Getting messy with Persil

Hi all,

A few weeks back me, midge and modge embarked on a quest of culinary excellence thanks to help launch Persil's Cook With The Kids 2015 campaign, their yearly promotion to get encourage both parents and children to put down the electronic devices and get cooking together, learn independence skills and have great and messy fun, because you can't have fun without making mess!

The event, was hosted at the prestigious Maggie and Rose in Kensington by the Persil team, Prudence Staite to create a food homage in celebration of Alice in Wonderland's 150th anniversary and the lovely Fiona from Toddler Chef, to teach the kids to make some yummy food and inspired to go home, make some creative food and tasty treats no matter the state of the kitchen afterwards.

The children were paired up into two teams ready to do what kids do best - having messy fun! Our little group started with the homage while the younger team learnt how to cook Sweet Potato, Apple & Cinnamon Pancakes and also  Cheese & Salmon Lunch box Scones, with sneaky added greens. 

Armed with breakfast, tea, fruit juice and a room full of happy children we set off paired up ready to do what kids do best, making a mess while having lots of fun, our little group started with the homage, the scene pulled straight from the pages of Alice in Wonderland and created in fruit, veg and chocolate outlines, presented as a blank canvas for the children to create come colourful yet tasty art, full of flavour and tasting was encouraged too!
I know Vee and Lissy were nibbling as was everyone else. I'm not going to complain, fresh fruit and veg are important to a child's development and meant less on the floor too. (OK - who swapped my girls for tidy lumps? - All parents in the universe!!)

Once they'd partially completed the Murial and the other team had made pancakes and scones, the children got to pile together, have lunch with the pancakes and scones, colour in and chat about their experiences I took a look around in wonder at all the amazingly wonderful things on the shelves.
I must say Maggie and Rose, has a beautiful layout and décor that I can only describe as photogenically beautiful and a fantastically family friendly, giving it a homely welcoming feeling backed up by lovely staff and the Persil team.

Once refilled the kids regrouped and our little team took to the kitchen to make scones, pancakes and try come fantastic fruit and veg smoothies. I've never hidden the fact Lissy is fussy when it comes to veg, until this day when she tried some drinks with veg inside them - she loved it and went back for more. A proud moment for any parent of a fussy child (and I'm prouder to report it's kick-started her to try more!)

Fiona and her husband were on such a level with the children the kitchen was awash with mess and smiles, perfect for any growing child, encouraging the older kids to flip pancakes and thanks to Vee I had the chance to flip some too, once I get my camera back I'll upload the videos and photos to Flickr and YouTube from this, but the children loved cooking, making mess and having a huge laugh with lots of other children. 

Persil's Cook With The Kids campaign was created to encourage parents to let children in the kitchen and learn or nurture their independence and culinary skills. And, to help with this they are giving away some awesome rewards with promoted packs, meaning children have the chance to take home chef hats, colourful whisks, silicone cupcake cases as well as vouchers from Haven holidays and a £250 supermarket prize draw to help your children flourish in the kitchen.

We've been in the kitchen ourselves, letting the girls make cupcakes, help with curry and they even want to try bread-making next. On top of this they've began to learn how to respect appliances, and dangerous items like knives and the such. Skills all children need to learn from an early stage to help them flourish later on in life. The team from Persil told me: "We believe that mess equals worry-free fun."
I believe this to be true and mess should be encouraged for both children and adults, after all a mess can be cleaned up but the happy memory of making the mess will live on with you forever. And much, much more fun than staring at a tablet (this coming from a tech parent blogger!!)

For more information and recipes from Persil's Cook With The Kids and to get your hands on some fantastic goodies click here and take part.

Paul!

(Sidenote: Nametags blurred on press photos for privacy) 

Messy fun and the Cook with the Kids Promise

Evening all.

Recently me and Lissy took a trip to London to visit the OXO Tower with Persil and learn more about the Persil Cook With The Kids Promise. A campaign to help get messy with your children, have lots of fun and make some tasty treats you can all be proud of without worrying about the mess afterwards.

I was a sad to see the results of a Persil and LMRMC survey of 2000 parents, this showed that that 88% of parents would avoid cooking with their children because of the mess and washing up involved.
47% of parents would prefer to keep their kitchen clean and tidy ‘at all times’ on top of that a further 41% said they are simply too busy to clear up the mess afterwards.

However sad that sounds It was good to see I'm in the 12% of parents who don't worry about the mess involved while cooking with the kids and a quarter of parents actively spend time cooking with the kids Maybe this is a sign of change as cooking at home for me was always the apparent complaint of mess, then again I used EVERY pot and pan in the house when younger!

With this in mind Persil and the Cookie Crumbles team set the day up with the emphasis on messy cooking fun by showing the kids how to make a pizza from scratch in a huge group the paired the children up together. Lissy was paired with another girl and with the help Cookie Crumbles team they both created amazing pizza bases. With Lissy's being star shaped, topped with cheese and a generous helping of ham it was one of many amazing shaped pizza's created that day.

Next Lissy teamed up with the lovely Ruby from Me and My shadow to decorate and eat yummy cupcakes, well I say yummy, I never got to try them (thanks girls,) guzzle lots of juice and play while waiting for their pizzas to be ready.

After pizzas, drawing and lots more play the kids got into small bodysuits, resembling minions. Hyper little minions as they prepared for the peak of the day for many of the children. The Food Fight.

This was set up with a plethora of food ready for sploshing on each other. The kids had fun getting messy, even if Lissy got grumpy for getting her hair messy.

We had a great day with Persil. And to make good on out promise to cook more with the children we'll be uploading some videos of me, my partner and the girls having fun, making mess and baking yummy goodness soon and will even show the clean-up too if wanted.

Persil aim to get 100,000 parents to sign up to spend time baking and making a mess with their kids.
For more information about the Cook with the Kids promise, and to pledge your promise click here You'll receive a free Cook with the kids downloadable pack and you also get the chance to win the ultimate children's party worth £500 too!
Also if anyone wants to join us in making mess with your children I'll be happy to add photos here and link to your blog, twitter, instagram, facebook or molome!


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Disclaimer - We were invited by Persil to attend the event and Lissy received a goody bag