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Do your kids play Minecraft? Mine do – and they LOVE it. If I allowed it, I feel fairly confident that they would play Minecraft for approximately 12 hours per day, with short rest breaks for food and trips to the bathroom. I could go on a whole tangent about videogames and kids but I will avoid getting diverted.
What to do on a smokey Saturday?
Yesterday my husband had a bit of work to do, so I said that I would do something fun with the boys. My original plan had been to go for a hike or do something outside as the forecast was great, however there are forest fires burning not too far away and the air quality in my city is off the charts horrible – so change of plans.
Bring in the Minecraft Cookbook
A few months ago, at a school book fair my youngest bought a Minecraft Cookbook. Until yesterday we hadn’t tried any of the recipes. So instead of going outside, we decided to use the cookbook to plan and cook a special Minecraft themed meal for my husband.
The book has four sections:
- Snacks
- Main Dishes
- Desserts
- Drinks
My goal was to get my kids to pick one recipe from each section, then we would go through each recipe, make a grocery list for anything we needed, do the shopping, come home and cook it together and then FEAST – Minecraft style.
The Chosen Menu
| Section | Choice | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Snack | Torches | Pretzel sticks, dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles |
| Main Dish | Golden Blocks | Grilled Cheese Sandwiches cut into squares |
| Main Dish | Almost “Rabbit” Stew | Vegetable Chicken Soup |
| Dessert | Dirt Blocks | Chocolate Fudge |
| Dessert | Winter Biome Bark | White chocolate swirled with food colouring and raspberries |
| Drink | Lava Potion | Orange juice, 7up and Grenadine |
What did they eat?
My older son wanted to try everything – and I think he liked everything, but he me he wasn’t feeling that hungry and didn’t eat that much.
My younger son had no interest in the Almost “Rabbit” Stew and when he set the table didn’t put a bowl or spoon out for himself. Everything else he tried. He loved the Grilled Cheese sandwiches and probably ate the equivalent of about 3. He also liked the juice and torches but left the fugde and the bark.
Did getting my kids involved in the meal impact what they ate?
Most pediatric nutrition guidelines recommend getting kids involved in food preparation and while I would love to tell you that my kids LOVED cooking the meal and it made my “picky-eater” try something new (re: the Almost “Rabbit” Stew) it was not lost on me that he didn’t even bother putting out a bowl.
| Recommendation | Reality |
|---|---|
| – Get your kids to help with meal planning – they are more likely to eat something that they pick out | While my kids liked looking at the cookbook – they mostly just wanted to make the desserts. I don’t worry about my kids not getting enough desserts to eat. |
| – Preparing foods with kids can expose them to new ingredients and help them try new foods. | I have yet to have this experience with my child. He seems to make up his mind (note how he set the table) before we were even finished preparing the meal. |
| – Preparing foods with kids is a great way to spend time together. | They loved making the pretzel torches (white chocolate/sprinkles – what’s not to love!) but as soon as this was done they starting asking me if they could do something else. And I still needed to make the meal and ended up finishing it up by myself. |
What does research say about how getting kids involved in meal prep impact their intake?
There have been many studies done looking at how getting children involved in food preparation may impact their food intake, and evidence suggests that in a research setting kids being involved in food preparation can:
- Increase fruit and vegetable intake
- Decrease kids reluctance to try new foods
- Improve weight and blood pressure
But one of the challenges with interpreting these findings is that many of these studies couple getting kids involved in food preparation with other interventions, such as nutrition education or counseling. So it can be hard to know if the observed changes are related to the food preparation alone or the combination of the other study parts.
In the 2019 study published in Appetite by DeJesus et al the researchers tried to figure out how food preparation without any other intervention impacted how much kids eat.
They found that whether the kids prepared a salad or a dessert, kids ate more of the foods that they prepared than the foods that were prepared by study-staff. What the researcher’s pointed out was if we make desserts with our kids, they will eat more of desserts and do we really need to encourage kids to eat more desserts? Probably – most parents would say no.
So what?
- Preparing a Minecraft meal with my kids got us through a smokey day when we couldn’t really safely spend time outside
- While my kids enjoyed making some of the meal – their attentions waned prior to meal completion and I ended up preparing much of the meal on my own
- Research suggest that when kids prepare foods they tend to eat more of it – though this works for both healthy and “unhealthy” foods.
- If you are looking for something to do with your kids – cooking with them could be fun. It may help them eat more, so choose the dish that you want to make with them wisely, if you cook a dessert expect them to eat more than if only you made it!
