 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. How to involve the children in the kitchen and in the supermarket? So, let's look at three different segments. The first segment is about the mouths. The second segment is about how children can help in the supermarket. And the third segment is about how children and children can help prepare the dinner. First, the mouths. Let's look at three different ways to prepare alternatives to mouths like these. For example, this is a very popular snack, but let's look at how to prepare something that is healthier and costs less money. In addition, here is a kind of trail mix that children can prepare at home. And we all know these popular mouths, but children can make their own mouth like this. Let's see how. Kids are active all day long, running, jumping and playing, burning up large numbers of calories. Eating breakfast, lunch and dinner is a good start for your kids, but may not be enough. To keep them going, kids also need to snack on healthy foods throughout the day. Your family can plan and prepare tasty snacks by referring to the Food Guide Pyramid. If your children lack servings from any of the five food groups, snacks are a good way to catch up. Preparing snacks at home can be fun and easy. It can also save parents lots of money. Before you start to make any snacks, remind your kids to wash their hands. Here are a few ideas you and the kids can try at home. Let's start with some vegetable quesadillas. You'll need some cheese and tortillas. First, grate the cheese. Wash any vegetables you'd like to use. Cut them carefully into small pieces with a knife. Place the vegetables in a small amount of water. Use a covered container in a microwave or a saucepan on the stove. Steam the vegetables until slightly tender. You can use a corn or flour tortilla for this snack. Place the steamed vegetables on a warm tortilla. Next, sprinkle some cheese and your quesadillas are ready to be heated. You can fold one tortilla in half or use two tortillas. Whatever is easier for you. You can heat your quesadilla with a microwave or a comal. Just be extra careful when using a stove. Once the cheese is melted, your snack is ready. So eat and enjoy. When your kids want something sweeter, let them make a moonball snack. Unlike candy bars, this snack gives them more than just sugar and fat. Moonballs require only four ingredients. Powdered milk, uncooked oatmeal, honey or corn syrup, and peanut butter. Put the same amount of oatmeal, honey and peanut butter in a bowl. For example, use one cup of each ingredient. Add twice as much powdered milk. Here you'll need two cups. Stir with a spoon until it's evenly mixed. Form the mixture into balls using your hands. Pour some extra oats onto a plate and roll the moonballs into the oats. Now you have yourself a tasty treat. If you have any leftovers, you can refrigerate them up to one week. When you're short on time, cold cereal makes a quick snack. Kids can eat it plain or with milk. Try to stay away from the sugary kinds and buy it in large quantities. You'll stretch your dollar and you'll never lack a nutritious and delicious snack. Home or away from home, kids are usually hungry. While prepackaged snacks are tempting, they're often expensive and fattening. Instead, pack a snack at home. Remember, two foods that will hold up to a child's rough handling and that won't need to be kept hot or cold. Firm fruits like apples are a good choice. Oranges cut into wedges are easy to eat. Vegetables, either whole or sliced, are appetizing. Kids like chewy and crunchy foods, they can make their own trail mix by combining dry cereal, popcorn, pretzels, and raisins. Put the mixture into plastic bags or containers and snacks will be ready when you need them. Whether your kids snack at home or somewhere else, make sure a good nutrition follows them. As a parent, you can take the time to teach your kids healthy snacking habits that will last a lifetime. When children help to prepare and select snacks, it's also important to supervise them. For example, if a child doesn't have much experience working with knives, it's important that an adult helps them until they can learn how to use a knife for sure. Another thing is when children are eating their snacks, they shouldn't be running or walking, because that can be a danger when it comes to eating the snack or the snack. It's important that they feel it and they can also take some time to get in touch with their friends and take some time apart from the game. Another thing about the snacks is that it's important to recognize that the kids who are very active will need more calories than the kids who don't do that much activity. So it's good to let the kids who want to do physical exercise Well, now, let's talk a little bit about the next segment. Let's see two young people while they are buying food in the supermarket. In this segment, let's see two young people. They are in the supermarket helping their families to buy the snack. In today's busy world, parents don't always have time to do the grocery shopping. For this reason, more and more children and teens are assuming some of the responsibility for buying their family's food. Whether your kids run to the corner store to pick up just a few items or they buy the week's groceries at a larger store, there are several things they should know. First, just like you, your child should always shop with a list. Write out the list together, putting down the dry goods first, then the produce, and finally the refrigerated items. Within these categories, organize the list in the same way that the store is set up so your child won't have to backtrack to find items. Make the shopping list as specific as possible. For example, if you need tomato paste, specify the size can that you want. If your child is very young, also specify the brand name that you know is cheapest. As soon as your children can do simple math, they themselves can look at the price of different brands and choose the best buys. Many stores today have computerized price labels on the shelves that make comparing prices easy. The next time you're at the store with your children, take a few minutes and teach them how to compare prices. All you need to do is look at the unit price printed on the shelf label. The unit price is simply the amount of money that a certain quantity of the product costs. See how much this tomato sauce costs per ounce. This can of tomato sauce is a better buy because it costs less per ounce. Choosing the second can will save you money. See how easy it is? You'll be surprised how quickly your children can learn to compare prices. Once your child has chosen the lowest priced item, he or she should check carefully to make sure it is in good condition. Teach your children not to buy canned goods that are dented or bulging. There are signs that the food inside may have spoiled. Bagged and boxed foods should be inspected for holes and wet spots. Show your children how to squeeze bags gently so they can find the ones that are airtight. This will keep them from buying cereal that has an off taste or that has been invaded by bugs. As your child puts items into the cart, he or she should cross them off the list. That way, extra items won't be bought by mistake. Teach your children not to be taken in by seasonal promotions and special sale items. These displays are often located at the ends of the aisles. If you've made out your list carefully, buying something that's not on it will probably not get you anything you really need. Once your child has purchased all of the dry goods on your list, it's time to go to the produce section. Obviously, he or she should not choose anything that is bruised or squishy. Otherwise, each type of vegetable and fruit is different. You will need to show your children the specific things to look for in each kind of produce. When your children have become more experienced shoppers, let them find the best bargains for you in the produce section. For example, just make a general list showing how many pieces of fruit you want for the week. Your child can pick out that many pieces of fruit choosing the types that are the cheapest and in best condition. The same goes for vegetables. Now it's time to pick up the cold items. Teach your children to get refrigerated items at the end of the shopping trip so that they will stay as cold as possible. When choosing milk, tell your children to pick containers that do not leak. Also, it is important that they check the expiration dates printed on the cartons. Choosing meat is similar to choosing dairy products. Your children should avoid buying leaking packages and should check the date printed on the label. Once your child selects a package of meat, he or she should put it into one corner of the cart so that it won't leak onto the other foods. Once everything on the list has been purchased, it's time to pay for it. As items are rung up, your child should look at the name of the item and its price on the digital display. If the display does not correspond to the item selected, your child should alert the clerk. If you buy your groceries with cash, make sure that you have given your child enough money. In case the money doesn't cover everything in the cart, be sure to tell your child which items not to get. If you buy your groceries with food stamps, be sure that your child is familiar with how to use your EBT card. Because no cash changes hands, it is very important that your child give you back both the store receipt and the EBT receipt. And don't forget to get the EBT card back. Be sure to enter the amount that was deducted from your EBT card into your records. That way, you will know how much money you have left on your card the next time you go to use it. If you find that your child has purchased items that were not on the list, don't let it slide. Insist that your child pay you back. Otherwise, he or she will continue to take advantage of your EBT card and you will not have enough money to buy food later in the month. But don't worry. Problems like this won't happen often if you gradually teach your kids how to be smart shoppers. Start the next time you go to the store and teach something new each time you shop. Before you know it, your children will be able to assume many of your family's food-buying responsibilities. You will enjoy more free time and your kids will learn skills that will help them out when they have families of their own. Your children can help you in the supermarket but it is also important to keep in mind not to give all of your child's responsibility to make a purchase. They can help you sometimes or help you when you go to the store with them, but for them to do that every week is too much. Besides, after a while they won't like to go to the store to buy healthy food. What if they have children younger than them? Well, one can go, for example, with several pieces of paper in different colors and give a piece of paper, maybe yellow color, to the child and tell him go and look for a fruit and a vegetable of that color. That way, the children are learning the colors and also the fruits and vegetables. Besides, they can go with the label, for example, of the tomato sauce can that you want to buy. And the child can go and look for that line, that same can, and now then he will learn something from the supermarket and will be helping you too. Let's talk a little bit now about our third segment. The children preparing food for the dinner. That helps you feel a responsibility and that they are contributing to the family. That's very important. Besides, it helps us, the parents, because then we can get home we don't need to bring fast food with us and we can eat together at the table. That's much better. Let's see several techniques for the children to help us prepare the dinner. Moms are busy all day, caring for children, cleaning the house, running errands and working at outside jobs. After doing all this, they don't always have the time or energy to cook at night. Did you know that your children can help you cook dinner? Yes, both girls and boys can learn to cook entire meals if you teach them slowly and give them plenty of encouragement. Bringing your kids into the kitchen will do more than give you some time off from cooking. When they pitch in, meals can be on the table when you need them to be. That means that you won't be tempted to pick up fast food on your way home to fill the empty stomachs waiting for you. You'll save money by involving your kids in the cooking. Just as important, your children will be positively affected. Kids naturally view cooking as a fun, exciting activity and they will be proud as time passes, they will gain self-confidence and acquire valuable skills. When the time comes to live on their own, they will be better prepared to do so. When your kids first start out cooking meals for the family, it's best if they begin by doing some of the prep work. You should be there to supervise the first few times so that they fully understand their tasks. Teach them to be careful when using heat-producing appliances, blenders and knives. Try to be patient and transfer to hand out lots of praise. Do you think that your kids are too young to be of much help? Even preschoolers can wash vegetables and tear lettuce for salads. By the time they are five or six, most kids can cut vegetables if you supervise them carefully. Kids at this age are also very good at cleaning dry beans. They may even be better at it than you are. As your kids become more comfortable in the kitchen, they can progress to more complex tasks. Teach them how to follow recipes as soon as they can read. You can also write out your own instructions for them with pictures if necessary. Write down the time that they are to do each task if you will not be at home to remind them. Go over the instructions with your kids before you go to make sure they understand what they are to do. Certain appliances lend themselves to being used by children to make meals. The ingredients are ideal because all the ingredients cook at once. They do not require much attention once everything is inside. But even if you don't have a crock-thought, your kids can still cook main dishes. Stoos are particularly good for kids to make since the quantities of the ingredients do not need to be exact. Let your kids use their imaginations to create delicious and nutritious stews from vegetables and meats that you have on hand. Young children can even make the bread for dinner themselves. Teach older children to make tortillas or biscuits from scratch. Younger kids can make breads from mixes which are quick and easy to use. To save money and to make these breads more nutritious, prepare them from flour and cornmeal mixes that you have made yourself. Check your local extension office or food stamps office for recipes. Round out the meal with salad or some vegetables. For cooking raw, frozen and canned vegetables, your children can simply put them in a covered bowl and steam them. Does all this sound too good to be true? Remember, you never know what your kids can do in the kitchen until you work with them. Just have patience and don't expect too much at once. As your children gain more experience and confidence, they will be excited to tackle more complicated tasks. Start today to involve your kids in preparing meals. Your whole family will appreciate their efforts. Who knows, the experience might encourage your child to become a great chef someday. Kids help us in the kitchen. It's important to tell them, thank you. If we appreciate their efforts, then they will feel better when they go to the kitchen the next week to prepare something else. We should always appreciate what they have done. Also, when the kids are learning in the kitchen, they should learn from you. You are the most important teacher of your child. You may ask me, but I don't know much about cooking either. That doesn't matter. You two can learn together. It's a job together that is very rich, very good for the family. The kids, like adults, need techniques to work with food. It's not enough to know what a healthy mouth is. If the child can't prepare it, then he won't eat it. So you two can practice those techniques in the kitchen until you learn and do them well. I want you to set a goal for the next week. Maybe you can go to the supermarket with your child to look at the labels. Or maybe you can help each other to prepare the dinner during the next week. If you want to receive recipes, you can call the number on the screen, without a charge. And you can also learn about our free nutrition classes. Until the next time that our families live. For more information of New Mexico State University, the views and opinions in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.