Category: Kids in the Kitchen

Easter Nest Cookies

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I meant to post this recipe yesterday, but the Easter holiday ran away from me! Luckily, the nest-themed cookies work great for any point during the spring, as baby birds make their way into the world.

Prepare one package of vegan sugar cookie mix according to package directions and bake.

Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, indent the centers with a spoon. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Fill the centers of each cookie with frosting (any flavor will do!) and sprinkle with shredded coconut as the “twigs” of the nest.

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Finally, nestle in jelly beans or your favorite round vegan candies as “eggs.”

 

Shamrockin’ Rolls

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These clever clover-shaped rolls came to us from Family Fun magazine, the perfect baking project just before St. Patrick’s Day!

Recipes like these are fantastic for engaging multiple ages of kids in the kitchen. The biggest kids will want to help with every step, from mixing ingredients to kneading the dough to shaping the rolls. Meanwhile, toddlers and babies need not be excluded from the fun! Sit them in a high chair with a small portion of dough to play with, and let the games begin. I loved sitting my son in his Oxo Tot Sprout high chair when he was still too little to help with recipe steps, and so I was quite pleased to see it included in a recent review of the best high chairs, which selected winners from among eight of the most highly-rated chairs.

And now that he’s moved on to his big boy table, he’s standing on one of his chairs to help me out right at the kitchen counter!

Ingredients:

  • 3 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 packet rapid rise yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup warm plain non-dairy milk (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
  • 10 tablespoons melted Earth Balance butter, divided
  • 2 Ener-G eggs
  1. Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, 6 tablespoons butter, and Ener-G eggs; add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring to form a dough.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly foured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise for 1 and 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
  3. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Punch the dough down and let it rest for 5 minutes. Divide in half. Working with one portion of dough at a time (and keeping the remaining dough covered), roll into a 4×8-inch rectangle. Cut the dough lengthwise into 6 strips. Working with one portion at a time, stretch into a 19-inch rope.Shamrock Roll (3)
  4. Twist the rope into a three-leaf clover (make a figure eight, then loop the dough up for the top leaf, and let the end hang down as the stem.
  5. Repeat with the remaining dough to form 12 shamrocks. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.
  6. Brush the tops of the dough with the remaining 4 tablespoons butter, and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

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Noodle-y Kugel

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To be frank, I’ve never seen a recipe quite like this in my life! It came to us care of Travis’s March issue of High Five magazine, and has multiple steps that are sure to delight your sous-chef in the kitchen. Pineapple with noodles? Yes, apparently this is a thing.

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You can find eggless egg noodles, but I was unable to this time around. Instead, I chose a bag of curly pasta, both because the curls are reminiscent of the way wide noodles loop after they cook, and because it came in the right kind of bag instead of a box (more on that below!). Curly noodles also have the advantage that you won’t need to cut them into much smaller pieces for young eaters.

Ingredients:

For the noodles:

  • 1 (16-ounce) package eggless wide noodles or curly pasta
  • 6 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
  • 4 Ener-G eggs
  • 1 cup plain unsweetened non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 (12-ounce) container non-dairy sour cream
  • 1 recipe vegan cottage cheese*
  • 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

For the topping:

  • 2 cups organic corn flake cereal
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons Earth Balance butter
  1. Adults: cook the pasta according to package directions in a large pot; drain and set aside. Make sure to reserve the pasta packaging for step 6!
  2. Cut the butter into small pieces and have your child add the butter pieces to the warm pasta. Travis was very interested to see how quickly the butter melted!Kugel (2)
  3. In a bowl, whisk together the Ener-G eggs, milk, and sugar.
  4. Stir in the sour cream, prepared cottage cheese, and pineapple. Travis insisted on stirring all by himself.Kugel (3)
  5. Add the pineapple mixture to the noodles and stir to coat, then transfer the mixture to 13×9-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray.
  6.  To prepare the topping, place the corn flakes in the empty pasta bag, and seal; crush with your hands. This was – hands down! – Travis’s favorite part.Kugel (4)
  7. Add the sugar and cinnamon; seal and shake to coat.
  8. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the noodles, and add the remaining butter, cut into small pieces.Kugel (5)
  9. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, until browned at the edges. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving.

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*To make a quick vegan “cottage cheese”, combine 1 package firm tofu and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a bowl. Mash with a fork until the mixture resembles cottage cheese curds. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Pasta Shape Up

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Believe it or not, I’m 35 and this was my first attempt at homemade pasta. Because we don’t have a pasta machine, I knew we weren’t going to have a perfect batch, but Travis has adored playing with food and recipes in the kitchen lately, so we cooked up some fun!

First, scoop 2 cups flour into a bowl. We used whole wheat flour, but you can use semolina or regular white flour. Add 1/2 cup warm water, stirring to form a dough – we needed to add a bit more water before our dough was the right consistency.

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To my delight, Travis didn’t hesitate before getting his hands right in there. He loved kneading the dough!

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This was definitely his favorite part of the whole process, carefully working one portion of the dough while I demonstrated kneading techniques for him.

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We set the dough aside to rest for a few minutes (ideally you’ll want about 20 minutes, but that was long for this preschooler), then rolled the dough out as thinly as we could.

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For shaping fun, first we tried bow ties. Cut a 1×2-inch rectangle, and pinch in the center. You can also make tubes by rolling rectangles around a straw.

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More so than shaping, though, Travis just loved playing with the dough. He tried a few raw bites (which he declared yummy!) and pretended he was drinking pasta “juice.” What an imp!

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If you really do intend to eat your pasta, cook it in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, and serve with your favorite sauce.

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Homemade “Marshmallows”

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Okay, so the following recipe won’t really make marshmallows… To achieve that, we probably need to get trendy and try using aquafaba. But really we just had a leftover box of vegan jel dessert in the kitchen and wanted to play with it – Travis has loved the wobbly dessert ever since I amused him with fake juice cups. The result was a goopy sugary mess that he adored eating by the spoonful!

To start, dissolve 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of your favorite vegan “gelatin” dessert in 1/3 cup cold water; let stand for about 10 minutes. We used peach flavor, which meant our “marshmallows” had a peachy tinge.

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Meanwhile, combine 1 and 1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cup water in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Add the gel mixture to the sugar, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let boil for 15 minutes, without stirring.

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Remove from heat and cool slightly, then beat with an electric mixer on high speed until frothy. We were under no illusions that our mixture was going to get as thick as a real gelatin mixture would have, but we do love the mixer!

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Pour into a 9×9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray and let stand overnight.

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The dessert won’t set, but it will be wobbly and thick. We dusted the top with 1/4 cup cornstarch and 1/4 cup powdered sugar before eating it right from a spoon!

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In sum, you’re going to stop eating after a couple of spoonfuls because this is pure sugar, but really the point is to savor moments together in the kitchen. I loved watching Travis whisk, stir, sift, and more. My favorite sous-chef!

Yogurt Hearts

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This sweet idea from our February issue of Ranger Rick Jr. was just one way to eat hearts this Valentine’s Day. And of course you can make them any day you want to share some love!

I set up a plate with two heart-shaped cookie cutters, one large and one small, and a container of non-dairy yogurt – for the prettiest result, choose a red berry flavor like strawberry or raspberry.

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Travis was a great helper scooping the yogurt into the big heart, and I filled up the trickier small one.

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Put in the freezer for 2 hours, until firm. If you need to, run a little hot water around the cookie cutters to release your hearts.

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The middle of the heart stayed a little mushier, more like soft-serve ice cream, and we worked our way out to the more frozen edges.

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Yum!

 

Olympic Medal Cookies

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On the heels of our Olympic crafting, we made edible medals to enjoy during the opening ceremony of the Games (and needed to taste test them today, of course).

The recipe is care of High Five magazine. It needed a few vegan tweaks (we don’t have the convenience of pre-made sugar cookie dough logs or colored frosting), but the tweaks were easy to make.

Start with a box of sugar cookie mix (try Cherrybrook Kitchen), and bake according to package directions. Travis loves being my helper when we pull out the stand mixer!

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Make sure the cookies are very round balls as you put them into the oven, so you have round medal-shaped cookies at the end. Let cool completely.

To prepare the filling, place 5 medium frozen strawberries (thawed) in a bowl and crush with a potato masher.

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Combine the strawberries in a food processor with 1/2 cup non-dairy cream cheese, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract. Process until smooth.

Spread the strawberry filling onto half of the cookies; set aside the remaining cookies.

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Carefully guiding your child’s hand with a butter knife or plastic knife, cut strips of fruit leather into two pieces. Arrange the pieces over the strawberry filled cookies like the tails of a ribbon. Top with an additional cookie.

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From this point, you can have fun with toppings any way you’d like. We decided we needed to frost our cookies in yellow for gold medals. I added yellow food coloring to a store-bought vanilla frosting (try Dollop) in a plastic bag and kneaded until golden. Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and pipe onto the cookies.

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Topping the frosting with sprinkles was Travis’s favorite part, eating sprinkles along the way of course.

Olympics kick off on February 9 – what sport will you and your kiddos be watching the most?

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Sailor’s Hard Tack

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A recent trip to a maritime museum gave Travis the chance to play in a pretend galley kitchen.

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We returned home with a recipe for hard tack, the hard-as-a-rock cracker that was a staple on many sea voyages. We couldn’t wait to try making it!

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First scoop 2 cups flour into a bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt.

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Begin adding water, about 1/4 cup at a time, until you have a workable dough. Our recipe was vague, so I did a bit of research online to see how much we’d need. 1 cup of water made our dough a little too sticky, so we added an extra 1/4 cup of flour. Knead the dough about ten times, then roll out into a rectangle and score into squares on a baking sheet.

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Prick the squares with a fork, and bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. Turn over and bake an additional 30 minutes.

I recommend letting your little sailors test the hard tack now. It won’t break their teeth yet, and they’ll get a sense of what it was like!

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Travis pretended he was not just any seafarer, but a pirate of course. H-arrgh-d Tack, it became!

For true hard tack, leave it out on the counter for a couple of days until really really hard. To serve, you’ll need to dip in water, non-dairy milk of your choice, or tea (Travis loves a cup of caffeine-free rooibos).

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Ahoy mateys!

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Great Green Guacamole

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At a recent hotel stay, Travis’s favorite channel on the room’s TV was… Food Network! A boy after his mama’s heart. So when we got home, we staged our own “Food Network kitchen” and whipped up this recipe, care of High Five magazine.

Adults, first cut an avocado in half and remove the pit. Let your child scoop the flesh into a bowl and mash with a potato masher. Travis loved this tool!

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Next he added 1/4 cup jarred salsa:

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1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (adults can do the mincing ahead of time; Travis loved the way the cloves of garlic smelled!)

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We served our “test kitchen” masterpiece with cut up cucumbers, orange and red bell pepper strips, and bean tortilla chips.

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Make Your Own Gummies

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Many thanks to Glee Gum for helping make this post happen!

Travis and I received a test sample of the company’s Make Your Own Gummies kit, and he adored the project from start to finish. I’m so pleased that I can offer readers of this blog the following exclusive promotion for holiday shopping!

Save 15% on EVERYTHING at GleeGum.com!
Coupon code: JOYFUL
(Offer only valid on web-store orders placed at GleeGum.com. Enter coupon code in the lower left of your shopping cart & hit “apply coupon.” One time only; one coupon code per order. Offer ends 1/31/18 at 11:59 pm ET.) 

Without any further ado, here’s what we thought of the Gummies kit. Although marketed to ages 8 and up, my 3 year old was able to help with each step and to understand the science behind how we made the candy. Here we are opening the box – he couldn’t wait to find out what was in each little packet!

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The directions were a touch vague at times, but that is my only gripe. Even though I improvised once or twice, the recipe is very forgiving because our gummies still turned out just fine.

In addition to the sweet treat at the end, the kit also includes great factual and scientific information on why you’ve received dried seaweed and seaweed powder as the starters for your gummies. Using carrageenan from seaweed means the company does not have to use gelatin from animal bones. This is a win-win situation, for seaweed farmers in places like the Philippines and of course for the animals! I loved that this vegan project was one Travis and I could share together.

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So on that note, how does it work? First, we covered our dried seaweed with water and let stand. The instructions were vague here, but I used warm water and let it stand for about 5 minutes, which turned out to be enough.

Meanwhile, select molds for your candy. We decided to use holiday-shaped cookie cutters, but I would use smaller molds next time. (The kit even suggests straws to make gummy worms!).

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Next, we smoothed the molding starch down onto a plate; a fun step for a three year old wielding a spoon. The kit said to place your molds in the starch and lift out. This seemed odd to me, so we left our molds in – more on that later.

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Meanwhile, back to the gummies: we mixed together powdered seaweed and water, and added the dried seaweed, which was now somewhat soft and smelled strongly of the ocean – Travis loved the sensory experience! Microwave for about 2 minutes until it foams up. Discard the dried seaweed. We added pink sugar and microwaved for an additional minute.

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Now pour the gummy mixture over your molds and transfer to the fridge. A wonderful bonus of this activity is that kids barely need to wait – ten minutes is all it takes for the gummies to set!

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We were rewarded ten minutes later with perfect gummy figures. As the finishing touch, we placed in a zip-top bag and shook with the provided sour mix. It was only 9 o’clock in the morning, but of course my little sous-chef got to taste right away.

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In sum, this is a fantastic project to share with kids. You’ll get to hone kitchen skills, learn a little science about seaweed, and eat a fantastic snack at the end. If you purchase the kit, please do share your experience in the comments!

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For more details on the product described in this post, including nutrition facts & ingredients, be sure to visit GleeGum.com.  You can also check out GleeGum’s Facebook (Glee Gum), Twitter (@gleeguy), Pinterest (Glee Gum),and Instagram (glee.gum) accounts.