Cooking with Kids
Guest Collab with BowTiedTuna
Today is really cool Substack that I’m happy to share with you.
A few months ago BowTiedTuna reached out to me and asked if I’d write a collab piece on Cooking for families and kids.
BowTiedTuna has a substack and twitter field dedicated to helping and informing people about homeschooling. As someone who was raised mostly homeschooled (pre-college) I immediately knew it would be fun and also important to help give some ideas for integrating cooking with family/kids at home.
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Read on to hear from Tuna then myself about Cooking with Kids.
One of my biggest weaknesses I have been trying to address the past year was that I am a terrible a cook. I almost always leave this up to mama Tuna. However, my realization that my children could not eat a healthy, tasty, home-cooked meal if their dad was home, I found to be quite discouraging. Probably the most basic part of having a self-sustained life is being able to feed yourself and your family adequate meals. That led me to stumble upon BowTiedOctopod. He is a must follow on twitter and puts out one of the most valuable stacks out there. Unbelievable tips and recipes by a former legitimate 5 star chef. Please check out his substack HERE. He has a delicious coffee, cookbook, recipes, articles, it is insane content, that can teach even me (former worst cook ever) into someone who can now get compliments on his cooking.
My parents were absolutely terrific and did a phenomenal job raising us. If I have one “complaint” it’s that the boys were never really in the kitchen, so we grew up helpless in that area. The biggest benefit of homeschooling is all the things we can teach our kids outside of the classroom, making your own food is a must have skill to teach our children. Give this a read and if you haven’t yet give Octopod a subscribe.
🐙 Welcome All, Octopod Here;
Special thanks to BowtiedTuna for inviting me to collaborate on this very important topic. 🙏
I don’t mention often but I was homeschooled for the majority of my pre-college education. Growing up and moving around frequently, my parents knew they could deliver a higher quality of learning and also filter what we were being taught.
This is especially important now, where in my view, government run schools are more indoctrination than education.
So I want to state upfront that I believe homeschooling provides the best opportunity to raise a generation of children that are critical thinkers, able to debate and excel in their natural talents.
So where does cooking fit in to homeschooling?
Turns out that cooking is one of the highest ROI (returns on investment) skills that our children can learn.
Why Our Kids Need to Learn How to Cook:
It’s been said that a society’s collapse ends with the breaking up of the family unit.
While this is a subject that we could spend hours talking about, in regards to cooking:
-the removal of home economics classes (basic cooking skills)
-industrialization of frozen food/meals
-two-parent working families
-ready-made meals for pickup
-Uber delivery/Drive Through
-frequent restaurant dining
Have all, over time, pulled adults and children out of the kitchen.
It’s interesting that as we have become more “efficient” we are cooking less for ourselves and Western society as whole is more unhealthy than ever.
Return to Cooking?
You will see all over social media where guru’s and get-rich-quick courses flat out tell you that cooking is a low ROI activity that should be avoided.
This is great if you’re a deca-millionaire that can hire a private chef to cook a specific meal and ingredient regiment. Fact is… most won’t have that ability.
We have now raised (in the West) 2 generations of people that are close-to-clueless about how to prepare and make their own food.
These people are entirely reliant on premade meals, UberEats and dining out in restaurants.
The above are ok in low frequency, but now people are basing their health and daily diet on consuming ingredients they have no control over.
High Sugars
High Seed Oils
Heavy Metals
Stabilizers in “low fat”, “low calorie” foods
Are but a few factors in mass-produced, delivery and restaurants in your area.
I believe that as we see more health issues and maladies in the West, we will see a gradual return to cooking that is already in progress.
Lockdowns and work-from-home positions have accelerated and opened peoples eyes to the importance of cooking for yourself.
Homeschool families are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this.
Below are some tips, suggestions and ideas on how to integrate cooking into your family with your kids that is fun, delicious and can make memories that last a lifetime.
Families that Cook Together, Stay Together:
Here are some macro “why” reasons that families should be cooking more together.
-Health:
Stated above, but controlling the majority of foods you are ingesting will but you above 90% of the population in regards to health.
-Mealtime Life Skills:
Mealtimes used to be sacred. In some parts of the world shops, businesses and stores still close because it’s the designated time for everyone to eat.
For families, mealtime is a great opportunity to stay connected and also set aside devices and distractions that are far too common now. Engaging in conversation, basic manners and keeping the attention of others were all skills that used to be learned as a family, around the dinner table.
-Memories:
Food has a powerful effect of creating memories. Tastes, smells and certain dishes can transport you back in time to certain day and place. This is where certain family recipes become passed down and cherished.
-Holidays
are also a great opportunity to make family memories. There are a lot of people who grew up eating out every holiday. One of the most long lasting memory I still have are of special holiday meals. Maybe not every holiday meal is an extravaganza but having a few really make a difference in shaping family traditions to pass on.
So how to incorporate consistent cooking in your family?
I’ve got specific recommendations below but remember… you don’t have to adopt every suggestion below.
We live in an information overload age… take what works best for you. Try a few things, adapt, adjust… move on.
The idea is to integrate cooking skills and enjoyment to your family. Each family is different so some ideas will work better than others.
When can kids be helpful in the kitchen?
I’ve seen parents struggle with this topic and from what I’ve seen, most parents keep their kids out of the kitchen too long.
Beginning at the age of 3 myself, and later on nieces and nephews, we were all familiar with activity and cooking in the kitchen.
Tips for integrating youngins into the kitchen?
Make cooking fun:
Focus on tactile/technique when young, don’t worry about recipes/specific measurements until later.
Examples:
Eggs- let your kids practice cracking eggs for breakfast or other meal times. Even at 4 this will help develop motor skills and is “fun”. If they make a mess or break some yolks, easy to wipe up. *remember to teach them to crack on a flat surface, less chance for broken shells
Eggs cont- Stirring scrambled eggs in a pan; again tactile and motor skills. The kids will see the egg curds form and firm as the eggs cook more. Transformation in a pan… at a very basic level.
Forming Shapes- one of my first memories is making shapes and animals out of marzipan. Marzipan is essentially a sweetened almond paste. Think of it as edible Play-Dough 😂 . You can make birds, mice, clocks etc by shaping different sized maripan orbs and then adding or painting edible garnishes on. (We used food coloring back in the day… you can omit this… based on your preference.)
Pie doughs- when making a batch of pies at home, young children (3-5) can “assist” or make their own personal pie. Give them a single-serving pie pan. They can help you stir the filling together and have free-reign on rolling out their mini crust, filling, and baking it while yours are in the oven as well.
Cookie Decorating- I’ve seen many people get frustrated by trying to teach their kids how to make a dough, roll, cut shapes, bake, then decorate cookies. At ages 3-5 the most stress free approach is to prebake the cookies so the kids can just do the decorating part. Frostings, sprinkles and other decorations. This really is a good creative exercise that is more age appropriate and fun. (Leave the rolling and doughs for a little later on).
Once you got a little farther along during ages 6-9 you can focus on more detailed motor skills and taste explorations. Here’s a few ideas.
Bread dough- At the age of ~7 I was tasked with making bread most days to keep me out of trouble. Unless you’re an avid home baker that understands sour dough and natural levain starters, just go very basic and use a recipe like on the back of the Fleischmann’s yeast packet.
The idea is to be as simple as possible to knead and put together. Bulletproof basically. Kids love to see the dough rise, then punch it down and make a loaf that is then baked off. You can do this once a week or whatever schedule you like. Kids now will begin associating “how food is made”.
Pancakes- this is a great one. Kids can help make a basic batter then while they are cooking they can add nuts, blueberries, blackberry, choc chips, etc for a fun and customizable cooking activity. (Eg. Maybe Saturday is Pancake Day, and the start of a new tradition?)
Baking is only one aspect
Most people gravitate to baking but talking to Momma Octopod, if she had to do it over again would steer more to active cooking, sautéeing, stir fry, etc.
Cutting and slicing:
At the age of 5, a good way to introduce some soft knife skills is through a plastic/soft knife. Kids can cut berries, banana and any other soft foods without fear of nasty accidents. If you want to skip the plastic/soft knife, start them on a paring knife for these tasks.
By 7-8 it’s good to have a personal, or family knife, that is taken care of. Now you can start into proper knife skills, cutting vegetables, slicing, dicing, proper holding of blade, etc.
Accidents Will Happen: that’s part of it. Keeping your knife as sharp as possible will avoid most accidents. Dull knives are the leading cause of kitchen accidents. Always have a first aid kit on hand for cuts, etc.
Cooking & Science:
Once you make cooking fun for a few years it is much more likely that kids will develop a curiosity about food in general.
Disclaimer, not every child will love cooking… but by making it fun and part of family life, you are equipping them with basics that will serve them or their whole life.
There are a wide array of Food Science projects that can children basic reactions and how they effect food and the cooking process.
A few examples:
Baking Soda & Vinegar Volcano- see the reactions of and acid (vinegar) and alkaline (baking soda) that creates an “explosion” by creating CO2.
Rock Candy: Observe the various stages of sugar from soft ball to hard crack, and showing how more water evaporation leads to a more brittle candy.
Red Cabbage pH Indicator: Red cabbage juice has a natural pH indicator that changes color when acids or alkalines are added.
Chemistry: In middle school/high school you can get into some basic chemistry like emulsions and colloids by making salad dressings and mayonnaise. Bonus is you can use for your meal times after 😉
There are so many food science experiments that kids of all ages can have fun with at home.
Food Games: You can’t get through a season of Top Chef or Hell’s Kitchen without the episode where the “Blind Taste Tests” are done. Contestants are blindfolded then asked to identify foods just by taste.
This is remarkably challenging and fun.
The sky is the limit and you can make this as simple or involved as you like.
Proteins: chicken vs pork vs beef
Cheeses: cheddar, brie, blue cheese, pepper jack, manchego, Parmegiano Reggiano
Nuts: Hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachio, peanut macadamia.
Vegetables: cooked or raw
Fruits: taste through all the seasonal berries… blue, strawberry, black, raspberry, etc etc.
You can see there a limitless options. Make it a competition or just do it as a fun tasting-exploration.
With smaller kids you may want to forgo the blind folding part, and can dust plain shortbread cookies with different spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, mace etc and the kids will be able to taste the differences of the individual spices.
Passports: another fun idea is to make passports for different countries and then fill in what foods or dishes the kids have tried and cooked. This can be a full-on homeschool project that integrates geography with food.
You can also incorporate outings to restaurants that serve the cuisine for each passport… ie: Thailand, Germany etc.
Homeschool/WFH Advantage
I hope this helps unlock some ideas on how to leverage cooking, fun and learning at home with your kids.
Don’t feel pressured to use every idea listed… there are plenty I did not list. Find what works best for you and your family. Kids will respond differently.
While this is perfect for homeschool families, work from home (WFH) families as well as on-site work families can integrate some of the ideas.
Taking an active role in preparing your kids to be able to cook and feed themselves prepares them for a self-sufficient future, will develop a palate that appreciates diverse flavors and hopefully brings some traditions they pass down to their future kids.
Thanks again to BowtiedTuna for allowing me to write this up and hope it blesses your family! 🙏
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