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Who’s a fan of cooking together with kids? We know you are. It’s one of the fun activities to have emerged recently. You and your kids dolled up in aprons, armed with pots and sieves and flour, ready to knead and bake. You would agree there are few better ways to spend time with your children, making sweet and heartwarming memories.
If you’re not a fan of using this method to spend time with your kiddos, well, we understand. Even without being in the kitchen, kids just have a penchant for making a mess. This can be off-putting to anyone.
We don’t want you – or anyone – to miss out on this fun-filled in-house picnic. So, we’ve come up with tips for you to reduce the grease and stains after cooking with the kids and keep your kitchen sparkling.
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Have A Plan
Yes. This step should be the first thing on your kitchen-with-the-kids agenda. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just something simple. It is important you make a plan so that you can prepare everything you would need in the kitchen ahead of time.
You don’t want your kids in the kitchen with you already, and you’re just sorting out the ingredients, tools, and every other thing that’d be needed. Doing this will be counterproductive because as you’re doing this, the kids will be unoccupied, and they’d find a way to occupy themselves. You don’t want that.
So, before you begin, plan. Make sure everything is ready, from the tools down to everyone’s task. Let them understand what you expect of them. With everyone focused on their duty, you’ve less monitoring and controlling to do. And the experience can both be fun and productive.
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Protect The Work Surface
To reduce stains and the stress of cleaning up afterward, do not forget to cover the work surface. You can use either kitchen paper, butter paper, wax paper, or even an old towel. These materials can prevent stains of all sorts, such as oil splashes and buttery fingers or batter.
When you’re done cooking, you can easily remove and dispose of it in the trash can.
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Instill The “Clean-As-You-Go” Habit In Your Kids
While cooking in the kitchen is a real bonding activity, it’s also a training exercise for your kids. Use the experience to teach them to clean up as they do each activity. Instead of dropping a used measuring spoon or cup into the sink, train them to wash it. Make them understand why doing it this way is better.
As they pick up on these lessons and apply them, you find yourself having less cleaning to do; and wanting to have your kids in the kitchen with you all the time.
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Keep A Kitchen Cleaner Handy
Maybe this should have appeared first, but it doesn’t matter. If you decide to invite your kids to cook with you in your kitchen, you must accept the reality that, even if you take all the precautions, there’d be at least a tile or slab that will need cleaning. Taking precautions will reduce the stress of cleaning massively. But it’d not eliminate it.
Now, that dirty little slab will require a reliable and effective kitchen cleaner. You wouldn’t want to find yourself out of the kitchen cleanser when there are multiple oil stains on the kitchen floor.
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Make Trash Containers Available
Trash cans collect trash. You’d be making a lot of trash in the kitchen as you cook. It only follows that you have a trash can available before you start. You can have more than one trash can for easy disposal in the appropriate bins.
You can designate each trash can for collecting a solid piece of food, wrappers, and liquids. Place a label on them so your kids can easily identify what goes into each can.
When you apply these easy tips, you’d see cooking in the kitchen with your kids can be stain-free and less stressful. Even when there’s a bit of cleaning up to do, you can involve them and ensure they have the right sets of tools to work with.
