cooking with kids Archives

Rock Cycle Candy Recipe – Making Metamorphic Rock

August 5, 2017 By Deirdre

This is the second in a series of three rock cycle themed cooking projects to do with your kids. As with the sedimentary rock recipe, this recipe includes a printable that you can use with your children to create the recipe. The printable also has space to explore the ingredients and the finished product. There is also a space to reflect on the cooking challenges.

Rock Cycle Candy – Metamorphic Candy

Before Making the Metamorphic Rock

Before your children get started with this project, you may want to have them visit a site like Easy Science for Kids. It has several pictures of metamorphic rocks they can view. It also explains the way they are made and a has video on how to identify metamorphic rocks.

Actually Making the Rock Cycle Candy

Before they get started you will need to print out the Metamorphic Rock Themed Candy Recipe and Exploration page. It has the recipe and explorations for your children to do.

Ingredients

12 ounces of chocolate chips
12 ounces of almond bark*

*Do not substitute white chocolate chips for the almond bark. They don’t melt well and tend to get chalky.

Directions

The first thing you will need to do is trace the bottom of the pan you are going to use onto a piece of parchment paper.

Then you will cut out the shape you traced. (You will need to remove any pencil marks from the paper.)

Next place paper inside the pan with the side you traced on face down.

Then place the chocolate chips and the white almond bark into a microwave safe bowls.

You will then melt the bark and the chips in a microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Please stir the contents of both bowls midways through that time.

You will need to stir the chocolate chips again and then pour the mixture into the pan with the parchment paper.

If your almond bark has any clumps in it, you will need to stir the mixture up a bit to remove them. Pour the melted almond bark into the pan.

You will need to swirl the bark into the chocolate with a spoon or popsicle stick. Do not blend it in.

Next, you will refrigerate the mixture until it is hard.

Then you can break off pieces of the candy to eat.

Exploring the Ingredients

The right side of the recipe printable has a section invites your children to explore the ingredients and the final product. First, they can draw what each of them looks like. Then they can choose a word or two describe how they look, taste and smell.

Sharing Cooking Challenges

There is a very small area in the bottom of the printable to share any challenges your children had while making the metamorphic candy.

If you like this activity, here are some more your children will enjoy.

STEM Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavating

Edible Rock Cycle

ABC’s of Binary Code

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens?

Three Blind Mice Activity with LEGO Braille Letters

Rock Candy Geodes

Igneous Cookie Recipe and Rock Cycle Activity Printable

August 3, 2017 By Deirdre

I will be sharing with your metaphoric and sedimentary rock recipes later in the week. Today I have an igneous cookie recipe to share with you. Along with the cookie recipe, I have created a rock cycle activity printable that focuses on igneous rocks.

Rock Cycle Activity and Igneous Cookie Recipe

Before you start making the cookies with your children, you will need to download and print out the Igneous Rock Cookie Recipe and Exploration printable. It has the ingredient list and directions for making the igneous cookies.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. of butter or margarine
10- ounce package of marshmallows
6 cups of rice cereal

Directions for Making the Cookies

Melt the margarine with the marshmallows in a sauce pan.
Stir in the rice cereal.
Form into balls.
Cool on parchment paper

Counting Activity

While you could simply count the cups of marshmallows as they are dumped into the sauce pan, it might be fun to count the number of marshmallows in each cup. It may turn out the each cup of marshmallow has the same number of marshmallows in it. Your children may find that there is only a small difference between the number of marshmallows in each cup. They might also find that one or more cups has several more than the others. It will be fun to find out.

Exploring Your Senses

The Igneous Rock Cookie Recipe and Exploration printable has a section for your children to share how the marshmallows, rice cereal, and igneous rock cookie taste, look and smell. There isn’t a lot of room to write down their insights. They may have to come up with a word or two to describe each food item.

Sharing a Challenge

The last area of the igneous rock printable invites children to share any challenges they had making the cookies.

If you like this rock cycle activity, here are some more you will enjoy.

Excavating a Chocolate Chip Cookie Activity with Printable

Exploring Rocks – Will Light Shine Through

Sorting and Classifying Rocks

Homemade Salsa Your Kids Will Love to Make and Eat

May 1, 2016 By Deirdre

Homemade Salsa is such fun to make with your kids. Some kids like spicy salsa and others like them to have a little bit of a sweet side. When they help you make homemade salsa, they can do taste tests as it is created. They can try adding a little bit of some of the ingredients and if they like it they can add a little more of them.

This homemade salsa is not spicy at all. It can be made spicier with a dash or two of additional ingredients that are shared at the end of the ingredients list. Just because it isn’t spicy doesn’t mean that it isn’t yummy. We have all enjoyed having it with slightly salty chips. I have had to fill the salsa bowl more than once some days.

Homemade Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

2 cans of stewed tomatoes with spices added

1 small can of tomato paste

1 medium red onion chopped finely

1/3 of each of these colored peppers (red, yellow, and orange)

Tabasco sauce, if you want it spicy

salt and pepper, to taste

sugar, to taste

olive oil

Directions

You will need to decide which of these steps your children are old enough to do on their own. Some of them can be done with your children. Some can be done ahead of time so you children can help put the salsa together.

Cut the peppers and onion into small pieces with a knife. (My son is 8 and he can do this!) Younger children could use a food chopper to create tiny pieces of peppers and onions once you have slice them.
Saute the peppers and onion in sauce pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. (You can decide if you feel comfortable with your children using the stove supervised or not.)
Add stewed tomatoes and the tomato paste to the pan. Stir until the tomato paste has melted into the mixture.
Add salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, and sugar just a little at a time. (You will need to taste test it to see if it is tastes they way you like it.)
If the mixture looks thick,you can add a can of water.
Let it simmer for 20 minutes in the sauce pan.
Serve warm with chips or refrigerate for 30 minutes and serve it cold.

If you really wanted it spicy, you can look for cans of tomatoes that have spices and other ingredients in them that will give your salsa some zing.

Here are some more wonderful recipes to try with your kids:

Brown Cow Floats

Muffin Recipes with Yogurt and Fruit

Healthy Recipes and Frozen Pops

Easy to Make Muffin Recipes Featuring Yogurt and Fruit

July 7, 2015 By Deirdre

At snack time we inhale a lot muffins and yogurt at my house. We so enjoy them after a long bike ride or session of LEGO play. Yoplait gave me the opportunity to combine yogurt and muffins to create some really delicious snacks. After a trip to Walmart to look over the Yoplait yogurt choices that would be good pairings for muffins, we headed to the kitchen to cook. We combined a standard muffin recipe with several different Yoplait yogurts. My husband, son, and I all like snacking on them so much that they disappeared in just two days.

I think part of the reason my son liked the muffins is because he helped make them. Let me walk you through the ingredients and directions for our Key Lime Cooler muffins first.

Key Lime Cooler Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 vegetable oil
1 large egg
3 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Light Key Lime yogurt

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Here are the yogurt fruit filled muffin recipes:

Next we decided to make blueberry lemon muffins and banana chocolate muffins. Each of these muffin recipes were similar to the key lime recipe. They did have a few differences. The biggest change was the addition of fresh fruit.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1 tsp of lemon juice
1/3 a cup of sugar
1/3 a cup of melted margarine
1 large egg
1/3 a cup of blueberries (You can add more if you like. My son inhaled all, but a 1/3 cup of berries before we made these.)
3 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Greek Blueberry and Lemon Yogurt

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Banana Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of melted margarine or vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Chocolate Whipped Yogurt
2 large ripened bananas smashed with a potato masher

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon or fork. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Each of these muffin recipes had a wonderful texture and delicious flavor. I think these are just the beginning of our exploration to find ways to use Yoplait yogurt in muffins for summer snacking and maybe even school lunches. We will need to try more. These recipes used the Light and Greek Yogurts. We need need to try some that showcase the Yoplait Light and Gogurt. I am pulling for a pineapple muffin with orange peel next featuring Yoplait’s Light Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Yoplait®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Breakfast Rice Recipes- Tropical Rice Treat

December 16, 2014 By Deirdre

This is a sponsored post.

Breakfast rice recipes are not something I have explored before. I have wanted to find quick and easy recipes we could use during our holiday break as well as on school days. Things here seem to be busy every day and we all need to fuel up to get the day off to a good start. After finding this recipe on Minute® Rice website called Four Grain Berries and Yogurt I was inspired to come up with our own version of the recipe. It features tropical fruits that are some of my son’s favorites. I knew he would love it.

Here is take on Breakfast Rice recipes:

Ingredients

1 packet of Minute® Rice Multi- Grain Medley

1 large can of mandarin oranges with syrup

1 container of pineapple flavored Greek yogurt

1 cup of dried tropical fruit

½ tsp. of cinnamon

Directions:

Add a cup of mandarin orange juice( syrup) to the pack of multi-grain Minute® Rice’s Multi- Grain Medley in a saucepan.

Bring them to a boil and then let them simmer for 10 minutes. When the rice is ready there will be very little liquid left.

Place the rice into a mixing bowl.

Mix the yogurt, dried fruit, and cinnamon into the rice thoroughly.

Place the mixture into individual bowls or ramekins.

Sprinkle a little cinnamon onto each bowl. Then add a few piece of the dried fruit to the top as you would add sprinkles.

This recipe makes four servings of the Tropical Rice Treat.

I love that Minute® Rice Multi- Grain Medley is a blend of four gluten-free grains ( long grain brown rice, Thai red rice, wild rice, and quinoa). My sister has to eat gluten free recipes. This is something I can serve her for breakfast when she is here over the holidays. It might inspire her to find other wonderful recipes that incorporate holiday leftovers. It might also encourage my whole family to look for meals we can serve to her when she visits with us. We may decide we love them so much that we want to have them when she isn’t visiting.

My son loves tropical fruit so, I created our recipe to include foods I knew he would like. If your family likes special fruits and flavors, you will want to include them in the version of this recipe you make at home. Of course you can always use our recipe. I will be using it again and again.

If you like this recipe, you can find other breakfast rice recipes on the Minute® Rice recipe website. They have tons of recipes that feature their 100% Whole Grain Brown Rice, Minute® White Rice, Minute® Brown Rice as well as Minute® Multi-Grain Rice. I think I am going to try the Zucchini Banana Multi- Grain Bread next.

Breakfast Rice Recipes- Tropical Treat

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions about Minute® Rice products and their recipes are my own.

signature

Dip Recipes – 5 Apple Dips

September 10, 2013 By Deirdre

There is just something wonderful about dipping a fresh fruit into a refreshingly delicious dip created using a super easy dip recipe. While any fruit can be dipped, apples are wonderful for children and adults to hand dip. They are hold dip well and are easy for fingers to grasp. The wide assortment of apple varieties available provides people with many tart to sweet options.

Recently we tried four super easy dip recipes for apples at my house. They ranged from tangy to sweet. We each picked a different dip as a favorite. By making four we didn’t end up with anyone not liking a dip although we could have just made them one at time. None of them was voted yucky by any of us.

Here dip recipes for the dips we made:

Apple Cider Dip

½ a pint of sour cream
1 package of hot apple cider mix
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir them with a spoon. Refrigerate overnight to give the dip a stronger flavor. Serves 4-6.Apple Cream Cheese Dip

3 tablespoons of finely chopped apples
1package of cream cheese
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of apple juice

Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Cream the mixture with a fork for a chunkier style dip. Mix with a hand mixer for a creamier style dip . Refrigerate overnight to give the dip a thicker texture. Serves 4-6Apple Yogurt Dip

1 cup of vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of powdered sugar

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and stir them until they are well blended. This dip was ready to eat immediately. Serves 4-6.Apple Cream Cheese Dip

¼ cup of applesauce
1 package of cream cheese
2 tablespoon of cinnamon

Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Cream the mixture with a fork for a chunkier style dip. Mix with a hand blender for a smoother dip. Placing it in the refrigerator overnight will allow the dip to have a thicker texture and deeper flavor. Serves 4-6We made dips that created servings for a small group of people. The dips could easier we doubled or tripled for larger groups or to have on hand for afternoon snack time.

More Apple Recipe

Apple Cinnamon BreadFather’s Day Dutch Apple DessertEasy Apple CrispApple Chips RecipeDo you have a favorite dip recipe for apples?

{St Patrick’s Day} Yogurt and Cereal Parfait

February 26, 2013 By Deirdre

Every morning JDaniel asks for a piece of cheese on a tortilla (I have tried serving them to him with fancy food additions), fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I thought I could convince him to try something new by creating a St Patrick’s Day cereal and yogurt parfait for him. It isn’t St Patrick’s Day yet, but I didn’t think St. Patrick would mind my creating a treat for JDaniel a little early.Before I could even create the parfait one of the key ingredients disappeared. The key lime yogurt had apparently called out to my husband late one night from the deep recesses of the refrigerator from behind the french onion dip and cottage cheese. If my son had known it was there, he probably would have tried to have it early. (It is is very favorite flavor!)

JDaniel ended up getting have his parfait on a different day than I had planned, but he didn’t seem to mind. He ate every bit of it.

How did I put this St Patrick’s Day snack together?

Ingredients1 small container of orange yogurt (I used orange dreamsicle.)

1 small container of key lime pie yogurt

1/2 cup of Lucky Charms cereal

Directions:

Spoon the orange flavored yogurt into the bottom of a plastic cup.
Place the marshmallow shapes and cereal in a pattern so it can be seen outside the cup.
Sprinkle cereal on top of the yogurt.
Spoon the key lime yogurt on top of the cereal.
Sprinkle Lucky Charms on the top of the lime yogurt or arrange it in a pattern.

I served this to him unfrozen, but I think these would be great a frozen yogurt treat. (We will have to try that next year.) I hope you try this St Patrick’s Day yogurt and cereal parfait.

Here are some other St Patrick’s Day food related posts I have written:

St. Patrick’s Day Food- Irish Soda Bread

Getting Children to Eat New Foods- St. Patrick Loves Veggies

Crafting a Healthy St. Patrick’s Day SnackIrish Symbols in a Snack for Muffin Tin Monday

If you do try any of the above recipes for St Patrick Day, please leave me a comment below telling me about it or share a picture of it on my Facebook page.