Family Day is the perfect opportunity to get in the kitchen with your kids. That is one thing that is so important to their future, and I don’t mean that in a haute gourmet snob way, I mean not knowing how to cook is part of the reason why we have frozen dinners and KD. When you don’t know how to cook you don’t buy vegetables or rice or flour – you avoid raw products because you don’t know how to use them. Your cart fills up with processed food and that’s how you feed yourself. It’s unhealthy and it’s bad for the environment and for the local food movement we all believe in and work so hard to push forward.
Here are some great simple recipes that work really well for teaching little hands how to make food. Miniature Toad In The Holes are made kid friendly with the instructions to cut the sausage not with a knife but with a pair of kitchen scissors. They’ve even made the instructions in bold print for the kids to read.
A large Pressed Ciabatta Sandwich is basically assembled like a big sub, the fun part is wrapping it up and setting a weight on top of it. The resulting sandwich is deliciously compacted.
Teaching basic cooking skills is also teaching eating skills – making vegetarian dishes shows children the possibilities beyond meat and potatoes. Try Roast Broccoli and Cheese Sauce, Wild Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna, or this super fun Tortilla and Black Bean Pie.
Exploring new cuisines brings them into contact with exotic new ingredients. Rolling sushi is incredibly fun for kids, and super easy to do once the rice is cooked. Making bannock can open up a conversation about the First Nations, just as stuffing cabbage rolls or making tourtière can bring other settlers in Canada’s history into the conversation.
Whatever you make, no matter how it turns out, will have an incredibly positive impact on your child’s life and prepare them in more ways than one for the future. Happy Family Day everyone!