Ideas for cooking with 4/5 year olds

Mumto2

I've volunteered to cook with my sons reception class. I think there will be a few mums covering different days of the week to take a small group each time. There's a meeting next week to discuss recipe ideas etc.

Does anyone have any ideas - I've only come up with fairy cakes & homemade pizza so far! I guess it needs to be fairly simple, healthy and easy to do with lots of little hands!!!

Thanks all

ailuro2

Decorating digestive biscuits with orange and black icing is ideal in the run-up to hallowe'en.

Mud'n'worms- aka spaghetti and sauce

The school might not have ovens available for you, so things like chocolate krispy cakes would be ok- use syrup and coca to bind them together.

If you're first,you could get them to make paper aprons from a broadsheet newspaper?

Rince

How about differnt types of kebabs. I've got Annabel Karmels book for kids and she recommends that kids love individual type food. IE fruit kebabs. Get them to chop up into mouth size pieces of fruit, apple, melon, strawberries etc and thread onto a stick. Serve with a mango coulis. Or savoury kebabs, thread cut up sausages, small new potatoes, cherry tomotoes onto a stick and grill.
Or a vegetable version, peppers, red onion, courgette, mushrooms, new potatoes, anything else you can think of. Kids love this.

Another one I do is individual shepherd spie/cottage pie.
Fry some mince, add a chopped onion, mixed herbs, diced carrots, oxo cube, salt, pepper, teaspoon of marmite, add hot water. Simmer for 20 mins. Thicken if needed with cornflour. At the same time boil potatoes for 20 mins. Mash with milk/butter. Spoon meat into little ramakin dishes then cover with mash. Put in over for 10 mins or under grill to crisp up the top. Kids love it.
Add sweetcorn to the mince to get extra vegetables in !

hope this helps:p

mummy_Jay

How about biscuits/cookies , then they can cut them in to Halloween shapes too. Or even into letters or decorate them with there names.

Just think of the choice gingerbread biscuits, shortbread, plain cookies, raisin cookies, choc chip cookies, etc etc

Or muffins

How about bread but I'm not sure how long it needs to rest.

Any kind of bakery really as they can have loads of fun shaping and decorating them

Or how about making animals out of vegetables/fruit - crocodile cucumber, apple n carrot butterflies, etc

Apple, peanut butter (I know a bit dodgie but maybe replace it with jam) and small marshallow smiles

If you can get hold of Annabel Karmels family cooking book that should have loads of ideas in.

DebtphobicDeirdre

I make a version of krispie cake but no krispies- just chopped dried fruit/ nuts/ seeds. You could have a bowl of each and put a bit of each into the melted chocolate. Also you could sice some par-boiled potatoes and let the kids use cookie cutters to cut them into shapes, they could then brush with a bit of oil on a pastry brush and bake in oven(maybe sprinkle on a bit of grated cheese). Hope that helps.

*Bright-Idea*

Very quick and easy pizza.
Get a breakfast muffin and split in half, a teaspoon of tomato puree and then the kids can put whatever toppings they like on top. Pop under the grill or in the oven until the cheese has melted.

Rince

My whole family love this one !

1lb (450g) lean minced steak, mixed with garlic, salt pepper, mixed herbs, oxo cube, dash of worcester sauce. 1 chopped onion.
get the kids to divide mixure into equal portions, 5 for adults or 8 for kids. Press into burger shape and grill for 6 mins each side.

Healthy chips - cut potatoes into 8 wedges. Heat sunflower oil on a baking tray in hot oven. Add potato wedges, toss in oil. cook for 40 mins. Maybe this one may be too long, but worth doing with kids at home.

dearbarbie

i personally dont agree with fairy cakes, pizza and biscuits. typical party food? perhaps choose more healthy options, things made with vegetables and meat, wholegrain pasta, that kind of thing?

ailuro2

Halthy options

Baked apples- core apple and stuff with raisins, bake in the oven, if you have access to one.

Stuffed peppers- scoop out (do this for them) and stuff with spicy rice.

My DD gets healthy options for school dinners, I feel as long as she has enough healthy and balanced food throught the week then she can be given the odd treat or two.

Pizzas made with tomatoes and cheese are not unhealthy- growing kids need fat in their diet.

AnnieH

Pizza can be very healthy - it depends what you put on it. Tomatoes and cheese are not unhealthy, plus you could chop up some peppers, mushrooms, etc, maybe flake some tuna, and have some sweetcorn in little dishes and let them put a little of what they fancy on top of their pizzas. that way if they make them they are morelikely to eat them.

Cheesy crackers are good too if you havean oven available. Crush up some cream crackers, mix up with butter and grated cheese. Roll out and cut into shapes with biscuit cutters, and bake in the oven until golden brown. Very nice with a creamy cheese dip:)

Biggles

"Cooking with 4/5 year olds" had me in mind of the WC Fields quote when asked how he liked children: "Parboiled".