Cooking With Children

9 Delicious (and Safe) Recipes for Cooking with Your Grandkids

Cooking is a meaningful family pastime for many, but one that can get more difficult with age. Shaky hands or an unreliable memory can turn some pleasant time in the kitchen into a minor tragedy.

Cuts, burns, and the threat of leaving the oven on are probably the main safety concerns for both seniors and kids when it comes to cooking. Fortunately, we’ve found a few easy recipe ideas that help alleviate those concerns so you can cook safely with your grandkids.

Knife-Free Recipes

These recipes can be made entirely without the use of knives. If you want to branch beyond these and try some old favorite recipes without bothering with a knife, you can often find pre-chopped vegetables at the grocery store (both frozen and fresh).

1. Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Pasta

This recipe from Martha Stewart herself lets you make a simple but delicious Italian pasta dish without having to worry about cutting yourself in the prep stage.

Healthy Bonus Points? Just a couple – This dish is mostly pretty healthy, but it does involve a lot of cheese and pasta.

2. Tuna-Noodle Casserole

This is another easy one that can make a full meal for you and the kids without needing to chop any veggies.

Healthy Bonus Points? Just a couple – It’s got a creamy sauce, but also packs in some veggies to balance it out.

3. White Chocolate Cherry Bark

Time for dessert! This recipe combines pretzels, white chocolate, dried cherries and almonds – not much to complain about there (as long as you can make the recipe without eating all the ingredients during prep).

Healthy Bonus Points? Nope – It’s dessert. What do you expect?

Oven-Free Recipes

With these recipes, you don’t have to worry about burns and there’s no risk of accidentally leaving the oven or stove on.

4. Salmon Ceviche

Combine a bunch of tasty, healthy ingredients in a bowl and enjoy! No stove top or oven use required. (Careful with the jalapeno though, if the kids don’t like spicy foods.)

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! – The ingredients mostly consist of fruit, veggies, and salmon. There’s nothing for the doctor to disapprove of here.

5. Gazpacho with Goat Cheese

A blender takes care of much of the prep for this one and gazpacho is served cold, so you don’t have to worry about burning yourself while making it.

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! This recipe’s heavy on the vegetables and light on any of those ingredients you know you should eat less of.

6. Hummus Wraps with Avocado and Cheddar Cheese

This one’s an easy and delicious lunch idea for you and the kids. You can just use the adobo sauce without any of the chipotle peppers if you want to avoid spiciness.

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! The ingredients are all pretty health friendly. You can go light on the cheese and sour cream (or skip them entirely) if you want to make them even healthier.

Knife and Oven-Free Recipes

The best of both worlds! These recipes take pretty much all of the risk out of cooking.

7. Peanut Butter Hummus

A great choice for some healthy snacking with the grandkids, this is another recipe where the blender does most of the work and no heating’s required.

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! The dip is plenty healthy and goes well with veggies.

8. Cream of Avocado Soup

Avocados offer a ton of health benefits, along with the added (and important) benefit of being yummy. This recipe can be prepared with nothing sharper than a butter knife and a blender.

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! There’s nothing on the ingredient list here to give cause for concern.

9. White Bean Dip

For our last recipe, we have another delectable snacking dip, which can be made by simply gathering some ingredients and throwing them into a blender.

Healthy Bonus Points? Yes! – Once again, you can snack at your leisure without worrying about any negative health effects, especially if you eat the dip with vegetables instead of chips.

Some of these won’t mean much time in the kitchen with your grandkids, but they’ll still teach them some of the valuable basics of cooking that will come in handy as they grow older. And spending time together enjoying the food you’ve prepared is always at least as nice as the time spent making it.

Kristen Hicks

Kristen Hicks is an Austin-based copywriter and lifelong student with an ongoing curiousity to learn and explore new things. She turns that interest to researching and exploring subjects helpful to seniors and their families for SeniorAdvisor.com.