New Year Food Resolutions For Kids.

A very Happy New Year to all you lovely readers and your little ones. 

Each year I set out some food resolutions for myself. I will be sharing how I fared last year and my resolutions for 2015 with you pretty soon. But before I do that I wanted to share some food resolutions that my little chefling made this year (With her mum's help ofcourse). 

We are very excited about this and would love all you parents and children to join the two of us.

This year I will help Sara:

• To learn one simple recipe each month: We will master one recipe a month. It could be a simple omelette or putting together her favourite sandwich. A muffin or a salad. At the end of the year she will know 12 recipes. 12 recipes! At the end of twelve years when she goes to college she will know 144 recipes and will not have to eat boring and unhealthy dorm food! Okay clearly I am going a little giddy with all this excitement but the point is that helping our children learn to cook is a very precious gift we as parents NEED to give them. It is a gift for life.

If you'd like to join us: Choose age appropriate recipes for your children,  food that they already enjoy and are familiar with. Depending on their age/interest/ mood they may or may not be able to/ want to cook the entire recipe and that is perfectly alright. Most importantly always be there with them in the kitchen. 

• To volunteer for one dinnertime chore each night: Each time when we sit around the dinner table, enjoy a home cooked meal and talk about our day there is a very impatient kitchen sink in background full of dirty dishes, there is a refrigerator that is begging us for a clean up every few weeks, there are dishes to be put away after a meal and there are placemats and plates that need to be carried to the table before we begin eating. Our children may or may not realize this depending on how much they enter the kitchen. Sara often helps me with little tasks like taking the cutlery to the table or always putting back her plate in the sink. This year, I'd like her to partner us with a chore she chooses to do for the entire family. It could setting up the table or filling up water, basically something that she can do on her own. Helping  mum and dad with these chores make children realize the hardwork that goes behind each meal. It isn't just about cooking. The little ones also feel proud when asked to do "adult" tasks and when we begin to "depend" on them and they share responsibility.

If you'd like to join us: Talk to your child about what she/he would like to do so that they enjoy doing it and not look at it as a "chore".  Let them do different things for the first few days. It will help them figure out what they like doing. But make sure post that they stick to it. This will help them realize that mum and dad depend on them for "this  task" and also teach them about commitment.

• To choose and try one new food from a country of her choice each month: Our kids are so lucky to be growing up in a world where food from other countries is easily accessible to them in whichever part of the globe they are in. A lot of them also have friends from different nationalities and that presents them with a great opportunity to taste what their friends eat at their homes. Some of them are also reading and learning about different countries in their geography or history lessons. Picking up a country of her choice each month, knowing a little more about the food that grows there, the recipes that are made in the kitchens there and trying out the cuisine is what learning and growing is all about. Exposing Sara to new foods through this fun exercise that we will play with the globe kept on her bookshelf will help expand her palate.

If you'd like to join us: Help your child choose a country each month. Read about the vegetables and fruits that are grown there, the national dish/es of the country, the recipes that it has shared with the rest of the world. There is a wealth of information/ recipes available online else just give me shout out and I will be there with Sara to assist you. 

• To start one new food tradition that involves all of us: My parents gifted me some lovely traditions that revolved around the dinner table. Some I still observe for they have become a part of my life and take me back to a very happy place in my head and heart called childhood. After Sara came along we began to have some new ones that we didn't consciously make but became a part of our lives somehow like Friday mornings are for ALWAYS for pancakes. I'd like to start a new food tradition with her this year. It could be anything really, may be homemade pizza night each Thursday that we all make together and eat watching a children's movie. Something to look forward to each weekend and something to look back at once she is a little grown up. 

If you'd like to join us: Do you have any weekend or weeknight traditions revolving around food that you'd like to continue this year and share with us? Any new ideas that you have been already thinking about? 

Sara and I would love you to become part of this. Choose one resolution or two or all four. If we are in this together I can assure you the year will be exciting and we will push each other to do this through the year. 

So how do we do this:

• Share your pictures on the Orange Kitchens facebook page, on instagram or twitter
• Remember to use the hashtag #okfoodresolutionskids when sharing so that we can all get inspired and learn from each other. 
• Share these resolutions with other parents who you think would like to be part of this mini food revolution (feel free to share the image above).

Lets make this happen and raise healthy children who eat well and cook from scratch.

Eat real and stay healthy. 

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask!  Please feel free to share the image in this post.