Teaching kids to cook

pink68

I have just realised that my ten year old daughter is rapidly growing up and will soon start to want to be independant. So i thought i'd better get some bonding time in quick!

anyways..i've told her that on a thursday she can have whatever she likes for dinner as long as she cooks it!

She has to tell me a few days in advance what she would like to cook so i can shop for it then she cooks it whilst i supervise. it's fab! she learns and i get the night off from full scale cooking (though the amount of washing up she creates is another issue...lol)

I am a bit wary of telling her what she has to cook for fear of it becoming a chore to her. if you can give them the choice it feels much more like a treat.:T

spaghetti_monster

Was wondering whether to add this to the other Jamie Oliver thread, but thought it might be a slightly different subject....

Part of my OH's job is to review video/computer games - and he regularly gets games through the post. This morning he threw one at me as he was running out the door and asked me to give it a try....

It's a cooking game by Jamie Oliver for the nintendo DS (small hand-held portable thing in case you were wondering).
It has a list of recipes, virtual kitchen where you can make a virtual recipe. I think you can make your shopping list on it (using touch screen). Jamie eggs (:o ) you on in his usual fashion.

SO..I don't quite know what to think.... Part of me thinks:
For pete's sake why not just look around your own kitchen, make your own list and make something real!!!!
OH is regularly shooting zombies/aliens/nazis on these games - but that's in fantasy land. The time you spend doing the cooking game you can do it for real!

BUT on the other hand.......
Maybe if things really are so bad with younger generations not knowing how to cook - anything that gets them even vaguely into the world of cooking has got to be good??

Any opinions out there or anyone with any experience of this kind of game?

MrsBartolozzi

It's not the first of these recipe "games" for the DS.
I didn't look twice at one I saw last year because there are a limited number of recipes and tbh I have better games to play
If you wanted to encourage a really reluctant youngster who didn't want to be "hands on" :eek: the Cooking Mama game looks like more fun.
MrsB.

spaghetti_monster

OH has the cooking mama one, but for the Wii. I think it drove me crazier than the shooting/driving games as he stood there excitedly saying "I'm stirring this/flipping pancakes/slicing veg etc". My suggestions that he could help me cook something we could really eat fell on deaf ears...

But seriously, Cooking mama looked a bit more fun (although totally surreal Japanese feel). The Jamie Oliver one has more complicated recipes I think.

Penelope_Penguin

I'm not sure how a DS game will encourage children to cook I'll add this to the Teaching kids to cook thread later, as it might help some people

Penny. x

spaghetti_monster

This game doesn't look particularly child-friendly (unlike the cooking mama one). The recipes all look like normal Jamie Oliver ones, sometimes quite a lot of ingredients.
OH says that in recent years these game companies want to attract a different market (other than young males) - thus things like brain-training, lifestyle games.
I guess I'm just boring/old fashioned/young-ish old bag - I don't get why an adult would use this game!

jamanda

I'm starting to teach my grandkids to cook (8, 7 and 4). So far we have mastered iced fairy cakes from scratch, i.e. bowl and wooden spoon not mixer. I only do the oven bit.

I have bought some kids cutters but don't seem to have a recipe suitable for cutters that would still be edible when the mixture has been mauled a bit. I usually do Twink's hobnobs but can't let them that close to the cooker.

Does anyone have recipes I can let them make entirely by themselves please that would be suitable. Their mum doesn't really have time to play "trash the kitchen" and I believe this is something lasting that I can do for them.

Many thanks - I know the OS wizards will have something.

J

Woofles

After a quick look in my childrens cook book gingerbread folk looks good. There are also star shapes and christmas tree shapes, and of course you can ice them as well.

ETA This is the book I was looking at, you can see the gingerbread man on the front cover.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0751351210/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

jc2703

jamanda wrote: »

I'm starting to teach my grandkids to cook (8, 7 and 4). So far we have mastered iced fairy cakes from scratch, i.e. bowl and wooden spoon not mixer. I only do the oven bit.

I have bought some kids cutters but don't seem to have a recipe suitable for cutters that would still be edible when the mixture has been mauled a bit. I usually do Twink's hobnobs but can't let them that close to the cooker.

Does anyone have recipes I can let them make entirely by themselves please that would be suitable. Their mum doesn't really have time to play "trash the kitchen" and I believe this is something lasting that I can do for them.

Many thanks - I know the OS wizards will have something.

J

I have a daughter aged just 3 and she picked up her own baking set in Asda the other week and we made gingerbread men and she was able to roll the mixture (with help from me and my bigger rolling pin but your grandkids should be able to do that themselves) and use the cutter herself.

She has been helping me make the hobnobs the last couple of days - i weigh she tips and stirs the dry ingredients - then i do the 'hot' mix then she helps roll it into balls.

Its great fun - for us both and she loves offering out biscuits 'she' made!

J x

lickylonglips

i do cookery club at school for year 4 and 5 kids and we've recently made fairy cakes, pizza, shortbread, rice crispie cakes and flapjacks. next week it's banana bread. anything with less than 5 ingredients is ideal!