Fall is here, and after the heat of this summer I think we’re all breathing a collective sigh of relief! Autumn means school’s back in session. It’s a good time to start new family activities, and a good time to bolster the immune systems of your children. Why not do both at the same time?

New research on sprouts adds to what we already know: they’re good for us. They fall into that ambiguous ‘healthy stuff’ group that kids often avoid without tasting, but you can fix that. They’re certainly worth the effort. Their health effects range from heart health to anti-cancer agents; they’re a good, low-cal snack, adding flavor and zest to a variety of dishes. And you can grow them yourself.

Growing sprouts is easy. It’s also fun to do as a family. Instead of using jars, like we did when we were kids, the most effective way to grow is in a hemp sprouting bag. They’re inexpensive and available all over the web. One will run you about $15, but it will last a long time. Jars take up space and require more time, break and limit the amount of air sprouts get while growing. Bags have none of these problems. Simply dip them in water and hang it to drain, saving kitchen counter space and time.

Pick your seeds carefully. Any vegetable, grain or nut seed will grow sprouts, but different seeds require more or less time (bean sprouts grow in a few hours, macadamia nuts need 60 days) and each has a distinctive taste. Some will maintain their nutrients when cooked and others need to be eaten raw. (See the link below for more information).

Do a little homework of your own and turn this into a cool science experiment for the kids. Chart how long different seeds take to sprout and then grow to harvest, or graph how hot or sweet a sprout is (radish are ‘hot’ by sprout standards and sunflower sprouts are sweet) or size of seed/bean/nut to growth time to see if there’s a correlation.

Once your sprouts are all grown up, it’ll be time for the family to hit the kitchen to some tasting. Recipes for sprouts abound. Use them in sandwiches, soups, quesadillas, pureed and used in paté … the possibilities are almost endless.

Make the kids an important part in growing, harvesting and preparation. Because the ‘farming’ is simple, you might give each child a sprouting bag as their own little farm. Help them get it going and remind them to dunk and drain the bag daily and help with harvesting. Pick recipes that are age-appropriate and let your grower make a dish for dinner using their plants as an ingredient. Alex and Soph get a kick out of feeding the family, from seed to serving, and we’re betting your kids will too.

References:
- How to Grow Sprouts
- What to Grow and How to Eat It
- E-Coli and Sprouts
- Nutrition Info. Fact Chart
- A List of Available Downloads

Happy Family Cooking (and Gardening) Everyone,

Alex, Soph and Kelly

P.S. Check us out on Facebook and give us a ‘Like’ then we can come and say ‘hi’ to you over there too!

Sometimes, Alex and Soph can be a bit picky about the food they eat. Ok, maybe it’s a bit more than sometimes, I admit. BUT, because of that, one thing I do to encourage them to broaden their taste bud horizons is to try new things. With this process comes picking out and preparing new recipes.

Every other Sunday, the kids return home after their week at their Dad’s house. This is when we prepare for our week together, reviewing activities, finishing homework and planning what we’re going to eat for dinner each night. After trying to put together a few basic meal ideas for the week and having the kids respond with less than enthusiastic comments, I know it’s time to pull out the cookbooks and get them to help. I usually hand over a couple of our go-to cookbooks and a few of the newest issues of various cooking magazines I have on hand and have them start looking.

The beginning results of this process inevitably lead to dessert item after dessert item being flagged for us to make. However, with some persistent reminders of our goal to find dinner items, we eventually come up with at least a couple of respectable choices. Once we decided on our ‘try it’ recipes, we finalize our shopping list and head to the store for groceries.

When the assigned day for one of our agreed upon ‘try-it’ recipes arrives, we’re always excited about it. As soon as we get home from school and work, we dig out the recipe, all the necessary ingredients and tool and get to work. We all do our part cleaning, cutting, stirring and flipping as necessary—oh and tasting too, of course. Sophia usually makes the event into a party, as well, by fancying up the table and making sure we eat by candlelight (as all families should on occasion ;D).

When we plan a ‘try-it’ meal it’s like a family date night. It belongs to all of us and it’s lots of fun, even when the recipe isn’t so tasty or if we mess it up. As we eat, we discuss how great of cooks we are or what we’ll do different next time—or we laugh as we eat tuna sandwiches because the recipe was a disaster.

Get your kids to pick a recipe or two they’d like to try and then plan the night. I assure you you’ll have a great evening together as a family.

Happy Cooking Everyone,

Alex, Sophia and Kelly (Mom)

P.S. Our One Year Anniversary gift to our list subscribers will be coming out soon (this weekend if all works out) so make sure to sign up now so you don’t miss it!

One sure way to get the kids in the kitchen, at least at our house, is to say the word ‘experiment’. We’ve done all of the traditional kitchen experimentation—baking soda and vinegar, sugar crystals, an egg in vinegar, etc.—Recently, though, I’ve been trying to make edible food items more science-y by presenting them as more of an experiment.

Some foods and recipes work better for this than others. For example, in our episode of 2 Kids Cooking TV, ‘Making Mozzerella, the kids and I had fun making delicious cheese while learning about separating milk into its various parts.

Some other real food that would work well in the edible food experiment arena include:
• Making mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce (Emulsions)
• Making Ice Cream in a Bag (Freezing Point Depression and Colligative Properties)
• Meringues and Soufflés (The Power of Egg Whites)
• Cottage Cheese and Ricotta (Catalysts and Coagulation)

There are some other ideas at ‘The Accidental Scientist: The Science of Cooking’ website that we like as well. They have experiments involving bread, pickles, candy, eggs, spices and meat. Each section includes recipes, explanations and activities.

We hope one or more of these ideas draw you and your kids into the kitchen to have some edible science fun. As Alex, Sophia and I work our way through these experiments, we’ll be sure to record each one and share via the show, of course

Have fun cooking together!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

P.S. If you have any ideas for edible experiments you’ve done, let us know by posting a comment below or by sharing over on our fan page wall at Facebook!

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

photo courtesy of http://lifeasmom.com

When school starts, the leisurely, time-filled days of summer, well they just disappear. Calendars fill up with various activities and finding quality time to spend together as a family can be on the challenging side. But, the thing is, I love spending time with my kids, so I try to make sure we schedule in some time we can do something together each week they’re with me. Game night is pretty easy and whipping up a snacky supper is easy to do with the kids before the games begin.

The activities we plan usually involve food element (big surprise, I know ), even if just snacks to accompany a night of monopoly or maybe the pet shop game. On any given week, here are the steps this mom will follow to accomplish my goals of having some fun with my kiddies and getting them actively involved in food selection and planning:

1. Pick a day of the Week. Since I only have the kids every other week, I like to pick a day Wednesday or later, but whatever day is the most open for your family is what you should pick.
2. Select the Game(s). Make sure to choose the game or games well in advance, that way all participants have time to get on board. Lack of planning can cause some minor disturbances that can easily be avoided if all children involved agree on the game(s) that will be played.
3. Choose the Menu. Let everyone pick a menu item. Game night dinners for us can involve pizza, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, soup…we each pick something and a theme usually emerges. The menu should be more snack-like in nature, easy to eat while playing. And something that the kids can easily help prepare. The bonding time of game night can and will begin well before the first roll of the dice if everyone works together to prep the food.
4. Pump Up The Event. Since we usually plan our events later in the week, once we have everything set, I bring it up in the evening or before bed, like a count-down to the day. If we have errands to run that involve the game night—like picking up food items, or maybe even a new game—we talk about the plans in the morning on the way to school.

By the day of the planned Game Night, the kids are psyched and as soon as we get in the door from school the afternoon the preparations begin. We work like well-oiled machine, preparing our menu and setting up for the festivities. Once all is ready, we eat, play and be merry for an evening of family, food and fun.

Grab your kids right now and plan a Family Game Night with a Snacky Supper. You will have lots of fun with your kids in the kitchen and enjoying some of that ‘quality-time’ we parents are always longing for.

Happy Family Cooking!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. We’ll be sharing ideas for getting your ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ each week. To make sure you don’t miss one, sign up for our mailing list and we’ll make sure you get the weekly update.

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!

It’ll be August tomorrow. We all knew it would arrive eventually, and for some of us it’s too soon (us=Alex and Soph). For others, though, it’s the beginning of the time when the garden starts sharing, and that’s a good thing.

I’ve never really had a super green thumb, more of a light green if anything, but I grew up with home grown food, so I do my best to try with what I have. Our patio herb garden and tomato plant are minuscule compared to the huge, backyard-filling garden my Dad tended every summer. As a kid, veggies from the grocery store where pretty much unknown. Veggies at our house came one of three ways: Fresh from the garden; From the freezer; or From the jars in the basement. I have hours of footage stored in my head of things like pea shelling contests between my siblings, the kids my mom babysat and me; I can still feel the pricks from the raspberry bushes when we’d have to go in ‘deep’ to get the berries; And, we can’t forget the rotten tomato throwing fights we’d have in the fall after the freeze destroyed the remaining tomatoes on the plants. For us, food wasn’t just something you bought, it was something you were a part of making happen.

Every gardener knows it’s not just about tossing seeds in dirt. Gardens require maintenance and care to ensure a good crop. Pulling weeds, watering, fertilizing, watching for plant problems…it’s like having another kid. I’ll have to say though, that, despite the differences my ex-husband I have, I am happy that he has a real garden for them so they experience more than just my apartment patio herbs. This week, he even sent a bag of cucumbers with the kids for us–Soph and I have been eating ‘em up. He also included some green beans, which were very delicious. Although I enjoy the fresh food, it’s actually less about that for me, I can get fresh produce at the farmers market. It’s about the kids getting the chance to plant and harvest their own food. It’s about Alex and Soph helping their dad build a scarecrow to keep intruders out of the corn. It’s about my little mini’s getting excited to see the first red tomato of the season.

Plus, when they grow it, they’re more likely to eat it. You see, they aren’t real lovers of green beans, but if the green beans are from their garden, they eat ‘em right up. And, if they ask, ‘what’s the green stuff on this?’ and I reply, ‘it’s the herbs from OUR herb garden’…’all I hear in response is, ‘oh, they’re good, mom.’ And I respond, ‘I know, I know… ‘

Happy Gardening Everyone,

Alex, Soph & Mom

P.S. That picture up there, that’s our first tomato of the season

I love living in Minnesota. I can’t imagine having a year without continuous change every few months. Each season influences the food we crave. I will say my favorite season is fall; from the super tasty harvest, to the trees dressing up in my favorite colors. But, for us, the food of summer is always something we look forward to–the freshness and simplicity–makes me drool a little just thinking about it.

I also love summer because it introduces a level of variety to family cooking. If someone in the group has a green thumb, they can lead the family in planting a garden which will later lead to ultra-fresh, family-cooked meals. Or, if your brood is better suited for shopping than gardening, farmer’s markets and produce stands offer the opportunity for everyone to get in on the action by picking out their favorite, just-picked fruits and veggies for consumption that day.

As for the Two Kids Family and our summer food adventures, Alex, Soph and I live in an apartment, so our gardening is restricted to our patio herb garden. We had fun and spent some quality family time together planting it, plus, we’ve been using our herbs in various recipes and are anxiously awaiting the ripening of our tomatoes. We’re also enjoying berry season–strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are everywhere and we’ve been using them in recipes (as you’ll see in our upcoming ‘bake-off’ episode of Two Kids Cooking TV) or just eating them fresh. Oh yeah, and grilling…there is nothing like the smell of meat cooking on an open fire. I realize you can grill in the winter, even in the great arctic Minnesota, but, when the temps below freezing, you’re really not outside smelling the deliciousness. And again, it’s fun to do the grilling thing with the whole family, burgers, brats, hot dogs, veggies–the whole works.

If you need some ideas for food and family fun, here are a few things you might find the Two Kids entourage partaking in:

• Berry Picking – When we were on our road-trip out to Appleton, MN to visit, we did some berry picking in Grandma and Wayne’s raspberry patch, but there are lots of pick-your-own places all over. After an afternoon of picking, a berry pie for dessert in the evening hits the spot.
• Family BBQ – The quintessential cooking method of the summer is grilling. For us, the grills are down at the pool in our apartment complex, so we work together to plan out what we’ll eat, prepare it for the trip down to the pool and then I cook while the kids swim. When it’s all done, we enjoy a leisurely, poolside, family meal.
• Celebrate a Vegetable – it is the time of year when lots of fruits and veggies are coming into season. Why not pick one or two and plan a whole meal around that in-season treat?
• Have a Picnic – We LOVE picnics. We don’t do anything super fancy, just whip together our favorite sandwiches, cut up some fruit and veggies, toss in a bag of chips and some beverages and we’re all set. Oh yes, and don’t forget our Hannah Montana picnic blanket ;D
• Ice Cream Party – Any sort of frozen treats work, but ice cream is traditional. When it’s hot we like to have our sundaes and eat them too. Occasionally we get creative with Popsicles or other icy treats, but like I said, Ice Cream is our favorite.

All seasons bring with them opportunities to spend time with the family, cooking and eating. And, each season provides a uniqueness to the food it offers. For us, summer food is all about freshness and simplicity, along with outdoor eating and adventure. Alex, Sophia and I hope your family gets out there and enjoys the summer food in your area together.

Happy Family Cooking!

Alex, Sophia and Mom (Kelly)

P.S. To get the whole family involved in your summer cooking, check out our Curious Chef 8 Pc Fruit & Vegetable Set, perfect for little hand helping with veggie prep. Or, if desert is more your style, why not have an Ice Cream Sundae party with the Curious Chef 22 Pc Sundae Sleepover Kit!

I know the last few weeks we’ve been really quiet and all you’ve seen from us is reruns, BUT, we’ve actually been pretty busy planning and taping new shows AND thinking up new stuff to help spread our enthusiasm for getting kids in the kitchen.

Now, we have also been spending some time relaxing at the pool and enjoying our summer vacation. Oh, and don’t forget Alex’s baseball practices and games. But, we want you to know that, even with the weeks off we’ve had, we’re still working hard at work producing new episodes and we’re going to be heading out later this week for our ‘Feasting Across Minnesota’ road trip episodes!

Here’s some of the stuff we’re working on for our next ‘season’:

• Our ‘What is?’ series, featuring basic cooking methods like baking, grilling, frying…sharing definitions, and cooking examples to show kids and their families just what they can do together in the kitchen.
• Our ‘Two Kids Reviews’ series, will continue from last year, but we’re hoping to add a bit more detail and fun to each review show.
• A ‘Family Cooking Across the Web’ series will feature interviews with some of this mom’s favorite kid-friendly food bloggers and others.
• And, our real-life cooking adventures inspired by Alex and Soph…like the ‘Fairy Berry Bake-off’ we’re going to be having next week

We’re really excited so we hope you can stick with us for a few more weeks of reruns. In the meantime, I, the mom, will be do my best to share our Two Kids ideas for making cooking with kids fun and easy.We hope you all are having a great summer!

Oh yes-Happy 4th of July!!!! (<—that’s the mom’s favorite holiday )

Now go, cook something together!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

Alex and Soph LOVE shrimp. We eat a lot of it and their favorite way to cook it is with Lemon Garlic Sauce. As we shared when this episode originally ran in January 2010, this recipe is kind of like a shrimp scampi, but it replaces all that butter with a reduced broth. It’s really tasty and it’s actually kinda healthy.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Get the tools you need to enhance your child’s inner-chef at our new Two Kids Cooking Shop!