Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Christmas Cooking with Children

I love cooking with my girls and cooking for them.  Christmas is a fabulous time for special cooking activities.  Today, I would like to share a few fun Christmas cooking ideas with you.  I have provided photos of the food I have cooked and links to blog posts for other fun ideas.

Christmas Tree Cupcake Cake


Christmas Pizza


Rudolph Pancake



Peppermint Playdough










What fun things are you cooking with (or for) your children this Christmas?


Marla is a former special education teacher and current PhD student and stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of two little girls (ages 2 and 4).  She blogs about homeschooling at Marla's Motherhood Musings and her family's experiences living in Zambia at Our Life in Lusaka.

Monday, March 19, 2012

It's an Art Party!

The day has finally come and gone. Birthday party extravaganza for the girls was this past Saturday. While we didn't have the expected turnout (mostly due to illness that seems to be floating around), everyone still had a wonderful time.

So, what did we do for an Art Party? Well, art, of course!

The kids enjoyed some bubble painting. I stirred food coloring into large bottles of bubbles (I probably could have done it with smaller ones). They took turns dripping the bubble solution on the papers and blowing bubbles on them. They made some fun looking pictures.

Then they moved onto finger painting. A fellow mom (whose son shared the party with the girls), taped off everyone's name on half sheets of poster board. The kids proceeded to use a hundred colors--give or take--to smear over the entire page. After they dried, we peeled off the tape. The result? Lots of color! White names.

We had a cupcake pinata. No, that doesn't have much to do with art (although people do decorate cupcakes...right?), but the girls have been begging us for one. So...why not?

To add to the "creating art" concept, we had the kids make mini-pizzas. A few toppings choices and they just went to town--big hit. We opened presents and did the cake thing while we waited. Big surprise--no one wanted the mini-pizzas afterwards. That's ok...hubby and I ate them afterward. lol...

Speaking of cakes...I was originally going to make a six layer rainbow cake. However, given the amount of people that were coming (and how TALL of a cake that would be), I decided to do three two layer cakes since we had three kids celebrating birthdays.

Over all, the party was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. After the guests had gone home, Alana continued to enjoy the balloons until I made her sit down to watch a cartoon before bed. Then she all but passed out. Sleepy heads are a good sign of time well spent.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Seeds of Wisdom --- Busy Day Dinners

This time of year, families are busy and household responsibilities (such as homecooked meals) often get neglected. Today, we share our  favorite busy-day recipes.  
Aurie  
My crockpot is my best friend on busy days! Here is a link to an awesome mac & cheese recipe. I also have a taco chicken that is wonderful.
Dorie
During these busy days, my favorite kitchen appliance is the crock pot. I use it to make soups, meats, and one-pot meals. One of our favorite meals from the crock pot is chili.   Here is a link to our family's chili recipe

Jessica

For an easy hot meal, I fall back on baked potatoes. My children love them and they are so easy. If I know the day is going to be packed, I like to put them in the crockpot the night before (no foil necessary!). My other favorite busy-day hot meal is pasta. We buy whole grain noodles that are high in protein and fiber, so it is filling and nutritious. I just cook the pasta and set bowls of different toppings on the table (olive oil, red sauce, meats or veggies on hand, cheese). I also like to keep 'emergency' frozen casseroles or leftovers around for moments when calling for pizza sounds like a good idea...then I can whip something out of the freezer instead with very little effort!

Marla
Like Aurie and Dorie, I LOVE the crockpot for busy day dinners.  I love the blog A Year of Slow Cooking .  My favorite recipes are crockpot lasagna and chicken parmesan.  We also love crockpot chili and taco soup on busy days.

Sam

My favorite comfort food that is easy has to be roast in the crockpot. I take a chuck roast, brown in it in EVVO, and then toss the veggies in to release some of their juices. I throw everything in the crockpot with beef broth and let it make it's magic. I use some of the juices to make homemade gravy, and serve with mashed potatoes and fresh, homemade bread. Yum!

Tracy

I love this recipe for taco chicken bowls. It makes several meals and fixes several different ways. I usually make the bowls on a Sunday; then later in the week we have tacos and nachos with the left overs. Plus, use different kinds of salsa for a slightly different flavor each time. So fun! 
 What are your favorite busy day dinner ideas?

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Cooking with Toddlers

I am not a confident cook.  At all.

I wanted to make sure my girls were comfortable in the kitchen, so I added cooking to our homeschool curriculum.

I started with one of Sophe's favorite foods {blueberry muffins}.  We looked at the back of the box and she counted the number of eggs needed, and we talked about how to measure a liquid {water} and solid {butter}.

She learned how to crack eggs and break them into the bowl, how to add additional ingredients, how to stir and how to pour the batter out of the bowl.
We have made cut out cookies, a gingerbread train, muffins, cake, ice cream cone cupcakes, and {most recently} cake pops.
Bella started her cooking lessons this week and thoroughly enjoyed every single minute!
I love that my girls are learning a life skill and that I am learning right along with them.

I love that Sophie can read a basic recipe and knows the difference solids & liquids.

I love watching Sophie teach Bella to mix and stir.

I love that homeschooling gives me the flexibility to cook with my girls.

Do you have cooking in your homeschool curriculum?
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