Ever try to cook with a toddler’s “help”? Here’s my recipe for fabulous guacamole. (Be sure to give yourself at least twenty minutes.)
- Collect the ingredients from their various hiding places in your kitchen: 3 avocados, 1 medium tomato, ½ purple onion, kosher salt, and cilantro (along with a cutting board, knife, spoon, bowl, and smashing instruments).
- Pick up the avocado your toddler throws on the floor as he yells, “make guaco.”
- Half and pit the 2 avocados.
- Let your toddler hold the slimy pit and explain the nature of seeds and growth.
- Have him throw the pits away as you know there’s no way they would be undisturbed enough to grow in your house. Wonder when this might be a possibility.
- Scoop out the avocado into the bowl and instruct your son to “smash.”
- Watch with delight as your toddler sings, “smash, smash, smash,” while running in place and flinging bits of avocado all over your walls.
- Add “wiping down the walls” to your never-ending cleaning list.
- On second thought, cross it off and instead add it to your “honey, could you do this for me, please” list.
- Quickly dice the tomato and add them to the bowl.
- Tell your toddler to “mix” and “smash.”
- As you dice the onion, see that your toddler has realized what avocados are. He has his hand in the bowl and is eating the pieces of avocado that somehow missed the “smashing” process.
- Tear up a little because you never knew being a mom would be this memorable, and you’re terrible at cutting onions. Even purple onions make you cry.
- Add the onion and save the guacamole from the munching toddler.
- Help your toddler mix all the ingredients together.
- Add salt to taste. Use a grinder so your toddler can “help” by shaking it himself.
- Tell him, “Good job, buddy! We made this!”
- Watch him gleefully scream and run to tell his dad, leaving green handprints in his wake.
- Take the remaining avocado: half, pit, scoop, smash, and mix into guacamole to replace the avocado your toddler ate.
- Pick and shred a handful of cilantro leaves.
- Mix and add another handful to the top because cilantro is the best part, right?
- Think about putting the guacamole in a party dish to be even fancier.
- Decide against it when you glance at the sink full of dishes.
- Look up just in time to see your toddler coming back into the kitchen, your husband in tow.
- Smile and say, “Guacamole is served!”
All joking aside, my son loves “cooking,” so I’m always looking for easy, usually messy recipes to try with him. It takes a lot more time and effort on my part, but the experience is always memorable. “Make Guaco” is his favorite.
What recipes have you tried or want to try with your toddler?
I was thinking about my picky non-vegetable eating toddler when I read this & wondered “would he eat more veggies if I let him cook them?” I’m going to give it a shot!
Awesome, Jennifer! I do a lot of “mixing” with my toddler. He gets to mix the peas into the mac&cheese, or I have a bunch of raw veggies and he “mixes” the salad. Oh, the joys of toddlerhood! Happy eating to your household!