Grab your kids, throw on an apron, and show them how much fun cooking can be. It’s time to bring your kids into the kitchen. This is cooking with kids:  

In my opinion, all children should learn to cook. Afterall, it is a basic life skill they will need once you are no longer cooking up their feasts. Throwing a few simple ingredients together to whip up something to eat for themselves should sorta be mandatory. Plus, there’s something to be said about the amount of quality time that can be spent when the electronic devices get put away and the pots and pans come out. Absolutely priceless! 

Thankfully, my kids love to cook with me. That being said, I am no gourmet chef. In fact, I’m not much of a chef at all. Since I didn’t grow up hanging out in the kitchen, I’m totally learning as I go so that I can teach my girls how to throw down in the kitchen. My oldest daughter seems to have a sense of pride when her friends come over and she is able to cook them a delicious breakfast while many of them only know how to pour a bowl of cereal. 

It’s important our kids know how to cook to ensure they have a healthier future. Anyone can run down to the local fast-food joint and pick up a burger, but where’s the substance in it? Kids who know how to cook are more likely to cook as adults and make healthier choices. Uncle Ben’s is on a mission to get kids to cook through their Ben’s Beginners™ program.

The BEN’S BEGINNERS™ program is part of a movement driven by the UNCLE BEN’S® Brand to help kids learn the essential life skill of cooking as well as they learn how to read and write. Since launching in 2012, the UNCLE BEN’S BEN’S BEGINNERS™ program has motivated thousands of families to cook together and has donated $715,000 to children and schools across the country to create healthier local communities.

When kids learn to cook, they are actually learning so much more. 

• Measurements, math & time – Recipes are filled with fractions, timing, weights, and measurements.
• Science – Cooking is all about reactions that happen when ingredients come together in a delicious way.
• Creativity – Cooking is all about reactions that happen when ingredients come together in a delicious way.
• Reading – Recipes are fun to read and they teach kids new words.

Parents with kids in Kindergarten through eighth grade can submit a photo of their family preparing a rice-based dish together using #BensBeginners. Participants in the BEN’S BEGINNERS™ Cooking Contest will enter for the chance to win one of five Grand Prize packages, which includes $15,000 cash, a $30,000 cafeteria makeover for their child’s school and a hometown celebration. 

Interested? Enter below:

Josephine loves this Tangy Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowl found on Ben’s Beginners™ website. You can see us preparing this recipe in the photos above.

Now you can enjoy the spicy zing of Buffalo wings in a whole new way—with juicy shredded chicken, fresh veggies, tender Mozzarella, and nutritious brown rice. It’s a bowl full of delicious flavors that you can make in just 15 minutes with the help of your young chef.