CT FM 011: Getting Your Kids Cooking Noodles – The Big Experiment

CT FM 011:

Getting Your Kids Cooking Noodles – The Big Experiment!

Brought To You By: RecipeThis.com

Introduction Welcome to our eleventh Podcast from CT FM. For our 11th Podcast I wanted to talk about getting your kids in the kitchen and actually cooking.

It is all about a little experiment I did with my 14 year old son Kyle and how it transformed his interest in cooking for himself. It all happened by accident and as a result my son can not only cook noodles but he can actually make them without supervision and it now becomes the first meal he can properly do himself!

So how did this start……well I am all for quitting processed foods and the more processed foods I quit, the better I feel. But sometimes with the boys it feels like I am fighting a battle that I am losing.

I had reduced the processed foods by a lot and even weaned the boys off baked beans and loads of other things they love. Now I had got them down to just the shop bought mayonnaise because I just couldn’t get them off it.

So when Dominic came home with Pot Noodles and Kyle fell in love with them I knew I was screwed. I mean who can compete with a noodle that just needs hot water adding to. But when he couldn’t get Pot Noodles we had soon moved onto cheaper options and what I started to explain to Kyle is that in the time to took him to heat up his processed noodles he could make his own.

And this was the start of an experiment of not only weaning him off a new processed food he had fallen in love with but him getting an urge to actually cook them himself.

What we did was split it into three stages so that he could learn and watch what I did.

This included: 1) Me competing against him and showing him I could make real ones faster than his processed ones.

2) Him copying my recipe and doing them himself.

3) Him making changes to the recipe to suit his food loves and hates.

The end result is that not only has he got excellent cooking skills from learning and then doing a practical but he can then be independent and have something he can cook himself. #1 – The Cooking Competition It all started with my traditional noodles dish that I do when I am in a rush. It only takes me 20 minutes to make them and they are so simple and easy to put together.

He was heating up some shop bought flavoured noodles so all he needed to do was heat up and add the mixing sauce.

Though I should have known it would end in disaster as he is very competitive and he is the kind of person that you NEVER EVER play Monopoly with. He undercooked his noodles to finish quicker, left the kitchen like it had been bombed, turned my wok temperature down and tried to hide my noodles.

But it was still great fun and it got him thinking more about food.

While he was doing that he was learning because he was watching me more than his noodles and he learnt without realising it.

Here is how I made the Noodles: Ingredients: 1 Chicken Breast (cut in to strips)

1 Small Courgette (sliced) 1Tsp Garlic Puree 1Tsp Ginger Puree 1 Medium Onion (peeled and diced) 1Tbsp Olive Oil 2Tsp Worcester Sauce 1Tbsp Soy Sauce 1Tbsp Chinese Five Spice 1Tsp Coriander Salt & Pepper Method: 1. In a pasta pot or a large saucepan place your noodles covering them with warm water. Place them on a medium heat with the lid on and wait for them to boil.

2. While the noodles are on the stove get out your wok and place it on a medium heat. Add to it the onion, garlic, ginger and olive oil until the onions change in colour and are half cooked.

3. Add your diced meat and vegetables and cook for a further 5 minutes or until your meat is cooked in the centre. We used a courgette and some small chicken pieces as these cook quickly and are easy to cook with.

4. Add the seasonings, mix and cook for a further 5 minutes.

5. When your noodles are steaming mix them with your wooden spoon and cook them for a further 3 minutes.

6. When done drain the water from your noodles with a sieve and add to your wok. Mix well and serve.

The classic recipe I use you can get by downloading the transcript at RecipeThis.com. You could also print it off for your kids to get them started in the kitchen.

#2 – Copying My Recipe & Doing It Himself

Next on the agenda was for him to copy my recipe to the letter and do it himself.

I was sat in the kitchen in the corner watching him and was rather shocked by how good at it he had become. You would have thought that he had been cooking noodles for years by the way he was acting.

It kind of felt like I had my own junior masterchef!

And even better than when we had the competition he actually cleaned up after himself. I thought I was having a funny turn when I saw him do that!!!!

This brings us to this Podcasts Sponsor: For Podcast 11 of CT FM we wanted to bring to your attention to a graphic we have made specifically for this experiment. We wanted to do something different and show how with a little creativity you suddenly have a mixture of recipe ideas for one 20 minute lot of noodles. This is especially good for teaching your kids how to make noodles.

You can access it via our transcript at recipethis.com.

#3 – Changing It & Being Creative So he has watched me, he has copied me and now it is his turn. I asked him to change three things in the recipe and what he came up with was:  Broccoli instead of courgette  Red peppers added to the mix  Oyster sauce instead of Worcester for a more Chinese takeaway kind of flavour.

I am not surprised about this change as he always wants broccoli on his stir fry and it’s the first thing he asks for when we go out for a stir fry.

Secondly the first stir fry I ever made him was with some oyster sauce, so it just shows that he pays attention to what I put in his food.

With what he has learnt and what he can do, it has proved to me that kids have imagination and instead of teaching them to cook one dish I have in fact taught him how to make several different dishes.

He could also do a similar thing for pasta and before you know it he will know enough to be able to cook for himself. Or for his mum (well that will be a surprise).

Round Up! Thanks for joining us in our Podcast and we look forward to sharing more of our cooking tips with you in the future.

Links & Resources Mentioned In This Podcast  Pot Noodle  CTFM Podcasts

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Thanks again for listening and best of luck with your cooking.

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