VegBlogger - a vegan / vegetarian blog

The Importance of Letting Kids Cook - Kids Can Cook Vegetarian Cookbook

I remember a couple of years ago watching Jamie Oliver's show. He had an episode where he mentioned that in America, as opposed to some other countries, people tend to keep the knives out of the hands of kids. He said that where he was from they taught them to use them properly. I agreed! I started letting my kids hold the sharp knives and teaching them to cut and chop with them. Of course they need more practice to get the technique down, but they have learned about safety and basic cutting and chopping.

My kids love to help cook, and whenever they ask if they can help I let them do it. Even if dinner is almost done I will find something for them to do, never wanting to turn them away. We have lots of cookbooks in our house and one of them is "Kids Can Cook: Vegetarian Recipes Kitchen-Tested by Kids for Kids." This is a good cookbook. It's all vegetarian recipes that are simple, so that kids can follow them. 

We have made recipes out of this book in the past, but my daughter re-discovered it on the shelf this past week. We made the apple walnut salad and the cocoa pudding cake (which was delicious). We took the cocoa pudding cake to a vegan potluck and everyone liked it!

Kids love to cook. I urge you to let them. Get them excited about it. Use it as a learning experience. They will be learning about reading and following directions, measuring, how to clean and prepare food, etc. And then they are also excited about eating it. Here are some pictures of my daughter cooking from this cookbook this week. The very last picture is the breakfast that my daughter made herself one morning - whole wheat toast topped with natural peanut butter and organic jam, served with a pile of strawberries (she made her brother the same breakfast, only she gave him 3 strawberries, while she took 9 for herself).

Nut Butter Universe Has Arrived!

As you may already know from all my previous blog posts, Robin Robertson is my favorite cookbook author. I love her cookbooks and have many favorite recipes from them. This past week in the mail I received her new cookbook, titled "Nut Butter Universe."

I'm excited to report that I have this new book to add to my collection and I will post some pictures of things that make out of it. A book filled with recipes made from all kinds of nuts, including cashews, Brazil nuts, chestnuts, almonds, and more. Can't wait to try some of these recipes.

Go here you are interesed in learning more about Robin Robertson's cookbooks or Nut Butter Universe.

Happiness by Matthieu Ricard - Compassion for all beings

Yesterday I finished reading the book titled "A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill: Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard. I really enjoyed reading the book and found it quite insightful. It is well written and there are even some reflective exercises at the end of each chapter, so that you can put into practice what it is that you are learning about.

The covers a variety of topics, including if happiness is possible, what makes people happy, ego, emotions, our thoughts, desire, hatred, envy, etc. There was also a lot of discussion about the virtues of having compassion, something that I have been trying to cultivate in my children since birth. The book also discusses having compassion toward sentient beings. There was one paragraph that struck a chord with me that I wanted to share here, and it reads: 

"...it is essential to understand at the  most fundamental level that all living creatures share our desire to avoid suffering and experience well-being. That understanding cannot remain a mere concept but must be internalized until it has become second nature. Ultimately, when our sense of belonging extends to all living beings, we are intimately touched by their joys and sufferings."

Becoming second nature... for me, and for many other people who support and raise awareness about animal rights, it is second nature. My notion of having compassion for all animals is automatic, it is part of who I am. It is not something that I have to think about or try to remind myself of that. It is ingrained in the fibers of my very being.

One of my close friends, who I met about five years ago, got to know my views on having compassion for animals. She told me that she thought it was a "gift from God." Whether my sense of compassion for all living creatures is a gift from God, or it is something that we teach our children, it is important that we all learn it in order to experience true happiness, and help to spread happiness throughout the world.