Cooking tasty meals with your children is a wonderful way to bond. Putting them in charge of certain steps not only makes them feel independent, it also helps create long-lasting happy childhood memories.

Here’s a list of six food dishes your kids can help you prepare.

Mini Pancake Cinnamon Rolls

This Mini Pancake Cinnamon recipe from Babble.com makes a quick and easy breakfast. It calls for a stack of thin pancakes (which will give you enough for 4 mini buns), as well as ingredients for the drizzle (maple syrup, cinnamon, sour cream, butter and sugar).

Cut each pancake into four diagonal pieces, rolling them up into mini buns. Then, drizzle them with the maple syrup and cinnamon mixture. Serve and enjoy!

Cottage Cheese Yogurt Parfait

This Cottage Cheese Yogurt Parfait recipe from SimpleBites.net is as simple as it gets. It features fresh fruit, along with maple syrup, cottage cheese, yogurt and granola.

What You’ll Do:

Mix the different fruits with the maple syrup to coat and set aside. Then, mix together the yogurt and the cottage cheese and divide it into four plastic cups. After this is done, have your child help you add in the fruit mixture and sprinkle the top with the granola. Now, it’s time to serve! Refrigerate any leftovers to enjoy later.

Watermelon Blaster

This Watermelon Blaster recipe from MarthaStewart.com is great fun for any child. It is also super simple to make.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Watermelon
• Strawberries
• Fresh lime juice
• Ice cubes and sugar

What You’ll Do:

Cut up all fruits and add them into the blender. Let your child run the blender (with your supervision) and blend for about 15 seconds on high speed. Stir all ingredients with a wooden spoon and the drinks ready to serve.

Easy Beef Tacos

This Easy Beef Taco recipe from BettyCrocker.com makes for an easy and kid-friendly dinner. You’ll have tons of fun preparing these tacos for your next family dinner.

The recipe calls for ground beef, chunky salsa, taco shells, lettuce, tomatoes and cheddar cheese.

Cook ground beef browned and drained. After this is done, stir in salsa and cook for another 5 minutes. Ask your little ones to help by having them add the beef mixture, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese into the taco shell.

Strawberry Brazil Nut Salad

Introduce your kids to salads with this delicious and healthy Strawberry Brazil Nut Salad recipe from Parade.com.

What You’ll Need:

• Strawberries
• Onions
• Basil
• Brazil nuts
• Lettuce
• Orange
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Black pepper

What You’ll Do:

Prepare the strawberries, onions, basil and brazil nuts by slicing them and putting them aside for your child to add to the salad. Help your child combine the lettuce, strawberries, onions, and basil in a small bowl. Let your child squeeze the orange into a small dish, and add in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and pepper. Lastly, combine the salad with the dressing and serve!

Pad Thai

This Pad Thai recipe from Parade.com is perfect for children ages 8-11 years old. You will need rice noodles, olive oil, shallots, scallions, cloves, eggs, fish sauce, oyster sauce, bean sprouts and other ingredients. Fish sauce, oyster sauce and bean sprouts can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Let your child help you soak the rice noodles in a medium. Using a large woke add in oil over medium-high heat. Together, add the shallots and white scallions (sliced) and sauté until shallots begin to brown. Add in the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add in the eggs and scramble quickly until cooked. Have your child add in the noodles, sugar, green scallions, fish and oyster sauce to the wok. Toss all ingredients and cook for 3 more minutes. Have your child help you serve and top each portion with bean sprouts and peanuts. Sprinkle cilantro and place lime wedges with each serving.

Do you enjoy cooking with your little ones? What is your favorite dish to cook together?