Once you can wrap your mind around the fact that cooking with your kids is really about the journey and not the destination – this took us awhile – it becomes an enjoyable, messy and productive way to while away an afternoon. Plus rumour has it kids tend to eat more and be more adventurous when they help with the cooking. But just because you can accept the mess doesn’t mean you need to embrace it, so why not keep things a little cleaner with mother (or father) and child aprons from Canadian company Lootz Designs?
An apron is an apron is an apron you may be thinking. But Gina Cook, the mum behind Lootz Designs, was inspired to design her aprons with a twist when she started cooking with her daughters. Each apron has a tea towel attached at waist level via Velcro cunningly hidden under stylishly printed band. This means you can whip up a batch of cookies, whip off the tea towel, stick on a new one so and your apron lives to serve another meal without needing a wash.
Not only is this ingenious, it’s also environmentally-friendly as you’re washing fewer aprons – though more tea towels – and you can always use the towels to mop up some of the mess on the counters (or floors) before you throw it in the wash. This means you’re also using fewer paper towels.
The classic apron design which is our favourite – when it comes to cooking with kids the more protection the better – can also be folded down if wearing a half apron is more your style. Our tester tot looked like a very professional sous chef all decked out in her apron and took her role in the kitchen very seriously. Plus we’re pretty sure she washed and dried her hands more than normal because she found the tea towel so fun.
And no matter who the head chef is chez you, you can mix and match aprons from Lootz to kit out everyone in the kitchen. Because somehow matchy matchy isn’t as much of a style faux pas when it involves your tots.
Lootz Design Aprons: lootzdesigns.com
Looking for a little more kitchen inspiration? Then you might like these past yoyos: