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Homemade versus Store Bought #kidsinthekitchen

May 10, 2013 by

My kids are the kings of snacks.  At any point in the day they are asking for food or snacks or even something to drink like chocolate milk. As long as their eating has been balanced during the day I don’t mind indulging in a snack or treat.  My first thought is to reach for something healthy like grapes or trail mix but I also want to give my kids some goodies like cookies sometimes.

I realized that I rarely feel guilty when I’m giving them something homemade.  Chocolate chip cookies that were freshly made in our own home are somehow better for them than packaged.  Maybe the ingredients are basically the same but the fact that they are homemade in OUR home makes them more special. Let’s be honest about something too, homemade always tastes better!

Homemade is Best, #KidsintheKitchen

Sabreena is definitely the cookie baker. I like treats like this Not Quite Caramel Popcorn. It’s something the whole family will eat and not hear a peep out of them.

Not Quite Caramel Corn, #KidsintheKitchen

Did you have fun in the kitchen this week? Did you try a new food or a new restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules
1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature, Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!






Chicken and Rice My Kids Eat #KidsintheKitchen

May 2, 2013 by

Each week I usually feature my kids working on something food related. We’ve played pretend restaurant, colored rice for crafts and even worked on our measuring. This week(which was supposed to be last week’s post)is about how I take 2 simple ingredients and make them my own to serve to my family.
#KidsintheKitchen, getting them to eat chicken
Chicken and Rice tastes so nice. This is the little diddy my family sings when I tell them that’s what we are having for dinner. We eat a lot of chicken. For a couple years all we ate was boneless skinless breasts. They’ve been cooked all different ways with all different sauces and spices. Over the last year I’ve been incorporating more chicken on the bone like thighs and legs. This week i went big and made chicken quarters. This is a large piece of meat; it includes the leg and thigh. Typically I bust out my cast iron pot an give these a really dark crispy skin but since they are so large I had to go the over roasted route.
I quarter 4-5 small onions to give the chicken a place to sit above the juices and fat it will release. Our side was brown rice with Mexican black beans. The onions in the bottom of the pan get eaten too, they are delicious!
raw chicken , kids in the kitchen
I didn’t even get a picture of the kids eating because it was gone so fast. They’ve really embraced the different texture and flavor of the darker meat. It’s way more forgiving when baking too, it stays moist and really just needs salt and pepper for a boost of flavor.
Did you have fun in the kitchen this week? Did you try a new food or a new restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules
1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature, Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!





Prepping before Baking #KidsintheKitchen

April 26, 2013 by

This week for #KidsintheKitchen we worked on organization. Specifically I taught Shae how to get organized when it’s time for baking. Baking is so different than just cooking. Since there is some science involved with baking it’s important to make sure you have all of your ingredients, the right amounts and ready to add. Being unorganized while baking can cause catastrophic results. Skipping over ingredients or adding incorrect measurements can effect taste and texture.

Starting good kitchen habits early on can only with end results and clean up.
Teaching Skills in the Kitchen, #kidsinthekitchen
We took the easy way out and used a boxed cake mix since we’re pressed for time in the afternoons. I showed her how to look at the entire recipe, see each ingredient she needed and work on any prep work. I preheated the oven while she put papers in the muffin tins I don’t know why but she loves this step.
#kidsinthekitchen Adding Cupcake Liners
Next we measured out each ingredient, mixed up the batter and poured it into our tins. This particular batch was for Shaun’s lacrosse team but we snuck a couple for quality control.
#kidsinthekitchen, Mixing up Cake Batter
#kidsinthekitchen, Eating Cupcakes
Did you have fun in the kitchen this week? Did you try a new food or a new restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature, Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda atLookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




Starting a Garden with the Kids #kidsinthekitchen

April 19, 2013 by

Teaching you children where their food comes from might be one of the best lessons when striving for healthy and balanced eating. Fresh produce and meats, wholesome snacks and plenty of exercise is the best choice for everyone but real life is front of us. We do the best we can with a balance of these and convenience products.

This past weekend was the yard and garden overhaul. It wasn’t time to start planting yet but I didn’t want waste anymore precious time so I got the kids a mini greenhouse so we could start seedlings in the house. I know there are more cost efficient ways to do this with everyday items but this was simple and it let me start 72 plants at once.
Starting a Garden with the kids
The kids got peas, broccoli, green beans, fennel, carrots, tomatoes, spring onions, peppers and tomatoes into the kit. They dug out the holes, added 2-3 seeds each pod and watered in about 30 minutes. Not bad for that many seed packets.
Starting a Garden with the kids

Starting a Garden with the kids
Over the last couple of days I’ve noticed growth, noticeable growth. The sun hasn’t been out much this week so the greenhouse has stayed in the house under watchful eye.

Starting a Garden with the kids

Growing our own veggies isn’t new. We harvested so many tomatoes and peppers last year that we had to give a lot away to friends and family. It’s satisfying to see the hard work the kids put out digging and planting resulting in something delicious to eat.

Did you have fun in the kitchen this week? Did you try a new food or a new restaurant?  Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




SnackTime, Ladybug Apple Snack #KidsintheKitchen

April 12, 2013 by

This week was snack time with #KidsintheKitchen. I’m all over pinterest and kid friendly food blogs like In the Kitchen with My Three Sons and see all of these awesome food pictures on a plate. They amaze me. I consider myself crafty and creative but this is so far beyond my expertise. I’m in awe at some of the ideas these moms come up with.

I wanted to make something with the kids but knew I needed to keep it simple and use things we have in the house. Check out our Ladybug Apple Treat.
It took just a few minutes from start to finish and the kids ate everything that was involved.
Ladybug Apple Snack for kids #kidsinthekitchen
As you can see I pulled out all kids of candy ideas for the ladybug head. I wasn’t sure what was going to work best. We ended up using a apple (half for each ladybug), creamy peanut butter, chocolate chips (raisins would work), pretzel twists.
Ladybug Apple Snack Supplies
I cut the apple into quarters, as evenly as I could and gave the kids each a half, opened up a little to resemble wings. The rest was up to them. The peanut butter was the glue so everything used was edible. I think the snack was a good mix of healthy foods and sweet treats.  This is definitely a snack we’d try again. Maybe next time we get more creative with the whole picture.
Ladybug Apple Snack #kidsinthekitcen
eating ladybug apple snack
eating ladybug apple snack
Did you have fun in the kitchen this week? Did you try a new food or a new restaurant?  Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.





ChopChop and New Balance Giveaway #KidsintheKitchen

March 22, 2013 by

Follow my blog with BloglovinSince starting the #KidsintheKitchen series a few weeks ago I’ve stumbled across so many other sites and brands that encourage exactly what Paula, Sara and I try to explain each week. Getting your children involved with more activities and responsibilities in the kitchen only enhances their curiosity for new things.

ChopChop, The Fun Cooking Magazine for Families is a quarterly food magazine and website for kids aged 5-12 and their families. ChopChop’s mission is to inspire kids to cook real food with their families. Our vision is to reduce childhood obesity. ChopChop is published by ChopChopKids, Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

ChopChop Mag Black Bean Quesdillas

I’ve recently been introduced to ChopChop Mag by New Balance. New Balance is supporting the efforts of healthy eating and nutrition with their new Run the Rainbow Eat the Rainbow sweepstakes.

New Balance Sweepstakes

Did your kids help with meal planning this week? Did your kids discover a new food and love it? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




#KidsintheKitchen Using Colored Rice as Art

March 7, 2013 by

Last Sunday was a cooking day for me. I was in the mood for all kinds of new food but recipes that I wasn’t familiar with so I didn’t really want the kids helping out. Instead I gave Shae an entirely new project to try out, Using Colored Rice as Art. Colored Rice and Pasta is typically used as a sensory play mediums but for us it was a new way to play with color and texture and shapes.  As you can see I added some wagon wheel and bowtie pasta shapes into the mix.

I added rice to a wonton soup container, added a few drops of food color and alcohol and let Shae shake. Within a hour of creating all the colors we needed the rice (and pasta) was dry.
#kidsinthekitchen Using Colored Rice as Art
I set Shae up with her individual bowls of rice and pasta, school glue, heavy finger paint paper and let her create whatever she wanted. The trick was to really add lots of glue so the rice and pasta didn’t move once it had dried.

#kidsinthekitchen Using Colored Rice as Art

I recommend putting your picture on a sturdy piece of cardboard so it can be transferred while drying. Trying to move a flimsy piece of paper covered in rice wasn’t fun.

Did your kids help with meal planning this week? Did your kids discover a new food and love it? Share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.(No Etsy stores or giveaways please).
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.

kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series
4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




Kids Choosing the Meal #KidsintheKitchen

February 28, 2013 by

This week for #kidsinthekitchen I wanted to share with you how we have a pretty good system for happy family meal times.

Finding meal ideas that suit everyone’s palate all of the time is virtually impossible. Even our most loved meal, tacos, is looked down by one or two kids on when beans touch their plates. Meatloaf is another winner in our house but the youngest hates potatoes, she ends up skipping a side dish. The kids and husband love fish but it’s NOT my favorite. So what I try to do is please at least one person each time. That doesn’t mean the rest of the family starves but that could mean they just have to suck it up and deal with something on their plate. Getting the kids to look through cookbooks is one way to find new recipes and also please them at meal time. Switch ingredients or cooking methods if the recipe isn’t quite right. Don’t use cookbooks as rule books but more like guidelines.

Here Shaun and Shae are leafing through a couple kid friendly cookbooks I have in my arsenal. They haven’t told me yet what they want for dinner next week but I’m hoping it’s something new.

#kidsinthekitchen looking for new dinner ideas in cookbooks

What did you and your kids do for dinner this week? Share photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.(No Etsy stores or giveaways please).
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series

4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




Counting Marshmallows #KidsintheKitchen

February 21, 2013 by

kids in the kitchen, memeThis #KidsintheKitchen series started to showcase the ways we can educate our kids while having fun in the kitchen. This week I had the opportunity to switch gears and play in the kitchen with my niece. Ella is three years old, super smart and super sharp.

counting marshmallows, #kidsinthekitch

I brought her into the kitchen to help make a treat for her cousins but knew there wasn’t much she could do since I was at the stove. I gave her a scoop of marshmallows to count and group together instead. I asked for piles of 3. She knew how to count and knew when she messed up.

kids in the kitchen, counting marshmallows

#KidsintheKitchen Counting Marshmallows

So while a 3 year old might not be the best helper for cooking they can be the best entertainment while slaving over a hot stove 🙂

What did you and your kids do for dinner this week? Share photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1. Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.(No Etsy stores or giveaways please).
2. Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.
3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.
kids in the kitchen, meme

kids in the kitchen, cooking with kids, weekly series

4. Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants. We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.
5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.




Kids Practice Measuring #KidsintheKitchen

February 15, 2013 by

Letting kids help out in the kitchen takes practice, patience and trust. This is way before letting them near the fire or knives too. While I love to work on meals and baked goods myself I do know the benefit of letting the kids pitch in on some tasks. This week’s test was measuring.

We all know babies love measuring cups, spoons and bowls and adding a tub of water makes for hours of playtime. But as those babies grow they need to learn measuring is more than just dumping from one vessel to another. Make sure you invest in clearly marked cups and spoons . These OXO angled measuring cups are great because the markers are easy to read from above and on the side.

For some reason the kids and I had lots of time to spare before they headed off to school so I had them help me make a quick batch of mini cupcakes. Shaun and Shae split up the measuring duties, there were only 2 because I used a box mix. I gave a little instruction and they listened.
kids measuring in the kitchen, #kidsinthekitchen

#kidsinthekitchen, teaching kids measuring
What did you and your kids do for dinner this week? Share photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen. I would love for you to join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together and enjoying it and learning something.

  • preparing healthy snacks
  • having a tea party
  • counting skills with m&ms
  • pouring from measuring cups
  • discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
  • creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog, then share a photo you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.  Share whatever you have, we want to see it.

Linky Rules

1.  Link up only your kid friendly recipes, stories, pictures or cooking lessons here.(No Etsy stores or giveaways please).

2.  Link directly to a specific post, update or tweet not your homepage.

3. Please add a Kids in the Kitchen button or link on your site or blog post or share through social media so readers know you are participating.

banner size 

https://lookwhatmomfound.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/kids-in-the-kitchen-banner.jpg

button size 

https://lookwhatmomfound.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/kids-in-the-kitchen-button.jpg

4.  Click through and comment, pin, like, tweet or share with other participants.  We love to share inspiration and ideas with each other, don’t link and run.

5. Follow the hosts of this feature,Paula at Frosted Fingers, Sara at Sensibly Sara and me, Melinda at LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too

I can’t wait to see all of the fun food themed ideas, excursions and photos you have to share.

I Disclose




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