As I was cleaning out my cookbooks and recipe binders this summer, I came across so many sweet memories of my children in the kitchen and I realized wow, my kids really liked being in the kitchen!
From an early age they were all eager to “help” and were proud to get the jobs of washing fruit, peeling veggies, stirring pots, adding ingredients, and setting the table. Let me just gush a second and say my kids were super cute in the kitchen! I remember that my first daughter at age 2 loved nothing more than to scrub things with the vegetable scrubber while standing on a chair at the sink (Do kids still stand on chairs?). She was so happy doing her scrubbing and I was tickled to have a cute little assistant!
As they would each get a little older, they enjoyed taking more ownership in the meal and liked having their own cookbooks. Above are a few of our favorites! There are lots of recipes in these cookbooks that we still use.
They also collected loose recipes, each in their own style. My oldest daughter went through a cookbook-making stage where she put together cookbooks for us for gifts. We used to grocery shop at Publix, and she would always bring home their recipe cards from the produce area. She eventually used her collection to make me a Mother’s Day cookbook! She hand-wrote the recipe from the back of the card onto notebook paper and then taped the picture to the paper. A labor of love writing all those out by hand! So cute.
She also made Joel one for Father’s Day the year we bought him a panini machine. We looked up recipes on Food Network’s website and printed them in card size for her to cut out and assemble in an album.
We no longer have the panini maker, but I won’t ever let go of the cookbook.
My second daughter loved to bake–and still prefers it to cooking! We joke that she better marry a man with a sweet tooth! She was always bringing me recipes from her activity books and little girl magazines.
This collection was from her My Little Pony and Hello Kitty era! Yes, we made all of these and more. The Pink Punch and Peppermint Pie became her specialties for holiday gatherings. Cute. cute. cute.
I love her doodles and notes she added….”Tank you!”
And boys can enjoy the kitchen too!
My son used to get Focus on the Family’s Club House magazines which always had a kid-friendly recipe in every issue. So, he’d cut them out each month and bring them to me. So sweet. Not the best cutting skills at that age, but I’ve always left them with those jagged edges—and I won’t ever change them!
And then there were some favorite travel recipes they all enjoyed like these “Sleepy’s Quick Energy Nuggets” that we used to make when we’d go to Disney World. Ahh, memories.
I also found this “Trip Trail Mix” and texted a pic to my daughter one day to see if she remembered it. She said, “Wow, that was a lot of fiber!” Lol, yes, it was!
I love how she spelled “sandwich bagys” below.
I think this last recipe sums up our years of kitchen memories…..
MIX–And have fun!
And we did just that! Now I need a tissue.
Tomorrow I’ll be back with part 2 of “Kids in the Kitchen”!
Oh Alinda this is amazing!!! Jane has JUST this week taken a fascination with “washing dishes” – moving our kitchen chair (!!) to the sink and scrubbing those dishes with lots and lots of water (going everywhere of course 😉). We of course have just praised and praised her for helping haha Pierce called today from work and heard Jane in the background saying, “Daddy! I’m washing dishes!!” to which we both laughed and he commented that our water bill was going to be ginormous this month haha! I love this post so much though. So many amazing and sweet memories in those pictures! And your daughter’s homemade recipe books!! How precious!! I am making a note to bookmark these as Jane starts helping more and more in the kitchen! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Tabitha, that is soooo precious!!! I can just imagine your happy little Jane washing all those dishes so enthusiastically! You and Pierce have many sweet years of kitchen memories ahead. The messes you’re having to clean up now from her “help” will pay off one day when you can just ask her to go wash the dishes or cook a meal and she can do it all herself! She’ll be trying to take over your kitchen before you know it, ha! Good job, Mama!
I love seeing the children’s cookbooks. It takes me back to when mine were growing up. Such sweet memories. Thank you for sharing your cooking memories with us.
Aww, I know! Weren’t those just the sweetest days. And now you have another generation growing!! I saw that precious little grandson of yours Sunday. He’s adorable!!!
I don’t think my stomach could handle that trail mix 😂that is intense and I’m bloated just reading the ingredient list. I also like how I didn’t specify what kind of chocolate, just a cup of it. Could be m&ms, could be a bar, the options are endless
And imagine how bad it would be eating it while actually on a trail!! 😅 🥴 Maybe we should cut back on some of those high-fiber ingredients to add more chocolate! 😋🍫