Running Out of Time to Cook? Cook Together! I hate broccoli! I hate liver! I'm sure you've heard that from your child after you spent time cooking a meal for your family. While not eating healthy is bad for adults, it is even worse for kids. One of the biggest problems facing American children today is obesity. This stems from not eating correctly. Children should learn good eating habits from a young age to avoid becoming obese. One way to combat unhealthy eating is to make sure that you and your family eat healthier. Easier said than done? Yes! In many cases it's hard to eat healthy with the lifestyles many Americans families have.

If you are a person who is very conscious of what you and your family eat, a great way to improve their nutrition is to make food preparation a group affair. For example, having your son or daughter cut up carrots and celery as garnishing for chicken or peeling apples for fruit salad is a great way to get your kids involved in the cooking process. When kids are involved in the food they eat they are more likely to eat it. Even if the dish is not their favorite, because they labored to make it they will feel a sense of pride and eat it. Having your child cook with you simply goes with the logic that anything you have to work for you usually take more interest in. Children who cook with their parents take more interest in their food and are more open to eating healthy.

Cooking together is also great way to spend time with your child and to release their creativity. Your child can offer you a variety ways to prepare food that you may not have thought of. For example, once I was making apple crisp and my seven year old niece said that I should cut out the apples with a cookie cutter to make them look like stars. I took her advice. It was a nice touch and my niece was proud of the pie (that I made!)

In addition, cooking with your child is great time saver. The peeling and mincing of food preparation can save you a great deal of time if you ask your child to help out. Finally cooking with your child will teach your child valuable cooking skills they will need later on in life. While cooking can be burdensome it doesn't have to be a one person undertaking. Cook with your child and open your family to something new and healthy.
 

Simple Recipes You and Your Child Can Do

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

There are untold numbers of sugar cookie recipes circulating throughout the Midwest. As students of this sweet know, lard makes for a particularly toothsome cookie, with a texture at once crisp and sandy. For a cookie that is crisp but also chewy, vegetable shortening is best.

1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening melted and cooled
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar plus additional for coating the cookies
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl stir together the lard or shortening, the butter, 1 cup of the sugar, the egg, and the vanilla. Into the bowl sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the salt and stir the mixture until it forms a dough. Chill the dough, covered, for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll rounded tablespoons of the dough into balls, roll the balls in the additional sugar, coating them completely, and arrange them 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in the sugar (the edges will crack slightly) and bake the cookies in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool. The cookies keep in an airtight container for 1 week.

Makes 32

Takes about 35 minutes to make.

Banana Nut Bread
 

Banana Nut Bread

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9 1/4 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in medium bowl. In small bowl, mix mashed bananas, milk and vanilla. Using electric mixer, beat shortening in large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat banana mixture and flour mixture alternately into shortening mixture in 2 additions each. Stir in pecans. Transfer to prepared pan.

Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap tightly in foil and let stand at room temperature.)

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