7 Quick, Easy, Fun, and Healthy Recipes to Cook With Your Kids

Getting kids involved in the kitchen is totally worth the extra effort (and clean-up time). Cooking is not only a basic life skill—it also encourages kids to try new flavors and ingredients, helps boost their creativity, and gives you an opportunity to teach them about healthy habits.

Get started with these seven easy recipes kids will love to help make—and eat.

Cereal Milk Breakfast Popsicles

The best part of a bowl of cereal is the sweet, colorful milk left over after the cornflakes are long gone. In fact, we love it so much that it inspired a new frozen treat recipe—popsicles made with “cereal milk,” cereal, and Greek-style yogurt. The resulting pops equally well as a complete breakfast or post-dinner dessert.

Easy Yogurt Pizza Dough

Who doesn’t love pizza night? It’s even more fun when the whole family gets involved in making a homemade pie. Start with this four-ingredient crust dough that comes together in less than half an hour (no yeast required!). Kids will enjoy helping out with the kneading part—hey, why not let them take some of the work off your plate.

Paleo Chicken Nuggets

Making a batch of these better-for-you chicken nuggets with the kids is an opportunity for a teachable moment about healthy eating. Unlike the frozen kind, these are totally gluten-free and made without any artificial ingredients. But they’re just as tasty dipped in ketchup!

Baked Eggs in Tomato Cups

It’s a simple, yet ingenious cooking hack: using hollowed-out tomatoes as vessels for baked eggs. Let your little chefs help scoop out the tomatoes, or even crack the eggs into them (if you’re feeling brave). The dish is the perfect portion for a kid’s lunch, too.

Almond Butter and Jam Cracker Sandwiches

These chocolatey, nutty, jam-filled cracker sandwiches are perfect for getting children involved in snack time. Put someone in charge of the almond butter, someone else in charge of the jam, and take charge of melting the chocolate yourself. You’ll have a whole batch of these bite-sized treats ready in no time.

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Between fruit, protein, and chocolate, these easy frozen treats have it all. The recipe is easy enough for toddlers to help out with, with a twist that will intrigue older kids, too: “magic” chocolate shell. Melting chocolate with coconut oil creates a sauce that hardens the instant it touches something cold—in this case, frozen banana slices. It’s definitely a “wow” moment!

Pretzel Fudge

Making fudge the traditional way requires both a candy thermometer and tons of patience. Not to mention it’s packed with refined sugar—not exactly healthy. Our simplified version made from almond butter, cacao powder, coconut oil, and honey is much less fussy to make, and shows kids that dessert doesn’t need a ton of sugar to taste good.

Photo credit: Paul Delmont