With the beautiful weather we’ve been having and Earth Day being tomorrow…Alex, Soph and I have been thinking grilling. Now, we live in a 3rd floor apartment that doesn’t allow grills on the patio, BUT, we have a broiler! That means we used it to make burgers. Not just any burgers though, we’re talking our drool inducing Turkey Burgers with Rosemary–oh yeah.

I know, you’re thinking turkey burgers are dry and flavorless. No so. Not when they’re made the Two Kids Way.

Enjoy!

Turkey Burgers with Rosemary
2 lbs ground turkey
1 T fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 T fresh Thyme, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 egg
3/4 up unseasoned bread crumbs
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 ts pepper

Instructions
Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix everything together well. We use our hands to squish into a well incorporated mixture–fun! Once everything is well combined, we form the mixture into 6 patties and cook ‘em up. You can grill them, broil them or fry them.

Serve them with whatever fixings you prefer. In our house, Alex has just mayo, Sophia has cheese and sometimes mayo, Mom has mayo and lettuce or spring mix and sometimes Dijon mustard. They’re good no matter what you put on them.

Happy Burger Time All!

Alex, Mom and Soph

P.S. If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro area this weekend (April 24), make sure to stop by the FLAAA Sports Center in Forest Lake from 10am to 3 pm. We’re gonna be there for the for the  Spring Craft Show with our favorite kids cooking stuff from Curious Chef. Make sure you come by and say hi!

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

P.S. Have you signed up to get our weekly show notifications? If not, fill the form out in the right side area–you wouldn’t want to miss an episode of Two Kids Cooking TV, would you?

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.

My kids love fried chicken. Honestly, I do too. I know it’s not the best for us, but it sure is tasty. This recipe is one that Alex developed. It’s actually sort of a work in progress. Every time we make it he likes to try a new spice or dry ingredient of some sort, but this is one of our favorite combos…we hope you like it as much as we do.

Alex’s Secret Recipe Chicken Strips
1 egg
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers, crushed
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic bread sprinkle
Pepper to taste
1 lb chicken breast, cut into strips
Oil

Instructions:
The first thing you do is cut your chicken breast into strips. You can cut them whatever size you prefer, we usually go about 1 inch-ish. Then, get your ingredients ready for the wet and dry dredging. Crack the egg into a shallow pan, add the tsp of minced garlic and whisk them together. In a separate pan, mix together the flour, crushed saltines, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, salt, garlic bread sprinkle and pepper. Next up is the dredging fun! Take the strips of chicken and run them first through the egg mixture and then coat them with the dry mixture and set them on a plate to wait for the frying.

When all of your strips are coated, heat about 1/4 inch of the oil in pan until hot. When the oil is shimmery hot, place the strips in the pan. When side one of the strip is lightly browned, flip them over and continue frying until cooked through (total cooking time is about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how thick the breasts are cut. Place the done pieces on a paper-toweled plate to drain off the excess oil and then you’re ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Alex, Soph and Mom

Deviled eggs are pretty much a standard after Easter treat…I mean, all those hard-cooked eggs can’t go to waste, right? The nice thing about Deviled Eggs, besides their tastiness, is that they are one of those recipes to cook with kids that are quick, easy and fun–plus, our recipe has a secret ingredient sure to add some extra punch.

Deviled Eggs:
6 Eggs, hard-cooked
3 to 4 Tbsp Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Dill Pickle Juice <–secret ingredient
1/2 to 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/8 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Paprika

Instructions:
The first thing you have to do is hard-cook your eggs. (And, for perfect hard-cooked eggs, I recommend checking out ‘Simple Hard Cooked Eggs ‘ from Good (&CHEAP) Eats). Once your eggs are cooled and ready, peel the shells off and cut them in half, taking the yolks out and placing them in a bowl. Put all of the halved whites on a plate and set them aside.

Next, mash up the yolks with a fork. Once they are crumbly, add the rest of the ingredients, except that paprika, and continue mashing and stirring until the mixture is creamy. Once the yolks are ready, place teaspoons full into the holes in the egg whites, dividing it up as evenly as you can amongst the eggs. Finally, garnish them with a sprinkling of paprika and they are ready to serve.

So, if you are one of those households that ends up with 3 dozen (or so) hard-cooked eggs in various colors right around this time of year, you might give our recipe a try. Alex and Soph will demonstrate just how we do it on April 3–we figure that might be when you need it most ;D

Happy Spring Everyone!

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.

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!

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!

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching so it’s time to start thinking of what to cook for those special someone’s in your life. Alex and Soph are kind of sweet for sweets, but I’m really trying to cut back the sugar and improve the nutritional value of the food we’re eating. Soooo, we decided that our Valentines Specialty for this year was going to be a little sweet and a little healthy (or at least not so unhealthy ) and here’s what we came up with–presenting our Banana Berry Valentine Trifle!!!

It’s super delicious–if you need evidence, here’s Alex and Soph devouring it after we filled the demonstration for 2 Kids Cooking TV–We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Banana Berry Valentine Trifle
1 Angel food cake (we used a store-bought one, but you could make your own)
2 to 4 cups of fresh strawberries (we used about 2 1/2 cups, but you can use more)
2 whole bananas (we used 1, but you could use more)Whipped Cream (we used store-bought, but you could make your own)

Custard
1/8 tsp salt
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 cups whole milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 Tablespoon butter
1 banana, mashed

Custard Instructions
In a saucepan, mix all of the dry ingredients together. Slowly stir in the milk and heat it until the it’s hot, but not boiling. Temper the eggs by slowly stirring some of the hot liquid into the eggs to bring them to temperature without cooking them. Then, add the egg/liquid mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Next stir in the vanilla, butter and the mashed banana. Let the mixture cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for the trifle.

Assembly
Before compiling your trifle, cut the berries into quarters and cut the angel food cake into bite-size pieces. Once the custard has cooled, you’ll be ready to assemble!

Start by layering 1/3 of the cake on the bottom of your trifle bowl. The next layer is 1/3 of the custard and then 1/3 of the berries. Continue this layering 2 more times. Top it with your whip cream and some additional berries for decoration. Serve immediately.

Happy Valentines Day All!

This year, the Mom (that’s me), is focusing effort to improve the healthiness of the food the 2 kids and I eat. I’ve cleaned out the cupboards of super sugary snacks and am re-evaluating our favorite recipes to cut out the fat and sneak in some extra nutrients. Our Herbed Chicken and Garlicky Spinach meet this criteria, less fat and extra nutrient

The chicken in this week’s recipe has been a faithful member of our family recipe book for awhile, but the spinach is a new addition. I love the spinach, but honestly, the kids had a mixed reaction. We’re gonna keep it in our repertoire though, because Soph had lots of fun helping make it, as you’ll see when they demonstrate it in an upcoming episode of 2 Kids Cooking. The chicken is also simple to make with kids, making this meal a great candidate for a family cooking night–healthy and easy!

Herbed Chicken:
2 to 3 Cloves Garlic
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 tsp Salt
Dash of Pepper
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 1/2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
4 to 6 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breasts

Instructions for Herbed Chicken:
Mix together all of the ingredients except the chicken. Once they are blended together, add the chicken, making sure it’s well coated. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to 1 hour. When the chicken is done marinating, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, in an oven-safe pan brown the chicken on both sides over medium-high heat–discard the remaining marinade. When both sides of the chicken are browned, move the pan with the chicken to the oven to finish cooking (about 10 to 15 minutes).

Garlicky Spinach:
1 to 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
3 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 9 oz bag of Spinach

Instructions for Garlicky Spinach:
Heat the olive oil on medium-low in a large saute pan. Add the minced garlic. When the garlic becomes fragrant, after about 30 seconds, add the entire bag of spinach. With tongs, continually flip the spinach around until it starts to wilt. When it has wilted by about half, it’s ready to serve.