Kids In The Kitchen
Fresh Vegetable & Pasta Soup
Recently I put together a soup with some items I had already in the refrigerator. We were going out of town and I needed to use up some of the fresh vegetables already in the fridge. This was super easy and everyone enjoyed it.
Fresh Vegetable & Pasta Soup
- 1 carton Tomato Juice
- 1 small Zucchini
- 1 small Summer Squash
- 2 medium Carrots
- 1 cup sliced Mushrooms
- 2 cups Elbow Noodles
Add all the items to the crockpot. Stir until it is mixed together and put the crockpot on low for 6 hours.
What’s for Dinner: Our Weekly Menu Plan
Last week was pretty full, but thankful for some time spent with family and friends. Having the menu ready in the evenings has been a big benefit for our family and makes the evenings go much smoother. Here is our menu plan for the upcoming week:
Our Weekly Menu Plan
- Monday (Beef or Seafood Entree): Cheeseburger & Macaroni, Asparagus
- Tuesday (Kid’s Night to Cook): Tacos, Corn
- Wednesday (Chicken or Vegetarian Entree): Chicken Noodle Soup, Homemade Bread
- Thursday (Pasta or Pork Entree): Blueberry Pancakes, Fresh Fruit
- Friday, Saturday, & Sunday: Leftovers, Family Preference, and Hosting
I have a general pattern I try to follow for my weekly Menu Plan (for example Monday we have a beef or seafood entree and so forth). It is my goal, at least in the beginning, to have at least the main dish and one side planned. I will put together the remaining side dishes (veggies / fruits) based on the food items that need to be used up first and compliment the main entree.
Setting a weekly menu plan helps me utilize my time better, thus freeing up extra time to spend with my family. On the days that I am working longer hours I can prep the meal in advance so it will be easier to pull together once I am home. As I go through the menu planning process I will try to share some of our favorite family recipes. If there is a specific recipe you would like please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate (some recipes are a toss together meal and I do not use any set measurements).
As a family of four our life can get busy. What’s for Dinner is our weekly menu planning series and one of the ways to help keep us organized, on schedule, and within budget. Our family typically eats 6 to 7 dinner meals at home a week. We do try to go out to eat at least once a month as a special treat. Breakfasts are eaten at home before work and school, lunches are eaten at work, school, or home, so dinner is our main meal together as a family. Dinner is our time to reconnect, share, and enjoy being together after a busy day. Our weekly menu plan covers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only because the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is our time to spend with family and friends. The weekends tend to be more spontaneous and my husband (who is the better cook) likes pitching in therefore we keep the menu open for variety. We use up the leftovers throughout the week for our lunches and on the nights that we are busy or can’t cook.
Photo by Liz
Easy Appetizer – Vegetable Tray
Lately with it being busy around our house I have been all about quick, easy, and healthy options for when we are going out or bringing items to a gathering. Last week I shared one of our simple fruit appetizers – Fresh Apples & Caramel Dip to make so this week I am going to share another one of our family favorites!
If you a looking for a quick and healthy item to bring to the next party try putting together a veggie tray. With Spring starting this week you may be starting to plan your garden and will have a bundle of fresh vegetables to share in a couple months. Most grocery stores will have a lot of great produce on sale during this time of year too. Pick up items that are on sale, put the vegetables on a serving dish and add dip (if you want) and you have a healthy and colorful treat to bring to your next party.
Fresh Apples & Caramel Dip
Fresh Apple Slices and Caramel Dip
Do you have a party where you need a quick, healthy, and easy appetizer? This one is kind of a no-brainer, but sometimes I need to be reminded that the simple easy snacks that require less prep can be just as enjoyable for everyone (and allows you to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with your family). Freshly sliced apples with caramel dip is a great one to bring and share! There’s is just something refreshing and delicious about apples and caramel. Yum!
For this event I took fresh apples sliced them, dipped them in a mix of lemon juice and water to keep them from turning brown and poured the caramel dip that we already had in the pantry onto the serving platter. You can make your own caramel sauce, but since I had some on hand it was easier just to pour it into the dish. Also, if you want to make it even easier, especially if you’re in a pinch, you can purchase both pre-sliced apples and caramel dip at the store. Sometimes it’s the simple easy stuff that is a big hit.
Super Easy Way to Make Hard Boiled Eggs
I am all about finding ways to help make cooking even more efficient in our household. Our refrigerator typcially has a carton with hard boiled eggs in it for making a quick egg salad sandwich, to stick in a smoothie, make deviled eggs, salad topping, or many other uses we find for it. Several years ago my husband started putting the eggs in the steamer to hard boil them. I LOVED it! It is super easy and my eggs don’t crack (once or twice an egg has cracked if it already has a weak spot or was knocked when put into the steamer)!
Steamed Hard Boiled Eggs
- Eggs
- Steamer
- Water
Stick the eggs in the steamer (we usually do between 10 to 12 eggs depending on how many we have in the carton). Fill the water level up to high. Steam for 25 minutes. Once it is done steaming remove the lid and allow eggs to cool. You can run cold water over them if you need them to cool quicker. Use hard boiled eggs or place back in the carton to use for later.
If you come to our house and open up an egg carton you may encounter something like the picture above. I make sure to mark the eggs that have been hard boiled with an “X” so anyone that wants to grab an egg whether regular or hard boiled it is easy to decipher which ones are which. This especially comes in handy with kids who like to help in the kitchen! 🙂
Gift Giving: Christmas Cookies in Decorative Tins
Christmas Cookies in a tin with Candy Canes on top
Our family loves baking Christmas goodies! In the past we have made large batches of goodies and delivered the items to our neighbors, family, and friends. Other years we do one or two tins whenever we are baking to give away to friends, family, or to who ever we think it may be a blessing to that week.
It is a simple gift that has been a big hit (and fun for the kids to help with too). All we have to do is bake our favorite cookie(s), put them into a decorative tin, add two candy canes on top, and deliver them. The girls love putting two candy canes on top of the tin in the shape of a heart. Making these treats bins are really easy and they always great reaction from those we have delivered the goodies to in our area.
Christmas Tins
- 1 Tin Container
- A batch of your favorite cookie(s) or candies to fill the tin (or you can do a variety of recipes)
- 2 Candy Canes
- 2 pieces of Tape
You can get any tin or plastic container in any size, shape, and color at your local dollar store this time of year. I used double-sided tape but regular tape would work too. If you are wanting to make up several tins this is a great gift to do because you can make a large batch of cookies to fill them and do an assembly line with your kids.
When we deliver items and Christmas cards to our neighbors we bundle up in our coats, put all the goodies in a big basket and walk from door to door (great exercise and fresh air for the whole family). By the time we walk door to door and spend a few minutes catching up with each neighbor an hour or two or more has gone by but we have had a blast and hopefully were a blessing to those living on our street too.
Here are some cookie recipes we have used in the past:
Peanut Butter & Candy Cane Cookie Cups
Snowman Pizza
Snowman Pizza
Cool days, Christmas approaching quickly, and pizza just seem to go together really well. During the Holidays the girls always hope for snow. I can only remember one Christmas since my time in South Carolina where it actually snowed on Christmas day so that’s a rare treat!
The nice part about snowman pizza is you don’t actually need snow to make it! We made homemade pizza and decorated it. The girls chose black olives for his mouth, a cheese wedge for his nose, pepperoni (with black olives) for the eyes, and two slices of ham for the eyebrows.
You can use your favorite pizza recipe and make any snowman variation you want. If you are looking for a pizza recipe here is one of our favorites from Money Saving Mom. You can get really creative and make three separate pizzas and put them together to make a whole snowman (instead of just the head). 🙂
Freezer-Friendly Homemade Pizza Dough
- 2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, Canola, or olive oil)
- 5 cups flour (can use all whole-wheat, half white/half whole-wheat, or all white)
Pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.
To freeze: Cut lump of dough in half and place each half in an airtight freezer bag. Freeze for up to 4-6 weeks.
To bake: Place frozen dough in a greased bowl and thaw at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours. Roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan.
Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 500 degrees for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
If you don’t want to mess with freezing the dough, take the kneaded dough and roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan. Add pizza toppings and bake as directed above.
Snowmen Mini Donuts
The girls were so excited to make and eat these cute snowmen. After you finish making your snowmen, grab a cup of hot chocolate, your family, and curl up on the couch next to the Christmas tree or fireplace and enjoy.
Snowmen Mini Donuts
- 1 bag Mini Powdered Donuts
- Candy Corn
- 1 box Cake Mate Writing Icing
Our Blue Eyed and Green Mouth Snowman
The girls love these little powdered donut snowmen!
Our pretty girlie snowman
Easy Snowflake Marshmallows
The girls loved having these marshmallows in their hot chocolate!
Yes, I know you can make fabulous homemade marshmallows, but if you are limited on time and resources this is a quick, easy, and fun food craft you can do with your kids. You only need 2 items to do these cute snowflake marshmallows (and you probably have these items in your kitchen already). The kids will LOVE these marshmallows in their next cup of hot chocolate!
Easy Snowflake Marshmallows
- 1 bag Large White Marshmallows
- 1 pair clean Kitchen Scissors
- Optional – Small Cookie Cutters
Take one large marshmallow and flatten it with a rolling pin (it doesn’t need to be completely flat just enough so you can cut it easily). Use your scissors to cut snowflake or other shape for your marshmallow. If you have small cookie cutters you can use those to cut out the shapes. You can do as many or few marshmallows as you like. Place the marshmallows on a serving platter and enjoy with your next cup of hot chocolate.
I did a mix of scissor and cookie cutter snowflakes. You can do snowflakes, stars, trees, or whatever shapes you want. The girls wanted to help, they did more of the cookie cutter ones but enjoyed experimenting with cutting the snowflakes with scissors. These are cute for a fun evening with the family or a get together with a larger group.
One of the super easy cookie cutter marshmallow treats the girls made! They ended up eating some of the snowflake outlines and the rest they used in their hot chocolates.
Snowflake melting in a mug of hot chocolate
Another cool “experiment” the kids can do with their snowflakes…..have them check out how much the snowflakes grow (expand) while in the hot chocolate! Take a tooth pick and carefully pull the marshmallow out of the hot chocolate after it has been in only 30 seconds or so (depending on temperature of your hot chocolate) and see how plump your snowflake looks now. The kids will LOVE it! 🙂
Kids in the Kitchen: Colorful Gingerbread Cookies
Tray full of Gingerbread cookies to share!
The girls love helping out in the kitchen. At some point over the Christmas Holidays we try to make cookies. The girls really enjoy decorating the cookies. We have done a variety of different cookies from sugar to gingerbread and more.
We typically turn on some Christmas music, whip up a batch of cookies, and play a game or read a book while the first batch is cooking. Once the first batch has cooled enough and others are baking in the oven we start decorating. As you can see from the pictures we used a couple varieties of frosting and decorations. The girls decorate them however they want and as many as they want (they stick to the decorating until the very last cookie is done).
It has been really neat seeing their skills improve over the past few years. You can actually tell what the shapes of most cookies are after they are done decorating nowadays. Plus, they have learned not to “lick” the frosting or their fingers during the whole process, ha! 🙂
Starting to fill the tray with colorful Gingerbread cookies. I especially like the Betty Crocker writable frosting because their easy to use for kids, only a little bit comes out, and you can stack the cookies together once they have dried.
Just looking at these make me smile! Some as you can see from the tops of the Christmas trees broke in the decorating process. Love seeing the girls creative juices get flowing.
Another rack of delicious gingerbread cookies, decorated with love! 🙂 Thankful for those quiet afternoons that we can spend relaxing and decorating cookies together.
Next time I need to do better about taking pictures of the kids too. I only have a couple of pictures of the girls just starting to make the cookies that didn’t really turn out. Once we got into the cooking and decorating I got swept away with the fun that I didn’t pull the camera back out until all the cookies were done. Hopefully, next time I will have more kid pictures to share. Does your family like to decorate cookies, if so what kind is your favorite?
