Wednesday Creative Nanny:Creative Cooking Fun

Creative Cooking Fun with Kids

Number salad

1 handful coconut
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
3 pieces orange
4 slices apple
5 cubes cheese
6 slices banana
7 pieces melon
8 grapes
Stir 9 times.
Eat!
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
From Corrine

Color Change Celery

4 large stalks of leafy Celery
4 disposable cups, tall ones
4 food colors

Trim the end from the celery
Place half water in each cup
Put a few drops of food color in each cup
Place celery in each cup

Talk with the children about what is going to happen!

Leave them over night and check them in the morning.
I think let the kids cut them up, put toppings on and EAT!!!!

It's a fun science project....
Andrea in Palm Springs


Crepes
I make crepes weekly.
1 cup milk (2% or whole),
1 cup of flour,
3 tablespoons of melted butter,
2 eggs,
6 tablespoons of water,
1/8 teaspoon of salt.
Mix in a blender, refrigerate for two hours.

Warm a ten inch pan over medium heat for two minutes.
Pour in 3 1/2 T of batter into pan rotating to even out the batter.
Cook until batter appears firm and then flip, approximately 50 seconds on first side and 30 seconds on the other.
You can use all sorts of toppings. My charges prefer cinnamon and sugar. I usually make a double batch and put wax paper in between each crepe. You can refrigerate or freeze them for later use
Buffi
Southern California



Chicken Crepes
FlorentineFilling
2 c. cooked chicken or turkey
4 tbsp. butter
2 sm. onions, chopped
1/4 lb. mushrooms, chopped
1 pkg. frozen spinach, cooked and thoroughly drained
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut chicken or turkey into small pieces.
Heat butter in skillet until bubbling.
Cook onions until they are clear and crisp, and add mushrooms and cook until they are slightly browned and soft.
Add chicken (or turkey) and combine with pan juices.
Cook frozen spinach and drain thoroughly.
Add spinach to chicken mixture with 1/2 cup of cheese.
Add a cup of cream sauce (recipe below) to chicken and mix well.
Set aside to cool.
(cooking with a child note: if you let this cool, its easy to allow a child to use clean hands to fill and roll the crepes)

Sauce3 tbsp.
butter3 tbsp. flour
1 c. milk
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Dash ground nutmeg
Melt butter, add flour and stir until bubbly, but don't let the mixture brown.
Add stock and milk and bring to a simmer to thicken.
Stir well to prevent scorching.
For a richer sauce, add cream bit by bit and stir to combine.
Take off heat, add cheese, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

Use approximately 1 cup of sauce to mix into Chicken mixture.
Set aside the rest for crepe assembly.
To Assemble onto each crepe, add just enough filling to be able to roll the crepe around filling.

Put seam side down in a 9x13 pan.
When all assembled, top with cream sauce, and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
Top with grated Gruyere cheese for the last 5 minutes of baking.
Carli in Michigan

My kids love to make Potato Chip Chicken.
Potato Chip Chicken (use Baked Lays to make it a littlehealthier)
1 LB Chicken Strips
1 Egg beaten
1 Bag any flavor potato Chips (we Like Mesquite BBQ)
Pour Potato chips in a ziplock bag.
Have the kids pound them up into very fine pieces. (I double bag the ziplock).
Then dip chicken pieces into the egg and then drop into the chip and shake until well coated.
Then place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.
Turn them halfway through.
Serve with a nice green salad and maybe some peas or green beans.
Bridget in Boston


Black Bean Corn Salad

1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
1/4 teaspoon seasoned pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
In a small bowl, mix together vinaigrette, seasoned pepper, cilantro, cayenne pepper, and cumin. Set dressing aside.
In a large bowl, stir together beans, corn, onion, green onions, and red bell pepper. Toss with dressing. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. Toss again before serving.

Vicki in Canada

Personal Pizzas
With both of the children I nanny for and with my step-daughters, we love to make pizza's. Either English Muffin Pizza or individual sized ones. It is great!
I put out the crust, either english muffins or store bought individual sized ones.
We then put some spaghetti sauce in a bowl with spoons, that way they can spread it on themselves. I put out a bunch of toppings . That way they can put whatever they want on it. It is great because they try new things on a pizza that they put together themselves.
One of the children I nanny for loves green peppers on her personal pizza but refuses to eat them anywhere else.
If you use English Muffins they go in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. If you buy the individual pizza crusts, you just follow the directions on the packages.

April in Michigan


Apple pie pockets
Ingredients:
1 cup peeled and chopped apples (any sweet -- not tart -- variety)
1 cup pitted dark sweet cherries, fresh or thawed from frozen
4 large square egg roll wrappers (found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket with the other Asian items)
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. salt
2 drops almond extract
1 Tbs melted butter or 1 egg beaten

Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine apples and cherries in a medium bowl. Add lemon juice and almond extract and mix well. Set aside. In a small dish, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well. Add to fruit mixture and stir to coat.
Set aside.
Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with foil and/or spraying it with nonstick spray. Set that aside as well.
On a flat dry surface, lay out two egg roll wrappers. Set out a small dish of water. Dip your finger into the water, and run it along all of the wrapper edges. (Repeat as needed while preparing your pockets, as it will help seal them.) Starting about 1/2 inch from the bottom, place one-fourth of the fruit mixture along the bottom half of each wrapper, leaving a 1/2-inch border on both sides. Fold the top half of each wrapper over, so that the top edge meets the bottom -- the mixture should be completely encased with a 1/2-inch border on three sides. Dab each border with water, and fold each inward about 1/4 inch to lightly seal all sides. Press firmly along the borders with the prongs of a fork to seal completely. Brush the top of each pocket with either melted butter or egg wash. Transfer to the baking sheet. Repeat this process with remaining wrappers and fruit mixture.
Bake in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes, until edges begin to brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before digging in!
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
A few notes of my own: They make the assembly overly complicated. You put the filling on half, fold the wrapper over, and seal all 3 edges with a fork. Before baking, you also might want to take a knife and make a few small slits in each pie to let the steam escape.
Carli in Michigan

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