The Benefits of Cooking With Children
School is nearly out for Christmas so ‘tis the season to keep the kids entertained. Getting your little ones involved with cooking not only helps you with the food prep but it also encourages child development by improving their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills.
Getting them hands on helps them build healthier habits as they’re more likely to try new foods by being exposed to a variety of ingredients. Cooking together can also improve their language and mathematical skills by reading instructions and counting measurements, so you can continue your children’s education even out of the school setting.
Premium outdoor oven brand, Gozney, shares its top tips for how to make cooking with the kids fun for all the family this festive season.
🧑🍳 It’s time to get messy
Cooking foods that you can get hands on with – like pizza – throws up plenty of opportunities for the kids to get involved with, from the dough through to the toppings. Ditch the mixer and let everyone get messy with the dough and crush those tomatoes by hand. Gozney’s simple pizza dough recipe is simple to follow and doesn’t compromise on taste.
🥕 Sneak in the good stuff
Getting the kids to eat their 5 a day can be challenging at the best of times but getting the little ones involved in cooking their own food is an amazing vehicle to make those things more desirable. Opt for colourful veggies to encourage them to get excited about these healthy ingredients, or you can even just throw in whatever spare veg you have to hand.
🍽️ Encourage interactivity
Themed dinner nights are a great way to get children excited about what they will eat. For example, you could base your theme on your family’s favourite movie or even create dishes to look like your favourite animal. A blindfolded tasting session is another a fun way to get the kids to try new and different flavours. You could even set this one up as a game with a scoreboard to see who can identify different foods by taste.
🪴 Grow your own
Growing your own fruits and veggies develops a brilliant respect and understanding of ingredients as well as being fun and education. Cress and herbs are the easiest to start with and can even be done by a window. If you have an outdoor space you can use it to grow a variety of delicious and nutritious foods like tomatoes, peas, onions and carrots.
Get the kids into the kitchen this Christmas break and turn them into little chefs with Gozney’s range of easy to cook festive recipes: Winter Vegetable Pizza Recipe and Pigs in Blankets.
Winter Vegetable Pizza Recipe
Ingredients:
* x1 dough ball
* 800-100g Fior di Latte mozzarella
* Pumpkin cream
* Ndjua
* Mixed grilled vegetables – e.g. aubergines, courgettes sweet peppers
* Basil and oregano (optional)
Method:
Step 1 – Open up your dough ball to around 9-10”
Step 2 – Add a heaped tbsp of pumpkin cream and spread evenly over the base
Step 3 – Slice 80-100g of Fior di Latte cheese into strips or small cubes and spread over the pizza
Step 4 – Add the mixed grilled vegetables and use a teaspoon to add a few blobs of the nduja. Top tip, get the kids to arrange the vegetables into a smiley face
Step 5 – Slide the pizza onto peel and give it a final stretch to fill your Gozney peel
Step 6 – Bake in your Gozney oven of choice at 400-450°C for 60-90 seconds, rotating until cooked evenly on all sides
Step 7 – Once baked, you could also add some optional fresh basil or oregano to finish
Pigs in Blankets Recipe
Ingredients:
* x6 sausages
* x6 rashers of streaky bacon
* 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
* 1 tbsp maple syrup
* 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
* Handful of hard herbs such as thyme, rosemary or sage
Method:
Step 1 – Stretch out each rasher of bacon as thin as possible to help with the crispiness and wrap a sausage in each piece
Step 2 – Put the sausages in a cast iron pan and drizzle over the olive oil. Cover with foil and cook for 6 minutes in a Roccbox, rotating halfway through the cook time
Step 3 – Remove the foil, turn the flame down to low and return the tray to Roccbox for a further 2-4 minutes, tossing occasionally
Step 4 – Once browned and nicely cooked, remove the tray from Roccbox and pour in the Worcestershire sauce, using a wooden spoon to scrape all that tasty flavour off the bottom of the pan
Step 5 – Add all the remaining ingredients, toss everything together and let the pan sit for a few minutes before serving