About Liza

National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day is this Friday, September 13th. I love any excuse to get cooking with kids in the kitchen. Not only does cooking help teach math skills, it’s also an important life skill; they’re going to need to feed themselves some day, right?

It’s not a day that existed when I was a kid, but I spent plenty of time in the kitchen baking treats and making dinner for my family. I baked a Cookie Monster cake and decorated it by hand – all that blue fur with a “grass” decorating tip – for my brother’s 3rd or 4th birthday. And I regularly made dinner for my parents on their wedding anniversary.

Cooking with Kids – 10 Recipes

While Bubbles is a little young to let loose in the kitchen on her own, she absolutely loves to help prepare meals. She spreads her own peanut butter and jelly on her sandwiches, helps pour water for cooking mac & cheese, and measures out ingredients for cookies and other baked treats. She’s also great at adding cheese and other toppings to pizza.

Cooking with Kids: 10 Recipes Kids Can Cook

I reached out to some fellow bloggers and others to put together a list of recipes that your kids will be able to make either on their own, or with minimal help (like putting something in and taking something out of the oven). There are also a couple of recipes that you can do together with younger kiddos. Hopefully you’ll end up having dinner prepared and served for you on Friday. But don’t forget – the cook doesn’t clean, so it may be your turn to do the dishes!

Roasted Sweet Potato Shapes – Views From the ‘Ville (pictured above)
Pizza Pinwheels – Newlywed Survival (pictured above)
Loaded Baked Banana Boats – This Flourishing Life
Angry Birds Waffles – Sunshine and Sippy Cups (pictured above)
Copycat Red Lobster Biscuits – Views From the ‘Ville (pictured above)
No-Bake Fresh Fruit Tarts – A Nation of Moms (pictured above)
Candy Sushi – SusieQTpies Cafe
Dipped Marshmallows – Views From the ‘Ville (pictured above)
Individual Biscuit Pizzas – Nicki’s Random Musings
Pear Penguins – Parenting.com

And here’s a bonus! Your kids can make these Homemade Dog Treats from Two Little Cavaliers for your four-footed family members.

What are your favorite recipes for cooking with kids?

Thank you to Gooseberry Patch for providing us with a copy of the new 101 Stovetop Suppers cookbook which inspired this spaghetti with homemade meatballs recipe.

I’ve mentioned before that spaghetti is one meal that we have fairly regularly. It’s hard to get tired of noodles covered in delicious sauce, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and paired with some garlic bread. I’m not sure if spaghetti is considered a comfort food, but if it’s not, it absolutely should be.

I do usually brown some ground beef or turkey to add to the sauce, and occasionally I’ve even picked up a bag of frozen meatballs to warm up in the sauce. But for some reason, I don’t recall ever making homemade meatballs specifically for spaghetti. I’ve made them plenty of times as part of my Mom’s German Meatballs recipe, but that’s it.

Homemade Meatballs Recipe from Gooseberry Patch 101 Stovetop Suppers Cookbook

We rarely get to bed before midnight. Well, that’s not exactly true. I can’t recall the last time we went to bed before midnight. It’s more accurate to say that we rarely get to bed before 1 a.m. We’re both night owls and have a night owl toddler, so “going to bed early” doesn’t really happen around here.

(That’s really neither here nor there, but, you know, I like to be precise when I’m recounting an experience.)

So, anyway, it was late when we went to bed the other night. I had barely closed my when I thought I heard a noise. I laid there for a minute, trying to decide if I had heard something, or if my brain was playing tricks on me. After hearing it again a couple of times I decided that I definitely was hearing something, I just wasn’t sure what. Continue reading »

I received a review copy of The Sweeter Side of Life and Meddling Mom in order to facilitate my review. All thoughts and words are my own.

I share a lot of movies with you all, many of which are specifically for the kiddos or the whole family. But sometimes moms need a little chick flick break, so today I thought I’d share a new double feature available from the Hallmark Channel. The DVD includes Meddling Mom and The Sweeter Side of Life.

I had to start with The Sweeter Side of Life for two reasons. One, it stars Kathryn Morris who played Detective Lilly Rush in Cold Case, which was one of my favorite shows in the mid-2000s. And two, it’s about baking, which is one of my favorite things to do when I get a little free time. Continue reading »

Thank you to MIRA brands for providing us with a digital kitchen scale to make cooking easier. All thoughts and words are my own.

One kitchen accessory I’ve always wanted but never picked up was a kitchen scale. I’d really always thought of kitchen scales as a “nice to have” but not really a need. They’re not really that expensive, so there’s really no good reason that I hadn’t previously bought one other than the question I ask myself every time I buy a kitchen product: do we have room to store it?

MIRA Digital Kitchen Scale with Stainless Steel Bowl

Now that I have a new MIRA Digital Kitchen Scale, though, I’m not sure how I managed without it before. First, it let me break into the stack of recipes on Pinterest that I had been saving that only list ingredients by weight, not cups or tablespoons. In the past it always made me a little sad when I’d find a recipe that was mouth-watering and I couldn’t wait to try, only to find out that I needed 100 grams of almond flour. Grams don’t scare me off now, though! Continue reading »

Views From the Ville

Liza

Cooking with Kids: 10 Recipes for National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day

Cooking with Kids – 10 Recipes

What are your favorite recipes for cooking with kids?

Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs and Sauce

The One Where I Freaked Myself Out

Hallmark Channel Double Feature “The Sweeter Side of Life” and “Meddling Mom” Now on DVD

Get Cost-Effective in the Kitchen with a Digital Kitchen Scale