Baking with a Grinch-Holiday introduction to the kitchen with children.

I love to cook and bake but I can be a Grinch in the kitchen. It was instilled in me at a young age to keep my hands clean and kitchen free of clutter. Do I listen to the second half of that….I try. With the not so new achievement of food allergies keeping my kitchen and hands clean and avoiding cross contamination is a BIG DEAL.

My oldest is 12 and she has been in and out of the kitchen since she was 2. Before two she was banging pots and pans with whisks and spoons and being my unofficial taste taster.

When introducing my kids to the kitchen. I go for simple and their age-appropriate tasks. I found that simple is best. It also helps with my nerves. But before my allergies I always enjoyed Pillsbury Shaped Sugar cookies.

Her first experience with helping in the kitchen was Scary Halloween Shaped Sugar Cookies they had Mike and Sully on the package from Monsters University (back in 2014).

We read the package, preheated the oven, washed our hands and prepped the sheet pan. Impatiently, waited for the cookies to bake and enjoyed our cookies.

It broke down reading directions, hand washing, and having a positive moment in the kitchen. Repetitive positive moments help build confidence in the kitchen. These steps in building confidence in the kitchen lead to more complicated recipes and adventures in the kitchen. You can read my adventure in French cooking and tackling Coq au Vin here. While my older children wanted to taste test, it was still a positive moment in the kitchen.

While we weren’t teaching a new skill to the children today we enjoyed baking these Pillsbury Grinch Cookies and completing the activity on the back of the box.