Little Kitchen Helpers

My kids love to help me in the kitchen, or at least feel like they are helping. I'm thinking that inventing a kitchen with toddler sized counters would be a good idea!

The other night we had a cheese strata for dinner that was not only yummy and versatile (use what you have on hand and adapt what you don't), but great for kid participation. Here's the recipe:

Cheese Strata

Ingredients:
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind)
1/2 cup cut lunch meat (we just finished off an open package from the fridge)
6 slices of bread (or 8 if your kids are helping and they are hungry and want to nibble as they cook)
2 cups cooked broccoli (or peas or corn)
2 cups milk
5 eggs
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
A dash of salt and pepper

Directions:
Cut the bread into pieces and layer half into the bottom of a greased casserole dish. Isaac helped with cookie cutters for this part.

2. Cover bread with cheese, meat and broccoli. Cover with remaining bread.

3. Mix eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper together:

4. Pour egg mixture over the bread. (You can cover and store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours.) Bake at 425 for 50-60 minutes.

I think helping make dinner made the kids more excited to eat their masterpiece!

What are your favorite "kid friendly" recipes?

Homemade (Alphabet) Pretzles!

We love homemade pretzels! We've been hooked on them from our first batch made back in October. Every time we make them they are gone within a few days! Isaac is constantly asking for more pretzels!

They taste great in whatever shape you make them, and we've especially enjoyed making letter shapes, although I've been trying to make them a bit smaller than the ones we made in the picture above so that they don't spoil dinner if the kids eat them in the afternoon!

I found hundreds of recipes online, and here's the one I settled on, mostly because the dough can be made in the bread machine, which means less prep for me.

Homemade Pretzels

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in the bread machine pan for about 10 minutes. Then add the following:

3 3/4 cups flour (I usually use a combination of wheat and white flour, something like 2 cups whole wheat and 1 3/4 cups white flour.)

3/4 cups powdered sugar (the first time I made this I only had powdered sugar, but now I just use about 1/3 cup granulated sugar and it works great.)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Select dough cycle. When the dough is ready, form shapes and dip them in a mixture of:

2 cups water

1/4 cup baking soda

(This helps the pretzels have a chewy outside and soft inside.) Lay on a greased baking sheet, sprinkle with Kosher salt, and bake at 425 for 6-7 minutes.

Enjoy!