Family cooking is often stressful, especially when you’ve had a full day. To make it a little easier for you to cook for your kids, we’ve put together our top 9 tips for family cooking. We hope they’ll help you.

1)  Be Organised and Plan Ahead

Our number 1 tip would be to plan your family meals way ahead of time. It’s not uncommon for parents to plan out what they’ll cook for the following week at the weekend. This means you can plan your weekly shop a little more effectively, by creating a shopping list based on what you know you’ll need. Plus, you’ll most likely save a few quid by doing this too.

2)  Plan around what your Kids Love

Cooking for kids can be stressful and many children are fussy eaters. This is why you should plan meals based on what your children know and love. This way you can cook your children’s favourite dishes and even make some slight variations, greatly increasing their likelihood of enjoying the new ingredients.

We strongly recommend cooking interactive meals for your family, to introduce new foods and flavours to your children’s diet. This is because when a child needs to build, dip or cover their food, they find it fun and exciting. In turn, this makes them more likely to enjoy it.

3)  Make Extras and Preserve them for Later

Every parent has the same issue, there’s not enough time in the day. Because of this, one of the best tips we can suggest is to make more, on those rare occasions you do have a little extra time on your hands. When cooking for children, time is essential; the longer you’re in the kitchen, the longer you’re away from the ones you love.

By cooking a larger batch and placing half in the fridge or freezer, you’re effectively more than halving the time it takes to cook 2 meals. Anyway, why can’t you have leftovers for the next day’s lunch? If your kids enjoyed it at dinner, they’re bound to love it the next day too.

4)  Try New Recipes

If you’re constantly having the same dinners week after week, then of course you’ll start getting sick of family cooking. You may have perfected how to make certain dishes in record time, but odds are a little variety will be welcomed with open arms (and mouths) by your kids. Challenge yourself by trying new recipes, or simply adapt your existing ones to keep your family guessing. If you need some inspiration, feel free to browse our family cooking recipes here.

5)  Remember… ‘Taste is Important’

Everyone, especially children, love tasty dinners. To keep yours tasty and exciting, add new flavours and texture to your dishes. This is why so many parents love using our soups as cooking sauces. Because they’re already full of delicious flavours, you can easily add chopped veg and other delicious ingredients to completely transform the taste of your family’s dinners.

6)  Change your Cooking Methods

There’s so much you can do with cooking to keep things interesting. Instead of always grilling your chicken breast fillets try dicing and frying them. This will provide a different texture and flavour, which always helps when cooking for children. Instead of cooking your veg in the microwave, wrap them in tin foil and roast them. You’ll be surprised by how different they’ll taste, especially when you add in a pinch of seasoning.

7)  Get your Children Involved in Cooking

Many parents find it difficult to get their children to eat new foods, especially when they’re infants. An easy way to get your children eating a variety of foods is to involve them in the cooking.

When you cook with children, they feel more comfortable with the foods you use, making it easy for them to enjoy eating them. You won’t achieve the desired outcome if new foods just appear on their plate. If your children are very young, we recommend you measure everything out, and cut all the ingredients beforehand. This will reduce the risks they may face in the kitchen.

8)  Don’t Stress About the Mess

Cooking with kids will get messy! There’s no way around it. If you want your kitchen to remain immaculate the whole time, you’ll find yourself getting stressed out pretty quickly. Enjoy the process of family cooking and try not to get worried by the mess. That’s not to say you shouldn’t wash as you go and wipe the sides every time there’s a spillage. Just keep in mind that the mess is a part of cooking for children.

9)  HAVE FUN!

This is our favourite tip: HAVE FUN! Cooking is the culinary art, and when is art not meant to be enjoyable? If you have to cook alone, put on some lively music and have a little dance while you cook. Or sing along to your favourite album. These are both easy ways to have a bit of fun while you cook your family dinners.

Hopefully these tips will help make cooking for your family a little easier. Check out our Campbell’s Soup recipes that include some great, easy family meal ideas. Or you can get in touch with us on Facebook and share your tips on cooking for kids.