Foodie in the Making

Future executive chef, restaurant critic, or food blogger!

It happened. I don't know how, but it has to my delight. My 6 year-old is passionate about food. The boy loves to shop for food, try new restaurants, and help cook. And most recently, has asked if he could not only help cook, but plan some meals. Hold a moment while I wipe away a tear.

So as not to discourage him from this new-found interest (the trains can finally get a break!), I grabbed a stack of ChopChop magazines, a couple of kid-friendly cookbooks from the public library, a pad of paper and pen and asked him, "so what do you want to try making?" He flipped through recipe after recipe and pointed out the ones he wanted to try as I scribbled away as if he was the executive chef and I his sous chef.

The boy's menu

So the plan is this: he gets to choose at least one recipe a week and we add that to our weekly menu plan. I was happy to see he did not just choose the typical kid-friendly dishes. His tastes ranged from savory breakfast items, hearty lunch dishes to multicultural dinners. This week we made oven-baked pita chips, spinach, mushroom and cheese stromboli, and banana-berry smoothies. Best to start of slow, right?

I have no idea if we'll be able to keep this up, but this pretty much re-affirms what experts preach when it comes to dealing with picky-eaters:

• Get kids involved
• Meal plan with them
• Let them help pick out groceries
• Give them a job in the kitchen

Our youngest has even joined in on the fun and we've noticed dinnertime battles have decreased - albeit just a little bit... but I will take anything I can get.

So if you can, make it part of your routine. Have your kids be in charge of breakfast/lunch/dinner once a week. Just make sure you are not in a rush and don't mind a bit more clean-up!