It’s February, and that means Valentines day…another candy-filled holiday for the kids. BUT, despite the pre-made, packaged treats out there, there are still lots of sweets and non-sweets with a love-oriented theme that you can make with your kids to celebrate the holiday of love.

Now, I’d like to say that we are brimming with unique and creative Valentine themed recipes for you, but we really only have the one 2 Kids Recipe–Banana Berry Valentine Trifle (which you can see we’ve kidified for you to make the preparation super easy for the whole family).

Despite our laziness in developing creative love-themed delicacies, there are still a few out there from others that we admire and are now on our ‘Try It!’ list. Here they are….

Healthy Valentines Day Recipe Double Chocolate Brownie with Natural Pink Frosting
If you’re looking for a healthier version of a chocolate Valentines treat, This recipe from Food with Kid Appeal is the place for you.  We haven’t tried this one yet, but we will…yes we well ;D

Calzone Recipe for Kids
We love pizza, and these heart shaped Calezones with pizza filling are right up our alley.  This recipes has you making dough…which is cool if you’re inspired by dough making, but if you are not, you could use a refrigerated dough and cut it into a heart.  Either way, these are super cute for a kid-friendly, family Valentine dinner.

Valentines Day Cake Balls
So, we’ve never actually made cake balls…YET. My mom says we must. She says they’re great for making with kids and delicious for those who are inclined toward sugary awesomeness.  Mommy’s Kitchen always has great recipes, so when we finally take the cake ball plunge, these will be the instructions we follow.

Whatever your inclination, chocolatey, cake-alicious or heart-shaped savorey…any of these recipes would add to a perfect family Valentine meal.  Alex and Soph will be at their Dad’s on ‘the day’…but I think I feel a fancy ‘Saturday-before-the-holiday-dinner’ coming on

What are your favorite Valentine recipes to make with the kids? Let us know with a comment!

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

To make it easier to make this kid-ified recipe with your kids, get an easy-to-read printable .pdf here.

Today we’re introducing a new concept here on Two Kids Cooking. It’s called ‘Kidification’. So what does ‘Kidification’ mean? Well, it means breaking down a recipe into techniques and tasks and coding them by age group so they’re super easy for kids to make!

Why, Kid-ify?

Because then, when the kids help with the recipe, they’ll instantly know, by color, which parts are best for them to help with. And, it helps adults by breaking the recipe down and providing suggestions when cooking it with the kiddies.

You’ll see we start with a chart that breaks down each of the Techniques and/or Tasks that the recipe involves. It also indicates the minimum age level recommended for the task. You’ll see that Yellow indicates kids 4 and up can do the task. Age 7 and older can do green tasks; 10 and older blue and the orange task are for 13 and older. If the task has a star (★), then it requires supervision as indicated for that age range. Some tasks can be done with varying level of supervision at different age levels, and that is indicated as well.

When you read through the instructions for the recipe, you’ll notice that each of the techniques/tasks for that instruction have been underlined and pulled out, as well as color coded.

We think if visually conveys which age groups can most easily cook the recipe while quickly showing what parts of the recipe are best for what age kids to help with.

As you read through the recipe, please let us know if you have any suggestions on making this kidification even more kid-ified!

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

Ingredients
1 Angel food cake (we used a store-bought one, but you could make your own)
4 cups of fresh strawberries
4 whole Bananas
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

Assembly
Before compiling your trifle…

Once the custard has cooled, you’ll be ready to assemble!

Serve immediately and Enjoy!

I’d say that about once a month I find either Alex or Soph at the microwave with a bowl full of chocolate chips ready to start melting them. Why are they melting them, you ask? Well, I’d like to say it’s for some fancy recipe, but they just like dipping things in melted chocolate. In an effort to channel their chocolate melting habits into something that they won’t immediately eat, I thought, let’s make some chocolate covered pretzels. Chocolate Covered Pretzels can easily be dipped for eating at a later date; or, wrapped up all cute and given as a gift to a fellow chocolate connoisseur.

Here’s the ‘recipe’…more like instructions…for how we make our Chocolate Covered Pretzels. Enjoy!

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

It’s Valentine’s Time! And every good Valentines meal needs a tasty dessert. We think you’ll find this dessert fits the holiday perfectly. It’s Red, and White and Sweet and even good for you (ok, better for you than most desserts).

We can tell you with complete honesty, though, that it is delicious–we ate almost the entire thing right out of the bowl after filming. It definitely warmed our hearts We’re sure it’ll warm yours too!

Enjoy the Show, AND, Happy Valentines Day!!!!

XXOO,

Mom, Alex and Soph

P.S. You can find the recipe for Banana Berry Valentine Trifle here, in case you want to make if for your sweetie

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.

You can watch Alex and Soph demonstrate the recipe on Two Kids Cooking TV!

Happy Valentines Day All!