My kiddos each have a preference for certain tasks in the kitchen. Wearing their aprons and standing on their designated stools, they have mastered many duties and discovered their kitchen karma.

My youngest, E, loves to peel, cut and stir literally everything.

My oldest, K, is a precise measurer and is the self-professed best recipe finder. She loves all the meticulous details. (I can only speculate as to where she gets that?)

To this point, we have triumphed though the process of learning what I consider the basics; breakfast foods, smoothies, soups, salads and baked goods.

We have had great fun trying just about everything – making slight modifications to a few recipes to amp up the kid-friendly factor.

But for the most part there isn’t much we can’t do together.

How did we get there?

Well, I do have a few top-secret tools for gearing the kids up to get into the kitchen. But, really, the magic begins when the kitchen aids come out of the cupboard and cooking becomes more like play.

The kids have a blast.

With aprons on, the requests for tools start flying: the blender (when closely supervised) is a top tool.

The food processor always makes it into play when hummus is on the menu.

Don’t forget easy, non-electric gear like garlic presses, cheese graters and egg cutters matched with the lovable and fascinating dehydrator – all fun and easy for the kids to work with.

And, then there is my personal favorite – getting the kids to clean the kitchen with me.

Soap and water go a LONG way in the kid wonderment department, making dish doing a chore they never seem to tire of (Wahooooo!)

Spring is the perfect time to schedule in your Spring cleaning as a kitchen play date.

There can be scouring and reorganizing.

Turn the kitchen floor into a discovery land of pots and pans, half empty bags and spice sorting central.

Taking stock of your remnants often means you also find something fantastic that inspires kids to log some cooking time as well.

After a recent clean, the girls found some no boil pasta I had bought with the kids in mind and we decided that lasagna and apple pie would be perfect for some cold-day comfort. Not to mention, it gave us the chance to use some cool tools.

I pulled some left over spaghetti sauce from the freezer and started to defrost it in the sink, and then we got started on the pies.

K helped to gather and measure the ingredients for the pastry based on her score of a recipe from the Tenderflake box that she loved and inspired her to more recipe finding.

E got set up with the apple slicer/peeler/corer and everyone got to work.

We did a few extra apples to fill the dehydrator to restock our dwindling Winter supply.

Then, K’s hands worked the pastry well and she rolled it out with the rolling pin, pleased by her solo skills.

With the exception of the mounds of flour overflowing off the marble, this step made them both grin like crazy – although I now understand why ballroom dancers use flour on their dance floors.

I set out some mini pans. E and I dusted the cut apples with some sugar and cinnamon. Then, for some new, more complex skills.

It took a bit, but eventually the girls figured out how to roll the pastry onto the pin and set the base layer into the pan. They filled them up with the apples and covered it with another layer of pastry. With a butter knife, they cut off the edges, and then pinched them shut.

I opted for a simple fork to pierce the tops. A bit of egg wash on top and into the oven they went.

Once the pies came out, it was pure joy and a profound moment of pride.

Next, the lasagna.

E found all the ingredients she needed in the fridge; cottage cheese, mozzarella and an egg.

I let my youngest mix the egg right into the cottage cheese and set it aside. She then tackled grating the cheese and that bought me some time to break up the noodles, set out the pan and check on the pies while K stood happily on dish duty.

When you are tackling these projects, a great way to encourage younger kids is to set up a little station like I did for E to assemble the lasagna. Point them in the right direction with the tools they need and then off to work they go.

Make food fun. Use it as a chance to teach a bit of match, to work on new words and to help them think about the order of things: a few spoonfuls of sauce, a couple layers of noodles, a layer of cottage cheese in the middle, a healthy smothering of mozzarella on top and into the oven it went.

While it cooked we made a quick and easy green salad and some pita garlic toast. (Again, sequencing)

And an hour later, Voila!! Lasagna diner a la E.

And as K emphatically pointed out, “Yummy, (bite/chew)… it has no veggie layers, (bite/chew/smile)… finally real lasagna.”

If only she knew it was all pureed into the sauce. hehe!!

As parents, we know that the kids are taking in important tools for life when it comes to the kitchen.

Learning the art of creating a meal brings skills at all levels of life together, and there’s a serious sense of pride knowing that your helping your children build skills while knowing they’ll be able to feed themselves as adults.

Getting kitchen gear involved in that process makes it so much fun. Their smiles, giddiness and excited reaction to the finished products are sincerely beautiful and most rewarding to watch and It gives them such encouragement to try more.

I strongly believe in a healthy and positive self image and feel that if we teach our children from a young age the importance of nutritious, healthy foods, they can make informed and educated choices throughout their lives.

To nourish the body with good food, the spirit with love and to instill a strong sense of family is truly the best things that have come from this venture.

Well, eating the food has, of course, been great too.