Cooking Healthy with Young Children

One way to help children build healthy eating habits is to invite them to plan and cook meals with you. Get them involved in the whole process—from determining menus and shopping for ingredients to preparing foods and washing dishes. Many young children love to help in the kitchen and often are more willing to eat foods they help prepare. It's also a wonderful opportunity to share what you know about healthy nutrition. Plus, it's fun!

Morsels of Advice: How to Encourage Healthy Eating

• Offer new foods more than once. Children may need to see a food a few times before they are willing to try it.
• Be a role model. Show your children how much you enjoy new and healthy foods.
• Try to offer foods from at least three food groups at each meal and from at least two food groups at snack times.
• Start a weekly "try-a-new-food night." At the store, ask your children to choose a new vegetable or fruit from two or three choices.
• Read the book Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, with your child. Talk about what happens when Frances eats bread and jam for every meal and why it's healthier for her to eat many different kinds of food.

Now You're Cooking

When assigning jobs to children in the kitchen, use your judgment about what your child can safely do. Some children can handle a small, blunt knife by age 6; others may need to be a little older. Here are some examples of what many children can do at certain ages:

Combine Nutrition with Shopping and Cooking

As you and your children shop for and prepare the recipes, include some lessons about good nutrition. For instance, you might talk about which food group each ingredient in a recipe belongs to. You also might ask your children to talk about the flavor, the color, and the texture of new foods. Or use the "nutrition lessons" provided.

Nutrition Lessons

Fruits and Dairy Products

* Ask children to think of three different fruits to use in the smoothie.

* See if children can solve this riddle: "Which ingredient in this smoothie is a dairy product?"

* Then, ask them to name some other dairy products.

Vegetables

* Point out how vegetables come in all different colors, and that it's important to eat a mix of "colors." Ask children to identify a vegetable that's red, yellow, green, etc.

* Stage a taste testing. Try different vegetables on different pizzas. Then, talk about how the flavor and texture vary with each pizza.

Protein

* At the grocery store, ask children if they can find six different sources of protein—for example, meat, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, peanut butter, hot dogs, and tofu.

* Talk low-fat. Talk about how it's best to choose lean, low-fat sources of protein. Show how some foods have food labels that tell you how much fat is in them.

Carbohydrates

* Help your child set up a "grocery store" with empty boxes from rice, pasta, cereal, and other carbohydrates. For bread, fill bread bags with newspaper and tie tightly. Then, go "shopping" for carbohydrates.

* Use whole-grain bread in a recipe, and talk about the texture and flavor of whole-grain bread vs. white bread.

Breakfast Smoothie

• 1 C orange juice
• 1 8-oz container low-fat yogurt, any flavor
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1/2 C frozen strawberries, sliced
• 3 to 4 ice cubes

1. Slice fruit, or ask older child to help.

2. Help child measure and add all ingredients to the blender.

3. Mix on high speed until smooth and creamy.

Makes 2 smoothies.

Mini Vegetarian Pizzas

• 4 English muffins
• 3/4 C bottled pizza sauce
• 1/2 C vegetables of your choice, chopped (try onion, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, or broccoli)
• 1 C low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Chop vegetables, or ask older child to help.

3. Separate English muffins. Help child spoon pizza sauce onto each muffin.

4. Have child sprinkle vegetables, and then cheese onto each muffin.

5. Broil 1 to 2 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Makes 4 servings, or 8 mini pizzas.

Soft Shell Tacos

• 1 C lettuce, shredded
• 1 C tomato, chopped
• 1/2 C mild cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 15 1/2-oz can pinto beans, or low-fat, refried beans
• 1/4 C taco sauce, or salsa
• 4 7-in. flour tortillas

1. Have child rinse lettuce and tomato.

2. Chop tomato while child shreds lettuce.

3. Open the can of beans, or allow an older child to try. Help child empty beans into a bowl.

4. Have child add about 1 T taco sauce to beans.

5. Allow child to spread bean mixture onto a tortilla.

6. Invite child to top tortilla with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and salsa.

7. Show child how to fold tortilla in half. To make it easier for small hands to handle, cut taco in half.

Makes 4 tacos.

French Toast

• 1 egg
• 1/4 C fat-free milk
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t sugar
• 1 t cinnamon
• 8 slices bread
• Fresh strawberries or peaches, sliced

1. Beat egg in a bowl, or allow older child to do so.

2. Help child measure and add milk, vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon. Ask child to mix ingredients.

3. Spray skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.

4. Help child dip bread into egg mixture and coat well. Place bread onto skillet.

5. Cook bread for about 2 minutes. Flip and cook another minute or so.

6. Ask child to decorate toast with sliced fruit.

Makes 4 servings, 2 slices per serving.