The other half is watching my daughter revel in the task of “helping” mommy in the kitchen. The surest way to free-up some time to prepare dinner is to let your toddler play along. Here’s my Mommy M-O:
1) Set adorable little sous-chef up in a safe (read: inaccessible to knives, stovetop, oven, etc) area of the kitchen
2) Dress him/her up in an apron and give them the safest (and yet important-looking) utensils and equipment. My failsafe is a big plastic mixing bowl and a wire wisk.
3) Give them 2 (easy to clean) ingredients and instruct them to mix both together. Note: Use your head on this one. The more you give, the more is wasteful and likely to end up on the floor, so be sparing with the ingredients. I personally like oatmeal and raisins or shredded cheese and breadcrumbs. Cleaning is just an easy-swipe and it’s more than ok if daughter-dear sneaks a snack in between strokes.
4) Continuously check on your little chef, encouraging them along. Suggesting they add more ingredients, complimenting how well they are mixing and most importantly, announcing when they are ready to include their ingredients in the main course.
Whether you really include their part or not, they will have a huge sense of accomplishment that they were part of making dinner. Beyond freeing up your time to cook and occupying your toddler at the same time, the biggest bonus is that now, they may actually eat dinner! Who knew?