Kids are sometimes hesitant to try new food, especially when you say it’s good for them. Either they would think that it’s not tasty or perhaps there’s vegetable hiding in there somewhere. But demystifying a new dish can be easy, so long as you involve children in its creation – from doing the grocery list to purchasing the ingredients to helping with the cooking. Kids love to play pretend so allow this to be the opportunity for them to be chefs. Take them to an outdoor market to be familiar with the different local produce that many of them might not know, especially if they grew up in the city. Alternatively, bring them to the grocery store and have them pick one new item to try.
Here’s one way to let your children participate in the kitchen: hold a pizza night! No, you are not going to have Yellow Cab or Pizza Hut deliver the pies to your door but you are putting them together yourselves. You need not make your own pizza dough from scratch; several are available in the frozen food section of the supermarket. But if you want this to be truly an exciting (and educational) food experience, why not use a varied selection of bread instead? Visit a few ethnic bakeries and grab yourself some specialty breads. This is a great way to introduce to kids foods from other cultures. Choose about four types: khubz or pita from the Middle East, rye bread from Sweden, baguette from France, bagel from Poland.
Next have the little ones help prepare pesto and salsa in addition to store-bought sauces like pizza and alfredo sauce to slather on their bread. Then present them with all-time favorite toppings like grilled chicken breast strips, bacon, cold cuts, sliced vegetables and of course, mozzarella cheese.
Play up the theme by having maps serve as placemats. While their pies take a quick trip to the oven, let kids point to the country where their bread of choice originated. Then get ready to go around the world. Who knows? Maybe next time around, they’ll be enticed to sample feta from Greece or gruyère from Switzerland. Hmmm…how about a new twist to that grilled cheese sandwich?
Karima
Yes, this is one great way to make them eat good stuff. She loves pizza! I’d have loved it better if my daughter would eat any pizza without question, but she’s still the picky one. She would only have cheese pizza. I can’t make eat the ones with ollvies, or even a simple tomato and basil pizza (margherita).
So the only thing I’d do is load up her cheese pizza with different kinds of cheeses — mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, and sometimes blue cheese.
This is great info to know.
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