My kid likes to cook. I dare say she loves it.

She doesn’t care whether she’s cooking in her play kitchen, or if she’s cooking in my kitchen. She just likes to cook.

Whenever I’m in the kitchen, trying to prepare food, Grace wants to help. She pushes her Learning Tower up to whatever surface I’m working at, and she sidles right up next to me. If I’m stirring, she stirs . If I’m chopping onions, she wants to chop onions.

Every parent knows that all jobs are easier without the help of an eager but small child.

I let her help anyway. It builds her self esteem and her self confidence, and someday, she’ll actually be a productive helper.

Today, she might flip flour all over me and the counter and the floor, but next time, she’ll push it down through the sieve. It’s a work in progress.

Read the rest at Life…Your Way, where I am a guest author today.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Are you sitting down? Please do so before continuing.

The following Muffin Tin Meal contains no leftovers.

None.

Not even one bite of anything Grace had eaten at a prior meal.

I know. It doesn’t happen often.

I even decided to use a theme. Another shocker!

Because Grace really loves this cake stand, I decided to do a circle theme.

Clockwise from the spoon, the meal contains the following:

• Applesauce with circle-shaped confetti (from my Muffin Tin Swap partner)
• Apples, cored and sliced (if I’d been thinking, I would not have cut them in half. Next time!)
• String cheese, cut into rounds
• Yogos (They are fruit snacks coated with yogurt. These are a treat at our house.)
• A whole carrot, sliced into rounds

She ate the whole thing save for two apple slices and one carrot round. I was pleased. I should start from scratch more often.

© 2010 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I say the same thing about Grace’s muffin tin meals week after week.

Supper deconstructed. Blah, blah, blah.

This time, it was supper deconstructed, but it was really leftovers served for lunch. I picked the parts out of the leftovers, put them in muffin cups, added some dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, and put the whole thing on a cake tray.

I thought the cake tray with the flower-shaped muffin cups made the meal really pretty and coordinated.

Clockwise, from the spoon:

• Yellow squash from the garden, cooked in our General Tso’s stir fry
• Baby carrots, cooked in the stir fry
• Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets
• Ranch dressing
• Broccoli and water chestnuts, from the stir fry
• Rice topped with tofu from the stir fry
• Center – a very large strawberry-flavored marshmallow

When I decided to give Grace the leftovers from the stir fry, I didn’t realize that they had gotten significantly spicier over night. She ate the tofu and the chicken nuggets and left every thing else.

I wouldn’t let her have the marshmallow until she ate one piece from each of the cups, so she dipped a carrot, a piece of broccoli, and a piece of squash in ranch dressing and ate them.

And then she devoured the marshmallow. I think that was the biggest hit of the meal.

© 2010 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

We are having such a hard time convincing Grace to eat these days. It’s unreal.

It’s not that she refuses to eat everything. She happily eats ice cream, blueberry cereal bars, oatmeal, and fruit.

But if it looks like supper? Forget it.

So… muffin tins have come to my rescue.

Most recently, I have been deconstructing whatever pasta dish or casserole we’re having and putting the components into a muffin tin.

She happily gobbles it up when I serve it that way, and it only takes a minute or two to pick everything apart and drop it into the wells.

This Muffin Tin Meal started out as Garden Pasta. I always use whatever veggies I have on hand to make Garden Pasta.This time , it happened to be yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, and broccoli.

• Bottom left and bottom right – Penne pasta
• Bottom center – Yellow squash
• Top left – Broccoli
• Top center – Zucchini
• Top left – Carrots
• Pink flower cup – Grated Parmesan cheese (We top our pasta with this, but I gave it to Grace in a cup in case she wanted to eat it separately.)

The biggest hit of this particular meal was the little animal picks. Monica sent them to us for the Muffin Tin Swap, and this was the first time I’d gotten to use them.

Grace used the picks as utensils, eating the pieces right from the picks. That made me laugh.

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Grace has been having Muffin Tin meals periodically throughout the summer. I haven’t gotten the chance to post some of them, but she has really enjoyed the concept.

Michelle, the Muffin Tin Mom, sponsored a Muffin Tin Swap in June and July. The idea was that each person would get a partner, and buy muffin tin supplies for that partner. Then you’d swap. With all of the traveling I did the last 3 weeks, I got a little behind in mailing my partner’s package (it’s on the way, Monica!) but hers has already arrived here and I wanted to share it.

It’s so cool when you get paired up with someone who thinks the same way that you do. Monica’s package has some of these same things inside, but with a different theme. Neat!

Grace opened the package and found all of these goodies inside:

• Animal-shaped rice molds
• 2 adorable divided plates
• Animal-shaped picks
• Flower-shaped muffin cups,
• A bento box
• Candy sprinkles

I had mentioned in my wishlist that I wanted to try some bento techniques, and Monica found me some great things to learn.

Grace was so excited about our new supplies that she asked me to make her a Muffin Tin supper that very afternoon. I did, of course, and I even tried out the rice molds. She gobbled it up, so I’d say the new muffin tin supplies are a hit!

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Are you familiar with Muffin Tin Monday?

Every Monday, parents all over the world post their muffin tin lunches.

What’s a Muffin Tin Lunch?

A muffin tin lunch is lunch served in a muffin tin. Easy enough, right?

A muffin tin requires small portions, small foods, and a lot of offerings.

Some parents go to great lengths to cut fun shapes, use food picks, and decorate the muffin tin. Being that I’m just getting started, I’m not going that far. Yet.

Most of the time, the muffin tin lunch has a theme. I picked up a plethora of colorful, local fruit over the course of the last week, so I decided on a rainbow theme for our first muffin tin lunch.

Grace’s Thoughts on the Muffin Tin Lunch

Grace told me all morning that she did not want a muffin tin lunch. I just want to eat my food!

I made the muffin tin lunch anyway, and she loved it. She ate her lunch, and then asked me to leave it on the table. She munched on the the lunch for the next two hours.

When Joe came home, she said, Daddy! Look at my muffin tin!

I would have preferred not use a 24-well mini muffin tin, but my 12-well muffin tin was looking cruddy.

Our Rainbow Muffin Tin Lunch

Grace’s rainbow was made of the following:

• Red – strawberries & red raspberries
• Orange – colby jack cheese, torn into pieces & carrot sticks
• Yellow – honey mustard pretzels pieces
• Green – green olives & petite kosher dill pickles
• Blue – blueberries
• Purple – sweet cherries & black raspberries

© 2010 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Joe, Grace, and I recreated No Time for Flash Cards’ heart-shaped pizzas on Valentine’s Day. They were yummy.

It’s fun to make “real food” that’s such a silly departure from normal.

Joe’s pizza, before it was cooked:

My pizza, after it was cooked -

I didn’t get to photograph Grace’s pizza before or after cooking. She ate it too fast.

© 2010 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

My earliest Christmas memory involves chocolate and cherries and raisins and peanuts.

It was warm outside, so I think it was October or early November. My sisters, my mom, and I were helping my Grandma to make Christmas candy.

Or, more accurately, my mom was helping, and we were eating.

My recollection of the day is hazy, more suggestion than lucid memory. I don’t exactly recall any of the details, aside from sitting in my Grandpa’s chair, sampling the goods til I had a belly ache.

I find it strange that my mom and Grandma made candy so early in the fall. I’m not sure if I’m remembering poorly or if there was some reason that they needed a head start.

There is one thing I remember very clearly, however. I remember that my mom and my Grandma worked hard to make treats for others. I remember that they loved the work, and I remember that I loved sampling them. I remember being scolded for sampling too many.

While I certainly don’t want all of Grace’s holiday memories to focus on food, I want her portfolio of Christmases past to include a few afternoons spent making goodies for our friends.

Fun. Mixing. Flour and cocoa all over the place.

Love. Generosity. Sharing our blessings.

And I hope Grace forgets that she wasn’t all that helpful.

What’s your best recipe for Christmas goodies? I need some new ones, and I’d love to use yours.

I don’t love the recipes I have, and I’m not sure I want to make Candy Corn Cookies for Christmas.

I’m going to adjust the recipe as follows, but I need another recipe or two. Or five. Help me out!

Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (next time, I’m going to use the Splenda brown sugar mix and see how it goes)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (next time, I’m going to use the Splenda baking mix and see how it goes)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans

1. In a stand mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extracts.
   
2. Add eggs one at a time, and beat until well incorporated.
3. Whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift.
   
   Try to keep your helper from throwing the sweet smelling flour mixture around the kitchen. That can get messy.
   
4. Add sifted ingredients to the mixing bowl.
   
5. Use a wooden spoon to fold the dry ingredients in until they’re just combined. For the longest time, it will feel like you’re just moving around the sifted ingredients. Suddenly, it will feel like you’re trying to stir cement.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips and the pecans. Mix just enough to distribute. Don’t overwork the dough!
   
7. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
9. Dip a small scoop into water (to prevent sticking) and drop dough onto a cookie sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly.
10. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges begin to brown.
11. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet. I don’t know why, but that helps them to be moist and gooey.

Grace’s Kitchen Friends

Please join in Grace’s Kitchen Friends! To play along, all you have to do is fill out MckLinky below. You can link up any post that talks about kids and food:

• feeding kids
• cooking with kids
• kids’ nutrition
• play with food or play kitchens
• crafts with or about food
• There are a lot of other kids and food things I haven’t listed (like growing food with kids or fun recipes that kids love!), so please don’t feel limited.

I’m easy like that, Dear Reader. The only thing I ask is that you link back here to Grace’s Kitchen Friends in your post. I can’t wait to see what your kids are doing!

Happily submitted to What’s Cooking Wednesday, Ultimate Recipe Swap, Things I Love Thursday, Kids in the Kitchen, Friday Feasts, Foodie Friday, What Did You Bake Today?, Food on Friday, Fight Back Friday, Finer Things Friday, Family Friday, and Beautiful Life

Photo courtesy of Samdogs on Flickr

© 2009 – 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

One of my Christmas season goals is to make special holiday treats with Gracie at least twice.

Every year, we make some holiday treats and package them up to distribute to our neighbors. It’s a little token of good will, and everyone loves some extra Christmas cookies.

I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but the most raved about ookie we’ve shared the last couple of years was actually a pre-made dough from the dairy case of the grocery store.

The horrors! The horrors!

I always get a little anxious when someone asks for the recipe, but really, there’s no shame in buying premade cookie dough. It tastes good or else they wouldn’t sell it.

Grace likes to use a mini scoop to portion out the cookies onto the cookie sheet.

Unfortunately, using pre-made cookie dough cuts out a lot of the fun of cooking with Grace – letting her try to crack eggs, measuring together, stirring, and using the mixer. I like doing that stuff together.

Here are a few recipes that I like. I will probably use some of them this year.

• Double Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies – Obviously, they won’t have candy corn in them. We’ll replace it with something else. Maybe Christmas M&Ms? Or maybe something like little tree candies. Or something.
• Peanut Butter Marshmallow Fudge – This would be cut into squares.
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Grace’s Kitchen Friends

Please join in Grace’s Kitchen Friends! To play along, all you have to do is fill out MckLinky below. You can link up any post that talks about kids and food:

• feeding kids
• cooking with kids
• kids’ nutrition
• play with food or play kitchens
• crafts with or about food
• There are a lot of other kids and food things I haven’t listed (like growing food with kids or fun recipes that kids love!), so please don’t feel limited.

I’m easy like that, Dear Reader. The only thing I ask is that you link back here to Grace’s Kitchen Friends in your post. I can’t wait to see what your kids are doing!

Photo courtesy of KevyGee on Flickr

© 2009 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

© 2009 – 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.