What's Cooking?
Cooking with Kids Nurturing your wee one’s love for healthy meals made at home Article Jules Marie | Photography Provided
B
eing in the kitchen with kids is a richly rewarding experience. They love to mix, stir and giggle, lick their fingers, spoons, bowls and everything else. A joy-filled experience unfolds and memories of cooking at a young age will remain with them throughout their lives. Whether teaching kids to cook at home or enrolling them in a cooking class, it’s often daunting guiding them toward making healthy food choices. It’s tricky to help them understand why it’s sensible and delicious to choose an organic apple rather than a candy bar. Allowing common sense, not the clock, to guide food choices, can inspire a lifelong love of healthy, delicious foods. Simple recipes that allow for variations are generally foolproof and once repeated several times are often mastered. Once a few simple recipes and techniques are achieved, it’ll be a snap to whip up delicious homemade foods and snacks. Younger kids love to play and create so don’t worry that their loaf of bread doesn’t look exactly like a loaf or if they wind up with more jelly on the counter than they did the sandwich. It’s the effort and love they put into creating food that is to be praised.
16 Boulder County Lifestyle | May 2014
Champion Chefs
An abundance of cooking classes for kids and teens are geared toward fostering a love for delicious food while building kitchen skills and confidence. Now in its 11th year, locally grown Stir It Up Cooking School offers cooking classes for five-year-olds to 16-year-olds. Founder Carol Wiggins says the classes are an exciting, hands-on, messy way to try tasty new foods and flavors while making friends in a comfortable home-style kitchen. Kids can literally pick from the school’s outdoor garden brimming with organic vegetables, greens and herbs, which brings the garden-to-table experience home. “Don’t do pretend cooking. Don’t make them think they can use a knife if they really can’t. Give them a task they can accomplish and have them do it over and over. Make it their job,” Wiggins says. “Salad dressing became a science experiment for our son Luke and whenever dressing was needed, he made it. Experiments feed their excitement. Do family meals. Make applesauce or Chinese dumplings and give everyone a job. Kids enjoy that part. They love getting the whole family in the kitchen at the same time.” Teen cooking classes are also offered at Boulder’s Sur La Table,