Cooking with Kids

If you've been a reader of my blog, you'll notice my daughter cooks and bakes with me often. It's one of the things I remember doing with my mom growing up and I think it's made me appreciate cooking and baking more than just something that needs to be done. I really enjoy it and I'm glad my daughter enjoys it as well.

My mom bought Madeline 2 cookbooks for her birthday. She absolutely loved them and secretly I hope it will stop her from stealing my cookbooks...hehe. They are super cute and came in the most adorable packaging! The books are by Handstand Kids and help children learn about recipes, different cultures and languagues. There are five children that are featured in the book - Felix, Izzy, Ari, Gabby and Marvin. One additional feature is there are helpful hints about cooking for special diets (vegetarian, picky eaters, etc).

We have the Italian cookbook; it came packaged in a pizza box with a pizza cutter. The other book my mom bought was the Chinese cookbook. I came in a take box with a spoon - so cute! In addition to the 2 books we have, there's a Mexican cookbook too!

I'm excited to have Madeline pick out recipes to try from her cookbooks...of course, we'll be sharing them!

Some of the recipes I'm looking forward to making are:

• Italian Popcorn
• The Best-o Chicken Pest-o
• Grandisimo Granita Ices
• The Great Wall of Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Baked Spring Rolls
• Year of the Monkey Mango Smoothies

The sets are sold in stores and online.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

My daughter’s 5^th birthday (OMG…how did she get to be 5 already!!?!?!?) was last week and we threw her a friend birthday party at the gym where she has gymnastics lessons. She invited 8 friends from school and had a great time. Her one request about cupcakes were they needed to be pink and that she wanted 5 candles instead of the number 5 candle. Seriously, such requests at age 5?!?! I think my hands are going to be full with this one!  

Since strawberries are in season from Florida and California, I knew that would be the perfect combination. I am slowing eliminating dyes from her food and when I asked for recommendations on recipes for strawberry cupcakes, my friend Alicia quickly sent me to Oprah’s website and told me about the Strawberry cupcake and frosting recipes from Sprinkles.

The recipe is fairly easy and uses all fresh ingredients, which I love. I made a test batch the week before her party and I loved how dense and moist the cake was and the frosting was the perfect amount of sweetness. The one thing I hate about frostings is when they are too sugary and you can’t enjoy the cupcakes! All the kids enjoyed them and I brought the leftovers into work where they were quickly devoured.

Cupcakes

2/3 cup fresh strawberries
1 ½ cup flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp coarse salt
¼ cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

Using a small food processor, puree the strawberries. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree for the cucpakes. More will be needed for the frosting.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the milk, vanilla and strawberry puree.

Using a stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the butter and sugar are well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer to medium and slowly add the egg and egg whites just until the mixture is blended.

Turn the mixer on low and slowly add half of the dry ingredients just until blended. Add the strawberry mixture and mix; add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the muffin tops are just try. Place the tin on a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool in the tin before icing.

Frosting

½ cup frozen strawberries, thawed

1 cup unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch of coarse salt
3 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted to remove clumps
½ tsp vanilla extract

Puree the strawberries in a small food processor (or use the leftovers from the cupcakes) and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar. Beat until the butter and sugar are well combined. Add the vanilla and 3 tablespoons of the strawberry puree. Combine to beat until just blended. The frosting will be thick and creamy. Take care not to over mix or the frosting will incorporate too much air.

Makes 1 dozen cupacakes. I had leftover frosting but used it for my next batch of cupcakes (just hide it in the fridge so you don’t want to eat it with a spoon!)

Source: Oprah.com

The Secret Recipe Club: Corn Dog Muffins

I can't believe I've been participating in the Secret Recipe Club for 9 months! Wow...time is flying by!

This month I was assigned the blog, ButterYum. Patricia has some amazing recipes and I had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to make. Ironically before I was assigned her blog for this month's assignment, I made her Roasted Cauliflower and onions recipe. It was delicious and when I read the assignment email, I knew I couldn't go wrong with any recipe I selected. I originally wanted to make the To Die for Banana Cake, but never had overripe bananas. I know I'm always finding myself with overripe bananas but the one time I wanted them, I didn't have any!

Onto the recipe that I did selected....healthier corn muffins. I've never made corn muffins before, I'm not really sure why, but now that I know how easy and tasty they are...I'll be making them often. My daughter loves corn dogs, so I thought why not incorporate the two together and be able to give her something different and unique for lunch! She loves them and they were perfect for lunch and it impressed her teachers.

1/4 cup water
1/2 cup natural applesauce
1 egg
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
hot dogs, cut into thirds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the water, applesauce, egg and melted butter. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full. Press a hot piece into the center.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until muffins are cooked through.

Want to be part of The Secret Recipe Club?

Taco Soup

Yet another soup recipe! I told you I've been craving soups this pregnancy. My husband and daughter love tacos and always ask me to make them. Everytime I make them, they inhale the entire batch and there's never anything leftover for lunch the next day. I saw this soup and thought it would be perfect to have enough for dinner and lunch leftovers. Not only did it give me dinner for the three of us and 4 servings for lunch, I was able to freeze about half of it for another time. I know it will definitely come in handy when I'm huge and not feeling like spending time in the kitchen cooking.

Just a quick update on my pregnancy - I'm 26 weeks and doing well. I've been feeling pretty good, but definitely slowing down and feeling the need to rest more often. Baby boy is quite active and I'm always feeling kicks and bumps. He's still not named, but we've been making progress on his nursery and will be ready for his arrival in June.

Back to the food...

1 lb lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1.25 oz packet taco seasoning
3 cups water
2 - 28 oz cans diced tomatoes (next time I'm going to use fire roasted tomatoes)
15 oz can tomato sauce
2 - 15 oz cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained

In a large soup pot, brown the beef, onions and garlic. Drain any grease once the meat is completely browned. Add the taco seasoning and 1 cup of water. Stir to combine well. Add the remaining ingredients including the remaining 2 cups of water.

Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for at least 15 minutes until ready to be served.

Spoon into bowls and top with your desired toppings. I used shredded monterey jack cheese, crushed tortilla chips and sour cream.

Source: Our Best Bites

Roasted Cauliflower & Onions

We're all big fans of raw cauliflower, but really don't care for it could. When I saw this recipe on ButterYum's blog, I knew it was something that I wanted to try. It was AMAZING! Roasting the cauliflower really brought out the flavor and it tasted so good. I definitely will be roasting all cauliflower from this point forward. I was thinking it would be great to roast cauliflower and then added it to potatoes to make a potato-cauliflower mash. YUM!

1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, cut into pieces

4 Tbps olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil. juice and salt and pepper. Place the vegetables in a baking dish. Pour the dressing over top and stir to evenly coat all the vegetables.

Roast vegetables for about 1 hour, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

Source: Butter Yum