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The Tiny Chef in this video is 4-years-old and has been preparing food since he was 18 months old. He loves to eat the food he makes! For more ideas and recipes preschoolers love, check out the Tiny Chef recipe book. These pancakes are refined sugar-free and gluten-free. You can make them with just 2 ingredients (eggs & bananas) or add a few extras (oats for texture & cinnamon for flavor). Sprinkling blueberries or chocolate chips on top is extra fun for the kiddos! Using coconut oil on the pan and covering them on the first side makes the pancakes easy to flip.
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Directions:
Tips for cooking with kids!
After a few days of hot weather, today's cool rainy weather inspired me to roast veggies. Our Tiny Chef loves roasted cauliflower, but it has to be nicely caramelized and soft. Here's what we did: 1. preheat oven to 400f 2. wash & core 2 small heads of cauliflower.
3. set a sheet tray out and ask your child to break the cauliflower into pieces 4. while they are breaking, pick out the big pieces and cut them down (aiming for florets all the same size) 5. drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil over the cauliflower (I held my 3-year-old's hand on the bottle and we did this together) 6. sprinkle seasonings (give your young kids just the right amount of seasonings - they tend to want to put them ALL on the food) - we used salt, pepper, garlic powder, & smoked paprika 7. with clean hands, mix the cauliflower, oil and seasonings on the pan and then make sure they're covering the bottom of the pan in a single layer  8. when the oven is preheated, put the cauliflower pan on a middle rack and set a timer for 20 minutes 9. after 20 minutes, use a spatula to flip the cauliflower over & set the timer for another 20 minutes 10. when the timer goes off, flip the cauliflower over one more time (it should be browning now) 11. after a final 10 minutes, take the cauliflower out to cool down (it would be a good idea to test it with a fork to see if it needs to be in any longer to get soft) 12. adjust the seasonings as needed and serve warm (we added a bit more salt to ours)  Happy cooking!
Quick Tip: Check your child's hands for cuts & scrapes before you hand them a citrus half (I'm sure you've experienced that open cut burn!). They may want to avoid one hand or just watch you squeeze the first time, until their cut heals. Use the damp towel to quickly wipe your child's hands if they start to hurt or if they just don't like how sticky they feel.
We made some quick and easy oatmeal in our Instant Pot pressure cooker (affiliate link) and my 3-year-old LOVES IT! It stores well in the fridge and is hearty enough to keep you full for a few hours.  1 cup of steel-cut oats 2 cups water 1 cup coconut milk (any variety of milk will work) pinch of salt handful (1/4 cup) of golden raisins maple syrup & other toppings to taste Mix all of the ingredients (except the toppings) together in the Instant Pot. Secure the lid and cook on Manual for 4 minutes (10 minutes natural pressure release). Add toppings and enjoy! Kid Tips!
 1. Wash or wipe their hands before they even get to the kitchen. Kids are going to touch every ingredient and put things in their mouths, so at least this way they won’t be contaminating everything! 2. Set up a work space before they get there. Lay a towel down or set out a placemat with some tools and ingredients so they know exactly where their work area is (i.e., not YOUR work area). 3. Plan for the mess. You already know they’re going to make a mess, so plan to get out in front of it. Try putting a tablecloth down that you can just shake off and throw in the washing machine when you’re done. Also, tell them before you even start exactly how you expect them to contribute to clean-up. 4. Don’t expect them to be precise. Have them measure ingredients into smaller containers that you can double-check if needed (especially if you’re baking!). Adjust expectations according to their age; for example, have toddlers hold containers or stir instead of using measuring spoons (they’re also pretty good at sprinkling and shaking spices!). 5. Keep it simple. I recommend AGAINST including your toddler in a marathon cooking session of Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon. But if you insist on making it, they can join you for just a few minutes to help peel garlic or remove fresh thyme leaves from the stem. Choose a small task and genuinely thank them for their help afterwards. What cook doesn’t like having someone else peel their garlic?  6. Choose their cooking tasks wisely. Don’t give them an task that’s way too hard, you’ll both get frustrated (i.e., don’t get mad at your 2-year-old when they can’t roll a perfect ball of cookie dough). If you want to challenge them, choose an activity that they can ALMOST do by themselves but not quite (maybe they can scoop the dough, but can’t get it out of the scooper yet). By working on it together, you will reinforce what they can already do and help them build a little bit of new skill. Next time you cook together, see if they’ve learned to do it by themselves! 7. Remember that they’re (unpredictable) kids. Even if they’re physically capable of doing a task, they may not be ready mentally or emotionally. Check to see if they’re tired or hungry or need to go to the bathroom. Also, are they really interested in cooking or is it something you’re trying to get them interested in? You might need to start small with extra fun tasks to spark their interest (decorating cookies, topping muffins with chocolate chips, etc.). 8. Don’t try too hard to “teach.” Cooking together is so enriching. Your kids are learning about science and math, in addition to developing their fine motor skills and executive functions. The great thing is, these learning experiences happen without even trying! They’re just a natural part of the cooking process. 9. Remember to have fun! In the end, cooking is all about enjoying each other’s company, so try to keep your cool and go with the flow. You’ll have a great time together and enjoy some tasty food after all of your hard work!  In case you haven't heard, many chefs recommend cracking eggs on a FLAT surface. When you hit a raw egg on a sharper edge, you're more likely to get a small piece of shell in the egg (because the sharp edge pushes small shell pieces inside). Many people like how an edge helps to break eggs cleanly into two large sections, but that's a trade-off for producing more small fragments. Something we've discovered is that a flat surface also works better for small, less-coordinated hands! Not only does the raw egg come out more slowly, but (most importantly) the egg is already OVER the surface where you want it to fall. Young kids have a hard time coordinating multiple connected movements (they often need to practice one at a time), so cracking an egg on an edge and then swiftly moving it to the interior of a bowl can be very challenging (and frustrating). Instead, we use a large plate so we can use the wide surface to both crack the egg and open it. Steps for Cracking a Raw Egg
I usually dump each egg into a bowl (or plastic bag) after our Tiny Chef cracks them so he doesn't end up trying to crack a new egg on top of the old one (and so it's less likely new fragments will get into the already clean egg). 
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Teacher KendallDr. Kendall Becherer is an author, teacher, photographer, and learning scientist, who loves helping families naturally integrate kids in their everyday activities (such as preparing food). 
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