The kids are with me every other week. Most weeks, we try to cook at least one meal together if our schedule allows. If we’re taping a show, the menu is preselected by the topic, BUT, other times, we get to decide what we’re going to make during our time together.

Sometimes these family time cooking recipes come from one of the kid’s cravings, sometimes they come from our list of ‘must-try’ recipes and sometimes they come from a recipe book or magazine. Here are three simple ways to get your kids involved in recipe and menu selection:

1. Ask them what they’re in the mood to eat/cook that week. On the weeks the kids will be with me, I try to do a menu plan for the week. I say ‘try’ because some weeks I am better at this than others. BUT, even on the weeks when we don’t have a formal menu plan, I ask the kids for ideas on what we should eat that week, and if there’s anything in particular they’d like to make.  In addition to helping me come up with dinner ideas, it gets them excited for the meals we’ll be cooking and eating together.

2. Go through some recipe books or magazines. If you want to do something special or new, and you and the kids are strapped for ideas, we find that paging through our recipe books and cooking magazines always generates ideas. You can find some of our favorite Kids Cooking Books right here on the site. Some of our favorite magazines include: FamilyFun, ChopChop, Taste of Home, All You, and Fitness.  Fitness might seem a bit odd, but they have lots of healthy, tasty recipes in there.

3. Keep a list of those ‘must-try’ recipes. Whenever I’m reading a blog, magazine or cookbook and a recipe strikes me, I make a note of it. I have a folder in outlook called ‘recipes to try’…I just email myself links to the recipes I find online. If they’re in a book or magazine that I own, I make a note and email it to myself with the magazine title, issue, page and recipe.  Back before I was technologically inclined, I used to just clip out the recipes from a magazine, glue them to another sheet of paper, three-how punch it and stick it in a binder…I still have that ‘recipe book’. Sophia does the same thing and usually writes up an ingredients list to be sure we’ll have everything on hand–if she finds something she wants to make, we usually try it right away. Alex is less aggressive with the recipe searching than Soph, but he does call my attention to particular things he finds from time to time. Sophia’s finds are usually desserts, Alex’s are usually meat related–big surprise

Next time you have no idea what to make for supper, get the kids involved…I’m sure they’ll have plenty opinions on what to make.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

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

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!

Since Thursday, April 22 is Earthy day, we thought we’d share just how we make the trail mix we take with us when we go on adventure walks, or to the swimming pool, or fishing…pretty much any activity where we are enjoying the earth and being active.

Our Earth Day Trail Mix is an easy recipe to make with kids. Lots of measuring, pouring and stirring, ensure everyone will have a job to do, and it’s super fast, so you’ll be munching this tasty treat in no time.

Earth Day Trail Mix
1 cup low-fat honey granola
1 1/2 cup mixed nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
2 good handfuls of pretzels

Instructions
Measure out each ingredient, pouring it into a large bowl. Stir it all together. Next, snack away!

Happy Earth Day week everyone! If you’re out there, enjoying good ole Mother Nature, take a little Earth Day Trail Mix with you

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. For more information about ‘The Kids Cook Monday’, check out The Monday Campaigns, Healthy Monday site–we’re of they’re featured blogs

To close out our week long homage to the strawberry, we demonstrate a dessert that is not only mouth-watering, but one that actually contains some nutritional value and not as much fat as more traditional desserts.

We take a store bought (or home-made) angel food cake, macerated strawberries and some whipped cream together and then eat it up.

Remember, cooking doesn’t have to be complicated, simple ingredients can make the tastiest, easiest to make dishes.

Enjoy the show!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Don’t miss an episode! To get Two Kids Cooking delivered right to your in-box each week, make sure to sign up in the area to the right.

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 is strawberry week here at the Two Kids household. So, to kick-off our week-long tribute to one of our favorite berries, we thought we’d start off with a ‘The Kids Cook Monday’ episode sharing a tasty, strawberry snack.

The best thing about it–it’s not just sweet and delicious, it’s good for you!  The graham crackers contain whole grains, we use reduced-fat cream cheese, and only a small amount, and strawberries are packed full of vitamin C and other good stuff! (Check out Super Healthy Kids for more details on the health benefits of strawberries).

Alex and Soph just gobble these up, and they are so easy for us to make together after school for a quick snack.  If you give ‘em a try, they’ll disappear quickly, we guarantee

Strawberry Grahams
4 full sheets of low fat graham crackers
3 to 5 strawberries, sliced
2 Tablespoons Reduced Fat, strawberry cream cheese

Instructions
First, rinse off your strawberries and then slice them. Next, break the graham cracker sheets in half so you have 8 squares. Spread a thin layer of the cream cheese on each cracker. Finally, layer on your strawberries and you’re ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Alex, Soph & Mom

This week we demonstrate Alex’s very own secret recipe…well, the recipe is not so secret since we shared it on the recipe of the week, but Alex did develop it himself

This recipe gets everyone involved with lots of stuff to do–from cracking eggs, to dredging the strips in flour, to frying ‘em up–the whole family will have a chance to get a little messy cooking. And then, everyone will get to eat these scrumptious chicken strips…mmmmm.

Now go, get in the kitchen and have some fun cooking together!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Don’t miss an episode–sign up in the box to the right to make sure you never have a week without some cooking time with the 2 Kids family

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.

Everybody knows that Easter is the time of year that families come together over hard-cooked eggs and get creative with dyes, stickers, shrinking sleeves and whatever else you can think of to make an egg pretty.

I thought this year we’d get by with just 18 eggs to decorate, but as Sophia reached for the 18th egg to dip in vinegary dye, she asked, ‘Mom, where are the rest of the eggs?’

Since I’m a Mom who loves encouraging creativity in my children, I promptly grabbed the back-up 18 pack of eggs in the fridge and boiled ‘em up.

So, when a family of three has 36, brightly-colored, hard-cooked eggs, they make a few deviled eggs–at least the 2 kids family does Today, Alex and Sophia demonstrate just how we make our secret ingredient deviled eggs.

We wish you all a Happy Easter, filled with lots of beautiful eggs and family fun!

Mom, Alex and Sophia