Recipes kids can make themselves

When I was a kid I liked experimenting with food, primarily checking what things taste like frozen.

Now I have my own kids I’m figuratively regurgitating some of my favorite childhood snacks for them as well as watching them discover their own recipes. Kids are a lot more capable than we give them credit for, so let them play! explore! and! create! in the kitchen.

Here are some of my favorite childhood recipes that kids can prepare themselves!

Frozen bread with trans-fats spread

This is simply delicious. The coldness of the bread may lead to a fatty coating on the roof of the mouth, which will dissipate over the course of the child’s life.

Ingredients:

One piece of frozen bread (preferably square)

Margarine or any other trans-fats spread

Method:

1. Spread trans-fats spread on frozen bread.
2. Cut off crusts and eat.
3. Eat the rest of the bread.

Age-ripened chocolate

Not all kids will have the patience and self-control required to make this recipe, and sadly science has shown this means they will be failures in every area of their lives.

Ingredients:

Chocolates received as a gift

Time

Method:

1. Receive chocolates and store at room temperature in bedroom.
2. After many months the chocolate will develop a white bloom and a dusty texture, and is ready to eat.
3. Nibble small portions daily feeling anxious about diminishing supplies.
4. Congratulate yourself. The ability to delay gratification to the point that the experience is no longer enjoyable is a great predictor of future success!

Bread ball

There are so many great ways to eat bread, but sometimes the simplest is the best! This recipe has none of your fancy condiments or cooking methods, but in my experience it makes a big impression on visitors, who might try to get you to stop doing it.

Ingredients:

Slice of white bread

Method:

1. Remove crusts from bread.
2. Kneed remaining bread in the palm of your hand and shape into a ball.
3. Enjoy!

Frozen peas

When I was starving but tea was nearly ready Mum would let me have some frozen peas to keep me going. To this day when I hear the clatter of frozen peas on plastic, I start to salivate knowing that dinner must be coming soon.

Ingredients:

Frozen peas

Method:

1. Pour frozen peas into a plastic bowl. Careful! They will come out in clumps.
2. Try to poke excess peas back through hole into plastic bag.
3. Kick fallen frozen peas under the fridge.
4. Eat quickly before the peas defrost and become boring normal peas.

Vegemite on Weetbix

I often had this as a first snack after a bout of gastro. Weetbix are dry and plain, and the Vegemite revolting, so it made a lot of sense.

Ingredients

Weetbix

Vegemite

Method:

1. Spread vegemite on dry Weetbix.
2. Eat while singing True Blue.
3. Be sick again.