Fruits and Vegetables

• Ants on a Log works well when cooking with children. Take celery stalks and fill the insides with peanut butter. Then, sprinkle raisins on the peanut butter, making them stick. This recipe is best done either with previously cut celery sticks or with an adult present to use the knife.
  
  Another kid-friendly recipe using vegetables is oven-baked carrot fries. Toss the carrot sticks in a mixture of olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper, and then bake them. As with the Ants on a Log, adult supervision is required for using the oven and for cutting the carrots into sticks.
  
  

Main Dishes

• When choosing a main dish for children to bake, choose one that is not too complicated.
  
  Homemade pizzas are easy to make and will get kids excited about cooking. Start with a ready-made pizza shell, or make your own in advance. With the child, mix up a tomato-based pizza sauce, or try a white pizza by brushing the shell with olive oil. Kids can have a lot of fun spreading the sauce or brushing on the oil with a pastry brush. Sprinkle shredded cheese on the sauce, and add ingredients such as pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, roasted peppers or sliced olives. Let the child decide what goes on the pizza. Sprinkle the pizza with more cheese. Pizzas are a good way to introduce children to herbs and seasonings. Oregano and basil are great on pizzas, as are dried red pepper flakes.
  
  Spaghetti makes a good specialty main dish for children to make as it is easy, but can become more advanced over time. The first time, let kids learn to make the spaghetti noodles and drain them, and then heat commercially-prepared sauce. Later, teach the child to make sauce from scratch, introducing chopping, mincing, browning meats and proper seasoning at the proper times.
  
  

Desserts

• Making and baking desserts is a good way to introduce children to the oven. Making various cookies such as oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and peanut butter can give kids a sense of independence and will help them understand what's inside the foods you buy from the store.
  
  Yogurt parfaits make good foods for kids to make, as well. Use a clear glass and let the kids add layers of foods from bowls, such as blueberries, strawberries or nuts.
  
  Freezer pops are easy for kids to make and teach patience, as the kids will have to wait for the pops to become hard. Allow kids to help determine what should be frozen, such as pureed fruits or juice. Pour the mixture in a regular ice cube tray, cover the tray in foils, and then stick toothpicks into each pop.