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Here are a few of my go-to recipes for kids to cook (with a little help!) when you’re in need of fun toddler activities to increase their exposure to a variety of foods, keep them busy, AND make foods to share at the next meal or snack.
Recipes for Kids to Cook
I love to take advantage of the energy that little kids have to do things themselves and model what they see us doing. Which is why it can be really fun to get the kids in the kitchen cooking.
With little kids, of course, “cooking” will look a lot different than it does for older kids, but there are plenty of activities and recipe steps that they can master even as toddlers.
TIP: All of these ideas are meant to be done with an adult since little kids need help reading recipes and getting ready to make the food.
Tips for Cooking with Toddlers
I put together some of my best tips for cooking with toddlers—and perfect kitchen activities to start out with—which you can find here.
My best tips are to keep things simple to start in terms of the recipes you choose, isolate just one or two steps until you get the hang of having a little sidekick, and let them do as much of the job themselves so they can really get into it and have fun.
Oh and also: Try your best not to stress too much about the mess…or at least know that it’s a normal part of the process.
Cooking with Kids: Recipes to Try!
These recipes are some of the ones I turn to regularly to make with my kids. They can’t always make the entire recipe on their own, but that’s why I’m right there with them to help, explain, and assist as needed.
Hummus
My kids love using a potato masher for everything they can, and we love it to mash up chickpeas for hummus. (Just warm them first to make it a little easier.)
You can use regular plain yogurt, though I like the consistency that Greek yogurt yields a bit better.
Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
The kids can help stir the batter, and scoop out the batter. Easy and fun to snack on raisins as you go.
These soft cookies are a perfect afternoon snack (pair them with milk!) or dessert. (Recipe updated September 2020 to reduce the flour slightly to ensure the batter isn’t too dry.) These cookies are soft baked and very tender!
Easy Sugar Cookies
Rolling and stamping out dough is a classic way to cook with kids and this recipe is egg-free (so no worries there!) and easy to work with. If you prefer, you can also make the cookies yourself and just let the kids decorate them.
This makes a small batch of lightly sweet cookies. Double it to make more. If at any point the dough seems too sticky, pop it into the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm up a bit. Or dust your parchment paper and cookie cutters with flour.
Cut-Out Cookies
This are one of our favorite cookies to make for the holidays, though you can use any cookie cutter you like!
You can use any cookie cutters you like to make these Christmas Cookies for kids—the timing Is for 2-3 inch ones so scale up or down if yours are bigger or smaller. And feel free to make half of the dough at a time (and stash the other Into the fridge for a future day).
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Adding a little cocoa powder to this batter makes subtly flavored cookies that are still easy to make.
Like a cross between an animal cracker and a sugar cookie, these less sweet cookies are easy to make with the kids. The amount of cookies you can make from one batch will depend on how large your cookie cutters are.
Easy Cheese Crackers
This dough mixes up in the food processor, so the kids can push the button, and is really easy to roll out. It’s a fun activity to do if you want to share the crackers at snack time!
Try to get them about 1/4-inch thick so they bake uniformly. If your milk, cheese, and butter are cold the dough should be easy to roll out between parchment paper. (If the dough seems too sticky, stick it into the fridge for 5-10 minutes.)
Master Trail Mix Recipe
Technically, this isn’t cooking, but letting the kids assemble their own snack mix is a fun activity to do together.
Mix and match ingredients to customize this mix for your kids.
Rainbow Fruit Wands
Work together to wash and cut fruit, then push onto paper lollipop sticks to turn them into fruit wands for snack time.
You can use any fruit that the kids like in these, though I most often do it with fruit that’s lingering in the fridge…it always helps that fruit suddenly become more fun! You can make as few or as many as you like—adjust the quantity of fruit as needed.
No-Bake Cashew Cookies
No-bake cookies are fun to roll into balls. And the little hands will get messy, but that’s just part of the fun!
Graham Cracker Peanut Butter Balls
Think S’mores without the open fire and you get the flavor of these no-bake cookies!
These should chill for 30 minutes before serving to allow the oats to soften up a bit. (You can eat them immediately, they’ll just be a little chewy.)
Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
With an easy batter that’s also free from eggs, these healthy cookies are fun to make together as a make-ahead breakfast cookie or a healthy cookie for snack time.
Animal Crackers
With just a few simple ingredients and a crazy easy method, this Animal Crackers recipe is a favorite kids snack to make and share. You can make them big or mini in whichever shapes you prefer!
If you use larger cookie cutters, you may need to bake on the longer end of the baking time—and mini cookie cutters on the shorter end. This makes a relatively small batch, so double it if you want extras to last all week!
Snack Dinners
Let the kids practice chopping veggies (find my best kids cooking tools here) to assemble their own snack plate dinner.
You can do a big family-style platter or individual ones for the kids depending on your preference. Add anything else that sounds appealing and know that the nutrition info will vary according to what you use.
Greek Pita Pizzas
Let each kiddo spread hummus on a pita, then top with their desired toppings.
Serve these assembled as shown, or with the toasted pita bread alongside the hummus and toppings depending on how your child will prefer it.
Pizza Rolls
Have the kids help stretch out the dough and add the toppings to make these fun roll-ups.
Be sure to grease your pan well and roll the dough up fairly tightly around the fillings for best results. (But it’s okay if they don’t look perfect when they go into the pan!)
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
We love playing with this dough—rolling it out, making fun shapes—and then sharing some with milk for snack.
Like a cross between an animal cracker and a sugar cookie, these less sweet cookies are easy to make with the kids. The amount of cookies you can make from one batch will depend on how large your cookie cutters are.
Overnight Oats
This recipe stirs up in a bowl, so even the youngest toddlers can help make this for breakfast.
You can easily double (or triple!) the recipe to make more servings. It uses a 1 to 1 ratio of yogurt to applesauce so you can easily scale it up. Mix these up the night before you plan to serve them.
Smoothies
A fun way to encourage kids to like smoothies and to know what goes in them is to get them involved in making them. Have the kids choose which color smoothie they want to make, then work together to add the ingredients and watch them disappear into the smoothie!
Learn to customize yummy smoothies for your toddler by starting with one simple recipe, then adjusting based on which fruit and veggies you’d like to use.
Yogurt Parfait
Let the kids pick their fillings and toppings to make this a fun snacktivity.
Try serving these parfaits for a fun breakfast or snack. Adjust the amount as needed for your child.
Easy Banana Bread
A potato masher makes quick work of mashing the bananas in this favorite quick bread.
Be sure to use super ripe bananas—the more black and brown spots, the better the flavor and sweetness will be!—for the best results here. Adapted from The Salty Marshmallow
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Do you have a favorite recipe for kids to cook that you love? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
This post was first published November 2019.
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