Part One: General Kitchen Tips

Whether you’re a seasoned in-house chef or a beginner looking for recipes to navigate dietary restrictions and allergies, congratulate yourself on the effort you make to deliver home-cooked meals and packed lunches for your family! Just sitting together for meal or snack time can help improve academic performance, mental health, and self-esteem in children and adolescents. Bonding over our two favorite things - family and food - is bound to create a positive association with food for your little ones and yourself.

If you’re looking for recipe ideas that will fit your personal time or dietary needs - we’ve got you covered! In this series, you’ll find general kitchen tips, easy on-the-go snacks🍌, yummy bite-sized recipes, weeknight dinners🍲, lunch-box ideas, gluten-free and allergy-friendly recipes, and homemade dessert recipes!!

We know how hard it can be to reduce waste, save time, and maximize flavor in the kitchen. Here are some quick tips that might make cooking a little less intimidating!

• Run tightly-sealed jars or containers under hot water for a minute or two to loosen the lid.
• Freeze leftover tomato paste in cubes to avoid waste. You’ll have perfect portions for the next time you’re cooking with it!
• Invest in a mezzaluna knife to quickly, safely, and easily chop herbs like cilantro and parsley.
• Clean as you go to save time.
• Roll limes and lemons on the counter before cutting them to release their juices.
• Think of recipes as guidelines, they’re there to help but you can adjust them to fit your needs. For example, if a recipe calls for beef sausage but you’re vegetarian, try switching it out for a plant-based sausage substitute.
• Cover your water as it's boiling to make it boil even faster.
• Shake unpeeled garlic in a container to release the oils and make peeling the garlic easier.
• Cut off the ends of the onion first. Then, slice it in half and peel the rest of the skin off. Slicing the onion should be a lot easier now!
• When you’re cutting veggies, cut in a swooping downward motion with the tip of your knife hitting the cutting board first and the back end of the knife touching the cutting board last.

Look out for our next blog for some delicious, easy on-the-go snack recipes! If you have any kitchen tips you’d like to share with us, please email at hello@gobekids.co or send us a DM on instagram @gobekids.co!

- Sofia, from the GoBe Team