Play with Your Food

A few weeks ago Hubby, the Kid, and I went to The Carve, a food carving fair and competition in Holland, Michigan. Since then, our daughter has found every excuse to play with her food.

I honestly can’t deny her because I think it’s a great excuse to teach her about food and how to properly use kitchen tools. For about two years, since she was five, I’ve allowed her to help me in the kitchen by cutting vegetables and cooking on the stove. Completely supervised of course. By teaching her proper technique* and making sure the utensils are in good condition, I know that she is less likely to hurt herself – plus she won’t have any bad habits to break later on.

I love that allowing her to decorate and carve food has made her more curious about vegetables and fruits she hasn’t been brave enough to sample. Kids naturally like raw veggies, since cooking them changes the sugars making them more bitter – so playing with raw food is a great way to try new foods without the stress of dinnertime. It allows her to explore the food itself, wonder how they grow, and what makes them each such different colors.

Here are a few pieces of equipment and other items you can use at home to make your own food creations:

• Toothpicks
• paring and filet knives (if you’re not confident with your child’s knife skills, allow them to use a plastic knife – just be sure to let them do it)
• apple corer
• melon-baller
• pepper corns (for eyes of course!)
• peanut butter or humus (as glue for small things)
• lemon juice, salt, or citric acid mixed in water to keep fruits like apples from browning
• bandaids (just in case!)
• seasonal fruits and veggies – mushrooms, melons, strawberries, apples, asparagus, radishes, eggplant, carrots, celery, cucumber, zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, pineapple…
• Brick or molded cheese can also be an easy item to carve
• lots of imagination!

Do you play with your food? What kind of exposure to you allow your children to the kitchen?

*As an Alton Brown fan, I highly recommend watching the episode “Soup’s On” to teach kids how to properly use knives and learn how to play in the kitchen.

Jennifer can also be found at her personal blog, Unearthing this Life, where she blogs about homeschooling, cooking Real Food, and dreams about her homestead.