Cooking with Kids is about more than Cookies & Cake {Part 1 with Bonus Recipe!}

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As adults, many of us have warm and fuzzy memories of cooking in the kitchen with our parents, grandparents, and aunties. We savor the lessons learned around the fire, the quality time enjoying big belly laughs, and of course the delicious fruits of our labor. 

Today, when we take kids into the kitchen, it’s most likely to bake something sugary like cookies, cupcakes, brownies, or other sweet treats. With our busy schedules and multi-tasking lives, we rarely invite kids into the kitchen to learn, laugh, and love while preparing dishes that are as delicious as they are nourishing. Recipes that teach our children how to feed themselves well and healthfully for a lifetime. 

Cook Healthful Foods with Kids

As a mom, natural foods chef and nutritionist, I’m on a mission to bring generations of families back into the kitchen while also thinking differently about your time spent in the kitchen with family. What if you stopped looking at kitchen time as only for sweet treats or quick fixes and instead tuned into the joy of kitchen time as family time? What if you actually treasured time in the kitchen cooking nutritious family meals the way you do other family-friendly activities like camping, hiking, a beach day, or a creative project?

In my home, my son and I cook together often chopping kale, whisking up home-made dressings, seasoning meats & fish, and learning about how food impacts—both positively and negatively—our mind, body, brain, spirit, and life.   

Healthy Eating Habits Start Now 

Let me reflect a startling epidemic in our country right now that is directly related to the disconnect families have around eating mindful meals together. Today, more children are obese, overweight, and being diagnosed with diabetes than ever before.  

Not to sound alarmist, but I’m also seeing a rise in cases of young kids having strokes and high blood pressure. These and many other states of disease can be prevented and addressed through mindful meal choices. Teaching our children how to prepare delicious, nutritious and nourishing food from a young age is an incredible opportunity we as adults should not ignore.

To inspire you to rediscover or discover for the first time the joys of cooking in the kitchen with your kids, below is a recipe you can try with your kids. If you’d like some support and guidance on how to serve mindful meals to picky eaters, click this link ([email protected]) to email me your questions and concerns.  I’m happy to help and support your family.

To help you I’ve also included suggestions about how your kids can get involved and some nutrition and wellness talking points you can share. And remember, when kids are involved in prepared healthy food, they are more likely to want to take a bite out of the fruit of their labor. So get cooking and have fun!

Dairy-Free Berry and Granola Parfait with Lemon Cream

This is a great dairy-free alternative to the traditional yogurt parfait.  It can be served for breakfast, snack or dessert. It’s really fun to make the lemon cream with your kids so they can see how the cashews become creamy and rich and then they can enjoy spooning the cashew cream, dropping in bits of fruit and sprinkling granola into a clear glass which they can then admire like a piece of artwork they created—which it is!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews
3 pitted medjool dates
Juice of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt
1 cup fresh berries of choice
½ cup of your favorite granola

Method:

In a bowl combine cashews and boiling water to cover by about 1 inch. In a separate bowl combine pitted dates and ¾ cup hot water. Allow the cashews and dates to soak 30 minutes. When the time has elapsed, drain the cashews only and rinse well.

In a blender combine drained cashews, dates and ½ cup of their soaking liquid, lemon juice, vanilla and sea salt. Process until smooth. If necessary, add more date soaking liquid to get the desired thickness.

In two serving glasses or bowls layer half the berries, half the cashew cream, and half the granola in each. Serve and enjoy.

Here are some teaching points you can share as you cook:

  • Cashews are the nut with the most iron.  Iron helps keep our blood healthy and our energy high
  • Berries are full of antioxidants.  Antioxidants help keep our body healthy and protect us from getting sick.
  • Dates have a lot of fiber and can help us have a good poop every day.  This is important because our poop carries toxins out of our body so we can stay healthy.

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Ebeth Johnson
Ebeth Johnson is mindful eating & well-life mentor for women who are ready to live deliciously. As a mom, professional chef, plant-based nutritionist and mindful eating coach, Ebeth marries her love of food, cooking, wellness, and mindfulness while supporting women and their families to incorporate nourishing foods and nurturing lifestyle practices into daily life. Ebeth was raised in DC and returned here (after a 15-year stint in the Big Apple) when her child Cayenne was born. When she's not in the kitchen, at the grocery store or DuPont farmers’ market you'll find her roller skating, reading, watching HGTV, making handcrafted beaded jewelry or briskly walking wherever she needs to go. One of her favorite meals is perfectly scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast, sliced avocado and a green salad. She could do without shopping for clothes and shoes.