Saturday was our ‘Kids Cooking Classes with Chef Marian’ kinda day. A beautiful husband, wife and their 4 kids came over………… three girls, Nikki, Avery, Kayla ages 7-8-10 and their 14 year old brother. Hard to believe my own were ever that small, sweet and innocent. What a beautiful time of life that is…… especially when you have kind, gentle souls!

And at the end of the day…. here’s what they came away with: Baked Mozzarella sticks from    Weelicious.com

Baked Mozzarella Sticks   (Makes 16 Cheese Sticks)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes Ingredients 1 pound mozzarella cheese (not the kind in water), cut into 16 sticks or individually wrapped string cheese sticks 2 eggs 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs 3/4 cup whole wheat flour nonstick cooking spray

 

Preparation

1. Place the cheese on a sheet tray and freeze for 1 hour. 2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees . 3. Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk. 4. Place flour in a second bowl and bread crumbs into a third bowl. 5. Roll the cheese sticks in the flour, then the egg followed by the bread crumbs. 6. Place on a greased sheet tray. 7. Bake for 6-8 minutes (keep an eye on them to avoid over melting). 8. Serve with marinara sauce. *After step 5, place sticks on a baking sheet and freeze for 3 minutes then place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 4 months. When ready follow steps 6-8 adding an additional 1-2 minutes baking time.

And here’s what else we made………..

Homemade Pizza from skeeeee-ratch! lol

Taking cookie cutters to punch out your favorite concepts: houses, hearts, ghosts, etc. from dough you either make or get from Trader Joe’s. I prefer the garlic herb dough from there…..

Then cover with diced tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan. Secret Ingredients?

Red Chili Powder. And spraying olive oil on the crust, to brown it.

And sometimes pulling the cheese and tomatoes into the crust, to keep it moist and flavorful!

Finding Granny Smith Apples? Easy. Adding citrus, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, 2 pinches of brown sugar, 1 pinch of salt. That’s easy too. But finding Graham Crackers without Partially Hydrogenated Oil? Now that’s a bear. I guess we’re talking about Ralph’s being hard to find because I know it’s readily available at Jimbo’s. But Ralph’s is so much closer. So there I was, reading label after label this morning. A half hour shopping trip took TWO hours! You really have to read to see what you are getting. Well, I found the Teddy Graham Product is free of that ‘stuff’…. so I had the girls use a pounder after putting them into a baggie…… to pulverize them for the bottom of the apple tart. Yum! Yum! And more Yum!Here’s the complete list of what you get when you attend Kids Cooking Classes with Chef Marian…. (some of them we will get to in a couple of weeks at the next family cooking class). Please email mm@chefmarian. com if you would like to come)!

1. Fruit & Cheese Kabobs

Pineapple, apple (if you’re not preparing it too far in advance,) grapes and cheese cubes that can be threaded on a wooden kabob stick before they’re eaten.

2. Yogurt Parfaits

Granola, cereal, cut up fruit or frozen berries all make great additions to a parfait!

3. Ants on a Log

Celery sticks filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins are a classic snack that many of us might remember from our own childhoods. Working with peanut butter can be a sticky mess for little ones, so we’ve started filling an icing or pastry bag (or plastic baggie with the corner cut off) with peanut butter ahead of time so that our kids can pipe the peanut butter right into the celery sticks all by themselves.

4. Personal Pizza

Trader Joe’s has a wonderful pizza dough. Combine that with canned chopped tomatoes, mozzarella, parmesan, chili powder to make a wonderful individual pizza.

5. Melon Balls

6. Trail Mix

Trail mix is a versatile snack that kids can make. It is ideal for picky eaters because many ingredients may be used in trail mix. We used cereals that were healthy like Multi Grain Cherrios, cashews, dark chocolate nibs, raisins, pretzels, teddy grahams, etc. You child can scoop each ingredient into the mixing bowl and stir them together. Trail mix is a convenient snack for kids on the go.

7. Fruit kabobs (some dipped in dark chocolate)

Fruit Kabobs is a fun way to encourage kids to eat more fruit. We used a melon baller to add cantaloupe, bananna, grapes and strawberries.

8. Chocolate Dipped Pretzels, Strawberries. Apricots

9. Cinnamon apple graham cracker tart

I guess we got thru more recipes that we thought we did! Yet to be learned at a future class:

10. Roasted cinnamon honey http://weelicious.com/tag/healthy-snacks-for-kids/only uses four ingredients: chickpeas, canola oil, honey and cinnamon. After whisking together the ingredients and greasing the pan, you roast them for 40 minutes on 400 degrees.

11.Homemade Humuus

12. Peanutbutter on apple slices

13. Balls. Mix together peanut butter and cornflakes in a bowl. Shape into balls and roll in crushed graham crackers.

14. Chips and salsa from scratch

Happy Healthy Eating,

Chef Marian