Showing kids how to eat in an eco-conscious way starts at home, so this week's tips provide fun ideas and teaching moments to enjoy spending time making food with the youngsters in your life.

1. Create Tasty Treats Without Waste

Packaged snacks are so prevalent that sometimes we don’t even notice how much we’re throwing away. To cut down on the waste, provide kid-friendly refreshments that don't require any wrapping at all. Making commonly packaged treats at home is fun, especially if you prepare the foods with your child. Cool off with DIY popsicles, try out some flavorful fruit leather, or get a boost from ecofriendly energy bars.

2. Find a Trusty Cookbook

Making food at home lets us have more control over what we're feeding our families. Plus, homemade food means fewer factory emissions, less packaging, and limiting the harmful chemicals we can ingest with processed foods.

Looking for inspiration? Online cookbooks (think paper-free!), including AllRecipes.com and Cooks.com, offer excellent kid-friendly options. For cooking with children, check out Petit Appetit, a book of organic recipes, Better than Peanut Butter & Jelly, a collection of easy vegetarian recipes, or the classic Betty Crocker kids' cookbook.

3. Bring the Kids Along

Tasks such as picking out produce and meat at the store before preparing a meal offer opportunities to show kids the importance of shopping smart. When you've got children along, explain the difference between organic and nonorganic food and its effects on our bodies and planet. Learning about pesticides can be scary, so show kids how to get clean fruits and vegetables. You can also bring children to a local farm; seeing the plants and animals that we eat is a great reminder, even for adults, that food doesn’t just magically appear at the store.

4. Find Kitchenware for Kids

Help kids get excited about cooking at home by providing them with some items to get them started. Don't go crazy buying new stuff – but if you do buy something new, keep it green. You can visit a thrift store or garage sale to find aprons, keeping an eye out for cast-off cookie cutters. Recycled-aluminum bakeware works well for treats like vegan cookies, and these attractive biodegradable liners make baking organic cupcakes fun. Many of the kitchen tools you already have can be used by children, if they're supervised.