My favorite snack still is one we had many afternoons after school. My grandmother made it for my mom, she made it for me, and we consider it the best kind of snacking at our house.
Best of all it, it is fun to make and almost any age (with some supervision) can make these treats.
Put a tiny smear of butter on top of a marshmallow, place butter-side up on a saltine cracker, broil ’til just lightly browned, and mmm. We make batches of these but just about all even a large boy can eat is four or five.
Kids really can actually do a lot of cooking and learn lots of math, science, thinking, organizing, and cooking skills at the same time. The trick is to interest them while young with easy-to-make recipes, Using ready-mix products such as instant pudding will let children learn to measure, stir, pour, all while following directions.
A "fancy" dessert is made by alternating layers of chocolate pudding with whipped topping in a dish. There are tons of things to make from biscuit mixes and using a small cloth to roll the dough out on speeds cleanup. Biscuits in-a-can help young cooks create doughnuts, monkey bread or pigs in blankets.
Doughnuts: cut biscuits in fourths, drop into hot fat, brown, drain, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Monkey bread: cut biscuits into fourths, dip into melted butter, roll in brown sugar to which you had a bit of cinnamon, bake in pie pan, same as for biscuits.
Pig in a blanket: flatten individual biscuits, roll around one-half hot dog, pinch edges closed, Bake as for biscuits. These are great dipped in honey-mustard sauce (equal parts of honey and mustard).
Then there are ways with food to encourage poor eaters as kids tend to sample what they produce. Cinnamon toast is an old favorite that is easy for kids to fix. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a jar, spread bread with butter, sprinkle evenly with mixture, and broil.
Our kids loved pancakes made into smiling faces with raisins for nose, eyes and mouth and ate them more readily than the plain ones. Let kids use cookie cutters to make star, bell, or round shapes from bread and lunchmeats or cheese when making sandwiches.
On holidays, serve food in colors. Green oatmeal may be yukky to adults but can be enchanting to kids. (Remember “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss?)
Many fruits and vegetables can be prepared by even the youngest cooks. Peeling carrots, washing potatoes, slicing apples (with plastic knives for the very young) are ways children feel important as helpers and learn valuable food preparation skills.
Good cooks can usually trace their abilities to a good cooking mom, dad or grandparent. Spending time with kids in the kitchen will help them develop an Interest In foods, learn many important skills and is another way parents can use everyday activities to spend good teaching time with children.
Darby Kethan has a master's degree in child development, and has experience as a social worker, educator of young children, educational consultant, and as a professional trainer for a national educational foundation providing professional development to teachers. Visit her website at darbykethan.com.
