Not sure if this should go into the Parenting Forum, the Teaching Forum, or the Food Forum so I’ll start with it here and if the mods want to send it on a tour to other forums for a while, they are welcome to… 
At my school, we have one day a week to cook with the kids for the preschool program. I also like doing some cooking with my older kids from time to time. These are some of my most popular recipes to make with them: Ice-Cream-in-a-Bag, Really Easy Puff Pastries, 100-Berry Punch Smoothies, Magic Fish Sandwiches, “One Grain of Rice” Pudding, Caramel Apple Dip, and My Favorite Apple Pie in a Pan.
Almost all of the ingredients can be purchased at Wellcome. There are only a few exceptions like the caramel candies, orange extract, and goldfish crackers which were bought at Jason’s and the frozen berries which were bought at Costco.
Most of the steps and prep can be done by even the yooungest of children. For slicing fruit, give them plastic butter knives. They can count out pieces or help unwrap things for you and mix ingredients together. If they are really brave, they might even turn on the blender for you! Older students can help turn on the oven, break eggs (although two of my boys…er, chickened out at the last minute when making the rice pudding), measure liquids and solids, cream butter and sugar together, and best of all - do the dishes and wipe the surfaces when the prep is finished.
All of these recipes were made with children between the ages of 2-1/2 to 12…or rather, they were made by children between the ages of 2-1/2 to 12. And I guarantee kids will love them. I can account for over 70 children who have made these recipes with me during the years and have enjoyed them immensely.
Ice-Cream-in-a-Bag
This was a favorite from the last theme we did last year - Ice Cream! From ice cream-scented playdough (chocolate from cocoa powder, vanilla from vanilla extract, orange from orange extract and food coloring, and strawberry and raspberry from Jell-O) to making chocolate-covered bananas with wheat germ. My kids loved making this…especially when we put on Hap Palmer’s Five Little Monkeys and the Freeze Song by Greg and Steve for them to shake to. My 4th and 5th graders will be making a peach-mango version of this later on this month. I was going to use this to also teach physics.
For each person you’ll need the following:
1 sandwich-sized ziploc bag
2 freezer-sized ziploc bag (trust me… you’ll want two per person)
lots of ice cubes
lots of salt
1/2 cup of yogurt or milk (strawberry or mango works best, but you can use chocolate milk too)
toppings or fruit like mangos, bananas, strawberries, or cookie crumbs (optional)
1/4 cup of vanilla extract (for vanilla ice cream)
music to shake to (optional)
gloves to keep little hands from getting too cold (optional, but recommended)
If needed, blend your ingredients together in a blender until fairly smooth. Pour the liquid into the smaller bag and seal it. Fill the larger bag about halfway with ice. Put the smaller bag inside of the bigger bag. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of salt and begin shaking immediately. After about five minutes, you’ll have ice cream. Make sure to wipe the inside bag well to get the salt off.
Enjoy!
Really Easy Puff Pastries -
I came up with this last year when I was trying to think of something to make with my 3-year-olds for our Mother’s Day tea party.
All ingredients are bought at Wellcome:
puff pastries - each box of frozen pastries has 6 skins inside but I cut them into quarters for mini-pies to make 24 per box.
canned fruit pie filling - cherry and apple work best, but strawberry’s not too bad. I haven’t tried blueberry. One can can fill about 48 pastries or more.
Cut the pastries into quarters with a pair of kitchen scissors while still frozen. Let the pastries warm up a little while you get the fillings. You will need to cut the apples into smaller chunks. Follow the preheating directions for the puff pastries.
Spoon a dollop of filling into the center of a puff pastry. Use a fork to seal the ends (or your fingers ala dumpling folding). Make sure the ends are sealed so the filling doesn’t come out while cooking.
Put the pastries on a cookie sheet. Pop into the oven for recommended baking time and voila! Fruit turnovers. Let cool for about 10 minutes or spoon vanilla ice cream over them and serve immediately.
100-Berry Smoothie Punch
We made this this year to celebrate the 100th Day of School for my buxiban class. The kids went crazy over it so we made it again for our end-of-the-year Open House for the parents to sample too. The kids helped count out the berries and we weighed them to see how much more 100 strawberries weighed compared to 100 smaller berries. We also sampled each kind of the forest berries for the kids to see which one they liked the best. And the best thing is, there’s no added sugar…well, okay the pseudo-cranberry juice, but other than that, no other artificial sweeteners!
Buy the large bags of frozen berries (strawberry and mixed berries) at Costco. There’s enough berries to make 7 pitchers.
20 frozen strawberries
80 frozen forest berries
1 20-oz bottle of Ocean Spray Cranberry Splashers (the one with cranberries and blueberries on it…a lighter color than the bigger bottles of “juice”)
1 75cc bottle of orange juice
5-10 ice cubes
1 blender
Put in the ice cubes. Start with 5 and you can add more later if you need to. Put in enough berries to fill the blender pitcher to the lip (strawberries first, then add the smaller forest berries to fill in the gaps). Pour in the Cranberry Splasher to fill the pitcher 3/4 of the way. Puree the liquid. Then add the orange juice to fill the rest of the pitcher and blend again. Add more ice if you wish. Serve immediately.
Magic Fish Sandwiches
Also a favorite from our Fairy Tales theme. This went along with the Shel Silverstein poem “The Silver Fish” (from A Light in the Attic):
[quote]While fishing in the blue lagoon,
I caught a lovely silver fish,
And he spoke to me, “My boy,” quoth he,
"Please set me free and I’ll grant your wish:
A kingdom of wisdom? A palace of gold?
Or all the fancies your mind can hold?
And I said, “O.K.” and I set him free,
But he laughed at me as he swam away,
And left me whispering my wish
Into a silent sea.
Today I caught that fish again
(That lovely silver prince of fishes),
And once again he offered me,
If I would only set him free,
Any one of a number of wishes,
If I would throw him back to the fishes.
He was delicious![/quote]
The kids were at first apprehensive about eating a fish sandwich, but they loved it and one even brought it in for her lunch a week later after her mom made it. And they thought the poem was pretty funny too. Key to reading it aloud: pause for the last line.
1 tbsp. diced celery
2-1/2 tbsp. mayonnaise
1/4 of an medium apple, chopped
1 tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1 can water-packed tuna
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
whole-wheat bread
fish-shaped cookie cutters (optional)
goldfish crackers (also optional, but cute)
You know the deal. Mix everything together until it’s blended. Spread it on the bread. Then cut the sandwiches with the cookie cutters and put on a plate with the goldfish crackers “swimming” around it. As Shel Silverstein would say, “Delicious!”.
“One Grain of Rice” Pudding
In the 4th grade reader, we have Demi’s One Grain of Rice, a folktale set in India about a girl who asks the raja to give her one grain of rice, but to double it for each day until by the end of the month she has all the rice in the kingdom. This is a great story for teaching fun math concepts like exponential numbers and estimation. After reading the story, we calculate how much rice she would have after two months, 6 months, and one year. Then I get one student with average-sized hands to grab a handful of rice. Then each of the students gets a portion to count and we add up the total to see if it matches what the book says one handful of rice equals (512 grains). The first time I taught 4th grade we had exactly 512 grains! This year we had 519 grains of rice in our one handful. It’s amazing how close it is to what the book says. With 12 students counting, there’s no way to fudge the numbers so it’s true. Anyways, while they count, I put on a pot of rice to boil on the hot plate so we can have “One Grain of Rice” Pudding. My principal dislikes rice, raisins, and puddings, but she loved this.
You need the following:
2-1/4 cups uncooked white rice
6 cups milk, divided
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups golden raisins
3 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
ground cinnamon
In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon. It’s ready when it thickens. Serve immediately.
Again, each year, my kids are a little skeptical about trying this recipe, but I reassure them that I would not make something that I wouldn’t want to eat myself. After the initial hemming and hawing, they tore this up and almost emptied the whole pot.
Caramel Apple Dip
Two summers ago, one of the summer camp themes was “The Circus”. We had a stuffed animal parade and air-popped popcorn in the sensory table for the kids to play with. I wanted the kids to get a taste of the treats served at the circus, but while caramel apples are a staple to the circus, they are hard to make with young children so I found this alternative which can be microwaved. Bless little 2-year-old Joseph who loved this so much he was trying all kinds of fruit and circus animal crackers to eat with it and then gave up on dipping and started scooping with his fingers. I later used this recipe when my 4th graders put on a county fair to celebrate our production of Charlotte’s Web and their farming research projects. It again was a huge hit.
16 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1/4 cup water
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, or in the microwave, melt caramels with water, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Fold in caramel mixture. Serve immediately.
My Favorite Apple Pie in a Pan (aka Wicked Stepmother’s Evil Apple Crisp)
My 7 little 2nd graders made this to celebrate our finished phonics unit on short and long vowel sounds (they searched for the vowels while this cooked). My 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders made it last summer when we spent the month doing fairy tales. My 5th graders enjoyed making it after they made faces upon learning that you can cook apples. They certainly didn’t mind cooked apples after eating it!
8 cups sliced apples
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup water
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish.
Place apples in prepared dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour water over all. In a bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Blend in flour. Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples. Bake in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is golden. Serve with ice cream.
I also would put an age limit of around 6 on it though. I have a 4 yr. old class and I pretty much had to do all the shakin, even though I used a little KC and the sunshine band to get em “Shakin their booty’s” .
