My 3.5 year old twins and I are out and about all the time and like most toddlers, they LOVE to snack! I never leave the house without all their favorites: berries, cheese, carrots, yogurt, crackers, cut up fruit, raisins, pasta, meats, etc., etc. If I'm really pressed for time and we are heading to the park, I've been known to stop at McDonald's Subway for a quick lunch.
My twins are great eaters but we are definitely stuck in a rut. I pick up the usual stuff when I'm at Costco (where else can you buy loads of snacks for two hungry toddlers?!). I usually throw in a few premade meals for dinner and if it's frozen, I'm all over it! My kids aren't too picky and they love to try new things, but I just don't always have the time or energy creativity to try something new at home. I go for fast and easy (and healthy!) and that usually means a rotisserie chicken, rice and broccoli. They are also getting to the age where they really want to help in the kitchen and are interested in how food is prepared. They want to stir, pour and chop. Since I'm not much of a cook, the only exposure to cooking they've had is the occasional cookie decorating or stirring of pancake mix. So my goal is to work some new foods into our somewhat bland dinner menu and find ways to involve the kids in preparing our family meals in hopes that it will also encourage them to try new and healthy foods.
Recently my twins and I attended a Funfoodle class on Friday co-founded and taught by our very own Toni Bloom: current Gemini Crickets Co-President and mom to 3 boys: a 4 year old and 2 year old twins. I was looking forward to the class all week and I was anxious to see if and how my kids would participate. The food of the day was wontons! Toni did a wonderful lesson on how wontons are made and the different ways they can be folded. She used pictures of wontons and of course the children got to hold an uncooked wonton and describe how it looked, felt and tasted. Toni had carefully prepared ahead of time several different wontons for the children (and parents!) to touch, smell, lick and taste. The children bit into a wonton with cream cheese, soy sauce and onion. They tasted a veggie wonton stuffed with cabbage and tofu. The children absolutely loved it! Toni talked about each ingredient and encouraged the children to describe what they were tasting. She passed around a head of cabbage (my two took off a leaf and started munching away - something I've never seen them do before!) and she passed around the tofu. Last but not least, the sweet wonton - banana and chocolate chip. Yummy! They were given the ingredients to then create their own banana and chocolate chip wonton. My 3.5 year olds were carefully slicing bananas, adding chocolate chips (and putting a few in their mouths along the way when they thought no one was looking) and then experimenting with the different folds - samosa style (triangle), ravioli style and envelope style.
The kids really enjoyed themselves and we all learned how to cook with some new and simple ingredients - something I never would have thought to do on my own. Today wontons, tomorrow ratatouille!
It's been one week since we've been to the class and I went out and bought Canola oil (no, we didn't even have that in the house) so we could cook up our own banana chocolate chip wontons. The kids loved showing Dad how they made them all by themselves. We plan on going to the Farmer's Market near our house to look for new and interesting ingredients to cook with this weekend. You can even find a container of tofu in the frig which the kids love to cut up (we are working on getting them to actually eat it). I have my two little helpers in the kitchen now and who knows - I might even crack open a cookbook soon!
For current Gemini Crickets club members, check out our giveaway opportunity from Funfoodle! Click here.
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Original Post to Mad About Multiples.
Visit www.funfoodle.com for upcoming classes and information on how to register for a unique and fun food experience with your children!
