recipes please i can make with my sixteen month old son

[mummytojames]

today was the first time i ever let ds 16 monthsout in the kitchen with me while i have been frying mince except he loved what i did so much he wanted to help mix the mince and stir the pasta oh and dish up it i let him with his spatula i gives him while were out there problem was when i said he couldnt he looked as if he was going to burst into tears and kept pointing at the fridge saying me meaning he wanted to help its just i havent got a clue what kind of recipes i could make with him being so young but at the same time i dont want to put him off cooking while hes intrested please help
tia

[colditzmum]

Chocolate cornflake cakes. Melt chocolate, add cornflakes, chill in fridge.

[Fran1]

My dd is 2 so a little older,

But basically she gets involved in most things she has a corner of the work surface she can sit on whilst i'm preparing food and i let her do a bit.
Such as:

Buttering a piece of bread.
Stirring - anything!! cake mix, whisk eggs, gravy granules(before i've put the hot water in!), if i'm doing salad she gets to put the pieces in bowl and mix up.
Ice and decorate cakes.
Making crispie cakes.
Pouring liquids into bowl.

Basically anything that makes her feel she is being involved, shes even started cracking eggs for me lately!! often ends in disaster.

Failing their being anything she can do, i let take off her socks let her sit with her feet in the sink with tap running and she plays filling up and emptying cups! it amuses her for ages and allows me to get on with dinner in peace.

Hth

[mummytojames]

thanks colditzmum and fran i will try those ideas except putting the tap on because me little angel likes to fill cups up in the bath and empty them all over the floor so it looks like were makind deserts of choclate cornflakes and choc rice crispies for a while time to get the large bibs out i think

[MamaMaiasaura]

hehe.. saw title of thread and was going to try and be humorous but thouight it might be bad taste

[colditzmum]

hehehe...... I tried, but ds doesn't fit in the oven

[MamaMaiasaura]

hehe

[milge]

Pancakes - lots of mess, but quick cooking time, then all the filling/coating in sugar etc. I would suggest coating the entire kitchen and all humans in cling film before beginning.

[Caligula]

Ooh yes, the bit where you have to throw them up in the air works a treat.

In fact, anything with eggs - scrambling, cakes, omelettes - all are miracles.

Bread is a good one - they love bashing it about and then when they leave it and come back later and it's grown, the amazement, the excitement! (And it takes about 10 minutes of involvment by you with three hours proving time where you go off and forget about it and do something else - not taxing at all.)

[mummytojames]

i like the idea of pancakes (god help my kitchen) its something we could makes for his breackfastanybody know the recipe for a thickish micture which he could just sit there and stir while im slowly cooking the pancake
oh and bad jokes i tried fattening him up to put in the oven forgot to stop fattening him though so he dont fit now i guess im going to have to keep him until i get a bigger oven aslong as he dont get any bigger that is

[Pidge]

I've been doing bits and bobs of cooking with my dd since about that age and she LOVES it. She's now 2.5 and the other day she said to me "Mummy I LIKE cooking"!

We do pizzas - I chop up mushrooms, peppers, mozzarella, olives, sweetcorn and she loves laying them out on the base. I've made easy pizza bases too and she loves playing with the dough.

Another favourite is making pastry or crumble because she gets to play with her hands in the flour and butter!

There are recipes for banana muffins and banana bread in Nigella's Domestic Goddess - which are great because even from quite young they can wield a potato masher on some ripe bananas with great gusto! And Nigella's scone recipe makes a fantastic dough for kiddie's to play with.

If you're baking things like muffins - they love putting out the cases for you.

Have fun

[Caligula]

When I made my Christmas cake, she loved licking out the bowl!

[tarantula]

Made scones on Sunday with dd (12 mnths), two different types cheese and sweet ones with raisins. We sat on the floor to do it on a large cloth to contain the mess. She loved it tho she mainly ate the cheeese and the raisins and when I went to put the first batch in the oven she put her hands on the floury board and sent the flour everywhere. She thought it was the funniest thing ever. Hence the reason for the large cloth. going to make buns next week and soda bread.

[slug]

I second the scone idea. There's nothing that appeals to a small person more than the invitation to squeeze butter and flour between their fingers and eat vast quantities of grated cheese.

Lately we've taken up popping our own corn, which has gone down an absolute treat (and is cheap into the bargin). We also frequently make savoury biscuits. Madam especially enjoys painting the tops with egg white and applying in a very careful pattern sesame or caraway seeds.

[tarantula]

Biscuits are brilliant!!!! buy some fancy biscit cutters and you can have the best fun. they you can also use them to make shaped jam tarts too. Kids love it.

[Donbean]

Can you put the recipe for banana buns here please, they sound fab!

[fisil]

I third the scones - we often make them together during that boring lull on a Sunday afternoon before tea time (and scones have to be eaten straight away - yum).

Anything involving rolling out and cutting shapes/dolloping spoonfuls on the baking sheet (and Daddy gets to eat all the graying mishapen ones while declaring ds' culinary talents).

For complete toddler involvement, baked apples. You core out the apples and put them on the baking tray, but then leave the toddler with a bag of raisins/mixed fruit, a sprinkly cinnamon jar and a small jug of orange juice. Toddlers don't even need tellings, they are programmed to fill the holes in the apples with the raisins, sprinkle the cinnamon liberally and pour the OJ everywhere! Then stick them in the oven for an hour or so.

[fisil]

obviously in the last sentence I was referring to the baked apples, not the toddlers.