 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Mary Meyer with the New Mexico Department of Health WIC nutrition program. I'm excited and proud to be here today to introduce our Family Health television series. The WIC nutrition program provides nutrition education, supplemental food and health referrals for pregnant, breastfeeding, postpartum women, infants and children up to the age of five for moderate to low income families. Our Family Health series is a collaboration between the WIC nutrition program and New Mexico State University. These television programs provide support for families to develop lifelong healthy habits. If you're participating in the WIC program currently, let your local WIC office know if you have watched this episode today. Welcome to today's episode of the Family Health series. On behalf of the WIC program, we want to thank you for welcoming us into your home today to show you how we're demonstrating involving children in the cooking process. Why cook with children? It's fun. Kids love to cook. Family, it's great family time together while teaching lifelong skills and accomplishing a task, preparing daily meals. Involving children in the process increases their willingness to try new foods and forms healthy eating habits at an early age. For example, today we'll be adding chickpeas to our fresh salad. Typically, a child wouldn't open a can of chickpeas and eat it. Adding it to the salad adds protein, texture, flavor while introducing a new food. The WIC program strives to improve families health through nutrition. In this day and age of drive-through fast food and prepared process meals, it is essential to focus on fresh whole grain foods and the skills needed to prepare them. In the local WIC office, we focus on individual counseling based on dietary assessment, helping a mom develop a goal that she can work on. We're also broadening our education and in the elementary school classroom, WIC is partnering with the Kids Cook program, an exciting hands-on nutrition education program for kindergartners through sixth grade. This is an integrated approach, learning math skills, reading, geography and science, while allowing children to learn how to follow written instruction, prepare meals and importantly sit down together to enjoy them. We'll be visiting the Kids Cook classroom throughout this episode. I've invited my family to join me today to make lunch. We'll be using a Kids Cook recipe. We'll be making a salad with chickpeas, red bell peppers, cucumbers and a lemon olive oil dressing. Along with the salad, we'll be making a Mediterranean flatbread with Zatar topping. You may be wondering what Zatar topping is. Watch carefully and discover the ingredients used in this tasty topping. If you're interested in any of these recipes used today, request them at your local WIC office or visit our internet site. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to cook. Hi, Marcus and Anne are with me today with their cousins, Gabby and Arthur. And we have a family tradition of making, of cooking together, especially around Christmas. We get together just before Christmas and make tamales. And of course on Christmas Day, eat them. Today we're making lunch. And what are you working on, Anne? I'm making the salad dressing. Great. How's the tearing going, Gabby? Okay, well you guys, you're looking, you're reading your directions. Let's work with you guys. Good job, Marcus. You're holding the knife really well. We have a few simple rules around knife safety. And that is that children always use knives with adult supervision and adults carry in wash knives. And we always use proper technique. That's great, Marcus. You're doing really, really good. How's that going, boy? Here, let me help. There we go. That looks really good. There you go. Okay, now, yeah, you want to dig in the first part? Yeah, grab onto that and then I'll guide it. There you go. Okay, now you want to turn. Should I start cutting this up? No, let Arthur do that. Okay, here you go. Now, let's set that down. Okay, do you remember how we cut with a knife? Yes. Okay, let's pick up your knife. Good. Pinching the handle. Now how do you make your hand? That's right, like you were holding an egg and then you want it cut nice and then push. That's it. Good. That's excellent. Push away. Good job. Thanks, Markey. How's it going, Ann? Good. You guys are fast at this. We're going to have salad in no time. You ready? Yeah. Are we just supposed to do it when the bowl fills up? Yeah, well, let's tear up all that lettuce, okay? Okay. Good job. That's excellent. Okay, you know what else we're going to do? We're going to cut these just a little bit smaller. And as soon as you guys are done, do you want to help Arthur tear up some lettuce too? We got lots of lettuce. How's that going, Ann? What else do you have left? Okay, great. What happened? I'm going to help with the pepper. Okay. Yeah, put it in. Good job. Ooh, that's looking very nice. Okay. We're going to squeeze a little bit of fresh pepper in there. Okay. Let's set the knife down and then you guys can add the lettuce, okay? Let's put this here. And then do you want to bring the bowl over, Marcus? And well, let's get the lettuce or let's get the bell peppers and the cucumbers in here. Arthur, you want to help here? We're going to scooch these. Here, let's see. Right here. I think we can do it right off the edge. Good. You want to pick those up. They're kind of stuck. I think we can do that. Okay. Arthur, what grade are you going into this year? Second. Yeah, are you all ready for school? Mm-hmm. Cool. Okay. You ready to put the beans in? Yeah. Okay, great. When you're at home, once you divide up your tasks, following the directions are really important. And we usually have the kids read through the directions once so that they kind of understand what the routine's going to be. And then as they go along, they can go step by step in terms of following the directions. So, okay, we got everything? Yeah. All right. We're doing great. Yeah, you know what? It looks like we could use a little bit more in here, huh? You know what is good? Let's turn it this way. Grab onto it, and then you can go this way again. It makes it a little bit easier. Good job. Yep. Yeah. I know. I just want to eat that. You just want to eat it? I know. I'm getting hungry, too. Okay. You want to get that one last piece, and then I think we can cut it, okay? Here we go. You want to put the shavings in the bowl? I think we're okay. Oh, careful there, okay, sweetie? Yeah. You don't ever want to touch the blade of the knife. If you have to, you can use the edge of the bowl to get something off, but it's so sharp that we don't want you to hurt yourself. Okay, let's see you hold the knife again. Okay, and get your hand. How do you hold your hand? As if you were kind of holding an egg and tucking your thumb under. Good job. Here we go. Let's set that there. Good job. These do you like to put in salads? Yeah. This salad's a little bit different. We have chickpeas, cucumbers, red bell peppers. There we go. Okay, you want to put those in? Let's add those to the salad, okay? And what about dressings? Have you ever had a lemon and olive oil dressing? No. So this is new for you to try. Mm-hmm. Oh, good. I love trying new things. Me, too. Okay. Well, we're going to let those soak. Those are going to soak. And just before we eat, we're going to toss the salad, and we're going to put everything together. But now we're going to move on to making the bread. We brought a griddle just so that we could cook the bread. Great. Yeah. And we'll go over the instructions and read that, and then we'll start on our bread, okay? Let's see what we can do to clean up a little bit. You've been observing the cooking piece of the meal process. Kids can and really do enjoy being involved with the planning and shopping piece as well. And now we're going to go down as a family to decide what meals to plan for for the week is fun and really allows kids to suggest menu items that they want to eat. As you decide on the menu for the week, begin creating a grocery list of any items that you don't have in your pantry or cupboard. Another piece of the process is shopping. This is a great time for children to practice reading skills and learning about nutrition through reading labels. At the WIC office, we've been partnering with the New Mexico Cooperative Extension ICANN program to provide classes on food safety, menu planning, budgeting, and family involvement, improving your skills in your daily routine. Let's get started making the flatbread. What's the first step, Annie? In a museum-sized pool, mix together the water and the yeast. Okay. Okay, Gabby, you're going to get the yeast ready? And how much yeast are you going to use? One table spoon. Great. Emily, you got that? Put the toasted cheese in the dining bowl. Add the thyme salt. You want to mix that a little bit? Sure. Okay, you're going to let that dissolve and then, Gabby, why don't you start measuring what's the next step? You're going to stir the whole week flour, salt, and olive oil. I'll get the salt. Okay, great. A little bit more. Let's see what you guys are up to. Oh, you're making the Zetar topping, huh? Yes. Okay. What do you do now? Okay, let's get this onto the heat. And you're going to stir this Marcus like this until it gets brown, okay? Arthur, do you want to measure the thyme and the salt? Okay. Let's look here and see how much time do we need. Do you know what that is? That's a one-half. Can you find the one-half on the teaspoon measures? Yeah, very good. Okay. Here you go. You hold it. I'm going to pour. Okay, that's going to go right in there. Okay, now which one? How much does it say for the salt? One. Can you find the measuring spoon that has a one on it? Let's turn them this way. That one, huh? Okay, you want to pour this time? You're going to pour it right on there and fill it up and hold it at the same time. There you go. How's that doing, Mark? It's looking good. Good. Yeah, as it starts to get brown, then a little bit more. We want to fill it all. Now you can dump it in there. You guys doing okay? Yeah. Bring it in close. Don't worry about your directions. Just leave it right there. I think you're just about ready, Marcus. We're going to pick that up. You want to check your handle. These are nice big, thick handles so they don't get hot. Then you're going to pour that right in there. I'm going to go ahead and turn this off. Okay, good. Now let's set this on this burner that's not hot, okay? This is the really fun part. Okay, what did the instructions say? Grind it in the mortar. This is the mortar in the pestle. You want to try? You want to start? Push down really hard and you're going to mush it. You can kind of stir and push. Okay? Yeah, you don't want them to bounce. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, squish those sesame seeds. Squish all those seeds up separate. You guys are doing okay? You're adding it gradually? Yes. It's a gooey mess. Yeah, but it's fine. Okay, that looks good. Any? Is that the first cup or the second cup of wash? Okay. Yeah, mix and then just go ahead and add that. Yeah, you kind of want to spread it out and then you can measure another one, okay? How's that going, Marcus? Good. Sometimes it takes a while to squish up all those sesame seeds, but the better you do it, the better it sprinkles onto the bread. I'm going to go ahead here so that when we're ready to start cooking the bread, it'll be warm enough. Now it's your turn to start. Thank you, do you want to try again? All right. Yes. Yeah, a little bit. Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle. I'm going to do it now because it's all thick for me. It's too thick. It gets really thick. Okay, you can sprinkle some more. All right, then you can go ahead. It's really important when you have kids with multiple ages that you can pair them up with younger and older kids, as well as making sure that the task that you're assigning is age-appropriate. In a minute, you guys are going to help roll it out and make your own pieces of flat bread, okay? Let's see how we're doing. Then we need a half a cup after this. Okay, let's stir that and do you know where the half a cup is, Gabby? It's over here. Okay, which one is a half? Okay, let's see you measure that out. We'll get that all ready. Here you can use this to level it. There you go. Yeah, just good. Oh, you know how to do that really good. Okay, and we're going. When it starts to get really tough, let's see, is that we can take some of this flour here and as we start to knead it, we're going to use some of this flour too. Sometimes with flour, you don't actually use all this in the recipe. You have to kind of watch to see how your dough is doing. Okay, we're going to add a little bit more. Yeah, I can't wait until they're done. Maybe you should actually use your hands now. Yeah. Good job. Then we'll just set this down. Now it's nice sometimes, yeah, you get the flour on your hands first. So it doesn't stick to your hands. Good. Have you ever had sesame seeds before? I have. On what? Oh, neat. Yeah, you can add a little bit more. Okay. He's so good. Well, not by themselves, but with the dough. Good job. This is fun. Okay. It's fun to cook honey. Okay. Guys, we're going to use this one that's already been sitting for five minutes. And let's set that right there. And we're going to do some kneading. Do you remember how we kneaded? How do you knead? Push. Good. Turn. Fold. All right. Okay, all right. You can try. No, we're going to cut this up. And Marcus, you can help there. All right. Let's see, Ann. Okay. All right, Mark, we need to cut this into six. So how are we going to start? We're going to cut like that. And what is that? We're going to cut straight. Half. Okay. Let's see you do it. You want to bring it straight down. That's good. Yeah, you can use the top. And then we just have to separate it. Okay. Now we're going to do thirds. Okay. So we want to go to three equal parts. And when you've done a half like that, sometimes I make a sort of a cut in each one. Yeah. And then that I kind of look at it and say is that pretty even. Okay. Now, each of you are going to roll this into a ball and then we're going to roll them out. So there we go. Arthur here. And you can roll this one. And let's give you a little bit of room here. Okay. Here you go. Make it into your ball. It sure is. And you can each grab a rolling pin or you want to make sure you have a little bit of flour. Here you go, Arthur. Okay. You ready? You want to roll this one. Let's roll those out. You know, we've got to give ourselves a little bit of room here. And then we won't worry about this one yet. Each of you can take your turn. There you go. We're going to roll them out and put them on the grill. All right. That's right. That's the direction. It's nice if they're round. They don't have to be perfect. Let's go. Let's push. Let's do this together. Push. Then we turn it a little bit. Push. Okay. The directions say about 8 inches. You guys got a little bit of rolling to do there to get out to about 8 inches. You're scooting all over. It's slippery. Okay. So, Marcus, I sometimes brush a little bit of it off and then why don't you go set that right on the grill? I'm going to spread the Xantar topping on it. Okay. Well, that's going to be Arthur and Marcus's job. Okay. That looks pretty good. Let's go a little bit more. Yeah. You can put yours on the grill, too. As long as it's not touching where Marcus's is. Ooh, you made a heart. Okay. Let's line up. Put them on the grill. There you go. I'm going to slide this because this is a little bit high. I'm going to slide this so that you can get to that one. Good. Okay. Okay, Annie. No, we're not... Yeah. You can have one more to roll out. Okay. And you're going to put the topping on. Oh, yeah. Those are great. That's right. Okay. That's enough. Yeah. Once you sprinkle, then you go on to the next one. We have two plates here. We're going to put this one here. And then you're going to do another one. I sure can. There you go. Okay. Let's put the topping on that one now. Oh, yeah. Can you smell the time? Yep. Yeah. Has that been sitting long enough? Yeah. We're going to leave that for now. Okay. Spread it all around because everybody likes the topping. And if you don't get out to the edges, then they tend to leave the edges. Can you help me? Yeah. You want to move it all the way around. Okay. Ready? You're going to put the topping on? That's right. Okay. Let's go on to the next one. I think you can set that right in here. There you go. Great. We're going to keep cleaning up, and we'll see you in a few minutes at the dinner table. Would you like to dress the salad in? Yes. This is my favorite part, sitting down together and eating after we've worked really hard to make great food. What do you want to do? It's really important to remember that kids can help themselves to as much or as little as you want and that as parents, it's our responsibility to offer what foods and when we offer food. And also that the kids have the choice of if they're going to choose that food or eat it and how much. So that's why we individually like to offer the kids an opportunity. Good job. I guess I better get in here before everything's gone. As you have noticed, sometimes when kids start out and we're cooking together we can make a little bit of a mess but the cleaning process is everyone's responsibility and as we start to clean, cook together and more we kind of understand how each other is moving around and we tend to make a little less of a mess. Can I do you want some? If I hold the bowl, do you want to get it? Great. Good job. You want to get a little bit of the other stuff? Yeah, right on the top. Good job. Whoa, yeah, those are kind of here. Okay, is that enough? Yeah. Okay. What do you like, Gabby? I did a theater. What's your favorite part so far? I did a theater. You like the red? I love the fresh salad. I know. Oh yeah, and I heard you saying you never tried garbanzo beans before and that you were going to try those. Yeah. I think there's a whole process to the meal planning and kids not only love to be a part of the actual cooking but you can sit down and plan your meals together go shopping using that as an opportunity to read labels and learn about nutrition through reading labels talk about pricing and what the cost of foods are. One of the activities that we do at home is we'll sit down on the weekend and start planning what menu items we want during the week and then allows the kids to have some choice and pick some of their favorite foods and then as we're doing it we actually create a grocery list based on the foods that we don't have in our cupboard or pantry so that when we're at the beginning of the week we can go grocery shopping and we know exactly what we want to have all week long. The WIC Nutrition Program also supports a program called ICAN and we teach skills about meal planning budgeting and family involvement. If you're interested in any of the recipes that we've done today you can stop by your local WIC office and ask anyone of the staff and also visit our internet site. We want to thank you all for joining us today. Hello again. I hope you've enjoyed the show today. If you have any questions regarding information you've heard today or would like information about the WIC Nutrition Program please call 1-800-280-1618 and do join us for other family health episodes in the future. 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.