The best kids cooking gear and tips for having a great (and safe) time with toddlers in the kitchen

November 7, 6:09 PMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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With the holidays coming up you're going to want to get the kiddos kitchen ready. Even babies and toddlers can have fun cooking and baking their little hearts out.

For example, my youngest daughter Ellerie is only one, but she has been a part of my cooking since she was about three months old. Same with her sister Ava. When they were really tiny I assigned them supervisor roles and I would tell them what we were making and what the ingredients were every step of the way. Now they're old pros in the kitchen. They help me mix batters, add things from measuring cups, even add toppings. I NEVER ever let them touch anything hot or that is going into the stove. They know that's not their area.

Maximize the fun of cooking for kids with these cool cooking gadgets made just for little chefs.

Head Chefs by Fiesta Products ($10, surlatable.com)

These cooking utensils are awesome. They have little suction cup feet and silly heads. All the Little Chefs are made from BPA-free silicone in bright colors.
Both my girls are big helpers with these in hand.

Find out more about Head Chefs at fiestaproducts.com.

Happy Mixing Spoons ($4.99, KidsCentralKitchen.com)

This "Happy" mixing spoon is also a fun cooking utensil for child chefs. It has a longer handle to get your little chefs really into mixing.

Kidscentralkitchen.com also sells some great kid-sized cookie cutters ($5.99-$6.49 for a pack of 4-10 small shapes). They have holiday shapes and everyday shapes too from Noah's Ark to dinosaurs to numbers. 

Customized handmade aprons for children ($34, lilliputans-nyc.com)

Lilliputan's aprons are not only easy to clean and put on and take off, but they're also handmade by a mom designer in NYC. You can get them personalized for an extra $6.

LEGO Cooking Gear (lego.com, $14.99 brick cake mold, $12.99 ice mold)

Get your little builders interested in cooking things with these cool LEGO brick cake molds (see photo left). You can use these cool bricks for making Jello bricks too. This would also be fun for a LEGO fan's birthday cake!
Not all kitchen work involves cooking. Kids can whip up their own healthy popsicles with these neat mini figure LEGO guys (see photo right). You can also just put chocolate chips in them, pop them in the microwave, then stick in the included plastic sticks and make super easy, super cute chocolate lollipops.

Once you've got the gear, you're ready to get into the kitchen.

I asked Deanna Cook, Creative Director for Disney’s FamilyFun magazine and the editor of several family and children’s cookbooks, about getting kids cooking. She echoed my sentiments about starting them early.

"Start young! When my daughter was a baby, I often cooked dinner with her in the backpack so she could enjoy the sounds and smells of the kitchen. As she grew into a toddler, she pulled up a stool and helped with many simple cooking projects," says Deanna.

There are several jobs you can give toddlers so they can do their part in making dinner. Here are Deanna's ideas:

• Toddlers love to rinse veggies, so let them give potatoes or carrots a “bath” in the kitchen sink (with a towel on the edge so water doesn’t spill everywhere!) or in a toy kitchen sink filled with water.
• Toddlers can also help by cutting soft fruits and vegetables with a plastic picnic knife (watermelon pieces, steamed potatoes, fresh mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes).
• Preschoolers can use (clean) kids’ scissors to snip basil and chives or even bread into cubes for croutons.

"Kids are much more inclined to try new foods if they’ve actually touched it, smelled it, played with it, and turned it into a special dish," Deanna added. "The trick for parents is to get into the habit of cooking with your kids and to not worry too much about the mess (toddlers actually like mopping and sweeping). Remember: the more you let them cook, the more they’ll learn, and someday, they’ll actually know how to cook a full dinner for the whole family, like my 11 year old daughter does now."

And, of course, you want to make sure the experience is a safe one. "It’s important to always wash hands, tie back long hair, and be very cautious around the stove and oven. Also: parents should be close by to supervise until kids master a cooking skill," says Deanna.

In the end, remember cooking with young children is about having a good time and learning while you're at it. "Have fun, try new foods as you cook, invent recipes by stirring things into a bowl that you think might taste yummy, enjoy the process of mixing up something to eat — and sharing it with parents, siblings, neighbors, and friends," says Deanna. "After all, the best reward for cooking a recipe is eating it with someone you love!"