Cooking Kids

This recipe is a play I did on a chicken and biscuits recipe that I didn’t think had any flavor the first time I tried it. Everyone really liked this recipe, and my son said it reminds him of chicken and dumplings without having to pick out the vegetables. I don’t know about you, but I love cooking hardy meals in the wintertime, and this one fits the bill.

Chicken and Biscuits:

3 to 4 chicken breasts, cut up and browned in a pan

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 can of biscuits

Garlic powder

Basil

Lemon Pepper seasoning

Milk

Cook the chicken until pretty much cooked through. It’s fine if it’s still a little pink because it will finish cooking in the oven. Pour the chicken into a casserole dish and sprinkle with garlic powder, basil and lemon pepper seasoning. I didn’t measure the seasonings, so just season to taste. Then pour both soups into a bowl and add enough milk so that the soup is slightly creamy. Pour this over the seasoned chicken. Place the biscuits on top and cook for 30 minutes at 375*. If your biscuits don’t cook through on the bottom, increase the heat to 400* and move the casserole dish to your lowest rack. I’ve found that depending on the biscuit, some cook through and some need longer for the bottom. The flaky layer biscuits seem to need longer than regular biscuits. We also liked letting the tops of the biscuits get pretty brown, which gave them a nice crispy texture with soft biscuit underneath. Let this set for 5 minutes and serve with a favorite vegetable.

This is my favorite month to use cooking as a teaching tool. We are saving most of our christmas cookie baking for the later part of the month, after the kids’ grandma gets into town. However, we will have the occasional Christmas treat to whip up for friends before then.

There are a few basics I cover when teaching with baking:

• Measuring
• Estimating
• Counting
• Size and shape

Although my daughter is only 3, I work with her on measuring flour, sugar, milk and oil correctly. With my son, who is 8, I hand him the cups and tell him what is needed. Actually this year he’ll probably read the recipes on his own. We also work on estimating because for some recipes I might add or take away certain ingredients, but I don’t use any form of measurement. So they learn to eyeball and ingredient and know whether it’s too much or too little. Of course counting cookies and sorting decorations is just plain fun. Hope this gives you some ideas for bringing education into your Christmas cookie baking this year.

This is the last week to enter the christmas cookie recipe contest. All you need to do is visit This Blog Post and type your recipe into the comments section. Right now there is only one recipe entered, so lets get some competition going. The winner gets a $10 Walmart gift card.

Speaking of cookies, this month will have lots of cookie recipes to help you and your kids have a yummy time in the kitchen this holiday season. I have a cookie exchange coming up this weekend, so I’ll be trying plenty of new recipes and scoping out which ones are kid friendly. It’s time to get your cookie on!!

I had my monthly kids’ cooking club on Friday. The theme was Turkey Tracks and the kids had a blast. The recipes were cut out turkey sandwiches, turkey track crackers and turkey cupcakes. This was one of the most time-intensive cooking club I’ve done so far. I got the idea for the turkey cupcakes from Family Fun magazine,  and while the idea of wrapping fruit leather around toothpicks sounds easy, I didn’t think about the fact that I don’t have a crew of 30 to help me out. So I spent about 2 hours wrapping Fruit Roll-Ups around toothpicks so that each kid could have about 5 feathers, for a total of 50 feathers. We changed up the recipe a little bit, since the original turkey cupcakes called for cutting fruit leather into gobbler shapes. I used red Tic-Tacs instead.

Here’s the recipes and a couple pics from our cooking club:

Turkey Cut-Out Sandwiches:

I provided two slices of bread, 4 pieces of turkey, and filled cups with mayo and mustard, just in case some kids liked those toppings. Then the kids made the sandwich and used a cookie cutter of their choice to cut out their sandwich.

Turkey Track Crackers:

I provided each kid with two large, round butter cracker and squirted some Cheez-Whiz in the middle of each. They spread the cheese around and then used chow mein noodles to create a turkey foot on each cracker. While they enjoyed making them, most of them took the noodles off before eating the cracker.

Turkey Cupcakes:

Make a batch of chocolate cupcakes. Provide a cup of chocolate icing, 1 Nutter-Butter cookie, 2 mini chocolate chips, 1 red Tic-Tac, colored icing in small tubes, feathers made from fruit rollups, rainbow Twizzlers, or rainbow Airheads.

Have the kids spread the chocolate icing on the cupcake. Then have them dab two spots of icing on the Nutter Butter to make the turkey’s eyes. Place the chocolate chips on the icing. Add a dab of icing to the nose area and attach the gobbler. Push the Nutter-Butter half way through the cupcake. Add the feathers and enjoy.

To make the feathers:

Cut Fruit Roll Ups into angled feather shapes and pull apart. Wrap around toothpicks and form. You can also use rainbow Twizzlers, if you can find them. I also used sour rainbow Airheads by threading them through a toothpick. I gave each kid 5 fruit leather feathers and 2 Airhead feathers. I’m using a new camera and I’m still learning how to best upload with it, so here are the pics, or at least links to some pics:

Turkey Cupcake

After having a fairly good response to my no-bake cookie contest a few months ago, it’s time for the Christmas Cookie Contest. Since it’s holiday time and everyone needs a few extra dollars, the winner of the Christmas Cookie Contest will get a $10.00 Wal-mart gift card. Here are the rules:

The Christmas Cookie Contest runs from Tuesday, November 18th to Monday December 8th. Enter any kid-friendly christmas cookie recipe by December 8th to be eligible for the prize. Put your cookie recipe into the comments section. The kids and I will be trying the cookie recipes as they roll in, taking a picture and posting each to the blog. We are judging based on taste and texture, but overall we’re looking for something that is fun for kids to make. Overly complicated Christmas cookies aren’t what we’re looking for. Please make sure the recipe you enter isn’t already entered. If there are duplicate recipes, the first person to submit will be chosen and the other posters can submit a different recipe, if they like.

The winner will be announced on or around December 10th, unless there are no last minute cookie recipes, in which case the winner will be announced on December 9th. I will contact the winner and mail the $10.00 Walmart gift card ASAP, so you have it in time for last-minute holiday shopping. Make sure you have a valid email address associated with your recipe comment so you don’t miss out.

I hope you’ll enter. I look forward to trying some great Christmas cookies aimed at kids.

This giveaway/contest is being run by the independent writer of Cookingkids.today.com and has not been reviewed or endorsed by the webhost, Today.com

Here’s the food joke for the week with a Thanksgiving twist. If you’ve tired of the traditional giving thanks before the meal, try some of these tips:

1. At the end of the meal, turn to your mom and say, “See mom, I told you they wouldn’t notice that the turkey was six months past the expiration date. You were worried for nothing.”

2. When everyone says what they are thankful for, say, “I’m thankful no one ever found the body” and refuse to say anything more.

3. Fill your plate, then take it to the kitchen, toss it all in the blender, and take your “shake” back to the table.

4. Prepare a 30-minute speech to give when asked about your thankfulness. If necessary, insist that no one leave or eat until you have finished the speech.

5. Invite a friend that only talks about the tragic and abusive conditions known to exist at turkey farms. Request that he or she bring photos or a news article.

6. Seem relieved that the orange brown color of the pumpkin pie masks the fact that you cut your finger and were bleeding everywhere while making it.
 

7. Come to the table dressed as a pilgrim. Half way through dinner, change your clothes and return to the table dressed like an Indian.

This snack is great for the lunch box, especially if you send some turkey pinwheels as the main course. Use this snack as a special treat right before the kids get out of school for Thanksgiving break. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pinwheels

1 large flour tortilla

1/2 C. pumpkin pie filling

A handful of chocolate chips

Spiced walnuts/pecans (optional)

Spread the pumpkin pie filling over the tortilla. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips. Add the optional nuts, if you like. Roll the tortilla tightly and slice it every 1 inch or so. Add a little extra pumpkin pie filling to any pinwheel that isn’t sealed at the edges. Send these in a plastic container so they don’t get squashed.

We tried a recipe the other day at our playgroup that was absolutely delicious. It’s a great alternative to the traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. So if you like pumpkin stuff but don’t care for pie, try this mousse. With the nutty topping, you don’t even miss the crust of a pie. And it has the little kid stamp of approval. My daughter, and all her little 2 to 4 year old friends, gobbled it down.

Praline Pumpkin Mousse

1 c cold milk

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

2 pkg. (4-serving size each) Jell-o Vanilla flavor Instant Pudding and Pie Filling

1 1/4 t pumpkin pie spice

2 c thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

1/2 c chopped pecans

1 T butter, melted

1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar

Beat milk, pumpkin, dry pudding mixes and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl with wire whisk 2 min. or untl well blended.  (Mixture will be thick.)  Gently stir in whipped topping.  Spoon into 10 dessert glasses.

Refrierate 4 hours or until set.  Meanwhile, toss pecans with butter and sugar.  Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Sprinkle pecan mixture over desserts just before serving.  Store leftovers in refrigerator.

I don’t know how many of you have seen the newer high fructose corn syrup commercials. You know those commercials that tout the good qualities of high fructose corn syrup? I guess it was only a matter of time before the Corn Refiners Assoc. started fighting back. There’s a lot of money to be lost if people start demanding that their foods be sweetened with natural sugar, rather than a combination of genetically modified enzymes.

We are not for HFCS in this house. That doesn’t mean we don’t buy products with HFCS, but it does mean I make a conscious effort when shopping to avoid the stuff. If I do buy it, I try to buy products where HFCS is listed from the 5th ingredient on. I look for products sweetened with honey, sugar, brown sugar or cane juice. I don’t care what those commercials say; I’ll never believe that a genetically modified sweetener is just as good for my family as plain old table sugar.

The line in the commercials that really gets me is when they have the person, who is enjoying his or her high fructose corn syrup treat, say that high fructose corn syrup is just fine in moderation. I always laugh at that part because of the word moderation. Considering how many products contain HFCS, I know that families who aren’t conscious of the ingredient are definitely not ingesting it in moderation. It’s in most juice boxes, punches, peanut butters, jellies, candies, breads, sodas and boxed dessert snacks. For a family not conscious of its HFCS consumption, a child’s lunchbox could be nothing but a HFCS goldmine.

So what’s so wrong with high fructose corn syrup? Experts say the jury is still out and there is conflicting evidence of the detriments of HFCS. However, my proof is in the pudding. I used to be an avid Coke drinker. I’m talking at least 6 a day. They never made me full. That’s why I could drink them all day long and continue getting a little bigger each year. When I stopped drinking sodas last year, I switched to sweet tea I make at home. I noticed a huge difference in how I felt. While the sodas did not fill me up, a large glass of sweet tea made with real sugar did. While the sugar isn’t any better in the long run, it does show that ingesting items with real sugar gives your body something to process, hence making it feel full. HFCS lets you just eat and eat or drink and drink to excess because your body isn’t processing it the same way.

If you’re confused about high fructose corn syrup, do a little research and see what’s best for your family. Don’t just believe these new commercials, put out by the people who stand to lose the most $$$$$$ if people stop buying products with HFCS.

I have a recipe that gets both of my carrot hating kids to eat their carrots. They like them so much in fact, they’ve nicknamed them the “Candy Corn Carrots.” They’re simple, quick and something that an older child can help cook.

Candy Corn Carrots:

4-5 large carrots, peeled and cut into circles

1/2 C. packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. butter

Boil carrots just until tender. Drain and put the carrots back into the pan. Put carrots over medium heat and add brown sugar and butter. Stir gently while the butter and sugar melts. Increase heat, if necessary. Sugar and butter should create a sort of syrup for the carrots. Here’s a pic of what our carrots look like:

If you’ve been trying to get your kid to eat carrots, try this recipe and see if they like it. If you have an older child, give them the responsibility of boiling the carrots and melting the sugar and butter.