Hannah Gilbert, Nutritionist and Accredited Practising Dietitian from HelloFresh has kindly shared some fun cooking and food ideas to keep the kids entertained and loving meal times.
There’s plenty of fun to be had at home during the school holidays, especially in the kitchen!
1. Helping hands
Without the busy pickups and after-school activities, school holidays are the perfect time to come together in the kitchen. Whether it’s baking an afternoon treat or helping with dinner, there lots of ways to get the kids involved!
Kids love to get their hands dirty, so get them onto things like crumbing chicken, rolling meatballs or shaping burger patties! Not only are they learning important life skills, but cooking is also a great way to get kids more familiar with different ingredients and flavours, and perhaps more willing to try new things!
2. Food Fiesta!
Who doesn’t love a party!? And what better excuse to have a themed night at home than the school holidays and your upcoming Baked Beef & Corn Quesadillas recipe from HelloFresh! Say Hola to all things Mexican…a family favourite for good reason! The food is often hands-on, plus the decoration screams fun! Get the kids to create some colourful decorations, hunt through the dress-up-box, throw on your sombreros and download some Mariachi tunes, you’ll soon have dinner turned into a fun fiesta!
3. Learn the lingo
Take the family on a culinary adventure and try cooking a new cuisine. A great way to introduce foreign flavours to your kids is to give them some background and get them engrossed in the culture. A simple way to do this is by challenging everyone to learn some fun facts about the country or a few words in the language and practice these together at the dinner table! In no time, your little ones could be greeting you in Italian, Thai, Indian or Spanish!
4. A Science lesson
That’s right, as well as spending precious time together creating tasty meals, cooking is often a lesson in science. Get the children to take notice of what happens when ingredients are combined or heated and how solids can turn into liquids. Cooking with the kids is also a fun way to start giving them basic nutrition knowledge. Point out the different elements of the meals you’re cooking, i.e. the veggies, protein and carbohydrates, and get them involved in plating up a balanced meal.
5. Get back to the dinner table
Dinnertime is an opportunity to connect and communicate with one another, relax, laugh and share stories. Studies have shown that children who eat with their family have healthier diets, do better academically and have higher self-esteem. Yep, it might be daunting, but your kids learn a lot about food, eating and table manners by watching what you do at mealtimes. If you’ve got a fussy eater or one with less desirable table manners, you may find that eating with the family will help encourage them to try new foods and mimic your manners. So yes folks, you need to be on your best behaviour too!
HelloFresh Family Favourite’s
Cheesy Beef Burgers with Caramelised Onion & Smokey Aioli
There’s something about a burger that kids go crazy for! From getting their hands messy and full of food as they make the patties, to stacking the ingredients inside the bread – burgers are just full of fun. Plus, this way kids not only get to feast on the end result, but can be excited to eat something they’ve helped create!
Baked Beef & Corn Quesadillas with Salsa & Sour Cream
Quesadillas are perfect for a dinnertime fiesta. They’re colourful, and fun, and kids can help construct and cook them! We guarantee they’ll also love the novelty of being able to eat dinner with their hands (excuse the mess)!
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This article was written with information supplied by HelloFresh
We are going to they making play dough.in the kitchen next holidays
I am always after new ideas to keep the kids busy and entertained, these are great ideas and they will keep their bellies full as well! The Baked Beef and Corn Quesadilla looks amazing, my kids will enjoy making, and eating them!!
Yumm those beef burgers look amazing they are going to be a must have over the holidays for sure. The kids love helping grate and chop stuff up for burgers. They also love when I buy snitzel not crumbed that way they get to crumb a piece each then wait for it to cook and eat the piece they crumbed. Building independence is great. I love all the idea on this post definitely some must haves over the holidays
We always eat our meals as a family at tea time and get the children to help out when needed as it is great to learn new things. Kids love making a mess in the kitchen too so you can say to try keep it tidy but it actually hardly ever happens as they are having lots of fun helping.
I think its so important to include children in the day to day runnings of the home. Food preparation is definitely something my kids get excited about especially where getting their hands dirty is involved. I have noticed that things seem more “tastier” and appetizing to my 6yr old when she has been a part of the cooking and preparing. She is always proud of her accomplishments. I would so encourage others to do the same with their fussy eaters.
Hubby gets our 6 year old to help him prepare and cook in the kitchen, probably not as often as he would like but is going to change that during the next school holidays 🙂 She loves to help and feels included if she helps with the prep of the family meal.