We’ve all heard the saying ‘ Knowledge is Power’ and we all know what it means. The most important thing though, is that it’s true. When you know all the facts about something, the choices you make are educated and any consequences are expected–if you smoke and get lung cancer, well no surprise there. No surprise if you’ve been told that smoking gives you lung cancer. If you haven’t been told, then smoking isn’t an educated risk, it’s a matter of pure ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’. It’s the same with food choices. And, lack of knowledge is probably even riskier with food, because we have to eat.

Food education is more than just telling our kids to eat their veggies, it’s telling them the why…that’s the knowledge part. You can restrict your kids access to certain foods because they’re bad for them. Or, you can teach them about food, the good, the bad and the ugly. I recommend the latter.

Here are my four recommendations for continuously encouraging kids to make the right decisions by talking to them and teaching them about food:

1. Cook with your kids.
   Kids that can cook will become adults that can cook. Plus, cooking your own real food is healthier.
2. Talk about the food your eating and how it helps you.
   Meat/protein makes your muscles strong, milk/calcium is good for bones, etc.
3. Teach you kids about proportions and how much of each type of food your body needs.
   Super Healthy Kids has  an awesome dinner set to help with the discussion, but there are lots of websites with visual aids as well.
4. Enforce Balance. There are no foods my kids can absolutely not have, but moderation is what I preach. A cookie is o.k., but not 10 cookies. I also enforce balance by limiting unhealthy food to nothing if healthy food is not eaten (i.e. if you don’t eat your beans, you don’t get dessert).

The thing is, you are not always going to be with your child to control what they eat. When they are at school, or friends houses, and when they grow-up and leave home.  The temptation of unhealthy foods is still going to be there and chances are, our kids are going to eat some of them. That’s o.k. They will survive. Plus, if we’ve done our job teaching them about the differences between healthy and less healthy foods, as well as provided the benefits and risks, they will make the right decisions.

Every night before Alex and Soph head off to bed they MUST have a bed-time snack. Now, I wish I could say that these snacks are always nutritionally optimized, but I cannot. Most of the time bed-time snacks are ice cream or something sweet. This is why our Orange Cream Smoothie is a popular bed-time snack, it’s sweet and cold and ice cream like.  And, since it’s made from Orange Juice, Milk, Yogurt and Ice, it’s not too shabby on the nutrition side either.

On this week’s show, the kiddies share this healthy bed-time snack recipe that is quick, easy and it does taste orange creamsicle-ish–which in my opinion means tasty!

We hope you enjoy the show and give the recipe a try.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone, Alex, Soph and Kelly

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It’s Monday again, and that means ‘The Kids Cook Monday’ time! This week we’re re-sharing one of our super early episodes–I believe it was our second. Snickety Snacks are easy, healthy and involve no oven or stove for preparation. This easy to cook with kids recipe is perfect for after-school snacks or for munching on while recovering from playing outside.

Enjoy the show and Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

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In another week, Valentines day will once again be upon us. It’s a day for celebrating love and spending time with your loved ones. Whipping up a holiday dessert with the kids is the perfect way to get some holiday bonding time in, and have a tasty treat for your Valentines day meal.

For today’s The Kids Cook Monday, we re-share our Banana Berry Valentine Trifle episode. This dessert is a simple, easy to cook with kids recipe that is fun to make and fun to eat.

Enjoy the show and Happy Family Cooking everyone!

Alex, Sophia and Kelly

This week we share a blast from our summer featuring a Family Baking Competition. This competition was Sophia’s idea…big surprise I know. If any child can think of a way to consume large amounts of desserts with full approval of their mother, Soph has thought of it–did I mention he was the bake-off judge?

Anyway, Alex, Grandma and I all presented our bake-off best’s, along with a beverage, to super judge Soph….you’ll have to watch to find out who won

I’ll have to say, we had so much fun, the sugar overload was well worth it.

We hope you enjoy the show and encourage you to try your own family Fairy Berry Bake-off!

Happy Family Cooking!

Alex, Sophia and Kelly

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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!

This week on Two Kids Cooking TV we get into some baking. Now, there are lots of things you can bake, like chicken, fish, potatoes, lasagna, etc… BUT, a favorite baking delight of most everyone is COOKIES! And that’s what we’re sharing this week.

The recipe we’re using is from the back of the box of our favorite custom-made-for-kids-cooking-tool-making-company, Curious Chef. As you’ll see, the recipe is easy to make with the kids, plus, rolling-out, cutting and decorating cookies is always a fun way to spend some time in the kitchen as a family.

Enjoy the show and Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. We’ll be sharing my review of the Curious Chef 6 pc Cookie kit that we are using in this episode, so make sure you’re following us on Facebook or Twitter !

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!

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
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