Healthful cooking activities for kids

Child Care Health Program
Healthful cooking activities for kids

Cooking with kids is great fun! Cooking is an ideal vehicle for nutrition education for children. It allows them to become familiar with foods they might not otherwise see or eat and children will often eat foods which they have prepared even if they refused them previously. Cooking activities also develop many concepts and skills such as pouring, mixing, measuring, chopping, counting and slicing.

Here are some kid friendly recipes:

Yogurt Sundaes
Lowfat vanilla yogurt, fresh or canned fruit, raisins and other dried fruits, chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, toasted oats, wheat germ. Have the children layer the items in a parfait or plastic drinking cup.
Mini-Pizzas
English muffin or bagel halves, prepared pizza or pasta sauce, vegetable toppings (sliced mushroom, onions, peppers, sliced olives, broccoli florets, etc), grated part-skim mozzarella cheese. Have children assemble the ingredients to make an individual pizza.
So-Berry-Good Smoothies
- 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries)
- 8 ounces lemon or vanilla low-fat yogurt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon or cardamom
- 1 cup nonfat or 1 % milk
- 2 teaspoons sugar (optional depending on the sweetness of the berries)

Place ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Serve chilled. Makes 2 servings.

Yummy Yammy Sticks
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams
- 1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- Lemon juice and rosemary (optional)

Wash and cut sweet potatoes into sticks or wedges. Place potatoes in a bowl and toss with oil, then spread out onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with rosemary if desired.

Bake about ½ hour at 375º F, or until browned and tender (you may want to turn them over half way through baking time). Sprinkle with lemon juice if desired.