Home Baking with the kids – a budget winner

At the moment many of us are lacking money through the current credit crunch and at the best of times doing things with the kids can be rather expensive. As a parent myself I too understand the costs and the fact that children get bored so quickly. You then find that they spend most of their day in front of the telly or playing alone with their toys.

But apart from arts and crafts children also adore baking especially licking the bowl out when you have finished making something with them. Us parents also love baking except for all the mess it makes but as long as you have a dustpan and brush to hand it is not as bad as you think.

Not only do we get the great enjoyment out of baking with the kids but it also works out very good financially. When you wonder the aisles in the supermarket and pay out an absolute fortune for the supermarkets own version of chocolate chip cookies it makes you wish you baked more often. You look at the size of these biscuits and can't believe that a factory would make them that small when you can do such a better job yourself.

As the father of the family says in the film "meet the fockers" a childs mind is like a sponge and will soak up all the information given to it. Well this is very true take driving as an example a lad will watch his daddy driving the car for years and when it comes to him learning the same skill in his late teens he will know so much already.

This same idea can be taken when it comes to cooking they will watch their mum and dad several times as they are growing up. Then when it is there time they will know awful lot in order to make their very own meals. My wife is a big fan of qucihes and makes a wonderful one herself. When she's makes the pastry my son will be right next to her and has seen her make it that many times that he will have all the ingredients out of the cupboard in advance.

Next time you are wondering around the supermarket instead of picking up a quiche from the fresh section or from the deli counter grab the ingredients and make your own. It costs very little to do and your biggest outgoing will probably be the cheese or ham that you put in it. Then with the little bit of spare pastry why not let the little one make their very own and they will be extra proud of what they have created.

Dominic Milner is a well-known Online Chef and the owner of simply foodndrink that gives free food tips to all:

Head over to http://www.simplyfoodndrink.com to get your FREE advice now!