Kids in the Kitchen

Long, summer days are the perfect time to introduce colorful, fresh produce to young palates. Adding kid-friendly fruits like berries to nutritious greens like spinach and asking them to help prepare the vinaigrette makes it much more likely that they’ll gobble it down. Let them create a clever recipe title that includes their own name, like “Joshy’s Rainbow Salad,” so they’ll be more open to eating it.

This salad can be modified to your family’s tastes by switching the nuts for seeds or the cheese for chicken. The fantastic thing about salads is that kids can make the entire dish from start to finish since it doesn’t involve working with heat.

Strawberry Pecan Salad

Little ones can do everything from combining the ingredients in a bowl to whisking the dressing to sprinkling on the cheese and nuts.  Get the kids in the kitchen with you and make this delicious Strawberry Pecan Salad.

Have some more fun by making your own flavored Vinegars.  You can replace the balsamic vinegar in this Strawberry Salad recipe with your own flavors of vinegar. Use your favorite berries, or make savory varieties using garlic, basil, or other fresh herbs.

Squash often gets a bad rap with both kids and parents but once they discover spaghetti squash, they gain a whole new appreciation for these versatile winter vegetables.

The vitamin-rich, high-fiber squash is the perfect way to get your noodle-loving children to develop a love of vegetables. When you scrape the flesh with a fork, it naturally gives way to long, thin strands that resemble pasta. Children also love the bright yellow color. Perfect for Passover and gluten-free eaters, spaghetti squash with a simple tomato sauce is a terrific dish to add to your weekly repertoire all year long.

Kids as young as 4 years old can use a butter knife or plastic knife to mince the garlic, slice the mushrooms and dice the zucchini. They can also wash, dry and rip up the fresh herbs. Kids 8 years old and up can open the canned tomatoes with a can opener.

So get your kids and get cooking.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Vegetable Sauce

Click here for more ideas to cook with your kids.

While most Purim baskets are overflowing with sweets, it’s a nice change to add in some savory goodies. Mini quiches are the perfect treat to include in your mishloach manot because they can be eaten at room temperature, don’t require utensils, and both kids and adults love them. They also don’t take long to prepare and can be made several weeks in advance and frozen.

Start by lining up all your ingredients for

Parmesan and Mushroom Mini Quiches

The kids can help with everything from whisking the eggs to preparing the puff pastry dough shells, see the recipe for exact instructions.

Variations: Consider your own variastions for your favorite fillings.

Make it Parve: Swap out milk for ½ cup of almond, soy, or coconut milk; swap out Parmesan for dairy-free cheese; and omit crème fraîche.

Pack It Up For Purim!

Get boxes or baskets to fill with these mini bites and the perfect card to go with it.

Print Enjoy These Mini Bites and impress everyone.

Place a copy of the purim issue in your Shalach Manos, to give your friends and family an unforgettable and meaningful Purim basket – Email Support@joyofkosher.com for Bulk Orders and special rates.

As seen in the Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine Purim 2012 – Subscribe Now.

Have you ever seen oil on puddles in the street after a rain? Have you ever wondered why oil and water don’t mix? Let’s experiment and try to understand, with this ‘Oil and Water Don’t Mix Experiment’

You will need:

• A jar with a lid
• Vegetable oil
• Water
• Food coloring

1 Fill the jar half-way with water.

2 Add a drop or two of food coloring.

3 Fill the other half of the jar to the rim with vegetable oil.

4 Screw on the cap.

5 Set the jar down and observe. The jar is layered with the oil on the top and the water on the bottom, because the water is heavier than the oil.

6 Next turn the jar, tipping it from side to side. Notice how the oil and water create waves.

The science behind the ‘Oil and Water Don’t Mix Experiment:’
When two liquids like oil and water separate into layers it’s said that the two liquids are immiscible –they are not capable of mixing.  This explains how animals living outdoors even in very wet weather will not get wet.  This is because their fur coats are very oily.  Have you ever taken a salad dressing out of the refrigerator and noticed that the ingredients seem to have separated?

Oil and water are two ingredients that refuse to mix together. Why?
Water is a compound made of millions upon millions of tiny little molecules, each with a positive charge at one end and a negative charge at the other.

These types of molecules are called “polar molecules.”  The reason water sticks together, is because the positive charge of one end of a molecule will attract the negative end of the molecule next to it, and so on! Many other molecules, such as the ones that make up salt or vinegar, are also polar molecules; which is why they mix with water so easily.  The molecules that make up oils are also charged, but its positive and negative charges are spread out more evenly.  This makes it a “non-polar molecule.” Because the water molecules are unable to find a negative charge to connect their positive ones to, they can only mix with non-polar molecules for a very short time – such as when you shake up that salad dressing – before it separates again!

Now that we know about oil, let’s get cooking with this Chanukah Doughuts Recipe.

As seen in Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine (Bitayavon – Winter 2011) – Subscribe Now.

Perfect for Sunday Brunch!

After a hectic week of rushed mornings, why not take advantage of slow Sunday morning? Try cooking brunch together and devouring a
gourmet meal that everyone helped create. Stratas may be the key.

A strata is a layered casserole dish that’s perfect for brunch and works well year round. Mini stratas are an easy way to feed the entire family without short order cooking. Everyone, including your youngest, can help prepare their own fillings. You can also store the leftovers of this high-protein dish in the fridge for hectic weekday breakfasts. Your delicious four-star strata will puff up in the oven like a soufflé and can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature. This recipe can be made in stages: you can make the fillings the day before, then assemble the stratas the next day, and let them rest in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours. Each filling recipe creates enough for 6 ramekins.

Kid Tips!
Small kids can participate in the preparation by cutting the bread, zucchini, or pears with a butter knife, mashing the sweet potato, scooping ricotta, and sprinkling cheese.

Get creative with your stratas!
Use six ounce ramekins to make personalized mini stratas with a variety of savory and sweet fillings: zucchini, sweet potato, pumpkin, pear, and apple.

For high puffy stratas, don’t grease the sides, only the bottoms.

Assembly

Each family member can customize their own strata:
Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil (the stratas may overflow). Place 1/4 cup, about 8 bread cubes into each of the six ramekins, then layer the stratas with 2 tablespoons of vegetable or fruit filling, sugar, spices, the cheese, and then the egg mixture. Gently press down each layer with your fingers.

Get the recipe for Mini Stratas with steps for kids and tons of variations.

What do you like to cook with your kids for brunch?

It’s those three little words that every parent loves to hear.

No, not “I love you,” although, of course, every parent, every person needs to hear that from someone, periodically.

I mean “back to school.”

Because after an entire summer everyone is eager for a more structured routine. Even the kids – they might not admit it – want to get back to work and be in the classroom with their books and peers.

Peanut Butter (or soy butter) and Banana Panini

But unlike “I love you,” which offers feelings of comfort and security, those other three little words, “back to school” often create feelings of anxiety and disquietude. I remember many a night before that first day of school, when my older daughter Meredith had a hard time falling asleep, conjuring fears about work and friends and what her teacher would be like. Fortunately, all was okay by the end of that day.

On the other hand, beyond the initial back to school issues, there are other stresses that linger longer, often through the entire year.

Like, what to send for lunch. This problem can cause early morning (or even late night-before) arguments. But it doesn’t have to.

Lila's Lunch Sushi

I am a firm believer in the Simple-but-Mostly-Healthy-Lunch. I always knew that my kids didn’t want to seem weird, so despite having a food-writer Mom, they did not want to be the group gourmet. Pate on Russian Black Bread was never going to be a lunchbox choice.

But my children hated the more usual bologna and salami (“they smell”) and they didn’t want cream cheese and/or peanut butter and jelly more than once a week.

Asparagus and Cheese Frittata

Figuring out what to pack for lunch was always a hassle.

Then there was the snack, that little extra for after lunch. I wanted to strike a balance here too. I would never be the one who sent a Snickers Bar or Nestle’s Crunch. But my kids also didn’t want to be the one whose mother sent them with shredded carrots and raisins (besides, they told me even then, that the carrot-raisin kids were always the ones who asked their friends for samples of the candy).

Fortunately, two helpful things have happened since I was the lunch-packing mom.

First, there are more choices in the way of breads (for sandwiches) such as pitas and multigrains, as well as other spreads (hummus, guacamole, almond butter) and widely available packaged and produce items today (nori, Asian pear, kale), all of which give you more interesting and delicious options.

Second, there’s a new iOS app called Lala Lunchbox that was designed to help parents and kids with this very problem.

I should confess here that this new app, which creates a way for parents and children to plan and pack healthy lunches for a week at a time (and then creates a shopping list for the items needed), was designed by my daughter Gillian. So if I tell you how brilliant this idea is you could say I was bragging and you might be right.

On the other hand, The New York Times, tastemakers like Tina Roth Eisenberg (Swiss-Miss.com), nutritionists and pediatricians have also given it rave reviews.

LaLa Lunchbox is fun to use and does the job.

You can go to Gillian’s website www.lalalunchbox.com and take a look, then download the app and discover for yourself that the daily “what’s-for-lunch” morning stress is a thing of the past. The library of foods available to your kids to choose from is completely customizable – so you can always take dietary preferences or allergies into account.

Some of the lunches that Gillian’s daughter, my granddaughter Lila has picked include frittatas and one of her favorites, sushi. She made the sushi herself one day (you can see the process by going here: http://lalalunchbox.com/blog/homemade-sushi-easy-and-delicious). One of Lila’s favorite snacks is Gillian’s Snack Balls, mostly dried fruit, and naturally sweet without added sugar.

Gillian's Snack Balls

Lila’s pre-school was a peanut butter-free zone. But if your child’s school permits it, you can send the Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Panini. Or you could make the sandwich with soy nut butter or sunflower butter. And use any ripe fruit in place of the banana.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Panini

Gillian’s Snack Balls

Asparagus and Cheese Frittata

Lila’s Lunch Sushi

Tell the kids they are mad scientists, who get to alter the flavor profile by deciding which fruit and tea flavors to use. While your little chefs are concocting their own brew, they’ll also be creating summer memories they’ll never forget.

Iced Tea Fruit Coolers using Turbinado sugar, a less refined alternative to regular sugar. It absorbs moisture well, making it good for tea or coffee.

Strawberries and Watermelon Smoothies and Popsicles

Here’s how to get the kids involved:

Kids 2 and up: With a plastic knife or metal butter knife, slice the strawberries and cube the watermelon.
Adults with kids: In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries, watermelon, and Iced Tea Fruit Cooler. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and taste—if need be, add more. Blend entire mixture well.
Kids 8 and older: Thread fruit onto rainbow colored toothpicks. Pour puréed fruit drink into plastic cocktail glasses and garnish with cubed fruit.
For Popsicles: Pour puréed fruit drink into popsicle molds or small plastic cups and freeze for at least 6 hours.

VARIATIONS:

Blue Lagoons: Try replacing a few raspberry tea bags with blueberry tea bags. Substitute 1 cup of strawberries with blueberries.
Jungle Fun: Use orange mandarin tea instead of raspberry tea and blend in mangos or pineapples for a tropical flavor.

Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller

I love cooking with kids. Each summer I spend working at a sleep-away camp teaching girls how to cook. The girls look forward to coming to the cooking activity to create something they made themselves, which gives them a great sense of accomplishment. I encourage them to find their inner chef and use their own creativity. We have made everything from sushi, hot pretzels, brownies, even doughnuts.

Everyone’s favorite activity is making pizza. The dough recipe I use is very basic.  After the dough has risen, the girls then can use a variety of toppings to put on top of their pizza. We use mushrooms, onions, feta cheese, peppers, different spices, tomatoes, olives, even pineapple (very popular in Australia, from where I hail).

During the year when I am home with my own children we have “make your own pizza night”, more fun and cheaper than plain old pizza night.

We start with a basic water, sugar and yeast mixture.  At home I use my kitchen aid because I generally double my recipe and it mixes better when doubled or tripled.

We then add the flour and salt and let the machine mix it together using the dough hook.

Within 2 minutes I have terrific pizza dough, we let it sit for 30 minutes while we get the toppings ready.  (This batch was made with a mix of white and whole wheat flours).

I keep it easy with jarred Marinara from Gefen, my favorite.

My kids throw on a variety of different toppings on top of the sauce, we slide it into a hot oven and 10-15 minutes later, wallah, a hot delicious pizza filled with veggies my kids can’t wait to eat.

What do you like to top your pizza with?

Pizza Dough Recipe

Do your children push away spinach or refuse to eat broccoli? Do they shun the fresh fruit you offer them for snacks and dessert? If you want to inspire your kids to eat healthier, it helps to make their meals and snacks as appealing as possible. All healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, can be just as tempting as junk food (and ideally more so).

Start by asking your children for a list of their favorite foods (cookies and cake don’t count). Then make an effort to incorporate some of their picks into the daily meals that you prepare. You will be surprised at their responses! They might really enjoy a particular fruit or vegetable they have eaten at a friend’s home or at school. They just were never offered it at your home. Do your children have a soft spot for mashed potatoes? Introduce them to the recipe which uses cauliflower, like Creamy Mashed Cauliflower. They’ll be surprised how good it is!

Do they love after-dinner sweets? Serve them strawberries or banana pieces that they can dip in a little melted dark chocolate. Most importantly, show your kids that you practice what you preach and set a good example by enjoying healthy meals at the dining table along with them. And do make a concerted effort to get any junk food out of the house. Here are more ways to get your kids excited about fruits and vegetables:

• Don’t force your children to eat what’s on their plate. Provide them with small servings of new foods at first, then reintroduce those foods regularly in various ways. Perseverance will pay off.
• Encourage your children to help with meal preparation and cooking. Studies have shown that children will readily try foods if they have helped to prepare them. Let your younger kids do simple tasks like scrambling eggs, making sandwiches, mixing liquids and sauces, and measuring ingredients. Older children can help toss salads and dressings, cut vegetables and fruits, and stir ingredients in a pan.
• Get dipping: Kids love to dip! Serve raw veggies with a low-sugar prepared ranch dressing or hummus. My grandchildren love my Tuna Dip and Mayo Pick Dip. Both recipes can be found in my cookbook, NOT JUST A COOKBOOK.
• Let your children taste the difference between canned, frozen, or fresh veggies (don’t tell them which is which in advance), and let them choose their favorite. In many cases, canned and frozen can be as healthy as fresh.
• Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of melon slices. Kids love experimenting and eating their experiments. They would eat up every piece with the funny shapes they cut out! . I used to give my toddlers a cookie cutter to make shapes out of different varieties of cheeses I offered them. I still do that trick with my grandchildren today!
• One of my all-time favorites to do with children is to teach them how to make a Penguin on Skis out of a hard-boiled egg! I have used this as an activity at some of my children’s birthday parties. Most of the children ate the olives in that recipe for the first time—and loved it!
• Help kids make frozen fruit kebabs using orange slices, melon chunks, berries, bananas, grapes, and kiwi.
• Whenever I have a meeting in my home for my business colleagues, everyone loves the Fruit Dip that I prepare along with my usual spread. Many times, I would often find my children sneaking a taste while I prepared it. That’s when you know it’s a good food choice for your children, too! It is also quite easy to send along as a snack in their cooler lunch bag, with some cut up fruit, in a sealed, airtight, Tupperware container. Enjoy it!

The way I see it, there are two kinds of pie in this world: Perfect pie and imperfect pie.

To make a perfect pie, you have to get all the steps and proportions and assembly just so. But if you make a galette, you can relax. This free-form pie is supposed to be rustic and homey — not bake-shop perfect. And don’t worry, it tastes just as good (if not better).

As I took my first bite of fresh apple galette, my husband called out with a “How is it?”

I was in buttery-dough, caramel-topped-apple heaven. But I managed to get one word out. “Awesome.”

“Really? Awesome?”

“Mmm-hmm. Nothing short of awesome.”

A brown-butter apple galette would make a decadent dessert for any nice milchig occasion. But if I was a kid home from school for Presidents Day Weekend, I’d think that was occasion enough.

There’s nothing more American than apple pie, and nothing better to bake with kids than a dish that isn’t supposed to look perfect. Put them together and you get a brown-butter apple galette with caramel glaze.

Sounds fancy, but it isn’t hard at all. I’ll show you.

Make the dough in your food processor, then roll it out and brush a tablespoon of brown butter over the surface. (To brown your butter, just let melted butter sit over the heat a bit longer than needed. Keep an eye on it to make sure you don’t end up with black butter!) Then start laying out your apple slices in a spoke pattern.

See? Already so pretty.

Now brown a bit more butter and brush it over the apples before folding the crust in towards the center.

Moisten the folds of dough by brushing on a bit of whole milk. Sprinkle the whole thing with a little sugar (vanilla or light brown are both great), and stick it in the oven.

Lookin’ good!

As it cools, make a quick caramel glaze and then drizzle your little heart out.

There you go.

The only thing that’s missing right now is…

Vanilla ice cream. Clearly.

Muuuuch better.

Click for the full Galette Recipe.

In the Purim issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller, Julie Negrin shares the perfect Mishloach Manot filler, Mini Quiches.   (more…)

Everyone is always talking about getting the kids in the kitchen.  Get them involved in the preparation and they will eat the food, the theory goes. WhileI love cooking with my kids, for most weekday meals, it just isn’t going to happen.  They make such a mess and we have so little time after school and homework.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get your kids involved.

A few months ago, my kids came up with a game.  It was one of the many yom tov days that I was hoping the kids would sleep in and let me relax a bit.  When I awoke (much later than normal) I found them enjoying a game of spin the globe.  On their own they thought up this game where one of them would close their eyes and point a finger on the globe while spinning it.   When it landed they would open their eyes and read where on earth they were.  Then they would talk about all the food they would eat if they went to that country (they are my kids after all, foodies from birth).

After all the holidays were over, we decided to play Spin the Globe to plan our weekly menus.  Everyone got a turn and we got to enjoy Mexican, Algerian, Moroccan, Russian and Italian food all while learning about the food traditions of other countries and cultures and having a ton of fun.  The kids were excited about the meals we planned and my oldest looked up information about the country on the computer and shared a few fun facts with everyone.

Sometimes, we all run out of creative ideas for dinner.  Now, when I get stuck for an inspiring menu I just ask my kids to close their eyes, point their finger and spin the globe.  We’ve traveled all around the world and I haven’t even left the kitchen!

Here are some of the recipes we enjoyed.  Be sure to share some of your favorites from the world of global gastronomy.

Chili

Kibbeh

Pierogies

Cigars

Fish Francais

Many parents find it challenging to incorporate nutritious, well-balanced meals into their children’s diets. They complain that their kids want the same thing for dinner every night or that the only vegetables they eat are peas and corn. It can be difficult for parents to work on improving their children’s diets day in and day out, but teaching children healthy eating behaviors at a young age is essential.

As a dietitian and nutritionist, I get so much enjoyment from seeing the interest and excitement that children have when it comes to food. Teaching them at a young age about nutrition, where food comes from, and how to use food is a very important part of child development. Research has shown that cooking with kids and assigning them tasks surrounding mealtime promotes independence and a sense of responsibility. It also encourages them to build their strengths wherever they are in the course of development – coordination, use of utensils, and learning about foods and certain kitchen objects. As kids get older, cooking with them is a great way to reinforce subjects that they are learning in school, such as math and science. Another amazing benefit of cooking with kids is that they tend to be more excited to try a new food or dish that they helped make than something you just put in front of them. And if these aren’t enough reasons to start cooking with your kids, focus on the fact that it is a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy!

I recommend that parents involve their children in the cooking process every step of the way from preparing the shopping list and going grocery shopping together to cooking and cleaning up. It’s also fun to perform food-related activities with kids: let them grow their own herbs, show them the difference between fruit and vegetables, and help them see how all their senses are involved in the enjoyment of food. When it comes to the actual cooking of food with kids, keep in mind that children’s abilities in the kitchen vary by age. Here is a quick rundown of what children can do between ages two and 12.

• At 2 years old:
  • Wash vegetables, scrub potatoes
  • Tear lettuce greens
  • Snap green beans
  • Name and count foods
  • Put things in the trash
  • Wipe the table
  • Hand items to parents
• At 3 years old:
  • Add ingredients to a bowl
  • Stir ingredients/batter
  • Shape dough
  • Squeeze citrus fruits
  • Peel bananas
  • Scoop items
  • Mash food
• At 4 years old:
  • Peel eggs
  • Crack eggs in a bowl
  • Help measure dry ingredients
  • Help make sandwiches
  • Set the table
  • Open packages
  • Pour cereal
  • Talk about basic kitchen safety rules
• At 5 years old and above:
  • Measure liquids
  • Cut soft fruits and vegetables with a dull knife
  • Make pancakes, scrambled eggs, pasta, and rice with help
  • Use an egg beater

Once children are six they can most likely get involved in peeling, grating, cutting, and grinding ingredients. Between nine and 12 years old they can do more advanced cutting and use an electric mixer. Parents need to evaluate each child’s abilities to determine what he or she can do since every child develops differently.

For some easy, nutritious and delicious recipes that you can make with your children, check out my new book, We Can Cook: Introduce Your Child to the Joy of Cooking with 75 Simple Recipes and Activities (Barron’s, 2011).  Here’s one of my favorite recipes form the book that I think your kids will enjoy!

Grilled Plums with Yogurt Dip