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Waffle Sandwiches for Dinner #kidsinthekitchen

January 10, 2014 by Melissa

Dinners typically are comforting and delicious according to my kids but they aren’t fun. The kids have been seeing these Eggo Waffle commercials where they are experimenting with ingredients turning them into sandwiches & desserts. So being the good mom that I am we had waffle sandwiches for dinner.

Using ingredients I know they love is the first step. I toasted the waffles like I usually do then let the kids pick out combinations of their choice.

Shae was the only one not distracted enough to stick around while the waffles toasted so the sandwiches were her pick.

Peanut Butter, Honey and Banana & Cream Cheese and Strawberry Preserves

In case you’re wondering, this is the face of enjoyment. Shae much prefers goofy faces over typical smiles.

Come join me and my co-hosts, Sarah of Play to Learn with Sarah, 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, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

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

You’ll find so many more ideas on the #KidsintheKitchen Pinterest Board.
Follow Melinda Babiak’s board #KidsintheKitchen on Pinterest.

Making Garlic Parmesan Chex Mix

December 19, 2013 by Melissa

We’re getting ready for the holidays around here. The decorations are up, the baking has started and the gifts are piling up in their secret spot. The kids are on a snack kick. Shaun is only ten but can eat like a man so I have to come up with new ideas. This Garlic Parmesan Chex Mix is a new snack mix that I prefer much better than chips or cookies. And the best thing was he was able to make it pretty much on his own.

The idea for Chex Mix is simple, put together a bowl of related ingredients, add the flavoring and mix it up. To get an extra crunch on savory mixes I like to toss them in oven for 10 minutes. For sweet mixes I like to pop in the fridge for the chocolate or caramel to harden up.

Shaun made this one for Rob because he knows his dad loves snacking food while watching tv. I like getting him in the kitchen helping out as much as possible. His attention span for cooking is short so I need to keep him busy. Chex Mix does the trick because there’s a lot of measuring and mixing he can do. Stove work is ok too as long as I’m right next to him.

Ingredients

2 cups Rice Chex
2 cups Corn Chex
1 cup broken bagel or pita chips
1 1/2 cup pretzel sticks
1 cup oyster crackers
1 cup lightly salted, roasted almonds
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
pinch red pepper flakes, crushed
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

In a large bowl mix all of your snack ingredients.

In a small saucepan over medium low heat combine butter, oil, herbs and spices and blend till hot but not bubbling.

Pour over snack mix and gently but quickly stir to coat. Sprinkle cheese over mixture and blend again till coated.

Pour onto a cookie sheet and pop into a 350° oven for 10-12 minutes. Let cool then enjoy.

The beauty of these snack mixes is you can adjust the ingredients to suit your tastes. Adding popcorn, goldfish, bacon bits or even switching the nuts can make any snacker happy. The same goes for the flavors. If you enjoy the rosemary over oregano, make the switch.

These are simple go to recipes especially for the holidays. Get your kids in the kitchen and get their hands dirty with some mixing, prepping and cooking.
Come join me and my co-hosts, Sarah of Play to Learn with Sarah, 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, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

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

You’ll find so many more ideas on the #KidsintheKitchen Pinterest Board.

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies

December 18, 2013 by Melissa

There’s nothing like a classic chocolate chip cookie but taking that simple recipe in another direction can transform the flavor to something more decadent and appealing for new taste buds. These Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies are of course sweet from the chocolate but the addition of coarse salt & toasted walnuts give them a whole new flavor profile.

If you’ve ever wondered what is white chocolate, you could also experiment with substituting it for regular chocolate chips in this recipe to add a unique twist.

The basic recipe is one I’ve been making for years. They are my go to chocolate chip cookies and this particular one makes a batch big enough for gatherings or gift giving.

No special ingredients are needed so these can be made using your pantry staples.

Ingredients
1 cup softened butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp coarse salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped, toasted nuts of choice

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°. Cream your butter and sugars till smooth.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat till combined.

Dissolve baking soda in 2 tsp of hot water and mix into mixture.

Blend flour, salt, chocolate and nuts into butter/sugar/egg mixture till well incorporated.

Drop equal spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets 2″ apart.

Bake for 9-10 minutes till cookies have risen and edges are browned. Let them set on cookie sheets for 1 minute then move to a cooling rack for several minutes.

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies.

The last minute addition of the course salt gives it little opportunity to melt into dough. This salty bite is a delicious contrast to the expected sweet you get from cookies.

Store in a plastic container for up to a week or package along with recipe for a sweet gift.

Do you have a go-to cookie recipe?

Making Farro Risotto #kidsinthekitchen

December 5, 2013 by Melissa

This week for #kidsinthekitchen we each are showcasing The Piccolo Chef Cookbook. We’ve chosen to create a recipe call Toasted Farro Risotto with Mushrooms. Farro is something we’ve never had before but thought it was a good way to introduce a new ingredient. Shae helped with MOST of the cooking. Risotto is a bit time consuming so Shaun lost interest after toasting the farro in olive oil.

“The Piccolo Chef Cookbook” was developed by the owners of the award winning cooking school in Los Angeles, California. Piccolo Chef was created by Italian mom-preneurs with a vision to make healthy eating attainable and fun for children of all ages and economic backgrounds. Their inspiration are their children, and teaching kids and parents the art of fresh cooking and reconnecting with one another through all phases of cooking, from garden to the table.

Shae on the other hand was by my side almost the entire time asking questions, tasting ingredients (raw onion), stirring, asking more questions and overall being the ideal sous chef.

Risotto is a straightforward process and this variation wasn’t very different. I adjusted some ingredients and left out others but we ended up with a very tasty meal that I would definitely try again. Farro wasn’t weird or gross, in fact in tasted like a cross between steel cut oats and brown rice just much larger in texture. Shae and Shaun said it smelled like popcorn when it was toasting in olive oil. I added some steamed broccoli to the finished product and added a blend of sauteed mushrooms, onions and garlic to the risotto.
Come join me and my co-hosts, Sarah of Play to Learn with Sarah, 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, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Come join our #kidsinthekitchen Pinterest Board for more ideas, kid-friendly recipes and kitchen centered crafts and activities.

Making Bread Sticks with the Kids

November 21, 2013 by Melissa

Family Dinners are becoming little less frequent lately, at least in the traditional sense. Rob is coming home later and later due to work, I head out for a girls night out once in a while and Sabreena tends to work all weekend. I’m using #kidsinthekitchen as an excuse to get the kids to help prepare dinner and make bread sticks.

This week I prepared homemade stuffed shells. That means I boiled the shells and made the filling and stuffed the shells with the filling and baked them. If you’ve ever done this you know it’s a bit tedious. I then also decided to make homemade bread sticks. This were simple. In fact we made these while the stuffed shells were baking.

Ingredients

1 tbls active yeast
1 tbls sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (100-110°)
3-3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbls melted butter
1 tsp garlic salt, Parmesan cheese or other seasoning of choice

Directions

Preheat oven for 400°

In a large mixing bowl combine yeast, sugar and water, allow to proof for 5-10 minutes. Using your electric mixer’s dough hook mix in flour & salt till a smooth dough forms and pulls away from the bowl, about 4-6 minutes. Adjust your water and flour measurements a tablespoon at a time to get the right consistency. It should be slightly tacky but bounce back when touched.

(If you are doing this by hand start with a fork till mixture comes together and turn out in a floured surface and knead by hand for approx 10 minutes)

Turn your dough onto a floured surface and roll into a smooth ball and divide into 16 (long bread sticks) or 32 (short bread sticks) portions.

Roll each portion between hands into your desired shape and place on lightly oiled baking sheet. Once all of your bread sticks have been rolled set them aside for a few minutes to rest.

Once the bread sticks have grown a bit these are ready to “dress up”. Brush them lightly with your melted butter then add the seasoning of choice. Simple garlic salt is good enough but you can get fancy with rosemary and grated lemon peel or parmesan and oregano. I have this dipping oil mix that gets put on everything.

Bake in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm with extra butter or dipping oil.

The kids are capable of doing just about everything on their own with this recipe. it’s a small enough batch that even the littlest hands can play with it easily. Make it more fun by letting the kids make shapes from the dough. Heart shaped bread sticks make for a much more enjoyable meal.

Did you have fun in the “kitchen” this week? Did you try a new food or a new kid friendly restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? We invite you to share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen.

Come join me and my co-hosts, Sarah of Play to Learn with Sarah, 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, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Making Mini Muffin Corn Dogs #kidsinthekitchen

November 14, 2013 by Melissa

“I’ll take the mini corn dogs please”. This has become Shae’s meal of choice at our favorite restaurant. At first I used to cringe at the thought but they weren’t that bad but I knew we could make them better. This was Shae and Shaun could have them for school lunch, something very different than sandwiches.

Using this packaged cornbread mix is definitely a shortcut. Honestly I’ve never been able to master homemade cornbread. Either the texture is off or the flavor is dull. This one is very tasty and sweet so it’s nice match to the salty taste of the hot dog.

Shae prepared the muffin mix according to package directions and mixed it up. I sliced the uncooked hotdogs into small bites. As you can see she did most of the work, like usual.

As she was popping the hot dogs in the muffin mix she said “It’s like putting a cherry on top just different”.

After 22-25 minutes in a 350 degree oven they were done. Package them up for lunches, snacks or even have for dinner.

Shae likes her with honey mustard.

Come join me and my co-hosts, Sarah of Play to Learn with Sarah 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, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Crispy Gnocchi #recipe

November 13, 2013 by Melissa

Crispy Fried Gnocchi have become my kids new favorite food. These now trump sausage sandwiches and pizza. I can’t blame them. I dream about these. I crave them.

One would think that we would eat them way more often with how much we all love them but honestly I hate fried food. Well actually I love fried food I just try really hard not to fry too much. It’s just not healthy. I won’t eat gnocchi any other way though. The traditional boiled balls of dough are gross to me. These are completely different.

Ingredients

Gnocchi
Salt
Parmesan cheese
Oil for Frying
Spicy Tomato Sauce

Directions

In a wide pan at least 3 inches deep add about 1/4 inch of oil. I like to mix canola and olive but since it’s such a quick process any oil will work.

Heat this up to medium – high for several minutes till you see it ripple. Carefully add a single layer of gnocchi to hot oil.

Cook for a few minutes each side but be careful it’s easy to overcook them then you’re left with little bullets. I flip mine around with a wooden skewer, so simple.

Once they’ve reached a beautiful golden brown remove them from the oil with a large slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels then sprinkle with salt and parmesan cheese.

I serve mine with a spicy tomato sauce. I make mine with a simple pasta sauce doctored up with LOTS of garlic, red pepper flakes and crushed basil.

Candy Bar Chex Mix Recipe #kidsinthekitchen

November 7, 2013 by Melissa

My focus seems to be on snacks lately. My pantry and fridge are full but nothing is grabbing my attention. Chex Mix to the day. I love snagging a bag of Chex Mix at the grocery store and gobbling it down while watching a show with Rob. The kids come home from school ravenous and are instantly digging through the pantry for a snack. Since Halloween was around the corner they instantly ask for candy. I’m not a mean mom but I really hate saying ok to candy. BUT I’m ok with making my own candy and letting them eat that.

Candy Bar Chex Mix is the creature that come from that wacky thought process.

With $50 in hand, a list of ingredients a 1/2 page long and 4-5 recipe ideas in my head I went to the store to load up on Chex cereal varieties and all kinds of “toppings”. Then once dinner was done and cleaned up Shae and I made dessert, Candy Bar Chex Mix. Making any kind of Chex Mix usually requires very little to no cooking. For some mix-ups you’ll want some kind of liquid to coat the cereal and ingredients. For this particular recipe a caramel was made. Since making caramel can get really hot I did that part on my on.

Shae measured out and put all the dry ingredients in the bowl. I showed her 1/4 and 1/2 on the measuring cup so she could do it all by herself. Mixing in the caramel was my job.

Ingredients

4 cups Chocolate Chex

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

pinch salt (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup lightly salted peanuts

Directions

In a large mixing bowl add in cereal, chocolate chips and marshmallows, stir to combine and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat melt down butter and brown sugar. Bring to a boil for couple minutes till it reaches 220°. Having a candy thermometer comes in handy but the mixture should have a foamy bubbly look and getting darker in color.

Remove from heat, add salt, vanilla and peanuts and stir.

Using a rubber spatula stir the cereal mixture as you pour the caramel on top. Stir and stir until everything is coated. Some of the marshmallows and chocolate chips will melt, that is OK.

Once everything is combined pour this mixture out onto a sheet of foil or parchment that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Let it cool down.

Enjoy slightly warm and messy or package up into treat bags to pop into the kids lunch bag or to give to the kids.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Peanut Butter Nutella Graham Treats #kidsinthekitchen

October 31, 2013 by Melissa

I was in the mood for a new sweet treat this week so Shae and I worked on a spin of something that we made over a year ago. Using graham crackers as a base we decided to combine some of our FAVORITE flavors into a “bark” kinda dessert.

Shae was definitely main chef for this project. She laid out all the graham crackers, scooped peanut butter and nutella and spread the mixtures all over.

A quick set in the fridge and they are ready to eat.

Ingredients

graham crackers
peanut butter
Nutella
vanilla candy wafers

Directions

Cover a large baking dish in foil (reduces mess).

Spread graham crackers in an even layer.

Microwave a cup of peanut butter to a spreadable consistency, about 20 seconds.

Add a large spoonful of Nutella to the peanut butter and gently mix but don’t blend completely. You should still have a marbled look.

Pour this mixture over the graham crackers and spread evenly. Place in fridge to set.

Microwave 1 cup of vanilla candy wafers till melted. Pour this over your set peanut butter mixture and spread evenly.

Set aside in fridge again for 15 minutes. Break apart and enjoy.

Did you have fun in the “kitchen” this week? Did you try a new food or a new kid friendly restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? We invite you to share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Peanut Butter Granola Recipe #kidsinthekitchen

October 24, 2013 by Melissa

We’ve been back to school for 2 months and I’m already running out of ideas for healthy snacks. The go to are granola bars and fruit. They are easy and always in stock in the house. I knew I needed to add something a little different and I then I remembered my kids LOVE granola. I used to make granola A LOT a couple of years ago so maybe I should start again.

This time Shae helped me with a Peanut Butter Granola recipe. It’s as simple as dump the ingredients in a bowl, stir, bake, eat.

Ingredients

1 cup of peanut butter (i use creamy, if you use chunky you’ll have to increase oil)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
6 cups of old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup chopped nuts of choice
1 cup shredded coconut (optional)
1 cup dried fruit (optional)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 275°.

In a LARGE microwave proof bowl combine peanut butter, sugar, honey and oil. Place in microwave for 2-3 minutes on medium occasionally stirring and wiping down bowl.

Your mixture should be melty but not completely liquid. Add vanilla, salt, oats and nuts and quickly stir together to coat all of the oatmeal. This is where the muscles come in handy. Shae did all the stirring with a little help from her big brother.

Pour the granola mixture on a large baking sheet. If you prefer 2 pans that is fine too, I’d rather not make any more dirty dishes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, gently stirring at 10 minute intervals. When it has gotten to a golden brown remove it from the oven and stir in additional ingredients. If you decide on chocolate chips they will melt and you’ll get more of a drizzle effect. Let this cool completely before eating, it will get crisp as it cools.

This stores easily in a container with a tight fitting lid and will last about a week. This works perfectly over yogurt, ice cream or by itself.

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? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

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