Cooking with Vegan Kids

Children are often so eager to be a part of the action, but when it comes to cooking parents have a hard time seeing around the mess that is sure to be made. If your family happens to be vegan it can be even more frustrating to find that many recipes geared toward children usually include animal products. Here are some tips to help you avoid and handle the mess that comes with cooking with kids as well as some vegan recipes that will work for the whole family.

The first step in starting to cook is setting up your work space. This becomes even more important when you are cooking with kids, because you'll want to spend your time focusing on and helping them rather than searching the kitchen for tools every few minutes. Each recipe calls for different things but in general you will want go have the following things handy:

*Measuring cups aren't very expensive so it's best to have two sets.

*Measuring spoons

*Two or three wood or plastic mixing spoons in kid friendly sizes.

*A rubber scraping spatula

*A cutting board

*Many cloth kitchen towels and napkins

*Mixing bowls in a variety of sizes. I find that kids like to use glass types so that they can easily see the ingredients inside.

Before you dive in you might want to talk to the kids about cleaning up as you go along. Show them how to put something away when you are finished using it so that there is less final clean up when you are done. Let them use a sponge or towel to help clean up any messes or spills that occur. Let things be casual and fun throughout. Cleanliness is a valuable thing to teach our kids, but cooking should be fun too.

Here are a couple of vegan kid friendly recipes to get you started.

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad doesn't really need a recipe, but sometimes it's nice to have a basic framework to help us out. This is a perfect recipe for kids because it's so easy.

2 medium bananas, sliced

¼ cup blueberries

¼ cup sliced strawberries

1 cup seedless grapes, halved

1 medium apple, cored and chopped

3 Tablespoons crushed walnuts or peanuts

2-3 Tablespoons of orange juice, fresh or concentrated for a sweeter taste