Depending on the age of your child, there is plenty they can help with, as the recipes below show. For preschool kids, guide them through the measurements and they can watch from a distance as you put the baking in the oven. For older kids, narrate through the details, such as, “… and it has to go on the middle rack so the warm air reaches all over the pan” or “make sure you don’t sift it too much, or the cake will be too dry.” Younger kids just love the experience of seeing ingredients turn into yummy food. Older kids will be more curious as to why certain foods have to be made certain ways.

Kids love to feel like they are a part of things and if you can include them in this seemingly everyday task, it can not only lead to a fun tradition but also get them interested in healthy home cooking from an early age. So get out matching aprons and play some of your kids’ favorite music in the background for a bit of dancing during the preparation. This is a party that may be functional but will turn the task of cooking into something truly special. Let’s begin!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

As an adult you know that sugar cookies are one of the easiest things to bake. Even if you don’t have a true baker inside of you, this is easy enough to put together. This type of cookie makes for an excellent dessert to prepare with the kids. What child doesn’t love a good cookie?

Start with a simple sugar cookie recipe or if you really aren’t that talented in the baking department or are short on time, get a pre-mixed variety. Either way you want to put together the usual flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, and oil. The kids will love mixing everything together.

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extra

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, have your child stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Together, roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Half the fun is decorating your sugar cookies and that’s where the party activity comes into play. Be sure to prepare and bake these early on so that they have time to cool while you tend to the other dishes.

Put out different colored and flavored frosting such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and rainbow chip. Have handy some sprinkles, M&M’s, cinnamon candies, little hearts, and some colored sugar decorations. Let the kids use their imagination and don’t limit them on how they can decorate these tasty treats.

Have a competition to see who can come up with the best design, the most “glitter”, or the funniest cookie face. You will capture some laughs and love how great it is to prepare and decorate these delectable goodies!

Turkey and Bean Soup Recipe

There’s nothing that offers more comfort and warmth on a cold winter day like a pot of soup. A good choice is a chicken soup or minestrone with fresh vegetables.

Let your child help you to peel carrots or potatoes, pour in the broth, and measure out the noodles. You can just use a simple chicken broth as the base and then add in some favorites like diced tomatoes and potatoes, chopped green beans, zucchini, and perhaps some broccoli. Let them help you to select and throw in the right seasonings and let the soup cook.

Here’s a great turkey and bean soup recipe. Mix together:

Ingredients:

• 2 Boxes of Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1 Package of Ground Turkey, Browned
• 1 Can of Cannellini Beans, Drained
• 1/2 Package of Spinach, Washed and Sautéed
• 1/2 Acorn Squash, Cooked with Seeds Removed
• Blend of Mixed Veggies (zucchini, carrots, potatoes, green beans)
• 1 Cup of Macaroni

Directions:

1. Start with the chicken broth and gradually add all the ingredients, in the order listed. Cook until soft.

Cooking with Colors – Red Cooking Day

You can never go wrong when you cook with a color theme. Announce that today will be “red cooking day” and then go to work creating culinary dishes to match the color and the theme.

• Dessert — First, put together some strawberry muffins using a baking mix as the core. Then take turns putting in chopped fresh strawberries, baking soda, oil, eggs, and milk. Set aside and cool.

• Dinner — Prepare a favorite like spaghetti with some tasty tomato sauce. Do they have this all the time? Sure, but when they get to help you prepare it then it really makes for a fun party and a great way of bonding. Have them help you to pick which vegetables that you put into the tomato sauce, even if it’s the jarred variety. For an extra special party dish have them help you make some simple but extraordinary meatballs. Mix in a bit of diced tomatoes to give it something extra and to pay tribute to the color theme of the day.

• Salad — Try a fresh cherry tomato and mozzarella salad, but let your child make the ingredients into happy faces. On a bed of lettuce sprinkle some basil for the smile, the fresh tomatoes for the eyes, and a cute little mozzarella ball for the nose. (We did this for my youngest daughter’s Elmo birthday party last year, my eldest and I making salads in the likeness of his face.)

You can’t go wrong if you mix up a simple recipe that also happens to be fun to create together. That’s what a cooking party is all about—making something truly delicious together as a family but having a lot of fun doing it together!

Have the kids help in the kitchen! What yummy recipes will you be sharing with your children this month?

Top photo courtesy of Flickr.

Chris Molnar does most of the cooking in his family, so much that his wife bought him a 350 watt stand mixer one Christmas. His specialty is chicken paprikash, a Hungarian specialty that everybody loves (even his 2 year old, who right now will only eat chocolate chip cookies, rice, spaghetti and Cheez Whiz sandwiches.) Chris works at home and is editor of a themed party site for kids.

As I talk with other moms, I find I’m not alone. In the mom community, kids and cooking is a hot topic and most moms have at least one child who loves to cook and bake along side with them. Popular themes among moms I’ve chatted with have focused on these topics:

• Healthy Cooking Tips
• How to Use Cooking as a Way to Teach Math
• How to Teach Kids Food Safety
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3 Tips for Turning Cooking Into a Teaching Experience With Kids

Here’s a few quick tips my son, Chef Chase, has taught me about each of those topics.

1. Use creativity and curiosity to make healthy cooking fun! Instead of trying to sneak kids healthy foods, introduce products to them directly, but in clever ways.

One night, I brought home salmon filets. Chase had always stuck his nose up at fish. I walked in the door, enthusiastically sharing with him that salmon was one of my favorite foods and I was so excited to share it with him.

I arranged for a mom and son date with him where we made and ate the meal together. My other son and my husband were not invited (they went out on their own date!). We added some pineapple and red pepper salsa, included a small salad on the side, and planned a fabulous dessert. Ever since, we have called ourselves the salmon buddies. He requests it weekly!

2. Make up and conduct fun activities while baking. Our favorite cookies to bake during the holidays are peanut butter reindeer cookies. These require using all colors of chocolate-covered candies.
To teach math (sorting), dump the contents of one bag of candy into one bowl and have several empty bowls in a row right by it. Then, instruct your kids to sort the candies, each in a different bowl.

This is just one activity. The possibilities are endless when you think of what you can do with measuring cups (fractions), food items (shapes), doubling and tripling recipes (addition), etc.

3. Make a game out of cleaning. Chores are much more appealing when there is a game and incentive involved

At our house, we do everything in steps. We have taught our boys that food safety is the first step to becoming great chefs. They know that no matter how excited they are to pull out all of the ingredients and get started, all work surfaces must be cleaned and sanitized before and after cooking. This step will help stop the spread of germs like salmonella and E. coli and is so quick and easy for me thanks to those handy Lysol wipes. And when you have an eager little audience, time is of the essence!

With so much cooking and cleaning going on at my house it’s great to know that now it’s even easier for me to help stop the spread of germs at home, because right now Lysol is offering Buy 1 Get 1 Free packs of LYSOL Disinfecting Wipes and Lysol Dual Action Disinfecting Wipes at major retailers nationwide through January 2011. Keep one pack at home for prep and clean-up of your culinary creations and you can even give one canister of wipes to your child’s teacher to help keep the classroom germ free too!

Once the kitchen is spic and span, let the culinary fun begin!

I am so happy that cooking has not been a passing phase for my son because as a result he is a much healthier eater. He is trying new foods and learning skills and that will benefit him throughout his life. For me the real joy of cooking has been playing, learning, and spending time together… and watching my kids eat salmon!

I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to write this post in support of Lysol’s Mission for Health Community Heroes Contest which recognizing moms who do more for health in their communities by awarding a total of $10,000 in prizes to be donated towards local community organizations. To enter, share videos, photos or stories about how you made a difference in your community at Lysol.com. Contest entries will be judged based on both relevance to improving the health of your community, and the possible impact of your community improvement effort.

10 Delicious Ways to Make a Difference This Week

Service doesn’t have to be bland or boring! Spice it up. Sweeten the pot. Make it delicious. Think of people that need a little love and touch their heart by going through their stomach during this week’s Summer of Service Challenge, sponsored by Campbell’s. How? By making and sharing a tasty treat, including one or more of the 10 ideas listed below!

For more ideas, join us for a great Girl’s Night Out (#gno) on Twitter this Tuesday night. And, please share a comment on this post with other ways to serve others by sharing a tasty treat.

1. Make some baked goods—cupcakes, cookies, bread, muffins, etc.—and take them to a neighbor.
2. Take a meal to someone in your community that is sick or needs a night off from kitchen duty.
3. Spend one-on-one time with your children by having a cooking class with them to prepare dinner for the family! For a special treat, do a craft activity beforehand to make paper chef’s hats.
4. Have a family activity where you make a tasty treat together, such as suckers, decorated sugar cookies, chocolate-dipped strawberries and pretzels, etc.
5. Have a couple’s night in! Invite your closest friends over with their significant others for a fondue party. Play the newlywed game no matter how long everyone has been in their relationship.
6. As a family, choose another family that needs some love or an act of kindness/service. Drop off an anonymous treat on their doorstep with a nice card telling them how much you love them.
7. Organize a girl’s night out with your closest girlfriends and have a progressive dinner where you rotate houses during the meal, starting with appetizers, moving on to salad, heading to the main course, and ending somewhere else for the dessert.
8. Treat your spouse or close friend to a dinner at his or her favorite restaurant!
9. Make your family’s favorite meal and decorate the table special just for them. Devote the evening to family time by turning off phones, TV, etc.
10. Make your children’s favorite cookies, making a different batch once a week until you’ve made all of their favorites. Don’t forget to include your favorite as well!

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for sharing a tasty treat?
• How has touching other’s hearts by going through their stomach made a meaningful difference this week for you? For others?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Summer?

Make a meaningful difference this summer by taking the Summer of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here’s how you can participate:

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
• Grab the SOS button in the sidebar and put it on your blog or social networking site.
• Enter to win each week’s giveaway. Check out this week’s prizes from Campbell’s.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.