10 Easy Recipes for Montessori Toddlers in the Kitchen

Toddlers are enormously capable when we place trust in them.

I started involving my toddler in light cooking and baking activities when she started showing an interest in working with her hands (around 10 months). Soon after she could stand unassisted and could turn to get off high places on her own ( around 14 months), she joined me in meal preparation at the kitchen table top. There were lots of spills, battered vegetables and food-accidentally-dropped-into-the-sink at the start, but I knew it was important for scaffolding skills. Foundations like water pouring had to be built before she could handle filling to a designated level and doing a mixture transfer into the saucepan.

Now at almost 2, she is a natural in the kitchen. I love working side-by-side with her in the kitchen and spending quality time together making family meals.

Miss 22 months now understands 'the cycle of activity' - retrieving ingredients from the refrigerator, taking them to the kitchen counter, washing them, cutting them (select fruits and vegetables) and then returning the unused portions to the refrigerator. Having her own set of kitchen tools and knowing how to help in meal preparation has enabled Miss 22 months to think ahead and take initiative in tasks (e.g. when I open the fridge she would ask which ingredients I need and retrieve them.) I'm proud that we have a collaborative and peaceful working environment in the kitchen.

Initial Concerns

I must admit initially I had concerns about involving my toddler in kitchen activities. I was afraid I might put her in harm's way by letting her near sharp knives, hot stoves and breakable utensils. I worried that my kitchen would never be in order again. I also felt reluctant to work at my toddler's pace.

After drawing boundaries such as 'stay-away zones' and her getting better at using the age-appropriate tools I curated for her use, we co-exist happily in the kitchen. I would even go as far to say that we work as a team. I'm not as fast in churning out meals, but I wouldn't trade efficiency for the wonderful bonding and chemistry my toddler and I have together in the kitchen.

Getting Started

These are useful Montessori resources that helped me better utilise my toddler's help in the kitchen. They share age-appropriate activities for children to get involved in the kitchen and equipped me with knowledge on the toddler-friendly tools to get for my toddler:

• How We Montessori has great ideas for what children can assist us with in a kitchen helper. She also has a great thought article on offering toddler real experiences with real food, as these experiences cannot be acquired through cutting wooden fruit toys.
• The Montessori Notebook provides great inspiration for kid-friendly recipes based on age.
• The Kavanaugh Report shares a great reference article about progression of knives for different ages.
• Urban Mom Tales provides reviews of kitchen helpers in the market. Happy Grey Lucky provides a IKEA hack guide on DIYing your own toddler learning tower.

You might be interested to know which kitchen helper I chose to use in the end. Because of my small apartment space, I actually didn't buy or DIY a kitchen helper. I improvised by turning around an existing foldable adult chair we have at home so that its back is lined up against the kitchen counter.

Miss 22 months climbs onto the chair on her own and is able to stand on it while working with her hands. Honestly, it's not the most stable or fall-preventing stool out there (so Miss 22 months uses it with close supervision), but pragmatically it does the job in our tiny house.

As for her knife, I started out with letting Miss 22 months use plastic birthday cake knives but found them ineffective for real vegetable cutting. By coincidence, she does very well with the IKEA DOFTSAM stainless steel dinner knife from our flatware set. The edge isn't sharp, yet it can cut through soft fruits and vegetables. I've been told that there is a plastic version, the IKEA KALAS plastic cutlery set, designed for children but Miss 22 months is very comfortable with her DOFTSAM one so we aren't thinking of switching it out.

10 Easy Recipes for Involving Montessori Toddlers in the Kitchen!

The key was to make healthy, nutritious food together that wasn't overly complex or time-consuming. I categorised the recipes in the order of:

• low-effort (great for starting out with first-time toddlers in the kitchen),
• medium level of effort (if you and your toddler would like a little more of a challenge) and
• high-effort (save them for special occasions)

so you could take your pick based on the time and resources you have on hand.

These are the 10 recipes I have tried thus far with Miss 22 months:

Low-effort:

1. Baked Spinach Chips

Miss 22 months loves these baked spinach chips and could polish off an entire batch on her own (the baby spinach leaves get really small and curled up after baking).

Steps to making baked spinach chips:

• Preheat your oven to 350 fahrenheit.
• Place pre-washed baby spinach leaves from salad kits into a mixing bowl. Add olive/avocado oil and toss the spinach leaves until they are evenly coated with oil. You can engage your toddler in this tossing step (though Miss 22 months hated the slicky texture of oil.)

Note: If you're not using pre-washed baby spinach, wash and de-stem spinach before use then lay them out to dry. Your toddler can help with the washing and laying on a drying rack.

• Place the oiled spinach leaves onto a baking mat or parchment paper on a baking tray. Demonstrate and your toddler can be a great help here! You would only need to step in to help spread out the leaves if they become overlapped. Overlapped leaves will turn out less crispy.
• Bake in the oven for 9-10 minutes, or until crispy.
• Let the spinach chips cool down before serving your toddler.

Brooklyn Farm Girl has a version with spices and sea salt, for extra oomph and taste!

Tip: Prior to this spinach chip making activity, you might like to introduce to your toddler a book about vegetables to reinforce their learning and association of spinach as a vegetable.

In terms of storage, here are some tips to keep them crispy.

• Allow the spinach chips to cool to room temperature before putting them in an airtight container. They should be good for 2-3 days.
• You can add some uncooked rice followed by parchment paper to the bottom of the storage container to absorb any excess moisture.
• To crisp up stored chips if they’ve gone soft, reheat in the oven at a low temperature setting for around 15 minutes.

My baked spinach recipe post is also featured on Bump Baby and You UK.

2. Baked Kale Chips

Baked kale chips are even crunchier and crispier than spinach chips. Miss 22 months loves them as much!

Steps to making baked kale chips:

• Preheat oven to 275 fahrenheit.
• Trim tough stem away from the kale leaves, then wash and dry the leaves. I use a clean towel to pat the leaves dry. Washing, drying and patting dry are steps your toddler can help with.
• Shred the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Also a toddler-appropriate step!
• Toss the shredded kale leaves into a mixing bowl with a little avocado/oilve oil.
• Lay bite sized kale leaves onto a baking mat or parchment paper over a baking tray.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until crispy.
• Let the kale chips cool down before serving to your toddler.

Miss 22 months had a bit of difficulty tearing up the kale leaves into smaller pieces initially but became better at shredding after some practice. She loves the tossing part. I can imagine this is more real-life and fun than Melissa and Doug's toy salad kit.

Science of Mom has a recipe version using spices and vinegar, if you like your kale chips more flavorful.

Note: Kale leaves are a little harder than spinach leaves to crisp up, so here are some tips that I hope would help:

• If you don't own a salad spinner, dry the leaves on a highly absorbent clean towel. Check that the towel isn’t shedding lint and micro fibers. I laid the kale leaves out to dry in a cool area of the house away from the windows for 3-4 hours. If you’re short on time, I read that people resort to the hairdryer or putting the leaves into the oven at very low heat (same temperature as proving yeast doughs.)
• When tossing the kale leaves I used just a tiny bit of oil to coat the leaves evenly so they’ll cook well, but not too much to make the leaves wet and soggy that’ll make it hard for them to crisp up.
• When laying the kale leaves on the baking mat, I ensured there wasn’t any overlap in the leaves. Bunched kale leaves get steamed up in the oven causing them to be soggy.

Baking retains the nutritional value of kale, making kale chips a fantastic nutrient-packed, low-calorie snack.

They’re great for supporting heart health, eyesight and boosting the immune system since they contain vitamin C, K and E plus carotenoids which the body does not make and has to be ingested through the food we eat.

Apart from serving the kale chips as they are, here are some interesting ways to incorporate them into meals.

• Put the kale chips on top of rice, noodles or oat porridge (much like the Japanese furukake)

• Drizzle lemon juice on the kale chips for a refreshing citrusy taste to combat any natural bitterness of the kale
• Sprinkle toasted sesame seed on the kale chips for extra oomph and all-rounded flavor

Kale chips crumble very easily so be sure to give your little one a bib to catch the flakes. Enjoy!

In terms of storage, here are some tips to keep them crispy.

• Allow the kale chips to cool to room temperature before putting them in an airtight container. They should be good for 2-3 days.
• You can add some uncooked rice followed by parchment paper to the bottom of the storage container to absorb any excess moisture.
• To crisp up stored chips if they’ve gone soft, reheat in the oven at a low temperature setting for around 15 minutes.

3. Vegetable Quiches

I love making quiches because I can pack many vegetables into these compact bakes.

Steps to making vegetable quiches:

• Preheat oven to 350 fahrenheit.
• Dice vegetables in your fridge. I used cauliflower, broccoli and peppers. Your toddler can help with this step!
• Stir a large egg into the chopped vegetables in a mixing bowl. If you involve your toddler in this step, just be sure to have them wash their hands because raw egg carries salmonella risk.

• Scoop mixture into mini muffin tray, filling up 3/4 of each muffin compartment. Also a step for toddlers to help with!

• Bake at 350 fahrenheit for 18 minutes or until cooked through.

• Cool the vegetable quiches down before serving your toddler.

Personally, I find that these mini quiches are great to bring along in lunch boxes for outdoor meals. They hold up well for hours and are filling.

In terms of storage, you can place unfinished vegetable quiches in food storage bags in the refrigerator for consumption over the next 2-3 days. To keep them for longer periods, freeze, thaw and heat up before consumption.

4. 3-Ingredient Banana Wheat Pancake

These easy pancakes require just 3 common pantry ingredients, contain no sugar, and are quick to make. Banana and wheat make a great taste combination.

I started feeding Miss 22 months these pancakes after 4-5 months of eating solids. I'm glad she can now make them (in addition to eating) with me!

Ingredients for 3-ingredient banana wheat pancakes:

• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• Half a ripe banana (with dark spots on banana skin)
• 1 large egg

Steps to making 3-ingredient banana wheat pancakes:

• Mash the banana and mix these ingredients together with a fork. Your toddler can help with the mashing and mixing!

• Scoop desired amount of mixture onto hot non-stick pan (mid-high heat).

• When one side is cooked, gently flip over to the other side. With practice and knowledge of not touching the hot pan, your toddler can help with the transfer of pancake onto pan and flipping. Have your toddler wear mittens if you're worried about burns.

• Serve when cooled. You can add a dash of honey or fruits when serving

These pancakes make a great snack outdoors. They hold up really well and can be eaten at room temperature.

With excess pancakes, you could put them into a food storage bag and refrigerate to be eaten within the next few days. To last longer periods, freeze, thaw and heat up the pancakes before serving.

5. Fruity Oatmeal

Oatmeal is one of the superfoods that is excellent for starting a toddler’s day. They are rich in carbs and fiber, and also higher in fat and proteins than most other grains. Oats have become a breakfast staple for Miss 22 months, since I first introduced them at 6 months.

When I first started preparing baby oatmeal, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the types of oats available on the supermarket shelves. It was only after doing some research that I started to understand why there's a market need for variety.

When oats are harvested, they come with a tough, inedible hull. Processing is required to remove the hull. Additional methods like steam-rolling and cutting yield the differently sized and shaped oat groats.

Types of oats to choose from:

- Oat Groats: Oat groats take a super long time to cook (close to 1 hour) and have to be cooked in much more water than the usual oats (three parts water to one part groats). They have a very chewy texture.

- Steel Cut Oats: Steel cut oats are groats cut into 2 or 3 pieces. They generally have a chunky texture. These also take longer to cook than the usual oats (around 30 mins) but you don't have to add as much water as when you cook oat groats (2 parts water to 1 part steel cut oats).

- Rolled/Old-fashioned Oats: These are oat groats that are steamed then passed through rollers. Regular rolled oats take about 15 mins to cook, while the flaked type (also known as "Quick Oats") cook in as little as 5 mins. Regular rolled oats require 2 parts water to 1 part oats.

- Instant Oats: Instant oats are cut and rolled thinly. They're easiest and fastest to cook. They require just boiling water to be added.

I use 100% rolled oats for my oatmeal recipes and ensure that's the only ingredient on the packaging. This is because many oat products have unnecessary additives and flavorings added.

Steps to making fruity oatmeal:

• Pour 3/4 cup of filtered water into a saucepan and bring to boil. Your toddler would love to help with the water pouring!
• Add 1/2 rolled oats and stir well. Another favorite step for toddlers!
• Peel and core apples with toddler, before cubing the apple. Adult supervision and help are required.
• Add cubed apples to oat mixture in the saucepan and reduce the heat to a simmer. When mixture is thick and apple cubes are soft and mashable, it's ready. Total cook time tends to be less than 10 minutes.
• Serve when cooled.

Here are other fruits and vegetables you can pair with oats:

• Fruits: Mashed bananas, cubed strawberries, chopped red cherries and even watermelon cubes!
• Vegetables: Diced carrots, broccoli or cauliflower florets, cubed tomatoes

Medium level of effort:

6. 2-ingredient Chinese Wheat Noodles

Ever since Miss 22 months showed a keen interest in trying our "adult fare" when we dine out, we have introduced her to a gastronomic selection of international cuisines. That was when we discovered that she loves noodles, of any kind.

The way she eats noodles makes me think she is flossing her teeth. Oh my heart!

I decided to learn to make Chinese noodles from scratch using a healthier ingredient - wheat flour, and incorporate noodles regularly into her meals. I wanted to involve Miss 22 months in the noodle making process to appreciate how food is made and to work on her fine motor skills.

I consulted my sister-in-law, who consulted her mom, for a simple and basic Chinese noodle recipe. She told me a pared-down Chinese noodle recipe would only require 2 ingredients - flour and water. For a richer taste, eggs and salt could be added but I decided to stick to the basic ingredients.

Ingredients and tools needed for making 2-ingredient Chinese wheat noodles:

• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water
• Mixing bowl
• Rolling pin
• Knife or dough scraper

Steps to making 2-ingredient Chinese wheat noodles:

• Place 1 cup of whole wheat flour in the mixing bowl and add 1/4 cup of water. Your toddler would love to help with the water pouring!
• Use hands to knead mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until a soft dough is formed. It is better to have the dough on the drier than wetter side. (Keep an eye on enthusiastic water-pouring toddlers!)

• Sprinkle flour on the table of your work station and work the dough. Keep kneading until the dough does not cling to fingers. When you reach that consistency, knead into a ball. Kneading warms and stretches gluten strands, creating a chewy and elastic dough. Dough kneading makes a great fine motor workout for children!

• Place the ball back into the mixing bowl and cover with a damp clean towel to rest the dough for 20 mins in a moist environment without drying it out. The resting will help the gluten in the dough to relax.
• Roll the ball with the rolling pin to make it as flat and thin as you can go because noodles expand in size when cooked. Sprinkle both sides with more flour to prevent sticking and fold a few times to create layers. Again, a toddler-doable step!

• Use a dough scraper or sharp knife to cut into thin strips. This is an adult step.

• Gently hold up the strands and untangle them into long individual strands. Advise toddlers to use 'gentle hands' for this step.

Tip: Have a damp cloth on hand to wipe floury little hands after the noodle-making activity.

To cook, I directly place the noodles into boiling soup base for 5 mins. Taste to ensure it's soft and cooked before serving. Note that the excess flour in the noodles may thicken the soup. If you prefer watery soups, you may like to cook your noodles separately in boiling water before adding the soup.

I love how these homemade, healthy and rustic-looking Chinese wheat noodles turned out. I derived a huge sense of satisfaction watching Miss 22 months slurp them up.

To store excess noodles, place them into an airtight food storage bag for refrigeration for consumption over the next 2-3 days. To keep them for a longer time, freeze, thaw and cook before consumption.

This activity is also a way of passing down family traditions, instilling cultural appreciation and ensuring Miss 22 months remains connected to her Singaporean Chinese heritage whilst living in the States.

7. Baked Beet Chips

We made these baked beet chips last summer. During summer, we enjoy checking out neighboring farms to pick vegetables (here's our experience at Bailey Family Farm in Snohomish).

It's nice to involve my toddler in the entire farm-to-table experience.

Steps to making baked beet chips:

• Pick the beets from the vegetable farm (if given the opportunity) or supermarket with your toddler. It's fascinating to show them how the vegetable originally looks and how it'll be processed before ending up at the dining table.
• Preheat oven at 350 fahrenheit.
• Wash and cut off the leafy stems of the beets. Peel off the skin of the beets. My toddler struggled with the peeling, though I believe older children may have an easier time with the peeler.
• Continue making peels of the beets. You can use a mandolin too.
• Tear the beet peels into small pieces not exceeding 5cm by 5cm. Through trial and error I've found that this size crisps best. Beets shrink a lot when baked and the resultant beet chips are small but just the right size for little toddler hands.
• Transfer the beet peels to a wire rack to dry as you complete peeling the entire beet. Your little one will enjoy doing the transfer.

• Season the beets with a little sea salt and pepper or herbs if you like. Your little one will enjoy the sprinkling and tossing.
• Lay the beet peels carefully on the baking mat. Ensure there's no overlap so they can crisp up easily.
• Bake at 350 fahrenheit for 24 minutes or when the edges curl up and the colour of beet becomes fainter. (I do a taste test to ensure it's crispy enough before taking the entire batch out of the oven.)

Note: You might find that your toddler has red stained hands from handling all those beet peels. Don't fret! Beet juice can be rinsed off their hands with running water. If their fingers are heavily stained, try soaking them in some lemon juice.

And in case your little one still mouths objects, raw beets are safe for consumption. That makes this activity a taste-safe one.

There is a sweet aftertaste to baked beet chips which makes it more appealing than other types of vegetable chips. Personally I find beet chips more palatable than beets cooked in any other way because of its rather strong and distinctive sweet taste.

8. 2-ingredient Almond Cookies

A taste-safe recipe using blanched nut flour, unlike the usual cookie dough with raw eggs that carry salmonella risk. This cookie recipe uses simple and nutritious ingredients, is very quick to make, and has become my go-to cookie recipe whenever Miss 22 months craves a sweet treat.

Note: I use almond flour made from blanched and skinned almonds. Almond meal is not the same as almond flour for it has a grainier texture.

Recipe for 2-ingredient almond cookies:

I used Power Hungry's 3-Ingredient Almond Cookies. with a few modifications. For ingredients I used 1.5 cup of blanched almond flour (yes, not almond meal) and 3 tablespoons of honey (instead of coconut sugar in the original recipe) with 2 tablespoons of water.

Note: I found 15 minutes the ideal baking time for the cookies to turn a beautiful golden brown on the underside.

How I involved Miss 22 months in the almond cookie making process:

Miss 22 months enjoyed helping me to knead the cookie dough, roll it and press dough balls into flattened cookies on the baking mat. You can also supply your toddler with a cookie cutter to make fun cookie shapes!

It was fascinating for me to see Miss 22 months tearing small bits of dough to press between her fingers and thoughtfully examine its texture. She would pass the bits of dough to me and look surprised that I could stick them back into the dough.

I love these almond cookies for their mildly sweet flavour and chewy yet soft-on-the-inside texture. They're also firm and easy for little toddler hands to hold without crumbling into a million pieces.

For storage, the cookies stay fresh in a ziploc snack bag and airtight food container at room temperature for a few days. I serve them at room temperature to Miss 22 months. On colder days I do like popping them into the oven at low heat setting to warm up the cookies before serving them, so they have a nice toasty smell.

To keep for longer, freeze, thaw and heat up before serving.

High-effort:

9. Honey Cake

I'm always on the lookout for new, healthy snacks to bake and taste with Miss 22 months and I came across this Rustic Honey Cake by Taste of Home. This recipe is perfect because the only sweetener used is a natural one - honey.

Modifications I made to the honey cake recipe:

• I replaced all-purpose flour in the recipe with organic whole wheat flour to increase the nutritional value of the cake.
• The recipe uses yoghurt because the baker's child couldn't take milk. I didn't stock yoghurt at home and since my little one doesn't have milk sensitivity issues, I used cashew nut milk. I would assume any other type of milk, dairy or dairy-free, works too.

Involving Miss 22 months in the cake-making process:

• I introduced honey to Miss 22 months, and talked about how bees made the honey. She helped to squeeze and pour honey out from the honey bottle.

• As raw eggs carry salmonella risk, I had Miss 22 months stir the mixtures without eggs - first of honey and softened butter, then with the inclusion of flour and milk. This means I mixed up the order of baking, which turned out fine (it was just harder to stir in the eggs once the dough has formed, more elbow grease required!)

• After eating as much cake as she wanted, Miss 22 months helped me to place the remaining slices into a jar for storage.
• Optionally, you can decorate the cake with your toddler by adding fruits and nuts.

Note: Honey is not for babies younger than 1 year old, due to Infant Botulism risk. When in doubt, seek professional advice from your doctor.

10. Chocolate Banana Dessert Pizza

A pizza is fun to make with little ones as they get to put the spread on and pick their toppings. There is a lot of creativity, autonomy and decision-making at work!

Recipe for pizza crust:

I used this easy pizza crust recipe from All Recipes. It doesn't require waiting time for the dough to rise and required just 5 minutes of resting.

Recipe for homemade chocolate ganache spread:

I used a 1:1 ratio of heavy cream to 100% cocoa bar (broken into small pieces).

• Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until the first bubbles appear. Be careful not to let the cream boil as it could burn the chocolate.
• Pour heated heavy cream over cocoa bar pieces in a mixing bowl.
• Stir the melting chocolate and cream until a smooth consistency is reached. Your toddler can help with the stirring, with mittens on!

How to involve toddlers in the pizza-making:

• Get toddlers to help with kneading and rolling of the dough.
• Guide them to cut up toppings, in this case soft ripe bananas.
• Provide a spoon or spatula for toddler to spread the ganache over the pizza.

Benefits of Involving Toddlers in Food-making

• Develop fine motor skills critical for later skills like writing and use of scissors.
• Early culinary involvement builds a lifelong interest in cooking and nutrition.
• Being part of food preparation helps children take pride in meals and for picky eaters, encourage them to try new foods.

I hope your little ones will enjoy the food-making journey with you and become great kitchen help!

To follow our play adventures, check out @miraculove_sg (Instagram), save our pins or join A Montessori-inspired Toddler Activity A Day Facebook Group.