I may be a papa, but I love Cooking Mama, the video-game series that lets you slice, dice, mix and match raw ingredients into all manner of culinary creations, most of which can be easily carried over into a real-world kitchen. (The Wii version even has its own set of virtual chef's tools.)
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends ($29.99; pictured) ups the gameplay to include a competition in which your dishes are taste-tested and judged by a group of digital foodies, although if you select the easier "Cook With Mama" mode, it becomes much more forgiving: Botch a recipe, and Mama steps in to help you fix it.
If only I could get my kids to eat half as adventurously as they cook in these games, I might never have to look at food in nugget form again.
