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Many thanks to Kia for today’s installment of What’s Cooking with YOUR Kids.  Be sure to stop by her blog for great articles on prenatal baby care.

I am expecting my first but have 8 nieces and 1 nephew that range from 20 years old to 18 months old.  I used to watch the older ones when they were babies/toddler/young kids because I lived closer to them than I do now.  One of my sisters did her best by them but they had horrible eating habits.  When they would visit me for the weekend they tried to “own” the kitchen and would only eat giant olives and giant pasta shells for dinner as toddlers.

I am very proud that I took out my manual pasta roller and dyed the dough with purple beet juice then made a bright orange squash or sweet potato filling that they would put on the pasta for us to make ravioli.  They started adding the filling when they were about 2, and would also play with rolling the pasta with the hand crank.  This first cooking adventure was a gateway with empowering them in the kitchen so that they looked forward to our cooking parties when they would come over.  We would fancy up the experiences with sparkling juice, aprons I bought for them, and picnics where they could choose the location.  It seemed easy to get them to eat produce they chose from the farmers market or grocery if they got to cook with it (or at least get them to try a vegetable).  Another thing they loved was putting fruit in vegetable salads.

They were bad in still not eating well when with their mother but their kitchen experience was different with her.  They are young adults now and live one state away from me so I see them a few times a year now.  We still cook together with our latest interest on making ice cream and vegetarian cooking (mostly Indian food).

Do you have any fun stories and photos to share about cooking with YOUR kids?  I hope to share at least one reader story every week and can’t wait to hear about your adventures in the kitchen with your kids. Here is what you need to do.

p.s.  Pass it on!