Winter is Baking Time: What Child Doesn't Love Homemade Cookies?

What combines art, math, reading, creative thinking, science, sensory experiences, and social skills, and results in delightful treats for the family and friends? Cooking! Let your youngsters engage in this activity with you – a lot of learning goes on in your own cozy kitchen.

These cookies are not crispy or chewy, but cake-like with healthy ingredients such as orange juice, dried cranberries and nuts (your choice or omit if you wish). They make a great dessert, snack with milk, and adults love them with their coffee or tea too.

Ingredients you will need:

½ lb. butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cups chopped nuts

1 ½ cups dried cranberries

1 cup orange juice

3 ½ cups cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

What to do:

1. Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until well blended.
2. Add the egg and beat again.
3. Mix in the orange juice and vanilla.
4. Add the flour a little at a time until the entire amount is mixed.
5. Fold in the cranberries and nuts.
6. Drop by tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in a 450-degree oven.

Note: all ovens vary so check the cookies for doneness in the shortest time so they do not burn.

Make cooking and baking a family activity. Children learn so much by doing and the bonding is memorable!

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Do You Have a Picky Eater At Home?

Having a picky eater at home is a challenge for many parents. Trying to get nutritious fruits and vegetables into their child’s tummy seems impossible – but have no fear, these ideas will make mealtime an interesting and creative experience. Nutrition is in and fussing out!

The key to this process is getting truly creative with foods. Young children eat with their eyes and cute edible constructions will stimulate interest in most toddlers and preschool age children. Here are a few ideas to try:

Sailboat regatta eggs

Peel hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.

Remove the yolks and mash them in a bowl with some mayonnaise and mustard.

Spoon the mixture back inside the egg white boats. You can decorate the tops with chopped carrots, chopped green pepper and sliced olives.

Cut construction paper into boat sails and invite the kids to decorate them with crayons.

Attach a toothpick to each sail with tape and insert it into the egg boat.

Serve these yummy boats on a lettuce leaf.

After letting the kiddos do a ‘wave run’ with the boats first, see how fast they can gobble them up!

Butterfly salad

Gather lettuce leaves, using both green and red lettuce varieties.

Place the lettuce on a plate to resemble butterfly wings.

Take a carrot stick and insert it in the center of the wings as the insect’s body.

An olive makes the perfect head and sliced olives can decorate the wings, just like the black marks of a Monarch butterfly.

Cut two tiny strips of red pepper for the antennae.

Present this salad to your youngsters with their favorite dressing.

Create a fruit tree

Place a pineapple ring on top of a lettuce leaf on the plate.

Take a banana half and stand it on its end in the center of the pineapple ring.

Invite the kiddos to spear a piece of fruit (grapes, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, etc.) onto a toothpick and stick the other end into their banana tree.

Fill the tree with as many limbs of fruit that it can stand.

What a fun way to get a variety of fruit into your child’s meal without a fuss!

NOTE: Toothpicks are sharp and parental supervision is needed while making the meal and eating it. A variation to toothpicks would be thin coffee stirrer straws.

Sources:

Snacktivities by Mary Ann F. Kohl, Robins Lane Press, 2001

Butterfly salad adapted from my post on Education.com

W is for Weekday Lunches

The challenge, as parents, is to create lunches that are reasonably healthful and palatable to kids, that can be carried off to school or play dates and left at room temperature for hours. The place to begin is at the grocery store where children can get involved with food selection. At home, try brainstorming a list of lunches that you both agree on. And don't forget to include a few fun items that your kids can help to prepare. 

Sandwich Shapes

Cookie cutters can be used to turn a peanut butter, cheese, tuna fish, or cold-cut sandwich into something special. Since some children shun bread crusts, shaped sandwiches are an alternative to cutting off the crusts. Most children are glad to chow down on their favorite shapes, no matter what's inside.

Homemade Lunchables

Buy a plastic sectional container. Cut lunch meats and cheese into fun shapes, such as triangles or sticks. Or use small cookie cutters for stars, hearts or teddy bears. Add some wholesome crackers, fruit or yogurt. Top it off with a fun dessert. The container can be brought home and reused. This is an inexpensive and healthy alternative to prepackaged lunches, and a way to add some fun to the lunch box.

Stuff an Apple

Pick an apple or your choice and remove the core (with a little extra space) with a knife and spoon. Fill this hole with peanut butter and top with raisins. Another favorite is cheddar cheese spread topped with chopped nuts. Put this apple into a plastic bag sealed with a twist tie. Remember making apple smiles. Just follow the photo above.

Fruit Kabobs

What child wouldn't like fruit-on-a-stick? For safety reasons, skew pre-cubed fruit on a plastic drinking straw, such as those used for coffee stirrers. To keep the fruit from turning brown, dip it into lemon juice. Pack these into a plastic container to avoid crushing the fruit. Another kebab idea is to layer cubes of cooked chicken breast or turkey, ham, cheese and little grape tomatoes.

This is all for today. See you next week with the letter X. Hmmm, this may be tough.
Tania

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling
 

E is for Eat This, Not That

If you need help deciphering which nutritional choices are best for your children, check out the handy guide Eat This, Not That! For Kids!, the kid’s version of the best selling adult book. It points out the healthier options found in fast-food and family restaurants, grocery store aisles, even your child’s cafeteria. The book offers helpful meal suggestions, label-and menu-reading strategies and a listing of the 20 worst kids’ foods in the country. In addition to that, most spreads in the book open up to two food options, one on the left page and one on the right, and it tells you point blank to “Eat This, Not That.” The choices often are surprising.  For example, if you go to Dunkin’ Donuts, encourage your child to order the ham, egg and cheese English muffin sandwich instead of the seemingly healthier banana walnut muffin.  You’ll save almost 200 calories and 11 grams of fat!

This book is authored by David Zinczenko & Matt Goulding (Rodale Books) and can be found in local bookstores and on Amazon.com.  This may be a good book to use when planning menus for your group and a wonderful resource book for parents to browse through.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

See you same time tomorrow,
Tania