cooking with kayla

Wow! It's been awhile since I've participated in Kid Friendly Friday at I Blame My Mother. Do I seriously not do enough with my kids these days!? Maybe it's because the weather has been so gorgeous that most of the time is spent playing outside enjoying the sun, so there is no real "organized" activity.

However, we did squeeze in a little "cooking up some fun" the other day in the kitchen. Mikayla is at that age of wanting to soak in everything she can! Her new favorite thing to do is help me cook! For our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting, we had a speaker come share with us about cooking with our kids and I really enjoyed listening to the tips and suggestions she had to pass along. I was also able to do a little online browsing as I prepared for some cooking links we could post on the MOPS blog, and that got me inspired as well. It was fun to see the different recipes out there or things you could do in the kitchen with your kids to teach them to help and enjoy the process of cooking! (Here is a simple article with tips on teaching kids the cooking basics...there are so many other resources out there, too!)

At the end of last week I thought it was the perfect day to make a sweet treat, so we opted for smoothies. Mikayla loves smoothies and it is the perfect little treat to share...it would be Austin's first try. After realizing we didn't have all the ingredients, we decided to take a quick walk to the grocery store to pick up some groceries. On the way there Mikayla and I had a little conversation about what was on our "list". We talked about what ingredients we needed to make our smoothie and what we had at home and what we needed to buy. I told her that she needed to help me remember. It was so cute for her to say the list back to me. (A random side note: Mikayla has been calling bananas "manna" for the longest time, so we tried pronouncing it for her so she could repeat it back to us. Buh-na-na. Simple, right? She repeats it back to us like this: Buh-duh-na-na. I'm so going to try to get this on video because it is just too cute!)

Time to get a cookin'!

Step 1: Cut up the bananas.

Step 2: Pour in the milk
Step 3: Measure out the yogurt
Step 4: Add in the berries.
Step 5: Turn on the blender.
Step 6: Give mom a cheesy grin.
Step 7: Cheers!

Mikayla decided to take hers "to go"!
And it looks like the smoothie was a hit...

...every last drop!

Another little cooking lesson that I didn't capture on camera was her helping me with dinner the other night. When it's appropriate and I have the time, I plan on giving Mikayla little jobs to do in the kitchen with me. (While Mikayla was helping me, I gave Austin a few {new to him} cooking tools to play with while we worked to distract him.) She put the salad in the bowls (I must admit it was a bagged salad! Gasp!). She was also in charge of buttering the bread and sprinkling the Parmesan cheese on top. Just giving your kids a little job in the kitchen will bring a smile to their face. It might be an extra mess, but I think it's worth it! Just don't choose an evening that's full of stress! One of the tips that I learned was to pick one night a week that was set aside for Mikayla to help me in the kitchen. That meal could be something that would be easy and fun to do together!


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

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And, in other blogging news...I'm going to be enjoying an all day scrapbooking getaway on Saturday and heading out of town on Sunday until Monday night to visit friends, so you won't be hearing a lot from me, but most of you probably also have plans with the long weekend coming up. Enjoy Memorial Day weekend and we'll "see" you when we "see" you!