I love baking with Meg and Clare. I am sure I will love baking with Anne in the future, but for now she mostly sits in her bouncy seat and fusses while we cook. There is a problem. We mostly bake sweets and when we are really in a cooking mood, there is far too much sugar in this house. I have long been wanting to transition them to helping me make dinner but I haven't really known how to do it. After all, it is tough to have a three-year-old chopping vegetables or working by a hot pan. Yes, I am sure there is a Montessori mother out there who will tell me she's been having her kids chop vegetables since they were two, but I am just not there. Meg does occasionally make her own cheese and hummus sandwiches, but that is the best we've done.
Last night for dinner I decided to try something new. A nurse practitioner at our pediatrician's office had recommended making rice balls with kids. She said you just needed to prepare some Japanese sticky rice, add whatever ingredients appeal to your family and form balls. We did just that.
I am not much of a rice maker, but I managed a decent pot of sticky rice. I browned some ground turkey and cooked a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. I put each ingredient in a separate bowl and placed them in the middle of the counter. I then sat a plate in front of each girl and used a cookie dough scooper to put rice on each of their plates. They added the meat and vegetables to the rice and formed it all into a ball. Meg had no problem making the rice balls. Clare had more problems, but that may have been because she didn't like the feel of the rice sticking to her hands (as she is demonstrating in the picture above).
The response to the rice balls was mixed. My husband and I liked them. Clare ate hers and seemed to like them. Meg didn't eat much, but couldn't tell us why she didn't like them. We'll continue our adventures in cooking and see what other dishes we can create as a team.
Last night for dinner I decided to try something new. A nurse practitioner at our pediatrician's office had recommended making rice balls with kids. She said you just needed to prepare some Japanese sticky rice, add whatever ingredients appeal to your family and form balls. We did just that.
I am not much of a rice maker, but I managed a decent pot of sticky rice. I browned some ground turkey and cooked a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. I put each ingredient in a separate bowl and placed them in the middle of the counter. I then sat a plate in front of each girl and used a cookie dough scooper to put rice on each of their plates. They added the meat and vegetables to the rice and formed it all into a ball. Meg had no problem making the rice balls. Clare had more problems, but that may have been because she didn't like the feel of the rice sticking to her hands (as she is demonstrating in the picture above).
The response to the rice balls was mixed. My husband and I liked them. Clare ate hers and seemed to like them. Meg didn't eat much, but couldn't tell us why she didn't like them. We'll continue our adventures in cooking and see what other dishes we can create as a team.
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