Keeping Creative Kitchens #11

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and had lots of opportunities for creativity in your kitchens or at the very least had a chance to enjoy others creativity! :)

So here's my post for today. My boys love helping out in the kitchen but finding ways to include them is sometimes challenging. I have found that it is often better to plan a non-weeknight-meal time to do some special cooking with them. We've made things like blueberry pancakes, individual cakes or cupcakes, cookies, oatmeal, chex mix, trail mix, pizza and pumpkin pie. They feel so special even if it's just decorating the cookies, topping a pizza or pouring pre-measured things into a bowl. And they take a tremendous amount of pride in whatever they have "made." I love it - not only is it quality time with them but it is also teaching them about something I enjoy.

For Christmas, we found the boys a cookbook with their favorite Disney characters on the cover. They were thrilled and the Saturday morning after Christmas, they each chose a recipe to make. They are still talking about it two weeks later. While the recipes may not become family favorites :), they are easy, kid-friendly, and mostly healthy. I'm excited to see what they will choose next for us to make together. They love that their favorite characters appear throughout the book as well as the colorful, easily identifiable pictures. We were so glad to find it!

So if you have kids, I encourage you to get them involved in the kitchen. Keep it creative and simple (one day I just grabbed nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, & cereal that I had on hand to make a quick trail mix - they loved it!) and shower them with lots of praise. The memories being created are priceless.

Here are a few pictures of the fun we had working in the kitchen making pumpkin pie this fall:

Happy Thursday, everyone! Thanks for stopping by Keeping Creative Kitchens! I'm looking forward to all your great ideas, recipes, and resources. Feel free to grab the button for your post - you don't have to know me to play along and you don't have to participate to comment or ask questions! :)

Here are just a few guidelines for participating in Keeping Creative Kitchens:
1) Leave a link to your post with Mr. Linky (I am fully aware that there will probably not be many - or any :) - participants but I think this will make participation easier!).
2) Your entry can include a new recipe (either your own creation or a new-to-you-recipe), favorite recipe, success, tablescape/centerpiece, short-cut, ingredient, tradition, book, magazine, tool or gadget, food photos, recipe website or any thing else that keeps you inspired in your kitchen.
3) Please link back here in your participating post.

Hope you have fun, meet new people, learn a few things, feel encouraged, and find inspiration as you prepare meals, care for your family, and entertain!