Thursday, January 08, 2009

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!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alaina, We used to make mickey mouse shaped pancakes - just add two ears and Laura used to decorate small ind'l size pizzas with happy faces if you like pepperoni.

Erin K. said...

Thanks for the inspiration! Kaitlyn LOVES to help me, to the point of my exasperation. When I work in the kitchen she usually tries to push the chair over so she can "help" me. Some of the time I find something for her to do; the other times, it becomes a battle of the wills. :-( I think what I need to do is sit down and brainstorm some ideas... maybe get some things organized that I can just pull out and make her feel like she's doing something... hmmm...

I can feel a future post coming on... :-D

Anonymous said...

Alaina, did you get my voice mail about meds from Walmart. I know they carry albuterol for nebulizer in the cheap deals. I also know my girls were on two different ones at times. Perhaps the albuterol would be an option even if Ty is on another.

$4 is a lot cheaper than $290 and it may accomplish the same. One of my meds is $4 through Walgreens and 0ver $70 through insurance.

Alaina said...

Yes! Thanks Barbara! That actually was at Wal-mart. The Albuterol was $4 a box, it's the Pulmicort that is so expensive. I talked to the doctor about it but there really isn't anything else for him to be on. We did call around and Wal-mart was the cheapest... Hopefully after the winter he won't have to be on it anymore!

Mama10EE said...

Morgan LOVES to help me in the kitchen, and like Erin K.'s daughter she is always pushing over her "stool" to help me do whatever it is I am doing. I am looking for more ways for her to help me, but when all else fails, I let her "wash" dishes in the sink. She just loves the bubbles more than anything! I have started letting her put in pre-measured ingredients and do the mixing, which she loves. I hope that she continues to love being in the kitchen, because it is something I really don't like too much!

Unknown said...

Cooking with your children creates long lasting love of memories.
Our teen and I still cook together.