Easy cooking to do with DS(2)

[kittlesticks]

My DS is nearly 2 and a half and I'm keen to get him having fun in the kitchen especially seeing as the colder weather will soon be here. Does anyone have any easy toddler participation recipes? He has about a ten min attention span!

Sandwiches

Rice Krispie cakes - he can stir them into the chocolate and put into cases.
Fridge cake - he can bash up the biscuits and mix the ingredients.
Smoothies - he can chop bananas and strawberries and press the mixer button.
Biscuits he can cut out/ decorate.
Decorating cupcakes

We've done things like fairy cakes and rice Krispie cakes a few times. He likes emptying the ingredients into the bowl, fairly easy and mega cheap it's not an issue when it turns into a disaster.

Putting the topping on pizza.
Helping to cut out scones.
Putting the eyes & buttons on gingerbread/pastry men.

Both of mine really weirdly enjoyed peeling carrots at that age. Ikea do a teeny peeler that works!

I did baking and making pizza and stuff with them as well, but peeling carrots was always the most requested activity. We had carrots in everything for a while (food for stews in Winter, anyway!)

There's a gruffalo cookbook that's also very popular in our house

Dd is always in the kitchen with me, standing on a chair whilst I’m cooking. I bought her a set of nylon knives - you can get them on amazon for around £8. They’re great because she can’t chop her fingers off, but they encourage good knife practice from a young age, and she slices up cucumber/melon/cheese/tomatoes etc.

I get her to add stuff to pots or pans before they’re hot. Make cakes, whip eggs and pancake batter. Basically if we’re at home she is cooking with me. I am a chef by trade though so instilling a love of food and an understanding of it is important to me.

Making chicken nuggets with cornflakes! realfood.tesco.com/recipes/cornflake-chicken-nuggets.html He could do the dipping/coating of the chicken pieces.

Mini quiches - once you’ve rolled the pastry, he could use the pastry cutter to cut out circles of pastry and put them in the muffin tins. www.asdagoodliving.co.uk/food/recipes/mini-quiches

Cheese straws - he could help to twist the pastry and sprinkle on the cheese www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2413/quick-cheese-straws

Meatballs www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2451637/cooking-with-kids-spaghetti-and-meatballs-with-hid He could roll the meatball mix into walnut-sized balls and place them on a plate. I bet he’d also enjoy squeezing all the sausage meat out of the sausage skins into a bowl!

Pastry or dough can be rolled out or rolled into sausage shapes.

Shortbread you can toll out as a sausage and then cut up and flatten.

Amazing! Thank you so much everyone. I am going to find that gruffalo cook book and add it to the Xmas list.
I will try all of these. He's done scones and Kristie cakes but hadn't thought of much else.

You can make home made play dough too. So cooking nad a toy (that's edible).

Thinking back to my own childhood, there were a few little jobs that were mine, such as making the mint sauce to go with roast lamb, beating eggs for omelettes & cakes, beating butter and sugar together for cakes or butter cream, chopping eggs in a cup for egg mayonnaise, drying lettuce in a spinner, putting jam in jam tarts, and my favourite..sifting flour.

Omelettes (lunch for you both)
Scones, sweet and cheese (great snacks)
Flapjacks (ditto)

Thank you all