Alex loves fish. He would eat it everyday if he could. Actually, the only thing that stops me from feeding it to the kids more than twice a week is the mercury level worry. BUT, sometimes, one of our two fish meals for the week includes Tuna Burgers. Canned tuna really makes delicious burgers and, since Alex isn’t a hamburger eater, when we grill, we do traditional burgers and tuna burgers.

The recipe is pretty simple and it’s funto make with the kids. Squishing ingredients through fingers and forming burgers is just one of those things kids love.

If your family likes tuna, they’ll definitely like this fun variation of a tuna sandwich.

Tuna Burgers:
3, 12oz cans of tuna
2 eggs
3/4 cup of saltine crackers, crumbled
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
salt to taste
butter
hamburger buns

Open your cans of tuna and drain the water off. With your hands, combine the tuna, eggs, saltines, lemon pepper and salt. Once everything is all mixed together, form burgers.

On the stove, heat a frying pan with butter (although these are good on the grill too, just make sure they’re extra moist so they stay together). Once the butter is melted, add your tuna patties and cook one each side until browned.

Place each patty on a bun and serve! We like ‘em with mayonnaise and some of us (that means Mom) like lettuce on ours

Enjoy!

Oh yeah–Don’t for get to follow us on twitter (@twokidscooking) and become a fan at facebook.

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I decided to order and test some of Curious Chef’s products. They look fun and I was intrigued by the cutlery in particular.

Overall, we loved the tools, the knives are great too, especially with Sophia. She is good with a ‘real’ knife, but she also gets distracted when she’s cooking on occasion. The Curious Chef knives provide an extra sense of safety.

We tested out each piece in this week’s episode, and you can get Alex and Sophia’s direct feedback as you watch. If you decide the little chef’s in your life would appreciate their very own cooking tools, we recommend My Secret Pantry. The order was processed quickly and we got our package without a glitch. Plus, they have lots of other cool stuff too

If you’d prefer, you can also get Curious Chef Products at Amazon.com.

March is the month that we celebrate St. Patrick’s day. Here in Minnesota, it’s also the beginning of the end of an oh-so-long winter. So, the kids and I decided to come up with a recipe that is appropriate for the holiday, and that reminds us of the warm summer days we are missing terribly as we watch the snow fall, and fall, and keep falling. The result is our Tropical Shamrock Smoothie!

Tropical Shamrock Smoothie
10 to 14 ice cubes
1 13.66 fl. oz. Can of lite coconut milk
1 8.5 oz can of Cream of coconut
The juice of two Limes
Green food coloring
1 to 1 1/2 T Fresh chopped mint (and some whole for garnish)

Add all of the ingredients to a blender. Blend, pulsing as necessary until all of the ice is crushed. Pour into glasses and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone!

A couple of weeks ago, Alex, Soph and I tried one of our Kitchen Chemistry Experiments–we made our very own fresh mozzarella cheese. Both of the kids love science, and learning about making cheese seemed right up their alley…plus I’ve always thought it would be fun to try. I was right, it is fun. But, beware, it’s kind of addicting too. Maybe I’m just a perfectionist, but I can’t stop trying to get each batch a little more perfect. Luckily, Sophia is a fresh mozzarella eating monster, she just scarf’s it right up

If it’s something you’ve wanted to try, you definitely should. You’ll see just how easy it is in this episode. If you want more detail on exactly what we did, check out our Kitchen Chemistry: Making Mozzarella post.

Happy Cheese-making everyone!

Oh, and don’t forget to give us a follow over on Twitter or maybe fan us on Facebook, we like to keep in touch with our viewers

You may have seen the kids and I demonstrate this tasty recipe on last weeks episode of 2 Kids Cooking. If you did, you know just how easy Pizzadillas are to make. They have the benefit of filling customization, which we love, plus they’re good for kids at any skill level to do some hands on helping.

Pizzadillas
Main Ingredients:
Flour Tortillas
Cheese – Mozzarella, Cheddar, a Marbled variety, whatever you prefer
Pizza Sauce for dipping
Cooking Spray

Optional Ingredients:
Pepperoni
Sausage
Chicken
Olives, black and/or green
Artichoke hearts
Onions
Whatever you like on your pizza

Instructions:
The first thing you’ll want to do is prep the ingredients. Grate the cheese, slice your olives, cut up your chicken, etc… Next, give everyone two of the tortillas and have them start adding their favorite toppings. Be careful not to overfill or it will be hard to flip when it’s in the pan. Once each person is satisfied with the contents of their pizzadilla, add the second tortilla to the top and you’re ready to melt it up.

Heat a pan on the stove top. Once it’s hot, spray it with cooking spray and then set in your first pizzadilla. When the first side is browned, spray the side facing up and then flip the pizzadilla over. After side two has browned and the cheese has melted, lift it out of the pan and let it cool on a plate. Next, it’s time for cutting! We usually cut ours into either 4 or 6 pieces.

Once your pizzadilla is cut to your satisfaction, serve with a side of microwave-warmed pizza sauce and you’ve got yourself a quick, easy and tasty meal!

We hope you have fun with your own family pizzadilla fest!

P.S. Don’t for get to follow us on twitter (@twokidscooking) and become a fan at facebook.

OK, so we love pizza and we like to make in as many different forms as possible. This recipe is takes a classic quesadilla, and some pizza fixings (your favorite of course!), adds some pizza sauce ‘dip’ and viola! you have Pizzadillas.

The best part of this recipe is the simplicity. It is perfect for making with the kids and it’s quick to whip together. Alex, Soph and I show you just how easy in this weeks episode…enjoy!

P.S. Don’t for get to follow us on twitter (@twokidscooking) and become a fan at facebook.

We love science, and since cooking can and does involve science, we end up doing lots of kitchen experiments–sometimes they involve food, sometimes just mixing stuff together to see what happens This week, though, we’ve had a focus on cheese-making, mozzarella cheese-making to be specific.

Before we made our first attempt, I did lots of research online. Mainly because two of the ingredients you need (Rennet, Citric Acid) are a bit challenging to find in a local store. In order to get my hands on the rennet, I spoke with the cheese department at Lund’s in NE Minneapolis. They sent me to the Lunds in Uptown, where I bought two boxes so I had plenty to work with. Citric acid, which I thought wouldn’t be that difficult to find, well, I never actually found any. I ended up using lemon juice (despite some recommendations not too). After the first batch, I found some ‘Fruit Fresh’ which contains citric acid & absorbic acid, both of which I had read were acceptable. (NOTE: you can get these ingredients online from a variety of places, I’d recommend one, but I didn’t order it online. If you have a source, please share!)

Anyway, we’ll share more of the details on each specific batch on February 27 when we post our experience on Two Kids Cooking TV. But, in the meantime, if you want to try you’re own, here’s the main recipe I followed:

How to Make Great Fresh Mozzarella Cheese at the Instructables website…it is step-by-step and easy to follow.

I also had some questions answered The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

My advice:
-lemon juice does work (I used about 1/8 to 1/4 cup)
-If you use tap water, boil and cool it first–it does kill the rennet if you don’t
-do Not over stretch it, it gets really dense if you do.

Again, we taped our second try and will be sharing it on the show in a couple weeks, so if you want to see how we did it, make sure to get on our mailing list, follow us on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to our feed.

It’s Valentine’s Time! And every good Valentines meal needs a tasty dessert. We think you’ll find this dessert fits the holiday perfectly. It’s Red, and White and Sweet and even good for you (ok, better for you than most desserts).

We can tell you with complete honesty, though, that it is delicious–we ate almost the entire thing right out of the bowl after filming. It definitely warmed our hearts We’re sure it’ll warm yours too!

Enjoy the Show, AND, Happy Valentines Day!!!!

XXOO,

Mom, Alex and Soph

P.S. You can find the recipe for Banana Berry Valentine Trifle here, in case you want to make if for your sweetie

Making your very own roasted is sooo easy. So easy Soph’s gonna show you how:

Here’s the recipe:

1 head of Garlic
Olive Oil

Instructions:
Peel much of the papery outer part of the garlic head. Cut the top of the garlic off. Place the head of garlic in the center of a piece of aluminum foil. Pour about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil over the garlic, making sure to coat the entire head. Wrap it up in the aluminum foil and bake it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until it’s soft.

That’s it, easy and tasty!

2010 is the Two Kids Family year of trying to improve the nutritional value of the food we eat. This recipe stems from this goal, and, even though the kids weren’t huge on the Spinach, (as you may have seen in the recipe of the week post), they did try it and they loved the chicken. One thing is for sure, though, we had a great time making the meal together.

You’ll see how easy it is to make this recipe with the kids–and maybe, since they helped make it, they’ll try the spinach too

Find the recipe for Herbed Chicken and Garlicky Spinach right here!