When it comes to their food, kids like to feel in control. Giving children, especially picky eaters, choices about their meals allows them to feel good about what they are eating and have fun and get creative.
With these simple “build your own recipes” for kids, you can make meal time fun and help your kids make healthy food choices. And since we know cooking with kids can get extra messy, we have some quick clean up tips for you too.
The Kids are in Charge with these “Build Your Own Recipes”
The goal of these recipe ideas is to let your kids choose the ingredients to design their own meal. There are a myriad of variations for you to offer up for your children and you certainly don’t have to (or want to) offer them all the first time. Choose ingredients that would work well together and offer enough options to let your kids have some choices, but not so many that they are overwhelmed.
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Build Your Own Wrap
From peanut butter and jam to cream cheese and avocados, wraps regularly replace sandwiches in our home. Wraps are versatile, fast, and easy to make — and whether you are creating a full meal salad wrap for yourself, or a quick apple and cheese wrap for your kids, wraps can save the day!
The variations are endless, but here are a few of our favorite starter wrap ideas…
BASE IDEAS:
Cream cheese (Plain, Herb and Garlic, Strawberry, etc.)
Peanut butter (or other nut butters)
Salad Dressing or Dip
Butter or Margarine
TOPPING IDEAS:
Seeds, Nuts, or Dried Fruits
Fresh Fruit or Vegetables
Cheese, Meat, or Eggs
For More Ideas, including…
- Build Your Own Smoothie
- Build Your Own Fruit Crisp
- Quick Clean Up Tips
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Written by Susan and Janice of 5 Minutes for Mom
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Getting kids involved in food preparation is a great way to encourage healthy eating habits.
I think it’s important for the children to be hands on with helping prepare food. It makes them feel good and also helps build life skills.
Love this idea. Would love to see what the kids put together on their own!
This is great for those picky eaters. Let them make their own dish to eat!
this sounds like fun most kids would love this their always wanting to cook or help you cook
nice idea – got to do with my kids!
I love this creativity; it’s so nice.
What a wonderful way to encourage kids to be creative in the kitchen! My son loved helping me cook when he was younger, he was really good at it too 🙂
I don’t have any little ones but these are great ideas!
Awesome. This is a great way to get your kids involved in nutrition. Teaching independence in the kitchen. Learning how to prepare food will stay with them into adulthood.
I like it. Great way to get them involved with preparing food and having fun doing it.
Great ideas! I don’t have children yet but this is a fun idea when my nephew comes over.
I think it’s important for children to learn about food and cooking at an early age. This is a great start!
These are so fun, I should do something like this with my daughter 🙂 she loves to help me cook, I bet she would love this too.
I love these recipe ideas for kids! I’ve always believed children need to learn cooking skills- it’s an important life skill that will save them money on their health & take-out. It’s also a great bonding opportunity. My sons and I have more memories around the kitchen table thn I can name!
Twitter:@mslatina
Blog: http://LatinaOnaMission.com
love these recipes, it looks fun and so good
Great post and ideas! I’m definitely going to be doing this with my boys as they enjoy helping in the kitchen and I love them eating healthy meals!
These are some great recipes. My kids love helping me in the kitchen.
Definitely something I will have to look further into. It only makes sense that if you build recipes with kids in mind, and allow them to help out, they are more likely to eat and enjoy them.
These are GREAT ideas! My oldest is a very picky eater but she loves to “help” in the kitchen so I’m going to try these with her! Thanks so much for sharing.
We do this all the time – it’s almost guaranteed to get my kids to eat way more than if I just served the meal. Here is probably our favorite version – Mexican Night: http://behealthybehappywellness.com/2013/09/my-last-minute-mexican-meal/
Yummm, so many great ideas!
Wonderful idea. Perhaps involving them in prep will encourage them to eat more nutritious food.
Building your own wrap is such a great idea! My girls would love it.
Have you ever tried adding greek yogurt in your wrap recipe? Greek yogurt is strained so it has less moisture (hello, creamy!). I use it instead of sour cream in a dip and in wraps. My kids love it.
Such a good idea. I often find that when I present my kids with a variety of healthy options they pick out and eat something. If I just give them one healthy thing, it often gets refused! Would be great to try with pancakes too (the flat variety rather than the breakfast kind.)