Helping in the Kitchen

You might think that a 7 month-old can’t really help or wouldn’t be interested in helping her mom cook. I would of said I tend to agree, except that Baby Snob loves spending time in the kitchen with me. She wants to watch what I am doing, look at the different foods, and she would love to try everything I make, although I don’t let her do that just yet.

I am a firm believer in the notion that cooking is a large part of eating. What I mean by that is when you cook a meal, you are preparing your body to truly enjoy the food. The smells, the process, the tasting gets your appetite ready for what is to come. I think Baby Snob is catching on to this. She is incredibly intrigued when I am cooking and is constantly chomping her toothless little mouth.

So, how do you let your infant participate in cooking with you? It’s easier than you think. One way that works for us is using the Ergobaby Carrier in the back position, so you can see what you are doing, to do simple things like cut up vegetables, stir things or use a stand mixer for baking.

Baby Snob peaks her head around my shoulder, or if I’m standing sideways, will watch me as I dice veggies and measure ingredients.

There are some kitchen activities though that I don’t feel comfortable wearing the baby. Mainly, this is anytime I am using the stove or oven. One thing you have to be very cautious of when using the Ergo in the back position is accidentally turning or standing somewhere the baby could grab something dangerous, this is why I like to do a lot of food prep at our dining room table.

When the stove, or anything else dangerous, is involved, I like to put her in her high chair or booster seat in a dining room chair and prop her at a safe distance from where I am. I’ll point out ingredients or explain what I am doing. Often times she is memorized, but there are definitely days she wants nothing to do with any of it.

Besides making meals for the Food Snob and myself, I mostly involve Baby Snob in the meal prep for her. We’ve done a mixture of simple baby food purees and allowing her to feed herself with small soft chunks of food (I’m assuming this is Baby Led Weaning, but I never read the book so I do not want to say for sure). I make the vast majority of her baby food rather than buying prepackaged baby food. It is a lot easier and much less expensive than I originally anticipated.

 Here are a few of our current favorite baby food recipes:

– Mashed avocados mixed with unsweetened applesauce

– Pureed pumpkin with plain whole milk yogurt

– Simple well-steamed zucchini cut into small pieces

– Roasted butternut squash cut into small pieces

– Chicken thighs slow cooked in water in a crockpot, then shredded

How do you involve your kids in the kitchen? What are your favorite baby food recipes?

This post originally appeared here.