Lynn's Kitchen Adventures » Cooking With Kids

Easy Valentine’s Day Fudge

Lynn — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:14:18 +0000

When I say this is easy Valentine’s Day Fudge, I really do mean it is easy. So, easy that it only contains 3 ingredients. Four if you include the sprinkles for decorating.

I was recently looking for a quick and easy Valentine’s Day recipe for my kids to make. I wanted it to be easy enough for them to make on their own, but cute enough that they would really enjoy making and eating it, they are kids after all.

I immediately thought of my candy bar fudge and how we could adapt it for Valentine’s Day. My daughter has made the quick and easy candy bar fudge many times, so I knew she could easily make it.

She gave making it into heart shapes a try and it worked great. She had so much fun making it and it turned out perfect!

This is the plateful that we sent to my husband’s office. Everyone loved it and it turned out so cute. All we did was place the little fudge hearts that she made in mini cupcake liners and we had our own little box/plate of chocolates. So cute!

All she did for this was take my basic easy fudge recipe, (recipe at the end of this post) and spread it out onto a cookie sheet that had been lined with parchment paper. For the strawberry version she simply used white chocolate chips and strawberry frosting and spread it out on a different cookie sheet. Then you sprinkle with any sprinkles or decorations that you want to use.

Be careful not to spread it to thin or it will be hard to cut into shapes. Place it in the refrigerator for about an hour or two.

Once it is set up, use heart shaped cookie cutters to cut into shapes.

We made a couple of different sizes since she wanted small and large hearts, but really any size will work. And my daughter kind of just randomly put sprinkles on them because we wanted a few different looks for them, but again anything works here.

You have to be carefully when cutting these and removing them from the cookie cutter, not all the hearts turned out perfect, but that is okay, my kids gladly ate those.

Place on a plate or place in a small box and give away a simple box of homemade chocolates. So cute and so good!

Enjoy!

Easy Valentine’s Day Fudge

1 teaspoon butter
2 cups chocolate chips or white chocolate chips for strawberry fudge
1 can (16 ounce) chocolate or strawberry frosting
sprinkles for decorating

Line a cookie sheet or large pan with parchment paper. Grease the foil and set aside.
Melt chocolate chips and butter. (We do this in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted)
Stir in frosting until well combined.
Spread onto pan that has been lined with parchment paper and decorate with sprinkles if using. Refrigerate for 1-2 hrs.
Cut using cookie cutters.
Serve and enjoy!

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Velvety Sugar Cookies

Lynn — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:51:21 +0000

My sisters and I have fond memories of making sugar cookies when we were kids. We always made them during the holidays. We enjoy making them, cutting them out, frosting them, and of course eating them.

My mom never looked for perfection in the sugar cookies we made. She let us have fun and be creative while making them. They may not have been the prettiest cookies, but we always had so much fun.

Today, my sister Evie is sharing a recipe today that has been a family favorite for many years. We have all made this recipe many times. I hope you enjoy it also.

One of the few holiday traditions I remember from childhood is baking and decorating sugar cookies. There was always something special about rolling out the dough, mixing up different colored frostings, and decorating cookies.

Since my own daughter is only four months old, I usually borrow my best friend’s kids to help me with my holiday sugar cookies. I know that some people prefer to have perfectly decorated cookies. However, I love the fun in letting kids decorate them however they want. I make a traditional butter cream recipe and let the kids have at it.

My sister, Flora, adapted this from a Taste of Home recipe years ago and we’ve been making it ever since. The addition of cream cheese makes these cookies extra soft and delicious.

Cookies lovingly decorated by kids.

Velvety Sugar Cookies

2 c. unsalted butter
1 8oz. pk. cream cheese
2 c. sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
4 ½ c. flour, plus extra for rolling out
Frosting and sprinkles, optional

Cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth.
Add sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Mix well.
Gradually add flour. Stir until combined. Dough will be slightly sticky.
Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Roll dough out on a floured surface until about a quarter inch think. Cut into shapes.
Place on a lightly greased, or lined baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until just barely starting to brown. Do not over bake.
Cool and frost if desired.

Butter Cream Frosting

3 ½ c. powdered sugar
2 TB. butter, softened
1 TB shortening
½ tsp. vanilla
3-4 TB milk, divided
Food coloring

Combine 1 ½ c. sugar, butter, shortening, vanilla, and 3 TB milk. Beat until smooth.
Gradually add remaining sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
Add enough remaining milk and food coloring until frosting reaches desired consistency.

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Apple Nachos

Lynn — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:53:26 +0000

This recipe is adapted from an Apple Nacho Recipe I saw in a recent Taste Of Home magazine. However, I really adapted the recipe and made it much more simple.

The original recipe had you making your own caramel sauce, which you could do, but I took the easy way out and opened a jar of caramel topping and my kids never knew the difference.

My family loved these. It is really not a recipe, especially once I omitted the homemade caramel sauce. This is really one of those things you can just adapt. Add the toppings that you want or take off the ones you do not want.

This is also a great dish or snack for kids to make. It is so easy and they will feel like they accomplished a lot. Not only that they love to eat the results.

Apple Nachos

Sliced apples
Caramel topping, warmed slightly to make it thinner
mini chocolate chips
marshmallows, nuts, raisins, etc (optional)

Place apples on a plate or platter, top with chocolate chips, and any other toppings you choose. Drizzle caramel topping all over.

Enjoy!

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Creamy Scrambled Eggs

Lynn — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:28:50 +0000

My ten year old daughter has been in the cooking mood again. When she heard me say that we were having breakfast for dinner she immediately asked if she could pick the recipe.

I am so glad that she is showing an interest in cooking and I am trying to just go with it when she asks to help. I was not in a hurry, so I decided it would be a great night for her to help cook dinner.

She spent some time looking through a few kids cookbooks that we have and she choose the Super Creamy Scrambled Eggs from the Southern Living: Kids Cookbook.

This is one of her favorite cookbooks. Southern Living did a great job on this book. The directions are easy, yet complete. The pictures are great and the recipes are for food that both kids and parents will enjoy.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs

6 eggs
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 ounces of cream cheese, cut into small cubes
1 Tablespoon butter
Salt to taste.

Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl and stir in cream cheese.

Melt butter in an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Pour in egg mixture. Cook without stirring, until mixture begins to set on bottom.

Slowly drag spatula across bottom of pan to form large pieces of cooked egg.

Continue cooking until eggs are thickened and firm throughout, but still moist. Salt to taste.

Serve and enjoy!

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Yogurt Pops

Lynn — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:41:50 +0000

My ten year old daughter has really taken an interest in cooking lately. She has asked several times recently if she could look through my cookbooks just to see what she could find. I think I may just have a fellow foodie in my daughter.

All too often though, I am in a hurry in the kitchen, and don’t take the time to let my kids cook with me as much as I should.

So, one of the things that I have been trying to do is to let them pick things that they want to cook. Instead of helping me cook something that I choose, I let them choose something that we can cook together.

My daughter recently came to me after looking through Paula Deen’s My First Cookbook for kids (which my girls love), and asked if she could make the yogurt pops that were in the book.

I looked at the recipe and knew this would be an easy and fun recipe for us to make. After thinking about it though I decided to let her tackle this one alone. She was thrilled to be able to cook something without me even being near the kitchen and I was thrilled to let her.

These really were easy and she did a great job on them. A child much younger could easily tackle these without much help.

These actually are great for anyone to make. They are a quick, easy, frugal, and healthy snack for kids.

We did these in small paper cups and used popsicle sticks because my daughter wanted to follow the directions exactly, but if you have popsicle type molds those would also work well.

Yogurt Pops

One 8-ounce carton of yogurt, any flavor ( we prefer vanilla)
½ cup orange juice
1 Tablespoon honey

1. Into a bowl, stir together the yogurt, orange juice, and honey. Pour the mixture into 3-ounce paper cups or popsicle mold.

2. Place in the freezer. If using small cups you may need to set the cups into a pan and you will need to check on the yogurt cups in about an hour. When they have begun to freeze, put the stick in the center of each one.

4. When they are solid and ready to eat, just peel the cup away or remove from popsicle container and enjoy.

5. You can also just freeze the yogurt in the cup with no stick and eat it with a spoon, like an Italian ice. Let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before you start eating so it’s not so hard.

Makes six pops.

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Cooking With Kids

Lynn — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:09:54 +0000

I have not done a cooking with kids post recently. The kids have been helping a lot in the kitchen, but I have not done a lot of specific recipes with them.

My 11 year old daughter however did make dinner for us recently. She made us tostadas. It was a great recipe for her to make for dinner because it is a crockpot meal. The only thing she had to cook was the ground beef.

I think easy recipes like this are the best recipes to use when kids are starting to cook full meals. If you have them make something complicated or with a lot of ingredients it will be overwhelming for them.

If you start with a simple and easy meal, they can make it quickly and they won’t get discouraged with the job. And in the end they will have great feeling of accomplishment knowing they made the whole meal.

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Cooking With Kids

Lynn — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:02:00 +0000

It is summer time, are your kids bored? I think all kids get bored at some point over the summer. They wait and wait for it to arrive and when it does they don’t know what to do with all the time they have. They no longer have a schedule or routine. So, let’s give them something to do.

One of the things that works for us is cooking with the kids. My girls are really enjoying learning how to cook. I thought I would share one of their favorite deserts to fix. Now this is not really cooking, but they feel like it is. They think it is great that they “cooked” desert for the family.

This is easy and my kids love to fix it and especially enjoy eating it.

You need:

graham crackers
chocolate bars
small marshmallows
peanut butter, this is optional, some in my family like it, some don’t.

Place a square or two of chocolate on graham cracker.

Place marshmallow on top of chocolate.

Place another graham cracker on top and cook in microwave for 20-30 seconds or until marshmallows are soft and chocolate has started to melt. This will vary with different microwaves.

Now enjoy!

If you like peanut butter, spread peanut butter on graham cracker and then place chocolate on top of peanut butter. I prefer it without the peanut butter, but my husband and kids like it with peanut butter.

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Cooking With Kids

Lynn — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:29:00 +0000

This is how molasses cookies are supposed to look.

My daughter and I made molasses cookies or should I say we tried to make molasses cookies, the other day. We were working on them together and were enjoying making them. We were even playing around a little. We were having fun, but not paying attention.

When I took the first batch of cookies out of the the oven they did not look like the picture above. They had run all over the pan and were not getting done. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. My daughter and I looked over the recipe and realized that we had left something out. That something was baking soda. A very important ingredient.

This is one of the problems with cooking with kids or with one or more people working on the same dish. You think they put something in, and they think you did. In the end it never gets put in.

We ate the cookies. They were not great, but they were edible. We did have a fun afternoon and I am glad we made them. But my tip is pay attention when cooking with kids.

It is easy to get distracted and forget something. It is really important when cooking with kids that you check over the recipe with the kid/kids that are helping to make sure that all the ingredients got put in. This will insure much better results.

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Cooking With Kids

Lynn — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Today I want to talk about having fun in the kitchen while cooking with kids. This is something I have been trying to get better at. I am trying hard to relax a little and let the kids be kids, even when it comes to cooking.
Last week I decided to make some brownies. My six-year old son wanted to help. My daughters usually beat him to the kitchen to help me, but both my daughters were busy doing other things. So, I decided it would be a good time to have just him help me.

As we were putting the brownies together my son decided he thought we should put marshmallows on top. He thought this was a brilliant plan and nothing I said, or other things I suggested, would change his mind.

To be honest, this particular day I really wanted/needed some chocolate. That is why I wanted to make brownies, after all. But my idea of a nice brownie is not one that has marshmallows on top. Since I could not convince him that they would be better left alone or maybe with chocolate chips sprinkled on top, I gave in to the marshmallows.

I baked them like I normally would and when they were done I let him sprinkle marshmallows on top. I put them back in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt a little and then let the cool.
That night when we had dessert he was so proud of the brownies that he made. He told everyone that it was his idea to put marshmallows on top. He probably would have eaten the whole pan if I had let him. He was that happy with them. It was then that I realized it had been worth it to let him be creative in the kitchen.

No these were not the best brownies that I ever made or helped make. They were extremely messy, gooey and hard to eat. But my son loved them. And even those these were not my favorite brownies to eat, the memory that my son and I will have of making these brownies will last forever.

So lets work on letting our kids be creative in the kitchen. You may not create the best dishes, but you will create some great memories. It sure works for me.

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Cooking With Kids-Making Peanut Butter

Lynn — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:38:00 +0000

I finally have a fairly healthy cooking with kids recipe. My kids loved this recipe. We made this yesterday and it was a fun afternoon project. My kids all thought it was so fun.

I liked it because I think it helps them relate to food better. My son was thrilled to find out peanut butter comes from real peanuts. I guess he had not put the two together. I guess it might be kind of like not knowing steak comes from a cow or eggs from a chicken. So, not only was this fun it was educational.
I found this recipe in the Paula Deen cookbook that my daughter received for Christmas. She has been begging me to let her cook from this cookbook. I have not had much time to cook, let alone cook with my kids. This week though I was determined to cook something with my kids. This recipe was the one we choose.

I was not sure if my kids would like this one. I knew it would be different from store bought, but my kids loved it. My daughter thought it tasted better than those that you buy. I also thought it was very good. It does have a different texture, but it was really good. I think this would be expensive to make all the time, but it was nice to have peanut butter tasting so natural. My husband though, the peanut butter lover of the family, said store bought is better. He is not a fan of the natural kinds of peanut butter so I expected this.

Here is what we did.

Homemade Peanut Butter

2 cups peanuts
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt ( this will vary depending on whether you use salted or unsalted peanuts)

Place ingredients into a food processor. Mix until you have peanut butter. When the processor was mixing I was doubting that this was going to work right. It was not coming together, then all the sudden it did. It just took time. We ended up mixing for several minutes. We spread this on apples. I placed the remaining amount in a bowl and it did separate over time, but a quick stir and it is fine.

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I think this would be good with a little honey mixed in it. I think I will try that and spread it on toast. Yummy!

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