Kids

Cooking with Kids

March 6, 2020~ Kids, Lifestyle, The Platefull Blog

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Happy National Day of Unplugging! If you aren’t familiar with this day, it’s become a day where from sundown on the first Friday in March until sundown the next day (24 hours), you and your family intentionally unplug. Unplug from phones, screens, social media, and just spend time together. I love this! I am definitely guilty of being on my phone more than I would like to be. One of my goals for this year is to put the phone down and soak in the moments with my boys while they are little. National Day of Unplugging is the perfect way to reset or start putting the devices down more.

One of the ways that I love to connect with my boys is in the kitchen. I think it is so important to teach them how to cook as they grow and I love seeing their faces when they beam with pride that they made something the whole family loves. Cooking with kids is a great way to build confidence in them and spend some focused time together. Plus, who doesn’t love to eat!

You can start cooking with kids from the time they are very young. I have cooking stands that let my boys be at counter height, but keep them safe. They started cooking with me when they were able to stand in the tower. If they weren’t able to help with what I was cooking, I’d give them spoons, bowls, and cereal and let them scoop and pour.

Now they are old enough to really help in the kitchen! I love these kid safe knives. They both love to cut fruits and veggies! They now measure, pour, stir, etc.

I have recently started letting my 5 year old plan and make meals for our family. He absolutely LOVES getting to plan a meal. I give him a stack of kids cookbooks (check out your local library!) and let him go to town planning. He plans the whole thing, I help him buy the ingredients, and he cooks (with my help where needed)! I love seeing his sense of accomplishment when he serves a meal that he planned, purchased, and prepared.

Cooking with kids is the perfect way to celebrate the National Day of Unplugging! Here are some kid-friendly recipes and ideas!

Fruit Kabobs – Let your kiddos cut the fruit (with child safe knives), then thread onto skewers.

Pizza Night – this is a long standing, well loved tradition in our house. Let your kiddos help measure flour, knead the dough, and top their own pizzas!

Sheet Pan Fajitas – Let the kids slice the veggies while you prep the chicken. Throw it on a sheet pan and into the oven, then when it’s all cooked, let them build their own fajitas!

Smoky Pulled Chicken Sheet Pan Nachos – The adult can prep and shred the chicken ahead of time, then let the kids assemble the nachos prior to baking. Then they can top with whatever ingredients they choose.

Snack Lunch – This is still a favorite in our house. No cooking required, which means kids can easily prep the whole meal independently! While it might be called Snack Lunch, we eat this a lot for dinner too.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins – My kids really enjoy baking and it’s easy to bake with them. They love measuring ingredients and most of all, they love the finished results. These blueberry muffins are bakery style and oh so delicious!

Protein Pancakes – Super fluffy, healthy, and delicious, these are our go-to Saturday morning breakfast. They are easy for the kids to help with and my boys love getting to top them with whatever they choose! Fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, whipped cream, etc.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies – When I sense that one of my boys has had a rough day, its these cookies to the rescue. A little one-on-one time in the kitchen with a sweet treat as the result can turn things around quickly.

What are your favorite things to make in the kitchen with your kids?

Valentine’s Day Breakfast

February 10, 2020~ Kids, Lifestyle, The Platefull Blog

Valentine’s Day is a holiday that I do not really go all-out for. Christmas has just happened and there are three back to back birthdays in our house in April/May. Valentine’s Day falls during a time when this Momma likes to take a break from gifts and planning. I do however, like to start the day with a very simple Valentine’s Day Breakfast that just lets my boys know how very much they are loved as they head out the door for school. This year, I made them a cute placemat that lists a few of the things I love about them. I plan to pick up donuts early in the morning, complete with Valentine’s Day sprinkles, for a special treat!

To do this at home, simply print the FREE Valentine’s Day Breakfast Placemats, fill in your child’s name, things you love about them, and sign your name. I laminated mine but you certainly wouldn’t have to! It’s all about filling their little hearts before a busy day of school.

The bagels pictured here are homemade, and insanely good! You can read more about them in this post.

Family Traditions – Pizza Night!

April 13, 2017~ Kids, The Platefull Blog

Hey guys! My name is Diana — I’m lucky and grateful to be Sarah’s friend and neighbor 🙂 — and I am so excited to write this guest post for you! I have been making pizza every Friday since I was in middle school. During a Lenten Friday when I was a teenager I remember asking my parents if we could order pizza for dinner (we’re Catholic so we couldn’t have meat), but like all good parents they told me “No, but you can make some.” I ended up making a simple crust and topping it with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. I figured it would be tasty (and it was!), but if you had told me I would still be making that same pizza recipe every Friday 25 years later, I’m sure I wouldn’t have believed you. You could say that making this pizza every Friday is less of a tradition and more of an addiction (and you wouldn’t be wrong!), but can you blame me?! Who wouldn’t want to eat pizza every week?! My whole family looks forward to pizza Friday because:
1. There’s no meal planning required
And of course:
2. Pizza!

If you’re ok still being friends even now that you know about my pizza obsession, read on! And if you’d like to try out this recipe for yourself, here it is:

Preliminary note: Making this pizza dough is faster and easier if you have a stand mixer but don’t sweat it too much if you don’t — you’ll just need a little bit more muscle! If you aren’t using a stand mixer I recommend a mixing bowl and fork. It’s nothing fancy but it turns out just as tasty! (For the record, I’ve only had a stand mixer for the last 5 years of Pizza Fridays ;-))

Here’s what you’ll need:
1 ¼ c. very-warm-but-not-hot water (ideally between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
1 package active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
4 c. flour
Pinch of salt
Olive oil

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add the yeast. Allow it to “proof” (proof = fancy chef word for grow and look all crazy) for 5 – 15 minutes.

Place 3 of the 4 cups of flour in the bowl and add a pinch of salt, the yeast/water mixture, and 1 – 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Stir that until it’s combined, and then knead in the 4th cup of flour (you may need a little more or less than that…you don’t want to use too much and make the dough too dense, you just want to make sure that it isn’t sticky).

Continue kneading the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, then place it in a lightly greased bowl and cover it loosely with a kitchen towel.

Allow it to rise for a couple hours (ideally) or for barely 30 minutes if somehow you’re rushing around trying to pull dinner together at the last second (not that that’s ever happened to me ;-)).

Next you need to figure out your pizza-cooking method. When I first started making pizzas, I used a lightly oiled cookie sheet and I pressed the dough onto that. Now I roll out my dough on a lightly floured countertop, then move it to a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal before adding toppings. Either way works great!

Speaking of toppings, here’s where it really gets fun! On a typical Pizza Friday, we tend to keep things simple with just sauce and cheese (lately I’ve been using slices of the fresh mozzarella they have at Costco…it’s so yummy!). But sometimes we like to make more of an adventure out of our pizza dinner (especially if we’re having pizza on a night other than Friday) and we make crazy pizzas like hot wing pizza (shredded chicken, hot wing sauce, and cheddar cheese…dipped in ranch dressing of course), Philly steak pizza (with cooked steak, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and provolone cheese), or Mexican pizza (with beef or chicken taco meat and all of our favorite taco toppings). Making crazy pizza is a great way to use up random leftovers that you need to get rid of!

Feel free to really get your kids involved in this part — rolling out the dough and adding toppings — little kids are always more excited to eat something they’ve had a hand in preparing, and older kids love being guaranteed to get what they want!!!

After your pizza is prepped, it’s go time! For a cookie sheet pizza, bake it in a 400 degree oven for about 12 – 14 minutes. If you’re using a pizza stone, put the stone into a cold oven and then preheat the oven to 450 (if you put the cold pizza stone into a hot oven the fast temperature change might crack it). Once the oven and stone are hot, you’ll need to slide your pizza carefully off the peel and onto the stone where it will need to cook for about 10 minutes.

And that’s it! Trust me, it sounds way more complicated than it is. And I can demonstrate it much more easily than I can describe it…I wish I could have you all over for a “demo and dinner” pizza night!!!

Thanks for letting me crash your blog, Sarah!

Sensory Play with Food

February 28, 2017~ Kids, The Platefull Blog

Anytime I want Noah to try a new food, I let him play with it! If its on his plate, at the dinner table, he won’t touch it. No way, no how. Nope. But, if I give him a few kitchen tools and a tray of fun new foods to explore, he’ll feel them, smell them, and yup, even taste them. Funny how that works. What I love about allowing children to learn through play is that it builds confidence, instills a love of learning, and in turn encourages them to explore and try new things. This activity allows them to experience sensory play with food. Just look at the beautiful, vibrant colors of this tray! The colors alone are attractive to children (and I loved it too!) but then the new textures, smells, and even tastes to explore are so much fun!

Essential Tools for Cooking with Kids

February 14, 2017~ Kids, The Platefull Blog

Noah LOVES to help me in the kitchen. Probably the thing I enjoyed most about doing a Whole30 was how much time Noah and I have spent together in the kitchen. He was so much more likely to try foods as we were cooking and if he had helped prepare them. Turns out he likes tomatoes and raw red bell pepper! The first time he asked me if he could have some of the salad he’d helped to make, I about fell over. The kid’s been eating salad ever since. As long as he prepares it. I kid you not. I’ve found many tools along the way that make cooking fun for him.

I mean, how cute is he?!?!

Cooking Stand

Hands down, our best kitchen addition for allowing Noah to cook is his cooking tower. I found the plans for it online and my Dad was kind enough to build it for Noah! He can’t slip and fall off of it and he loves having his own special place to stand when helping me cook. Ours is a bit smaller than the one from the plans, just because we don’t have a ton of space in our kitchen to store it. I do see that the plans now include a way to attach hinges so that it will fold flat! Mine does not fold, but to be honest, I probably wouldn’t use that feature much anyway because Noah uses this tower all day for everything from finger painting to cooking!

Child safe knives

We have loved the Starpack child safe knives. I originally purchased them from Amazon, who is not carrying them at the time of this post. These however, are similar! They don’t cut skin and Noah just loves the fact that he has a “big knife” like mommy does. I will say, they don’t really cut hard things, but are great for fruit, tomatoes, etc. Our food doesn’t always look pretty, but I love seeing the pride Noah has when he’s helped prepare a meal!

Small cutting board

I recently purchased this small cutting board from Target and its perfect for Noah! He loves that its blue and I love that its got a non-skid rubber bottom, so it doesn’t slip out from under him when he’s using his knives.

Small utensils (Spatula)

I originally bought Noah a set of cute kid sized utensils, but as children do, he wanted what I was using. He has now claimed my mini spatula from Williams Sonoma as his own. 🙂

Plastic Bowls with anti-skid bottoms (Crate and Barrel)

These colorful bowls from Crate and Barrel are my favorite for cooking with kids! They have a rubber non-skid bottom and provide more entertainment in the kitchen than you would think a simple bowl could! He nests them by size, we talk about small, medium, and large, and of course, we cook with them. Who knew a simple set of bowls could be so fun?!

Measuring cups and spoons

I’m not big on purchasing separate items for kids. I think if the child can safely use the “real” version of something, then why not? I have two sets of the All Clad measuring cups and spoons because I love them so much, so Noah always works with the same ones that I do!

Dyson

So, while Noah does love the cordless Dyson, I love it even more. This is the thing that keeps my overly-neat-and-tidy self from freaking out when he dumps a bowl of dry oatmeal on the floor shouting, “I scooped it, Momma!!” (I often give him dry oatmeal, the anti-skid bowls, measuring cups and spoons, and his spatula and let him go to town).

What are your favorite kid-friendly tools for the kitchen?

Pasta Sensory Bin

February 7, 2017~ Kids, The Platefull Blog

Noah loves to help me cook. He loves using a variety of cooking utensils and always wants to measure and pour. I used to let him measure and pour dry oatmeal into muffin tins, but it makes a huge mess! Out of that came the idea to use different shapes of dry pasta instead. Much easier to clean up!

This bin is really simple and I’m betting you already have everything for it in your kitchen! Here’s what I used for this bin:READ MORE

2016 Christmas Gift Giving Guide for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

November 29, 2016~ Kids

As organized as I am with a lot of things in life, gift giving is just not one of them! I prefer to give gifts that are special for each person – something that really made me think of that person when I saw it. So when I’m under pressure to get gifts by a certain date, I tend to procrastinate. This year, I’m really trying to be on the ball and get my Christmas shopping done early! One of my favorite ways to give gifts to little ones is by giving them a book and an experience or educational (but fun) toy to go with it. I love themed gifts as a way to make it fun for the littles! There really just isn’t anything better than a good book and great memories, right?! Here’s my 2016 Christmas gift giving guide for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers!

Baby Gift Box – Elephants

I just think this is such a sweet baby gift! The That’s Not My series is seriously so cute! My boys have loved these books. They are colorful and there’s a different texture on each page. Plus the story is repetitive and simple, so Noah can now read these books to Liam. Melts this momma’s heart!

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That’s Not my Elephant

Elephant blanket and rattle

Baby Gift Box – Tummy Time!

This is another adorable gift for any new baby! How cute is this?! An adorable ‘under the sea’ themed play mat and tummy time book!

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Tummy Time Play Mat

Fold out tummy time books These are simply some of the coolest books for a baby! They fold out and stand up in front of baby! Baby can either be on their tummy or even sitting up. Liam loves looking at the high contrast pictures and Noah loves telling him what each picture is!
Baby Gift Box – Beginning Shapes

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Lift the Flap Shapes

Fisher Price Shape Sorter

Toddler Gift Box – We’re Going to the Zoo!

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Noisy Jungle

Peek Inside the Zoo

Tickets to the Zoo

Toddler Gift Box – Learning Colors and Taking Turns

Taking turns is something we are working on, and the Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel game gives us a fun way to practice! I love that when it’s your turn, you hold the squirrel. This provides the child a very concrete way of knowing whose turn it is. This game also targets learning colors! We get a lot of laughs out of this game! Noah gets very protective of his acorns!

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Lift the Flap Colors

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

Toddler Gift Box – Exploring My World

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My Very First Book About the World

Big Picture Atlas

World Map Floor Puzzle

Soft Globe (We have this soft globe at home and love it. It’s not only educational, but gives him something to hold while we read our books about the world. It also is great for learning to play catch! It’s soft enough that no one will get hurt and its squishy, so it’s easy for Noah to catch).

Preschool Gift Box – Secret Hide Out

There’s just something that is so much fun about having a secret hide out. We have a tee pee in Noah’s room with a basket of books right outside its door. He loves to go hide in there and read (sometimes I even get invited in!). Pair this with a secret flashlight book and I guarantee this is one gift your kids will love!

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Teepee (I loooove the selection from Land of Nod!!)

Shine-a-light book (There are so many in this collection and they are all so much fun! Definitely a favorite in our house!). Give it with a flashlight to make it a complete gift.

Preschool Gift Box – Learn how to code! Yep, you read that right! How fun does this look?!

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Look Inside How Computers Work

Fisher Price Code-a-pillar

Wonder Workshop Dash Robot

Preschool Gift Box – Natural History Experience

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Big Book of Big Dinosaurs

Big Book of Big Animals

Dino Dig

Tickets to local Natural History Museum

Preschool Gift Box – Snowy Day Rescue Kit

Zoo on the Loose is hands down our favorite game right now! It’s so fun and interactive. Best of all, it burns energy! We don’t always follow the rules exactly and modify it for when it’s just Noah and I playing, but nonetheless, we run around the house laughing while we play this game!

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Dinosaur Activity Pack

Sticker Dolly Dressing Activity Pack

Get Ready for School Wipe Clean Activity Pack

Zoo on the Loose

Top Ten Picks for Kids Fall Activities

November 23, 2016~ Kids

Noah is being a wild and crazy two year old this week. It’s only Wednesday and he’s already worn me out! I’m sure some of you mommas out there know the feeling. Since there are still several days remaining in this week, I knew I had to find a way to channel all of his energy! Today I’m sharing my top ten picks for kids Fall activities from around the web!

Paint Pumpkins! Our mini pumpkins were getting close to the point of needing to be thrown out, so I let Noah paint them. He had a great time and there was virtually no set up required. Pumpkins and paint – pretty simple!
Stained Glass Pumpkin and Leaves – again a super simple activity! Cut pieces of tissue paper into squares and tape contact paper cut into the shape of a pumpkin or leaf to a window. This is so pretty when the light shines through! Of course, being a two year old boy, Noah had a great time throwing the tissue paper pieces into the air and watching them float down to the floor. 🙂
Play Doh Turkeys – For this activity, I shaped play doh into a turkey and gave Noah a bowl of feathers. He had a great time making his turkey!
Easy Marbled Fall Leaves – i heart arts and crafts
Leaf Handprints – House of Burke
Fall Bucket List for Toddlers – Busy Toddler (Love the pumpkin wash idea! Now I know what to do with the rest of my pumpkins)!
Pumpkin Counting Cards – Life Over C’s (Noah would be totally on board with these, since they feature trucks)!
Turkey Color Match – I Heart Crafty Things
Autumn Sensory Writing Tray – The Imagination Tree (hands down, one of my absolute favorite sites)!!
Fall Sensory Bin – Fantastic Fun and Learning

Here’s how my take on the Fall Sensory Bin turned out!

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Truck Activities That Kids Will Love

November 11, 2016~ Kids

Noah absolutely loves trucks. He spends most of the day either playing with trucks or reading books about trucks! I definitely take advantage of his love for trucks in order to keep him busy. Here are ten fun truck activities that kids will love!

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Read books about trucks! We love the books by Usborne because they present facts about different types of trucks, have colorful pictures, and are fun! I’m always surprised how much Noah understands and remembers from these books, even though they are very detailed! Here are our favorite books about trucks!

Big Book of Big Machines

Big Book of Big Trucks

Construction Sites (Don’t tell Noah he’s getting this one for Christmas!) 🙂

Shine-a-Light on the Construction Site

(If you’ve never seen the Shine-a-Light series from Usborne, you’ve really got to check them out! Flashlights + Books = Major Fun)!

Paint your own truck! I found this wooden truck at Michael’s for a couple dollars. We used Crayola Washable Paint. Noah spent about 15 minutes painting his truck a variety of colors! He was so excited for it to dry so that he could play with it!
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Make truck pancakes! You can use a mold or even just a regular cookie cutter to make pancakes in a variety of shapes! I have a train cookie cutter and a truck mold that we use every time we make pancakes. Noah always eats a great breakfast when trucks or trains are involved. You could also do this with sandwiches.

Make a homemade construction site! This construction site was so much fun to create together, was free, and its been one of his favorite toys ever. I dug around my storage room for boxes and we got to work creating! We cut doors and windows in the boxes to make garages for the trucks. We used crumpled up paper bags for piles of dirt. We used an old bottle drying rack and a magnet attached with yarn to make a crane! Get creative and use what you have!

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Make a truck sensory bin. Check out this post for ideas on how to make your own truck themed sensory bin.

Cotton ball painting with truck stencils. I picked up a truck stencil from Hobby Lobby (Noah’s favorite store…”Momma, are we going to Hobby Wobby?”). I clipped cotton balls onto the ends of clothespins, poured out some paint onto a plate, and let him paint!

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Truck Wash. This is such an easy and fun sensory activity! Here’s the recipe I used to make the foam for our truck wash. He even had a great time making tracks on the table with his trucks.

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Sticky Trucks. I found small foam truck shapes and signs at Hobby Lobby. I just put them in a bowl and taped a piece of contact paper to the table. Noah spent forever creating designs and moving his trucks around!

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Truck Stamps. I also found trucks and cars stamps at Hobby Lobby. Noah had a great time stamping them with different colors of ink and then he decided to draw a road with his crayon. He was very proud of his creation. 🙂

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Cookie cutter activities. Cookie cutters are one of the best tools to have on hand. There really is so much that you can do with them! Here’s a few things that we’ve done with our truck cookie cutters: make cookies, play doh, tracing with crayons, sand prints, and food shapes (pancakes, sandwiches).

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Fall Sensory Activity

November 1, 2016~ Kids

I absolutely love Fall. It’s definitely my favorite season of the year! So, it’s no surprise that I love coming up with fun Fall themed activities. Today I’m sharing a Fall sensory activity that we love every year! It’s so incredibly simple to create. I leave this basket out through the Fall season and it looks so pretty sitting in our playroom! Fall decoration and activity all in one – can’t beat that!

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For our Fall sensory basket, I simply take Noah to a local pumpkin patch (or you could even pick these up at the grocery store!). I let him choose a variety of gourds and small pumpkins. I just make sure we get a variety of colors, textures, and shapes! Then, I just throw them in a basket when we get home and let him explore them.

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Another really fun way to change this activity up a bit is to put the pumpkins and gourds on a mirrored surface. Just be sure it’s shatter proof for kiddos, as they will likely drop the pumpkins on the surface! This is a really fun way to talk about mirror images. They even get to see their own reflection as they play!

Here are a few other ideas for adding additional elements to your sensory basket for Fall:

Help your children explore difference scents of Fall by adding spice containers to your basket. Pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves are a few that are great! I always supervise this activity to be sure Noah doesn’t spill or try to eat them.
When you are getting close to the end of the season, paint your pumpkins and gourds!
Cut them open. Let your kids explore the inside.
Talk about the colors and shapes of the pumpkins and gourds. Talk about the texture of their surfaces (smooth, bumpy, ridges, etc).
Encourage creative play. Noah likes to drive little trucks around and over them and make bridges with the tree block pieces to connect one pumpkin to another. You’ll be surprised what your kiddos can come up with!
Use the pumpkins and gourds to make imprints in play doh.

For more creative and fun ideas for Fall activities, I’m loving this post by The Imagination Tree!!