For some of you, school may have already started, but for Alex and Soph, September 7 is the big day. Alex will be starting 6th grade and his last year in elementary school, while Soph will be moving up to 2nd grade. For me though, it’s not just about heading back to the classroom, it’s about getting back into the groove of things.

We love summer as much as any family—unstructured time is awesome—but fall means it’s time to get back to business. With work for Mom, homework for the kids and the inevitable after school activities we’re going to be super busy. Taking time to plan our meals is a must for me. Making sure we get healthy, balanced meals is part of it, but the planning also means that instead of rambling around the kitchen trying to figure out what we can eat, the kids and I can cook the meal together. We don’t make every meal together, but, with planning, at least once a week, we spend some quality time in the kitchen.

PLUS, we’re coming up on the One Year Anniversary of the show (Sept 12), so it’s a good thing we’re getting focused. You may have seen the first show of Season Two: ’45 Pounds Pork Chops’ last week, and we’ve got more in queue. We are going to be moving to an every-other-week schedule so we keep our sanity, but, so you don’t miss us ;D, we’re introducing a new weekly blog series we call ‘Kids In the Kitchen,’ featuring ideas any family can use to spend some quality time together cooking, eating and even cleaning up in the kitchen. And, on the opposite weeks of the show, I’ll continue sharing my ‘Thoughts from the Mom.’

We hope your ‘Back to School’ goes smoothly and gets everyone in your family back into the groove too!
Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. If you’re interested, check out our premiere episode, 2 Kids Cooking TV: Berry Dippers

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are finally back with Season II of Two Kids Cooking TV!  We’re kicking off our return by sharing a recipe from 45pounds.com.  45pounds is dedicated to helping overweight children by educating both parents and children about the principles of healthy eating. They have an online cookbook with lots of healthy, tasty recipes. Recently, they held a video contest and we used this recipe as our entry.  Alex loved these pork chops and we’ve made them a couple of times since taping this episode.

Here’s the recipe we used:



If you’re interested in checking out more recipes, meal plans, exercise DVDs and everything else 45pounds provides, check them out: http://www.45pounds.com.

Enjoy the show and Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Soph and Mom
P.S. To stay in touch with the 2 Kids and Mom, make sure to ‘like’ us on facebook!

Walleye is the official state fish of Minnesota. It is also super tasty. So today Alex, Soph & I are sharing one way we Minnesotans like to eat our state fish–Pan Fried.

Fishing itself is a fun way to spend the day together as a family. Now, you don’t always catch walleye, but this recipe would work with any panfish – sunnies, crappies, perch, etc. Then, after catching your limit, hop of the lake and come on in for some family cooking fun–this is another one of our easy to cook with kids recipes. We’ll show you just how easy in this weeks show.

Enjoy!

Alex, Soph & Mom

P.S. Stop by our facebook page and become a fan!

UPDATE: 8/2011 – It appears that this product is no longer available on Amazon, but we’ll leave the link up. Despite the bad reviews, Soph did have fun with this model.

This week Soph and I are reviewing the ‘Press Dough Ultimate Cookie Factory by Little Kids,’  by Little Kids. A couple of months ago, a representative from Little Kids contacted us to see if we’d be interested in trying out he product. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical–all I could picture was that play dough toy that expressed strings of colorful dough through the sieve-like head of a hollow, plastic creature. And, how those colorful strings always manage to find their way into my carpet. BUT, the offer was interesting and if it’s related to food and fun, we’re always up to give it a go-around, so we did.

For our first try, I purchased some peanut butter cookie dough. You can use home-made as well (as long as it’s not too chunky), but it was a busy week and Soph was anxious to test it out, so store-bought dough it was. We started out by making the pressed cookies, them moved on to extruding the dough through the cards with different shaped holes. After that, we baked ‘em, waited for them to cool and then frosted them up.

Guess What…? I was fun! I had just as much fun as Soph playing with this toy, pressing cookies and squishing it through molds.

Watch this weeks episode to see how we tested it out and why we give it 2 Thumbs Up!

Happy Cooking!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Make sure to stop by on Wednesday, April 26 to see photos from our booth at the Forest Lake Craft show.

P.P.S. I apologize for the lighting in this episode…the window threw me off, and then I wasn’t behind the camera and Alex wasn’t there….and I’m just babbling cuz I know the lighting thing is a bit annoying while you watch it this week….anyway, sorry!

NOTE: We did not purchase the Press Dough Deluxe Cookie factory. It was sent to us specifically with the intent that we would test it and provide an honest review.

This week we share our experimentation with dehydration and making Beef Jerky.  A few weeks ago, Alex shared his love of Beef Jerky–I knew then that we’d have to try making our own and record our efforts. I have made Jerky with our dehydrator before, when Alex was a baby and I was preserving some of the Venison from the kid’s Dad’s annual deer hunting catch, but the kids and I had never make it together.  Well, now we have and we’re sharing just how we did it with you this week!

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!

Fish of any kind is always popular at the 2 Kids house, and tuna is one of our favorites–fresh or canned, baked or fried, Alex, Soph and I all love it. In the summer during prime grilling weather, we like to expand our burger palette by throwing some tuna burgers in the mix. They’re also easy to make on the stove, as we demonstrate in this week’s episode–and, they are perfect for making with the kids!

Enjoy the show, and if you want to try our burger recipe, check out our recipe of the week.

In just a few days, St. Patrick’s day will be here and we all know that celebrating with green beverages is a popular tradition. Our family-friendly green beverage of choice is our Tropical Shamrock Smoothie.

In this weeks episode we show you just how easy it is to get the whole family mixing up this tasty St. Patrick’s day treat. And, if you get the urge to make your own, check out the Tropical Shamrock Smoothie recipe here.

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

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!

Pizza is always popular meal with kids. Part of its attraction, I think, is that it’s such a customizable meal. If one person likes pepperoni and the other doesn’t, well we just don’t add pepperoni to the whole pizza then, right? Each person gets just what they like.

This recipe takes traditional pizza, and wraps it up in a pocket. Each person gets their very own ingredients and can make their pizza just the way they like it. When we made them, Sophia didn’t dd any sauce, ’cause she doesn’t like sauce, just cheese and a few other items. Alex added extra sauce and a variety of meats to address his carnivorous tendencies. The best part is, it’s a fun meal to make together, as a family!

Enjoy the show, and check out the recipe for Personal Pizza Pockets if you get the urge to make them for your family!