards pie.. I started to teach them with small meals and work their way up.
My lil guy loves to help mix up ingredients! 🙂 Thanks!
The grandkids help with measuring and mixing when we bake.
They help with measuring and mixing when I’m baking!
My kids love to experiment with spices and herbs.
My son enjoys cooking much more so than my daughter.
My kids are always helping in the kitchen. They stir and add ingredients when we cook.
My youngest likes to help with baking and my oldest will help do dishes and clean up.
My kids are learning to bake. They recently made banana bread and fudge.
My kids always help me to make tortillas. They love the rolling out part.
he helps by cutting the ingredients, with supervision
They help with menu’s and prep.
They help by washing the vegetables
my 17 year old son loves to cook. When he was small I would let him help me bake cookies and even dry dishes.
I don’t have kids but I think letting kids measure out ingredients and mix the ingredients together is a great start.
my kids used to love helping iwth dishes, I think they actually enjoyed playing with the bubbles lol
My kids help me measure and mix ingredients
My kids are all grown now but from a very young age I included them in all types of meal preparations. It was a great way to connect and spend time with them while they learned their way around a kitchen. When they were in their teens they could all prepare a very delicious dinner…which was great for me..lol. All three of them love to cook now as adults and in fact my daughter is working as a sous chef to help put herself though school.
Miss R will often start breakfast on the weekend meaning shells in eggs and doesn’t mind stirring when I’m baking.
My son loves to help make recipes. He mixes ingredients, measures and chops food.
My daughter and I cooked together often when she was younger and now that she is grown we still cook together when we can. She’s a great cook!
My grandchildren love to help in the kitchen. The older girls (11 & 13) can now make meals on their own just from watching their mom cook. The younger children like to wash veggies, stir in ingredients and set the table. They especially like making fun food like tacos and pizza. They like it when we get to do things like decorating cupcakes or sugar cookies and can get quite creative.
My girls help to measure and pour things in teh bowl and stir. Little by little they gain more skills and confidence!
They help me measure out ingredients and mix them together.
They help with the prep work, cutting, washing measuring and mixing
My 4 year old granddaughter love to drop ingredient in the bowl. She also love doing the dishes, not sure how long that will last.
My kids help in the kitchen with measuring ingredients and cutting certain vegetables.
Our kids Nana is teaching them how to cook. I let them help clean up in the kitchen as my son likes to play in the sink with bubbles!
They help cook and clean
My 9 year old loves to help in the kitchen. He just wants to help more and more, so I’ve begun to let him do more and more. For thanksgiving he helped me make the stuffing, and he helped cut up some of the vegetables.
I have to say having my kids in the kitchen is something I don’t do very often and none of them seem all to interested. Though I did teach my 8 year old to make grilled cheese and then last week she taught her almost 11 year old brother, lol. My almost 11 year old grated cheese for scalloped potatoes for Thanksgiving. My oldest who is 13 can cook some basics but she doesn’t like to. Truthfully I don’t like to cook either!
I am teaching my son how to use a knife to cut fruits and veggies.
my grandkids help set the table and help with the dishes afterwards
teaching them proper safety techniques as well as they love to measure and mix
My grandson like to add ingredients to the bowl and help decorate cookies.
My son loves helping me get the ingredients I need to do my baking and cooking. He loves to mix the ingredients and measure it out too. He watches me in the kitchen when I’m cooking and although he is only 10 he knows already how to cook many things. Maybe one day he will become a chef
No young ones now. But I love to nominate them as Chef Stir!
My kids love to help by measuring and mixing
I always try to show both my daughters how they can help mommy in the kitchen but my youngest is only two and my oldest who is four is autistic and loses interest very quick. I try to make it fun and she does help me a bit
WE’ve recently began teaching our 7 yr old about oven and stove safety. All the kids know not to put their hands up on the stove but we’ve began teaching about burns and steam burns. So our 7 y/old has been stiring the pots and learning to hold them properly. It’s important not only for them to learn how to use a knife or hot items for safety reasons, but also how to become independent and confident in themselves.
And yeah, we are guilty of just doing it ourselves because it’s faster! LOL
I get my grandchildren to help me in the kitchen when I visit them. My son is great at getting his children to help him in the kitchen. I must say he is a pretty good cook. He played a lot of hockey and I would get him to start supper and I would finish it when I got home.
My girls are desperate to help me cook so I include them in putting the ingredients together for meatloaf and meatballs, cracking eggs, adding salt and pepper to dishes, and prepping veggies (snapping ends off beans, cutting mushrooms with plastic knives). I try hard to include them!
When I am baking my grandkids love to try and measure ingredients and then put into the bowl.
They help with prep, peeling veggies, and with the cooking (with supervision!)
I think it is vitally important for kids to help with food to get to know where it comes from and be self sufficient. They also like to shop for it.
My daughter loves baking and cutting vegetables.
Letting them put in the ingredients is a fun way to start!
My daughter (4) helps gather ingredients and food items from the fridge. I let her break the eggs and stir the pots.
Side note: this recipe looks super good! Can’t wait to try this week!
I cook with my god daughter – she helps with the prep like cutting up veggies
My kids like to bake, so we make cookies and cakes together.
My child is too young to help right now, but he watches us cook from his chair!
My girls love helping when I bake. They both like measuring dry ingredients and cracking eggs.
My niece and nephew have only made muffins once from a mix where you just add water- but I did teach my cousin’s kid how to make peanut butter sandwiches without the bread
#rolemodel
My son is doing pretty good, I’m confident if i left him for a week he could survive now 🙂 My daughter’s specialty is creating spice mixes to go with dinner. It’s interesting.
Both of my kids like to help with baking. My older son will occasionally help with supper prep. Both will make their own breakfast and lunches.
My kids help me measure, pour things in and my oldest is starting to learn how to cut veggies etc
It would be terrific to win this Uncle Ben’s Prize Package.
In response to your questions of
What is a way that your kids currently help in the kitchen? or How are you teaching them to cook?
I don’t have any children but my niece helps me when i bake cookies and cakes
and she helps to wash the dishes after.
Thank you for having this giveaway.
I typically don’t include my 7 yr old in cooking! but in baking I do.. measuring and adding ingredients to the bowl.
My nephew enjoys helping with prepping meals.
Our wee ones are still under 3 years, but I involve them with scooping and measuring as much as I can – it also means they’re more likely to try it if they’ve helped make it.
My kids help chop & stir. They also help set things out and clean-up.
My girls help when I bake, I make the youngest measure the ingredients and explain the reason why measuring is so important
My kids are learning to set the table, pour drinks, serve cereal and make toast lol
They’re a little young to do much else for now.
give them a hands-on experience so they aren’t afraid to stir something or to fry potatoes and little things at first. also they can help with adding ingredients into baking goodies.
we have one kid peeling the veggies for stir fries and the other learning to BBQ
We start by growing veggies in the backyard: the kids can easily cut zucchinis with a plastic lettuce knife and somehow they are MUCH more interested in cooking & eating veggies THEY grew.
After a summer of teaching my girl about how we grow food and maintaining her little garden, she’s really enjoying being my side kick in the kitchen. From washing fruit and veggies, to cutting them up, and stirring with me……
Right now my sous chefs are assigned to washing veggies for me
Helping with peeling veggies and washing them.
My godchild loves to BBQ.
my kids love helping in the kitchen , they peel carrots or slice veggies , or stir the batter
My daughter is a year and a half and loves to help me bake, and is my official taste tester. She enjoys “helping” me by stirring, passing me kitchen utensils and sneaking tastes whenever she can.
They help with making cake pops.
my boys love to help in the kitchen, mixing and they love spooning cookie dough and licking beaters haha
My kids help with the peeling and chopping of veggies, they are a big help with organizing all the ingredients.
My daughter helps me prep the ingredients for supper.
My kids only help when I am baking stuff. They will help me to measure the various ingredients, prepare pans for baking etc.
My boys are my little helpers in the kitchen. They love getting involved and I encourage them to.
My little guys love helping Mommy mix!
when the kids were younger we baked & cooked together all the time. They both grew up to be excellent cooks.
I let my son help mix when I am baking.
My son enjoys working with dough, for pizzas and cookies.
My generation grew up with home-made foods, and the fact that I grew up on the outstkirts of a small town meant we didn’t have any fast food places around. I love to cook but I’m having a hard time getting my daughter involved in meal preparation (and she’s 25 years old). She will help but she’s as yet not prepared a full meal.
My grandkids all 7 of them love to cook. the youngest loves making salsa.
I am working with my son on teaching him to BBQ and make stir fries, rice and eggs
My 5 year-old loves baking with me in the kitchen 🙂
Preparing supper together is always nice. Makes it fun and everyone feels good about it.
My 12yr daughter and I cook/bake together all the time, makes it more enjoyable!!
I let my niece help me decorate cookies!
Having kids help mix ingredients.
They like to help cook
My daughter loves to cook with me, her specialties are chicken stir fry & scrambled eggs.
Kids always get involved in the baking. They read instructions, add ingredients, and mix the bowl!
They help set up the table!
My kids each have a “world-famous” (in our kitchen anyways) recipe that is theirs to make and they usually make it once a month, plus they also help with some meal preps every week
They are helping with basic tasks – setting the table, helping with prep, cleaning up.
My kids always participated in the meal plans for the week as well as age-appropriate meal prep activities.
We love to teach them by measuring and using recipes
they’re to young to be much help
My daughter helps make most things, if she’s so inclined. She’s good at stirring and starting to get the hang of the veggie peeler!
My kids help me measure and mix ingredients
They like to watch, and mix!
My nieces help in the kitchen by setting the table, and clearing up after the meal is over. They’re still a bit too wee to do the chopping stuff.
My daughter cooks with me at least once a week and cooks a meal for her dad and I, independently, once a month. I’m no gourmet but she seems to pick up some of my time saving shortcuts.