Cooking Kids

October 30th is National Candy Corn Day. Today’s a great day to make candy corn treats with the kids, right before Halloween. Candy corn is easily used in regular treats as an add-on. Here are some ideas for using candy corn to celebrate national candy corn day.

Make a batch of Rice Krispie treats and throw in some candy corns.

Make a trail mix with pretzels, nuts, graham cookies and candy corns.

Get a roll of sugar cookie dough and roll it out. Use a triangle cookie cutter or egg shaped cookie cutter and cut out the shapes. While the cookies bake, color white icing yellow and orange with some white left over. After the cookies cool, icing them to look like candy corns.

Roll caramel apples into candy corns.

Vist my recipe for Fall Popcorn that I made with my cooking club for another idea.

Enjoy National Candy Corn Day with these yummy ideas.

I found this recipe in Taste of Home and my family enjoys it. It’s a nice break from the traditional spaghetti or ravioli and sauce. It’s also a great way to use up extra ravioli from dinner. You can cut down on preparation time by substituting the ground beef with a bag of beef ravioli. Just exclude the step about browning the beef.

Ravioli Soup:

1 lb. ground beef

2 C. water

1 (28oz.) can undrained, crushed tomatoes

1 (14.5oz.) can undrained, crushed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste

1 1/2 C. chopped onion

1/4 C. minced parsley

2 minced garlic cloves

3/4 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. oregano, onion salt, sugar, salt

1/4 tsp. pepper and thyme

1 pkg. frozen cheese ravioli

1/4 C. grated parmesan

Cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the water, tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, parsley, garlic and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 30 min.

Cook ravioli. Drain. Add to soup and heat through. Stir in parmesan and serve with crusty garlic bread. Enjoy!

Halloween is right around the corner, and I thought I’d add some easy halloween treats you can make with the kids. I don’t have any pictures of these because we don’t do our halloween cooking until the day before, but these recipes have easy-to-follow directions that are easily visualized. Your recipes are Tombstone Brownies, Magic Potion Punch with Wormy Ice Ring, Jack-O-Lantern Cheese Ball, and Caramel Apples. Enjoy!

Tombstone Brownies:
1 pan of brownies
Pumpkin candies
Green colored coconut
2 Hershey bars
Chocolate icing
White icing

Bake a batch of brownies according to package directions. Once cooled, ice them with the chocolate icing. Cut them into rectangles and put them on a platter. Let your kids help tint coconut with green food coloring. While waiting for the food coloring to soak in, break apart the Hershey bar into individual pieces. Using white icing, pipe the letters RIP onto each rectangle, in a diagonal pattern. Put a little patch of dyed coconut on one corner of the brownie. Place a pumpkin candy on top. Put the headstone chocolate piece above the coconut grass. Those are tombstone brownies.

Magic Potion Punch:
1 C. boiling water
2 packages of lime flavored gelatin (or any flavor you prefer)
3 C. cold water
1 1/2 qts. Sprite
1/2 C. sugar

Pour boiling water over gelatin in punch bowl. Stir until dissolved. Stir in cold water, Sprite and sugar. Stir well; mixture will foam for a bit. Float the Wormy Ice Ring in the center (recipe follows.)

Wormy Ice Ring:
1 C. gummi worms
1 Qt. of bright yellow Gatorade. (If you use a yellow gelatin for the punch, choose a different colored Gatorade. The punch and ice ring colors need to contrast.)

Arrange gummi worms in a ring mold. Fill with Gatorade. Freeze until solid, about 8 hours. Unmold and float in Magic Potion Punch.

Jack-O-Lantern Cheese Ball
2 C. shredded cheddar
1/2 package cream cheese
1/4 C. pumpkin
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 pretzel rod broken in half
Black olives
Red pepper
Dark bread

Beat cheeses, pumpkin and spices until smooth. Cover and chill 2 to 3 hours. Shape mixture into a round pumpkin and place on a platter. Using a knife, score vertical lines down the pumpkin. Place the pretzel rod in the top for a stem. Cut a piece of the dark bread into triangles for eyes, a square red pepper nose, and slice olives for the mouth. Serve with crackers and vegetables.

Halloween Caramel Apples
1 package of caramels
1 C. mini marshmallows
1 tbsp. water
5 or 6 apples
Candy corns, red cinnamons, jelly beans, licorice, chocolate chips, nuts and sprinkles for decoration

Place a sheet of wax paper on a baking pan. Combine caramels, marshmallows and water in a pan. Cook over medium until caramels melt. Insert wooden sticks into washed apples. Dip apples into the caramel mixture and place on wax paper. Decorate with desired toppings and refrigerate until firm.

We have a favorite dessert that I guess would count as a soup. It’s really simple to make, and since it’s chocolate kids love it. I don’t make it often because it is so decadent, but it’s great for a valentine’s dessert or, coming up, a halloween dessert. I serve it with fresh fruit for dipping, but it could be eaten straight from the bowl if your stomach can handle it.

Chocolate Soup Recipe:

1 jar of hot fudge topping, slightly warmed

1/2 C. caramel topping or 1/2 bag of caramels, melted

1 C. cream

Heat the hot fudge and caramel in a small pan. When warmed through, add the cream. Heat until smooth and creamy. Spoon into small bowls and serve with fresh fruit. If you like a thicker soup, reduce the amount of cream. Enjoy!

This soup is a great way to use up leftover cooked chicken and rice. If your kids don’t like spicy foods too much, just leave out the green chilies or only put in half. The best part of this meal is that if you keep these ingredients on hand, you can whip this up in no time after a long day.

 2 Cans of chicken broth

3 C. cooked rice

2 C. cooked chicken

2 tbsp. cilantro

1 Can corn

1 Can V8

1 C. salsa

1 can green chilies

1/2 C. green onions

1/2 C. cheddar

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and serve. This is tasty and quick!

My kids’ cooking club was this last Friday and our theme was pumpkins and popcorn. The kids had a blast with this theme because the food was sweet and easy to make. Here’s what we made:
S’mores Popcorn:
1 bag of popcorn
1 box of teddy grahams
1 bag of mini marshmallows
1 bag mini chocolate chips

Supply all ingredients in separate bowls on the table. Give the kids a plastic bag and let them mix all the ingredients together. Have them shake the bag to mix it up. (This was the favorite part)

Fall Popcorn
1 bag of popcorn
1 bag of mixed fall candy (candy corns, pumpkins etc.)
1 jar marshamallow creme

Supply ingredients in separate bowls, or if you have a large group, pass the candy bag around and let each kid pour a little into the large bowl. Put all ingredients in a bowl, cover with marshmallow creme, and refrigerate while you make the rest of the food. This is also a good recipe for popcorn balls that doesn’t require cooking, just make it ahead of time and let the kids shape it. I sent this snack home in a baggie with the kids.

Pumpkin Spice Spread:
1 pkg. softened cream cheese
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. canned pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 container Cool Whip

Put all ingredients except Cool Whip into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip and serve with cinnamon bread or other breakfast type bread. I gave each kid an ingredient to put in the bowl, beat it myself, and then had two more kids fold in the Cool Whip.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
1 pkg. prepared sugar cookies
Orange icing
Candy corns
M&M’s
Mini chocolate chips

I saved some of the chocolate chips and candy corns from the fall popcorn recipe for this. Give each kid a cookie, plastic spoon with icing, and the candies. Let them decorate a pumpkin (or anything they want.)

That was what we did for pumpkins and popcorn. Next month’s theme is turkey tracks.
Here’s a pic from our club:

I’m helping organize a baby shower this weekend and made my first edible fruit bouquet. I’m quite proud of it, even considering that my husband’s opinion when he first saw it was that it looked like it had spiky hair. I asked him for his honest opinion….I guess I just forgot to say an honest, ‘mature’ response. My son said it was awesome and then asked me how long until I finished the cake. Ummmm…..I guess the fresh fruit all over the place was overpowered by the colors, making him think it was a cake??? I don’t know. Either way, I’m proud of it and I think it looks pretty and yummy, so I just wanted to share.

I found this recipe in Fun Food Magazine and the picture looks appetizing. While I haven’t tried this recipe yet, I think it’s something kids and adults will enjoy. I think I might take out the ham and replace it with shredded chicken, because my husband doesn’t care for ham.

Recipe:
1 pkg. deluxe macaroni and cheese
9 cups water, divided
1-2 cups broccoli florets
2 tbsp. onion
1 can cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
2 1/2C. milk
1 C. chopped ham or favorite meat

Bring 8 cups of the water to a boil and cook macaroni 8-10 minutes. In another pan, bring remaining water to a boil. Add broccoli and onion, cook 3 minutes. Stir in soup, milk, meat and contents of cheese sauce packet from macaroni and cheese into broccoli and onion. Heat through. Drain macaroni, stir into soup. Serve with crusty bread.

Here’s a fun recipe for halloween punch. Since Halloween falls on a Friday this year, more parties will probably be taking place the actual day of Halloween. These little pumpkin punches are a cute and fun way to serve drinks at a kids’ party. Plus, your kids can help create them.

Recipe:

12 oz. can orange juice

1 C. water

2 C . milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. sugar

20 ice cubes

Hollowed out oranges for drinking cups

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender, including any orange pulp you want in the punch. (Adding orange is optional).  Let your kids draw jack -o- lantern faces on the orange shells, using a black marker. This can also be a Halloween party activity right before you serve the food. Fill the oranges with the juice and serve with a straw. This recipe can serve about a dozen kids. Cut it in half if you have fewer people.

Salad and bread are great side dishes for a meal of soup. One recipe that’s easy for kids to help make is seasoned breadsticks. By using a can of breadstick dough, you cut the preparation time and make it easy for kids to help. The next time you plan on making soup, don’t forget to grab a can of breadsticks.

Recipe:

1 or 2 cans of breadstick dough

Melted butter

Favorite seasonings such as garlic powder/salt, onion powder/salt, basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, seasoned salt, and salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven according to package directions. Open the can of breadsticks and unroll them. Have your kids help twist each breadstick into a spiral and place on a greased baking sheet. Let them brush melted butter over each breadstick. Sprinkle your favorite seasonings over the breadsticks and bake. For a real assortment, use a variety of seasonings. Serve the breadsticks standing up in a round container for visual appeal.