Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver once wanted all parents to teach their kids about food. Rightly so, it is rather essential that kids not only understand the nutritional value of food but also get involved in the art of cooking, baking, roasting and grilling. Cooking helps kids to appreciate food and develop a healthy food culture. What’s best, cooking has long term benefits that can stay with them for a lifetime!

Assorted fruit tart: This is a great recipe to introduce your young ones to the wonders of baking. This recipe is easy and takes just about an hour to get made. You could utilize the prep time and help your kids make the pastry dough by pulsing flour, sugar, egg yolk and some butter in a food processor. Use a tart tin and place the dough on it before baking. You could let your kids do the baking and assist them when required. For the filling, make the kiddos whip cream, vanilla and icing sugar in a bowl and spread the mixture atop the tart. Next, let your kids flex their creative muscles and decorate assorted berries and tasty fruits to top up the tart!

Cheesy spinach pizza: Get your kids to bake this healthy spinach cheese pizza and see how even the picky eaters relish their own creations. To make the recipe exciting, instead of a regular sized pizza base, use small circular cut pita breads. Get the whole-wheat pita variant to make the dish even more healthy. Mix chopped and thawed spinach with cheese and add it as toping. Let your kids bake the pizza and serve immediately!

Thumb print cookies: The next best thing to bake while the young ones are in the kitchen is cookies! Cookies are loved by kids and when they get to bake them on their own, they are likely to enjoy them even more! Cookies are hassle-free as the blender does most of the work. You could decide the flavor you want and pulse flour, butter and maybe nuts into a food processor. Once the batter is ready, get your kids to knead it. Kids would love to play around with the dough, you could also get them to make balls out of the dough. Once uniform balls are ready, flatten the dough and make your kiddos put thumbprints at the center of the cookie. You could then bake the cookie and fill in the dent with chocolate, jelly, nuts or any topping of your choice.