Kids in the Kitchen ~ Pumpkins

For this weeks Kids in the Kitchen we decided to use one of the pumpkins that we got from the farm yesterday. I LOVE cooking with pumpkins, during fall (while they are available) I like to cook at least one pumpkin a week. I freeze the pumpkin and then am able to use it in lots of different recipes.

Today the kiddos cleaned out the pumpkin for me (they ALWAYS love doing this).

Aidman loves to be silly and said he had a goop beard.

They Lyssy and I had some alone one on one time and she made the pumpkin seeds. She put 1/8 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder into an empty spice container.
Then she shook it.

And sprinkled it on the seeds.

After baking, I put the seeds in a pretty leaf dish...

And the kiddos attacked it! They LOVE pumpkin seeds and the 3 of them ate the entire batch in just a few minutes.

For lunch I made pumpkin pancakes.

And for dessert tonight, I made a pumpkin pie. The wonderful thing is that I still had 2 cups of pumpkin left to put in the freezer!

Go check out more Kids in the Kitchen.

Kids in the Kitchen and Tea Time Thursday

My sister, Sherryberry (I'm sure she's Loves me calling her that) at A Little Fun with me and Lu, has started a GREAT new Blog Carnival!! It's called Kids in the Kitchen!

Ya'll just know how much I love cooking with my kids so I just have to participate in this new carnival. Please join in the fun!!


Today we made Lemon Glazed Candied Ginger Cookies.

I was alittle lazy and impatient, so we didn't put the dough in a disc and refrigerate. Instead, we just made the dough into rounded teaspoons. It turned out perfectly.

I love this picture of Aidman pretending to lick the dough.

Then we joined On a Whimm to have our Tea Time Thursday. We ate our yummy cookies and had some ginger tea.

To make the drink I boiled about half a pot of water and added a handful of candied ginger, juice of a lime, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and then tossed the squeezed lime into it, and let it step and cool for about 10 minutes before straining. It was really yummy, I think it will be even better and more refreshing over ice.

The kiddos loved the cookies.

And the tea.

Tea parties are so much fun!

Happy Daddy Day!

Today was all about celebrating our special Daddy!!

We were supposed to go to the beach yesterday with some friends. We were on our way there when our car started overheating badly, so we had to turn around and come home. Daddy found out that the radiator had a crack in it. Being his Mr. Fix It self, he fixed it. So, we decided to go to the beach today!

The kiddos let Daddy sleep in until 9am. Then they woke him up with cards and picture frames they had made for him. Then we made our way to our favorite beach.

Daddy and Lyssy getting ready to use her new boogie board.

Aidman splashing Daddy.

Nothing better than watermelon on a hot day!

Always caught taking big bites!

The water was alittle rougher than normal at first.

I LOVE these two!!

Lyssy copying Mommy's every move.

Aidman on his boogie board, he did really good.

Riding cars around in the water.

When we got home we made Daddy a special cookie, he loves these and with good reason because they are SO yummy.

Big Cookie

1/2 c butter

3/4 c brown sugar

3 TBS white sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 1/2 c flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c chocolate chips

Beat wet ingredients until creamy. Mix in sifted dry ingredients. Add in chocolate chips. Spread on a greased pizza pan. Bake at 325 for 30- 35 minutes.


Head over to ABC and 123's Picnic Table Talk to find out how others spent their Father's Day.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today we made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies for the letter Cc.

The kids love mixing!

And pouring.

And stiring. Cooking is FUN!!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, egges, and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients. Mix in choclate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes.

Baked Ziti

Tonight we made baked ziti.

The kids mixed the cheese mixture. Cottage or Ricotta cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, basil, and an egg (I eyeballed everything).

Aidman added the al dente ziti to the pan.

Lyssy added the cheese mix.

Aidman added the cooked Italian sausage.

Lyssy added the pasta sauce. I don't think there's enough flavor in the jarred sauces so I added salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, basil, and parsley to it before she dumped it in the pan.

It will be ready for the 350 degree oven after we add cheese to the top.

We baked it for about 30 minutes. YUMMY!! The kiddos devoured it!

Spooning and tonging are great for fine motor skills. Cooking is a great life skill and really boast self esteem.

Zucchini Bread

For the letter Zz... we made zucchini bread. When the kids saw the zucchini and I told them we were making bread they both let out a loud ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Aidman shredded the zucchini.

Lyssy and AB took turns measuring and mixing the other ingredients.

THIS is why people don't don't want to cook with kids! It's a GIANT mess.

But THIS is the reason they SHOULD cook with kids!! They kept asking for more zucchini muffins! And I LOVE the way Lyssy says zucchini.

Zucchini Bread

3 cups shredded zucchini

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup vetetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x5 loaf pan or muffin tins.

Stir together wet ingredients. Mix in dry ingredients.

Bake loaf pan for 50-60 minutes, muffin tins for 25 minutes.

Orange Muffins

This morning we made Orange Muffins for breakfast and the letter Oo. I LOVE cooking with my kiddos, but PLEASE remind me next time to NEVER cook with them before 8:30 am!! I am just NOT a morning person, so trying to organize all of this so early in the morning was just HARD!

The muffins were very yummy though!

Ingredients:

2 cups AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

zest of one orange

2/3 cup orange juice, plus juice of zested orange

1/2 cup plus 1 TBS melted butter

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds this time)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Heat oven to 350.

Mix all dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients (we just stir with a spoon).

Pour into greased muffin tins.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Strange Salad

My friend Marcy gave me this recipe and I just LOVE it!!! Every time I make it I want to just eat the entire salad and nothing else. I made it for Easter last Sunday and stuffed myself trying to eat it and everything else. I is a pretty sweet salad and my hubby would prefer if I left out alittle of the sugar, but I like it just the way it is.

2 heads red leaf lettuce (last time I used one head Romain)
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (I prefer tangerines- 2)
1 small red onion, chopped
8-10 sliced strawberries (last time I used 2 pears instead because I didn't have strawberries, I like it both ways)

Mix in salad bowl and set aside.

Poppy seed dressing:

1/2 C. sliced almonds
2 T. butter
2 t. sugar
In frying pan, saute over low hear. Stir until brown.
Then, in bowl, mix:
1 t. salt
4 T. vinegar
1 T. poppy seeds
4 T. sugar
1/2 C. olive oil
1/4 t. paprika
dash pepper
Add sugared almond mixture and mix until all ingredients are dissolved.

Pour dressing over salad and toss. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.(Dressing is best made the night before serving.)

Head over to A Listmaker's Life to get more Saturday Salads!

Spring is in the Air!

Today we have t-ball, which means that for dinner we'll be eating sandwiches in the car on the way there. So on t-ball days I normally try to do a really substantial lunch.

The theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Spring/Easter. We had cucumber Easter baskets with tomato eggs, broccoli tree with carrot flowers, an egg filled with jelly beans, noodle nest with meatball eggs.


Look how cute these turned out. I connected the handles to the basket with a half of a toothpick.

These nest are great too! You can see that I put the tomato sauce under the noodles, this was purely for looks. The yummy egg shaped meatballs were made of ground turkey, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, s & p, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Aidman's favorite part were the baskets.

Lyssy's favorite part were the trees.