learning to cook

The Wholefood Mama writes about eating real food and living well. Nikki is passionate about the relationship between food and well-being and I like what she has to say. When it comes to teaching children about healthy eating, Nikki's sensible approach resonates with me. In this blog-post a few weeks back, Nikki explained how and why she gets her young boys to help with food preparation. Nikki feels that some parents involve their children in the kitchen when the task at hand involves baking (think cakes, slice and biscuits etc) but often forget to include them when it comes to cooking meals (chopping salads, vegetables etc). Thanks to Nikki, I realised I wasn't involving Harry and Till anywhere near enough in meal preparation. I showed Nikki's blog post to Harry and Till. They were suitably impressed that Sol (age 3) and River (age 6) cooked chicken fried rice for dinner! And of course they were as keen as mustard to get cooking themselves. 

So tonight's dinner was cooked by Miss Till. On the menu: beef tortillas. She chose the recipe, wrote out a shopping list and prepared everything needed. I was there to guide her along the way but she was definitely in charge. Watching her use a sharp knife to chop onions and tomatoes was stressful (OK, I was freaking out) but she listened to my suggestions and thankfully still has all ten fingers. Watching a seven year old do things can be painfully slow and many a time I had to remind myself not to take over. Aside from preparing dinner together, the conversation between us was pure gold. I was focused on Till. I actually listened attentively for a change (instead of thinking of all the other things I could be doing) and oh...the funny things she said!...it was priceless. And Till was at every moment so delightfully proud of herself....I know because she said so, hmmmm, about a hundred times!!!!! You should have seen the look on her little face when the dish was served-up onto our plates - a moment recalled that will bring a smile to my face for days!

Every Saturday night forever (so she says)...Till is in charge of cooking dinner. Hopefully Harry picks a night too. He's eager and not to be outdone by his younger sibling, was mulling over a few ideas at the dinner table tonight. He wants to cook something involving fish! A boy after my own heart.

Let's face it, the long-term benefits of children knowing how to cook are profuse...there would hardly be a child around who refuses to eat something they themselves lovingly made! I also believe kids who cook have a better appreciation for healthy foods and will make better food choices long term. Hopefully Harry and Till will be able to plan and cook a family meal unaided in the not-so distant future, relieving mum and dad (alright, mostly dad - he does 90% of the cooking 'round here) of a task that can get a bit mundane from time to time!

Thanks for the inspiration Nikki!!