At the Czarnecki house we try really hard to involve kids in making healthy food for the whole family. By default our kids are included in every step of the process; we pretty much do everything together as a family, grocery shopping and cooking included.
All the planning starts at the beginning of the week, usually on a Monday, when I’m trying to figure out some semblance of a meal plan. After the kids come home from school, I sit at the kitchen counter planning a weekly menu and scratch out a grocery list while kids hang off my shoulders, periodically adding input:
‘Get some Kale, that was so good last time! I have a great recipe for Kale chips.’ My 12-year-old says.
‘Mama member how yummy those little nuts were in that one salad?‘ pipes in the 7-year-old.
‘Oh‘ I say, ‘you mean the chickpeas we ate with the couscous last week? The yummy dinner with the figs?’
‘Yes!‘ says my baby, ‘That was the most tastiest dinner you ever made in history and I want it more!’
The process goes on like this for a while until we narrow down a basic grocery list and a small menu with a couple of old favorites and a new recipe to try. We all go shopping at our local grocery store, traipsing through the aisles looking for new foods to try, exploring new produce to buy and sample at home.
It goes on and on like this until we’re finished at the store; then we go home and wash, slice, and store vegetables for the weeks’ meals.
Together we’ve made some crazy dishes, the kind of food everyone wants to spit out as soon as the forks make it past our lips. But our rule is that we have to finish enough of the serving to make us reasonably full before cutting bait.
The best part of the whole process is how the children are involved in the meal from start to finish They choose recipes, plan menus, create a grocery list, wash/slice/cook the food, and sit down with the whole family to share the meal.
Some tips that work for our family:
- If you have space, plan out and plant a garden as a family. Ask children what they’d like to plant so they feel invested.
- Explore new recipes together in the kitchen, even with the littles. Give everyone a job so they feel needed as part of the process.
- Set the table and have sit down dinners with the whole family as often as possible. The kids will feel like their hard work is valued, especially if you tell them how delicious it tastes.
- When kids are older {12+ish} allow them more freedom to try recipes on their own. Amazing things can happen.
How do you do to encourage and involve kids in making healthy food? Do you kick them out of the kitchen when you cook because they’re a mess, or do you let them choose what to cook and give them full run of the place? I’d really love to know what works for you, what worked for your parents, your friends, neighbors, and the kitty across the street.
Serious! But not about the kitty, he’s probably a terrible cook.
–This post is sponsored by Hidden Valley® Ranch. Discover how you can make vegetables delectable!–
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
I wanna cook dinner with your family, it sounds awesome! ;)
That is nothing like the family dinner experience I had growing up, and unfortunately, I’m just learning to cook now as an adult in my 20’s. It’s a little intimidating, being an adult and trying to learn to cook something edible on my own, but I’m making progress. I wish I could have learned as a kid though, with adult supervision and presumably from someone who knew what they were doing!
Bravo Allison! I hope I can teach my future kids to be at least proficient in the kitchen so that they head into adulthood with confidence in their basic culinary skills.
Eating/cooking healthy food and financial management: things every kid should be taught!!
I was only sort of involved in cooking growing up, and I thought I’d love it more than I do. It’s funny, I like cooking okay but my kids LOVE it.
Mine are still in pre-k, but I find they are more enthusiastic about our healthiest options when they are involved. They help pour and stir while making things like granola, they get to use a not-so sharp knife to slice easier items like cucumbers and bananas, mash the avocados for guacamole or toss the salad. We keep a small garden with fresh herbs and their favorite rinse-n-eat veggies. They recently argued w/eachother about who loves broccoli most…true story.
I love it. Don’t you think a garden helps? Mine really get invested in the life cycle of a plant when they’re involved in every step, and then they love eating it!
love this – and you have the cutest family ever.
I love that you prep all the veggies when you get home from the store. I need to do that more often – I think that REALLY helps in actually using them as the week progresses.
You’re nice Jane. I think there’s probably a lot of family cooking going on in your house too. If we don’t slice the veggies ahead, and there are plenty of times we’re too busy, it makes it so much of a pain on the other end!
I think having a garden is such a huge influencer with kids. If they plant it and help it grow, my kids love to pick and eat all the more.
And my kids love to go shopping with me. My local store allows children to have one fruit or vegetable to pick and eat in the store for free. It’s the best! We always walk in, get our fruit and start to shop. They are happy, I’m happy!! And healthy ;)
Your store sounds awesome! I usually give my kids a cheese stick or something with a scan-able tag so they’re not starving through the store, but that’s genius.
I love that you guys have a garden and that your kids help with it, it makes a difference.
Just the other day my son, after eating a little Valentine candy said to me, “And now I need to eat some veggedables!” which thrilled me to no end–you mean he’s actually listening to me? It’s not just going in one ear and out the other?
(and then he went to the fridge and helped himself to carrots and celery with a side of ranch.)
I love it. So cute. I think my kids like vegetables far more than I ever did as a child. Impressive.
I agree with Marie, my 3 year old loved helping me in the garden last summer.
I have one kid who will eat anything and the other who is Captain Picky. I try not to buy crappy food like chips and cookies, make as much as I can homemade, and do the best that I can with the rest. You make an excellent point with getting your kids involved in the shopping and preparation process. I’ve also found that limiting snacks helps my picky one eat better at mealtimes.
Everyone has at least one Captain Picky, don’t they? But the garden is a big deal for us, just like it is for you, my kids love it.
I don’t remember my mom letting us snack before dinner, why do I let MY kids do it? You’re brilliant.
Dude. You are profesh! I steam our veggies and pat myself on the back! :D I always get veggie trays — honestly all it takes is a little dip and my kids will inhale them. We’re pretty basic around here. I haven’t attempted zucchini brownies or anything like that.
Steaming IS profesh! Our meals aren’t super fancy at all, we have too many allergies for that, but I love how my kids are branching out to try new things. I’ll follow their lead.
I envy the prepped cook and always vow to be more prepared and get my fridge in order, but am still waiting for that perfect day where the house doesn’t explode the minute I bring in fifteen bags of groceries. My kids, however, adore being part of the process and will do all of the prep work for dinner every night. Like Rachael, we do a lot of veggie trays around here. They come out after school for a little homework brain food. It makes all the difference in their productivity and focus. And, then I don’t feel so bad when we only manage to get a couple things on the table for dinner.
We’re not always prepared, trust me, that’s an ideal scenario that happens but not all the time. I think my kids enjoy the sous chef part of the experience, just like yours so they can hang out in the kitchen and talk to me while we’re working. Veggie trays are a fantastic idea! Especially after school when everyone’s starving and ornery.
Where are all of these perennially happy children coming from? I need to know how to find that mode in my kids’ settings. It sounds almost as awesome as Buzz Lightyear’s Spanish Mode.
My kids (ages 7.99, 6, 2.5) have been helping in the kitchen from birth, fortunately or unfortunately depending on the day. It’s messy and takes forever and half the time they refuse to eat what they chose, shopped for and then cooked by the time the meal rolls around so someone inevitably goes hungry at dinner. Sometimes they moan and groan about the clean up and that it isn’t their turn to pick dinner. Or we have 1/4 cup of basil in the sauce instead of a tsp… Shopping with small children can be a hellish experience in particular.
But I put on my ‘mom happy face’ and suck it up and there are the moments when it’s precious and adorable and fulfilling in that instant to cook from scratch multiple times a day with children. They learn math! Science! About vitamins and colors! I tell myself the early exposure will one day pay off in their superior standards and well adjusted nature and refined taste buds. So I guess what I’m saying is having them involved in my house is sometimes the worst part of the process. But I guess that’s the trade off for the skills they learn.
Also, I read the cookbook Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn and it gave me hope for the future and my boys do love the recipes.
Jenny, I think they’re absorbing it! Truly. You have to remember that my youngest is the age of your oldest, that totally makes a difference. Having little kids “help” in the store is complete hell, no two ways about it. But now that mine are a little older it’s actually been a fun experience. Not always! We have our moments, trust me, but for the most part over the last couple of years the kids have gotten super invested in our eating experience. I have one less kid too, maybe that’s one little bit of the chaos? Trust me, I’ve been there. Even when I just had one I’d go to the grocery store that was more expensive because they had free babysitting, so I get it. I’m betting you’re kids will be amazing little chefs when they’re just a tiny bit older.
Whimper. I kept waiting for you to yell out “PSYCH!” I make healthy foods, we garden together, we shop together, the kids help choose the menus, the kids help chop and cook, I make GOOD food, and my 6 y.o. only eats the white stuff, and my middle just says she isn’t hungry for meal after meal, and the baby…well, he’s 12 months old. It’s absolutely broken, broken, broken. I will be glued to this thread.
You’re doing everything right! The one year old doesn’t count, and when my son was under 6 he was a little terror in the kitchen.
Eventually, when everyone figured out how to “use their words” we discovered a lot of food allergies with things they refused to eat when they were small. Now they can tell me exactly why they won’t eat it and we move on to something healthy they WILL eat.
It’s not always perfect, far from it, but somehow over the last couple of years my kids have gotten really into food. We check out cookbooks at the library that interest them, and try out new stuff all the time. They don’t always love it, but they’re a little older. Maybe that’s part of the equation?
You’re doing it all right though! I love that your 6-year-old only eats the white stuff. Stinker.
My kiddos are both still pretty young, but my daughter get to help with food prep…she’s a ninja with the measuring spoons/cups. She’s pretty picky, but we’re working on the concept of try one bite and it’s working so far. We talk a lot about healthy food and what it does for our bodies, I can always get her to pay attention and eat her dinner and veggies by reminding her that it will keep her healthy so she can play. My son is going to hoover down whatever you put in front of him, so that will be easy. ;)
Erin, I can totally see your little man just eating whatever. My guy is pretty much the same but #1 is much more adventurous when it comes to new foods, she has to talk him into trying it before he’ll budge. But the sous chef part of the preparation has actually made my life so much easier, and I think long term it will help the kids to be super involved from start to finish. I really hope so anyway.
I completely agree about the garden. Since we’re in SoCal, we can pretty much get certain greens and other produce year ’round, but of course summer and fall are the best! I have a 9 y.o. son and a 13 y.o. daughter. Of the two, my son is the one with the greatest passion for cooking and my daughter would rather clean up if someone cooks for her. She is a baker more than a cook. My son is definitely the more sense-oriented (sensual? sensuous? I always confuse those two.); I attribute his interest in cooking to that, because I am the same way, as was my father. Still, both kids love looking through cookbooks and picking out recipes. When they were younger we’d give them kid-oriented cookbooks, which I think helps give them an interest in crafting meals.
I’m jealous of your fair weather. We have to go with really HARDY veggies in the summer and nothing in the winter {I’m not hardcore enough for that kind of gardening}. I love that your kids are involved in the kitchen too! Promote that love, that’s a lifelong skill they get to enjoy. Nicely done!