Cooking with Kids

School is about to start and now is a great time to spend some of the last few weeks doing fun activities with the kids. How about cooking? You can practice making some of the delicious and healthy treats that they can take in their lunch boxes.

Forget the traditional boxed mixes and go for a recipe from scratch. You can always substitute whole wheat pastry flour for bleached flour, applesauce instead of oil, and use grated vegetables for moisture and added fiber. Cold pressed canola oil is a good choice when usiing oil.

If you are in a hurry at least choose a boxed mix with healthful ingredients. There are so many on the market today. No Pudge Fudge Brownies are my favorite. All you have to do is dump the mix in a bowl and add some non fat vanilla yogurt.

What about carrot muffins or zucchini bread? You can always add nuts and dried fruit like cranberries, raisins, or cherries to any recipe. Banana bread tastes great with chocolate chips and is fun to eat in a cupcake wrapper. Speaking of cupcakes, you can put any kind of dessert in a cupcake wrapper and it doesn't always have to have white bleached flour, trans fats, and tons of frosting.

Cooking with kids reinforces lots of skills learned in school: reading, counting, and measuring. Most importantly, cooking with kids gets them in touch with food. The more connected kids are with the food they eat, the more conscious they become about health and fitness. Making the connection between eating and health early in life is important because it leads to better choices down the road.