Life Without Lemons: Kids in the Kitchen

, by Elyse Chatterton

Baking

MARSHMALLOW POPS

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, by Elyse Chatterton

Kids in the Kitchen

SUSHI BAZOOKA

"I'm not making art, I'm making sushi"

Masaharu Morimoto

Sushi: Japanese preparation and serving of cooked, vinegared rice combined with varied ingredients, chiefly seafood, vegetables, meat, and occasionally tropical fruits.

I am guilty! A video popped up in my Facebook feed for a strange looking plastic kitchen gadget (that kind of looks a bit rude) that promised perfect sushi every time! You got me! I ordered it immediately. I had to have it!

I already own one of those bamboo rolling mats. I hate it. It never works for me and each time I retrieved it from the back of the cupboard I make sad, strange looking sushi and promptly put it back in the cupboard swearing never to bring it out again.

They were sold out when I placed my order. I had forgotten I even ordered it. It arrived and as I opened the box I chuckled to myself. My husband gave me "that" look!

I made sushi with my new toy! I made two kinds of sushi. My sushi recipes are not authentic in any way, rather a scavenger hunt of ingredients from my pantry. I made a smoked salmon and wasabi, lime mayo version and a tuna mayo, cucumber one that I thought might be perfect for my boys.

The wasabi, lime mayo was awesome by the way. I can see this being added to sandwiches and slaws for a while around here. Simply mix mayo with a chopped spring onion. lime juice and add in some wasabi powder. I added about 1/2 a tsp. and it had tingle but no fire!

I used this recipe for cooking and seasoning the rice. I cooked 1 cup of rice and that happily made two full tubes of sushi.

The standard store bought toasted nori rolls are the perfect length of the tube. Easy peasy!

My boys loved the tuna mayo rolls so much they have requested that they be added to lunchboxes too!

I am planning on hosting a DIY sushi party for friends soon. Large plates of ready chopped ingredients so guests can build their perfect roll, it's gonna be fun!

Link to the exact one I bought and currently its on sale so grab one quick!

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, by Elyse Chatterton

Fast Food

SOS TOMATO SAUCE

After they bathed and cleaned Mr Messy he looked in the mirror and remarked: “I’m going to have to change my name!” but then once they left he threw a fit and started being messy again.

Mr Messy by Roger Hargreaves

My eldest son seems to be going through a growing phase right now. His pants are all too short and his tummy always seems to be hungry! He prowls around the fridge and lurks in the pantry. If you start to get a pan out of the cupboard its like a dinner bell going off and he sprints from his room to see whats cooking!

I have a great collection of foolproof, fast, easy and on hand recipes that I can rustle up in quick time when the children seem to go from OK to starving in 2 seconds flat! This tomato sauce is the base for many of those recipes. Simply stir it through pasta and top with cheese, use it as a great pizza sauce, dip your chips (fries!) in it, pour over chicken and bake or just cook it up with a little rice to make a hearty tomato and rice soup sprinkled with Parmesan and black pepper. Ten minutes to whip up a batch and store it in a jar in the fridge or freeze it for when time is tight and life is messy. This sauce never lets me down.

SOS TOMATO SAUCE

WHAT YOU NEED

400 g tinned crushed/chopped tomatoes
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 clove of garlic crushed
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 spring onions, chopped
squirt of balsamic syrup or a splash of balsamic vinegar
pinch of sugar
olive oil
sea salt & black pepper

WHAT YOU DO

Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the garlic and spring onions and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes, chilli, fennel seeds, sugar, balsamic and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pop a lid or splatter guard on your pan as volcanic bubbles like to shoot all over the kitchen!!
Add salt and pepper, taste & adjust accordingly. If you used balsamic vinegar you might need an extra pinch of sugar at this stage too.
Serve as it is or blend till smooth- totally up to you and how suspicious your children are of green bits in their food!

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, by Elyse Chatterton

Banana & Oreo Milk Shake

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT: BANANA & OREO MILK SHAKE

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, by Elyse Chatterton

Chicken

SWEET CHILLI, LIME AND CORIANDER CHICKEN KEBABS

It has been my aim to get the kids in the kitchen cooking more this summer and not just baking. I bake with the kids often as it's easy to persuade them to give a helping hand when there is a chocolate covered bowl to lick as a reward for their efforts.

I have made so many chicken kebabs in my time as a butcher. In fact I bet my Mum reads this post and has exactly the same kebab nightmare I do! During the very short (and usually wet) BBQ season in the UK the butchers shop would sell ready made and marinaded kebabs but if the sun was shining we could hardly make them fast enough. We would have to hide the ones we made ready for the day after or those would get sold too!

You might be a little daunted about letting your kids loose on raw chicken but just take the time to explain the importance of washing hands and not getting raw chicken everywhere. I tend to use a totally separate plastic chopping board just for chicken and that makes keeping it under control a lot easier.

My top BBQ tip for using bamboo skewers is to soak them in water first so they don't set on fire when you grill them.

We used chicken thighs, chopped into small cubes so they cook easily. Peppers, courgettes and mushrooms were our veggie choices. Simply thread the pieces onto the skewers and place them in a marinade.

Our marinade was chopped spring onions, coriander (cilantro), lime zest and juice and sweet chilli sauce.

Let the kebabs soak up the marinade for a while in the fridge.

Another top tip for brushing your kebabs with extra marinade is to only use the marinade the kebabs sat in at the very beginning of cooking. They have raw chicken juice in there too so only use this when the chicken is not cooked. If you want to keep basting them at the end reserve some of the marinade before you put the raw chicken in and once everything is looking cooked use a clean brush and baste away.

You could also just use veggies or pork fillet or maybe cut some fillet steak tails up!

So don't be afraid to let the kids loose on the raw stuff too. I will add that I didn't ask the 5 year old to help with these as he was way to interested in using a skewer as a sword! Just work at a level you think they can handle and understand.

What are your favourite recipes to cook with your kids?

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, by Elyse Chatterton

Eggs

RATATOUILLE WITH BAKED EGGS

I read a lot of blogs and a lot of cookery books that talk about the tricks and tips of how to get kids to eat their vegetables. I get it, kids can be fussy- heck grown up's can be even more fussy! I am very lucky, both of my little boys (the grown up one is getting better!) love their food and eat whatever I place in front to them.

One of my goals this summer is to get my kids in the kitchen doing a bit more cooking. I bake with them often but actual dinner cooking is something I tend to do alone. This recipe is a perfect kids in the kitchen recipe and if vegetables are a daily battle in your house perhaps getting them chopping and cooking it themselves may be the motivation they need to actually eat and enjoy some of that green stuff!

RATATOUILLE WITH BAKED EGGS

INGREDIENTS

1 large onion
1 small aubergine (or half a big one, like we did here!)
1 large red pepper (or a couple of smaller ones- we used red and orange)
1 courgette
3-4 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and pepper
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
200g crushed tomato
4 large eggs

METHOD

Pre heat oven to 180 C/350 F

Peel & chop the onion, dice the courgette, trim and chop the aubergine, de-seed and chop the pepper and peel and mince the garlic- keep everything separate as they need to hit the pan at different times. Everything should be a small dice of even size.
Put a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. When hot, add the onion and a little salt and pepper and gently fry for about 2 minutes, keep the onions moving in the pan so they don't colour.
Add the aubergine, peppers, and garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the courgette and fry for another minute or two, keep everything moving in the pan.
Sprinkle over the spices and tip in the tomatoes, add a little water to loosen the ratatouille. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Using 4 oven proof dishes, divide the ratatouille into the dishes. Make a small indent in the centre of each and crack an egg into it. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over each egg.
Place the dishes in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny in the middle.

NOTE: We overcooked this batch a little so watch very carefully when you get to the 9 minute mark- the eggs go from lovely and gooey to depressingly hard very quickly! Also they keep cooking a little once you pull them from the oven as they are sat in hot ratatouille so underdone is best when you remove them from the oven.

LINK TO PRINTABLE RECIPE