Teaching children to cook .....

Theere is an old adage from the Native  Americans that basically says, if you give a guy a fish, he eats for a day.  If you teach a guy to fish, they eat for a lifetime.   Not the exact words, but the message is there.   

That’s the basis of this blog.   I want to teach people how to shop so they can eat well on little money.  We all give to the food bank, and there is a serious need for the food bank.  But there are still people that have some money that can benefit from knowing how to s t r e t c h their dollars.   

I digress.   My granddaughter has demonstrated a great 👍 interest in learning to cook.   She is five and has been helping in the kitchen for several years.   Her mother is not as culinary minded as her daughter.    I figure if they ever move further away than they are now, someone will have to cook.   LOL 

Granddaughter started with. Pizza.   She is really good at putting a pizza together.   I basicly , now have to make the dough and gather the ingredients.   I was shocked when she decided that the gluten in the pizza dough would behave better if she was using the ball pin rolling pin instead of the french one (smaller) that I gave her.   I didnt know she knew we had the larger rolling pin.   

Granddaughter got a baby waffle iron for Christmas. It came with its own cookbook.   We made waffle batter and she made her own waffles.   

We: 

• Retrieved the tray from the family room. 
• Put measuring cups on the tray. 
• Gathered the ingredients .  Talking about leveling off ingredients placed in the measuring cups and spoons.  Which spoons were Tablespoons and which were teaspoons.  The smallest is 1/4 of a teaspoon. 
• We talked about putting the dry ingredients in the bowl first.  And stirring it so the salt and baking powder is all mixed with the flour.  
• We talked about cracking eggs, making sure there were no egg shells in the cup.  Breaking the yolks and stirring them into the whites. 
• We talked about making a well and dumping the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and not over-beating so the batter wouldn’t be tough.  
• My rules for children is no sharp, no raw meat, and no hot.   
• So, we had a serious discussion about what part (the handle) to touch and what not to touch .  HOT was one of her first words.   She gets it.    LOL 😂 
• She used a silicone spatula to remove the waffles.   

I was surprised that she maticulously poured her 1/4 cup of batter over the entire surface of the waffle iron.   

Children can do little things in the kitchen at a young age.  There is a u tube family of 7 children that I follow.   All except the one year old, do things in the kitchen.   The oldest, about 14 now can make full meals and things I am just now learning to cook.   I dont expect granddaughter to remember everything we talked about, but repetition will take care of that.   

My mother hated to bake.  We learned to bake.   We didn't learn to make meals, I suspect because she didnt want to waste food if we messed up.    I was also slower than a ten year itch and we would have been eating dinner at midnight.   LOL.  

They dont have home ec in schools like they did when we were going to school.   Someone has to teach children how to cook.  Its a basic necessity of life.   I have the opinion that children need to learn that food doesn’t come out of a box.  Scratch is healthier and less money.   A win -win situation.