Cooking and Baking


At first, I hesitated to feature cooking and baking as an ECQ activity for children because it is harder than usual to source ingredients these days. But then, I realized that part of the fun of cooking is discovering what one could come up with using what is available.  For example, canned sardines make good toppings for pan de sal pizza: just shred the sardines using a fork, mix with the tomato sauce with which they were canned, spread it on open-faced slices of pan de sal, add grated cheese, and heat in a toaster oven. It's very easy to make and children can help with tasks like shredding the sardines and spreading the mixture on the pan de sal.

The same recipe can be made using other kinds of bread.

Even very young children can be handy in the kitchen. Under their parents' supervision, they can make simple appetizers like skewers of fruit pieces and sliced cheese.  Or crackers topped with cream cheese and cold cut slices, maybe an olive or pickle slice or two.

These are just ideas. The limit is your imagination and that of your children. Here are some resources to get you started thinking:

https://pintsizedtreasures.com/14-easy-meals-kids-can-make/
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/recipes-for-kids/cooking-with-kids/recipes-kids-can-make
https://www.delish.com/cooking/g499/kids-cooking-recipes/

Like I wrote earlier, not all the ingredients called for by these recipes may be available, but there is no reason you can come up with something similar or even better using what you have.

Please be sure to supervise your children in the kitchen.  Please teach them  how to safely handle knives, stoves, matches, ovens, and other potentially dangerous items, as well as hygienic practices like washing their hands before handling food.

It is never too early to learn how to cook, and very few essential life skills are as fun to learn. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Partial Solar Eclipse on June 21, 2020

Image
First of all, my apologies for the long absence from this blog.  With the shift from ECQ to GCQ in Metro Manila, I have been busy with my day job and with other concerns.  I imagine that the kids will soon be resuming school (in whatever form "school" will take in the current situation), and keeping them busy will be less of a concern by then.  But every now and then, I will still be posting about fun educational activities for kids of all ages to try.  I enjoyed accompanying all of you these past months, and I hope that in one way or another I have been able to help you all ensure that learning and fun does not end, even during lockdown. One of the activities I featured in this blog is learning about outer space .  This coming Sunday, June 21, 2020, there will be a partial solar eclipse at 3:01 PM (Philippine time).  Observing this natural phenomenon will be a valuable opportunity for you and your children to learn about outer space.  Weather permitting, the Manila St
Read more

Projects with Pressed Leaves and Flowers

Image
If you have a garden or a backyard or even just a few indoor plants, you and your children can gather a few leaves.  There are so many activities you can do with them. Just from among the activities that were featured in this blog, you can make leaf rubbings , leaf prints , or negative leaf prints using the splatter painting technique . Then, you can also press them and make projects with them. Just insert them between the pages of an old telephone directory, put some heavy books or other heavy items on top of the directory for weight, and leave the leaves alone for a few days.  When they are already dry, you can use them to decorate cards, book marks, or other items.  Or you can simply make pretty pictures with them. Another thing you can do with pressed leaves is to make an herbarium. "Herbarium" is just a fancy name for a leaf scrap book.  Just mount  the leaves on one sheet of paper each and write descriptions of each plant, and then bind the sheets.  You can al
Read more

Silhouette Art

Image
(Photo credit:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_silhouette.svg) Silhouette art looks simple but dramatic.  And you can easily make silhouette profiles of your friends and family members.   You will first need a sheet of paper that is big enough to accommodate the side-view shadow of your subject: manila paper, construction paper, the backside of old gift wrappers, etc.  Tape the paper on a wall, light a lamp or a flashlight, and have your subject sit between the paper and the lamp or flashlight.  Station the subject so that the light casts the shadow of his or her profile on the paper.  While your subject sits, trace the outline of her shadow with a pen or crayon. Cut out the profile.  You can either trace it on a white sheet of paper and then color it a dark color, or trace it on good-quality, dark-colored paper, cut that out, and mount it on a sheet of white paper.  You can add any decorations you want (like borders), then frame or hang your work.   Yo
Read more