Get the kids in the kitchen

In the last 20 years we have seen a steady rise in food aimed solely at babies or toddlers. The increase of baby and toddler ready meals are designed to make our lives easier but Sarah Flower, author of Eat Well, Spend Less, believes it has underlying problems.

‘‘Traditionally parents cooked one meal for the whole family. Babies and toddlers would eat a pureed version, but fundamentally, it would be the same meal. Nowadays we are seeing family kitchens run more like a fast food cafe. Babies and toddlers are fed on ready meals, teenagers have frozen dinners and parents grab whatever is easiest. Families lack the social interaction that comes with eating together, but most worryingly, due to the lack of home-cooked meals, an inability for the children to learn essential cookery skills necessary for adult life’.

Sarah has put together some top tips to encourage your children back into the kitchen.

• Kitchens should be the heart of the home. Pop your baby or toddler in a high chair and let them watch you prepare a meal. Give them a wooden spoon and a bowl and let them emulate you.
 

• Let your children taste, touch, smell and enjoy new foods - even if it does end up in their hair! It is a known fact that children who spend time helping parents cook are less fussy.
 

• Choose a simple recipe, like fairy cakes, and get the children to make them from scratch with your supervision. Let them choose the flavour - adding chocolate chips, cocoa, vanilla or even coconut. Allow them to lick the bowl and taste as they go.
 

• Give them their own mixing bowl, spoons and muffin tins and encourage them to experiment.
 

• As they get older, work more with savoury foods to allow their tastes to develop. Ask them about their favourite foods and recipes. When you’re cooking, talk to them and ask their opinion. Does this taste ok, what do you think I should put in it? Make them feel special and grown-up.
• Enjoy the experience - cooking is a necessary life skill so embrace it, share it with the family and nurture it.

Eat Well, Spend Less by leading nutritionist Sarah Flower is not just another cook book showing you how to save money on your weekly shopping. It is a guide that takes healthy living very seriously and provides shopping, food and lifestyle advice designed to maintain and enhance your health and that of your family.

For busy families the book contains a helpful meal planner and shopping lists covering your main meals, 7 days a week, for 4 weeks. The average cost for a family of 4 is less than £40 per week. Sarah also provides a meal planner for vegetarians. Sarah is keen to dispel the myth that healthy food is expensive. Her simple, wholesome recipes cost as little as 17p per portion.

Eat Well, Spend Less is published by Spring Hill, an imprint of How To Books Ltd www.howtobooks.co.uk and is available at £9.99 in major bookshops and online retailers across the country.