Photo: William Dickey; Styling: Rose Nguyen

Sometimes family schedules can make family cooking challenging. After school-practices, appointments, games…it can be difficult to prepare and eat a family meal together.  This doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t squeeze in some time in the kitchen having fun. With a little planning, the week can present itself an hour or two. We have three ideas for you and your kids spend that free time and they all involve fun together in the kitchen.

Idea 1:
Baking - When most people think about cooking with their kids, they think of baking, at least that’s my perception. The reason is because making cookies from scratch or mixing up or decorating cupcakes is a simple way to get the kids in the kitchen with you.

Here are some baking together tips:

• Take some time with the kiddies to pick out a specific recipe that you want to bake together
• Prepare the shopping list together as well, first checking the cupboards for what you already have, and then going to purchase the rest
• Plan the date and time you’re going to have your baking adventure and make sure there are no other distractions.
• Enjoy your baked creation together and share with others in the family that didn’t help!

Idea 2:
Food Related Experiments – If you have kids that are interested in science, or even just doing experiments with food, you can probably get them in the kitchen cooking and learning with a Science Experiment You Can Eat. We’ve made up our own experiments, some of them not so edible, but with this book by Vicki Cobb, you can investigate things from Suspensions, Colloids and Emulsions to Microbes and Enzymes. Each experiment has an edible component and an observation section to help summarize what you learned.

Idea 3:
Preparing Special Meals – By special meals, I mean things like Mom, Dad, Brother or Sister’s birthday, or maybe just because it’s Friday.  Any day can be a special day if everyone involved decides it is. By planning a special meal day and building up anticipation, everyone will be excited when the day actually arrives. Alex, Soph and I like to do party nights when we make snacky super items together, then spread out a blanket in the living room and eat picnic style while we watch a movie, or something on Netflix.

Here are some tips for planning your ‘special meal’ night:

• Pick the special day or event together. If it’s for a family member’s birthday, you can surprise them or include them. If you do include them, you can always plan a surprise part of the meal (like cake) that you make separately.
• Have everyone decide  ahead of time what they will be working on…who’s cutting veggies, who’s preparing marinades, who’s stirring and who’s pouring. It may seem like a lot of upfront work, but it will pay off with a smooth running kitchen.
• Don’t stop at the food, why not decorate up the table to match a theme?  Placemats and name cards can be made in advance, or you can just break out the picnic blanket and eat off of paper plates–whatever you decide.

We hope one of these ideas inspires you to set aside a few hours in the coming weeks to have some fun as a family, cooking up some tasty treats.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

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This year on Valentines day my love bugs will be at their dad’s. That means our family love fest will be happening this weekend. We haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do yet, but part the the days festivities will involve cooking–big surprise there, I know ;D

We’ll probably start the planning tomorrow, figuring out the menu, deciding who will make what and figuring out various ways to make the food heart-shaped. Sophia will want to decorate to make sure everything is on-theme for Valentines day. Alex will get creative with ingredients, figuring out what herb or spice will be just perfect. They’ll both have several ideas for dessert

And, I, the mom, will cherish every minute, from shopping for the food, preparing the meal and eating the dessert. Even though I will not be with my mini-loves on the day of love, I will take the time I have with them and we will celebrate our way–together.

Happy family cooking AND Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Alex, Sophia and Kelly

When the kids and I cook together, there are many times when we like to use fresh herbs. Since it’s planting time here in good ‘ole Minnesota, We’re planting our annual patio herb garden. Each year, at the end of the season, I try to bring my herb garden indoors, but my thumb is not so green, apparently, so we usually have to start over each spring.

This year, we’re planting:
-basil
-cilantro
-sage
-thyme
-rosemary
-lemon mint
-lavendar
-chives
-and a tomato plant
-oh, and I can’t forget Sophia’s begonia

Hopefully, they’ll survive and you’ll see us using them in future episodes.

Enjoy the show and Happy Memorial Weekend everyone!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

P.S. Don’t forget to stop by and check out our new Two Kids Cooking Shop, with great tools to bring out every kid’s inner-chef!

In honor of Mother’s Day, this week the kids and I demonstrate just how we make my favorite Tabouli recipe. And, as mentioned in the Recipe of the Week that featured Tabouli, the kid’s do not eat it. BUT, that doesn’t matter, cuz, remember…it’s Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s day everyone. Enjoy the show!

Alex, Soph and Mom

Smoothies are awesome. The are kind of like ice cream shakes as far as the kids are concerned, but, if you add lots of fruit and other healthy stuff, they’re good for you too!

Since this is strawberry week here at the 2 Kids house, we’re sharing one of our concoctions that includes—you guessed it–strawberries! It also has bananas and vanilla yogurt and milk, adding some potassium and calcium to the party.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
2 ripe banana
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
6 oz light vanilla yogurt
1 Cup Milk

Instructions
Mix all of the ingredients together in a blender. Blend on a high speed until the mixture is smooth. Pour into the glasses of your choice and serve.

We say it’s strawberry-tastic!

Alex, Soph and Mom

This week’s Recipe of the Week is Tabouli. It is not a recipe of the week because our whole family loves it–the kids won’t eat it. Soph says she likes the taste, but not the feeling, and Alex, well he won’t even try it. The reason it’s the Recipe of the Week is because I, the Mom, love it (hence the adorable name). We’re actually going to demonstrate just how we make it on Mother’s day week–in honor of me, of course ;D

Anyway, here’s the recipe we use. It’s a conglomeration of a bunch of recipes I’ve seen, I just sort of took what I liked and added it. I think it’s super delicious

The Mom’s Tabouli
2 cups bulgur wheat, pre-soaked
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup fresh mint, minced (optional)
4 green onions, sliced finely
1 large tomato, diced
1 large cucumber, seeded and diced
1 green pepper, diced
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup Olive Oil

Instructions
The first thing you do is soak the bulgur wheat in water for about 1 hour – 2 cups of water for the 2 cups of bulgur should be perfect.

While the wheat is soaking, prepare the other ingredients, mincing the parsley, slicing the onions and dicing the tomato and green pepper (some recipes include minced, fresh mint, so adding about 1/4 cup of that wouldn’t hurt either, we do sometimes, too). You can also prepare the dressing by mixing the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper together. We usually use a measure closer to the 1/2 cup range for both the lemon juice and olive oil, bu the recipe is still well dressed when you cut the dressing down to 1/4 cup each.

When your bulgur is ready, mix everything together and then let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour for the flavors to blend. Then, you’re ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Alex, Soph and Mom

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Disclaimer: the picture is not my tabouli, I don’t have a picture of mine yet, but it looks a lot like this…I got the image here.

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!

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!

Michelle over at the ‘What’s Cooking Blog‘ has started a blog series called ‘What’s Cooking with YOUR Kids‘. This series’ goal is to show everyone that it IS simple to cook with your kids AND everyone should try it. Since Alex, Soph and I strive to encourage families to cook and eat together, we want to spread the word; And we’ll be submitting one of our stories too!

Which story you ask? Well, one of my favorites is when we were making our Spider Cookie recipe for Halloween. Cookies area always fun to make with the kids. All the measuring and mixing ensures everyone will get to do something. On this occasion, Alex was in charge of pouring in the flour and then the vanilla. As he poured the vanilla onto the flour, the vanilla sort of rolled off the flour rather than penetrating and soaking into it. Alex found this amazing. As he watched, he muttered these words:

“Wow! Flour has repellent properties…that could be useful…mental note.”

The way he says it is hilarious…If you watch the Spider Cookie episode you can witness it as it happened.

I hope you check out ‘What’s Cooking with YOUR Kids’, but most of all, I encourage all of you to get in the kitchen together as a family. It’s easy and fun (our show is evidence of that )

Now, go cook together!

Alex and Soph are shrimpaholics and this is their absolute favorite way to eat it. It’ kind of like scampi, but all the fat is replaced with reduced low-sodium broth and lemon juice!

This high in lean protein, low in fat meal is super tasty and fun to make with the kids!