Here is a great list of Kitchen Essentials for Cooking Toddler meal ideas with your little one.

I love to spend every moment I can with my little man! As my child continues to grow, I am able to include him in more and more things from my daily routine.

Recently, we’ve started working on recipes for toddler meal ideas together in the kitchen. 

Why is cooking good for toddlers?

Cooking is a fun way to teach direction following, basic science, counting and fine motor skills. It's also nice to have an edible reward at the end of your hard work! Using toddler meal ideas as a part of this fun way to learn just makes sense.

Get your kids excited about following through with a recipe and helping to feed them and their family too. The knowledge they’ll gain from these experiences will help them in other developmental areas and provide opportunities for meaningful bonding.

Want in on the fun?

I’m sharing several kitchen essentials to help you get cooking great toddler meal ideas with your toddler, too. These items are fun, practical and won’t break the bank! Plus, they’re THEEE CUTEST!

Kitchen Essentials for Protection and Safety When Making Toddler Meal Ideas

Your little one will likely need a step stool to reach the counter and safely observe work over the stove.

This SDADI Kids Kitchen Step Stool is an amazon best seller and under $70. And, this one from WOOD CITY can work for the kitchen or bathroom and comes in just under $40.

You’ll also need some protective gear for containing the mess and observing heat safety.

These Sylfairy aprons come in lots of different prints for boys and girls. They are so affordable and perfect for children 3-5 years of age.

And here are some cute apron sets for kids, complete with chef hats, mitts and more:

• This fun option from Jaxojoy for girls.

• Try this TOPZONE Kids Apron Set for boys

• Or this cute, gender neutral Vanmor Cooking and Baking Set for boys and girls.

• If you want to match with your mini, there are these cute matching options too! They’re a personal favorite of mine.

  
  

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Heat safety is so important in the kitchen. Use mini oven mitts to keep little hands protected from hot pots and pans.

• These mini silicone oven mitts and pot grippers are perfect for tiny fingers. Use them to hold and grip warm items from the microwave and stove.

• Here are some cute mini owl mitts, great for cooking all kinds of toddler meal ideas.

• Try these adorable heat resistant mitts that come in lots of patterns for kids.

• And try these waterproof and heat resistant mitts for kids that come in various colors and patterns, too.

Knives can pose a safety threat to children, but are also a kitchen essential. With that in mind, you’ll need to invest in some kid-safe options for cutting and chopping. Try these safe knife sets made for kids.

• This Jr. Kids Knife set with foldable cutting board.

• This 8 Piece Safe Knife set, perfect for kids and for chopping fruit, lettuce cake and more.

• And this Pocomoco Kids Knife set with cut-resistant gloves.

Essential Cookware for Kids

Kids love to have their own cookware! Here are some fun cooking and baking sets, filled with kid and toddler kitchen essentials. These bundles include rolling pins, cookie cutters, cutting boards and more.

• This 31 piece real baking set with everything kids need to make their favorite treats.

• This Tovla Jr. Kids Cooking and Baking Gift Set has the most precious color pallette and is the perfect starter cooking kit.

• Try this Cake Decorating Kit complete with a turntable.

• And here’s a fun MasterChef Junior official Cookware Set for kids and a Pizza Kit, too.

The Best Junior Cookbooks and Recipes

What about cookbooks? You can’t get started in the kitchen without some great recipe ideas!

Here are some adorable cookbooks for your junior chefs. These books offer entry level, basic recipes to get started on the right foot.

• Baking on Her Own, a skill-building cookbook for girls.

• This Kid Chef Junior Bakes Book.

• This Step-by-step Cookbook for Kids.

• Try these 150+ Kids Recipes from the Food Network.

• And this My Very First Cookbook with tons of joyful recipes. 

You can simplify each of these recipes even more for younger children by giving them smaller tasks. You can handle any higher level skills they aren’t ready for and let them take on more duties as their skill level increases.

I hope you’ll use these fun kitchen essentials with your kids and help them develop a love for cooking. This is an important life skill that you can foster from a young age. They’ll love it and so will you! Until next time!

If you liked these kitchen essentials for kids, you’ll love this post on How to Make a Kids Picnic Basket, this post for How to Make a Kids Bento Box for Picky Eaters and don’t miss my growing archive of fun food ideas for every season of the year!