What’s Cooking With YOUR Kids, #2

For our second installment of What’s Cooking with YOUR Kids, I am happy to share some photos and stories from my good friend Colleen in San Anselmo, California.  She has twin boys, and was one of the lead party parents for one of her sons’ holiday party.  Here is what she had to say about her attempts to make delicious foods that were also healthier than the usual party fare…

I made these fruit kabob trees with my son Aidan for his 2nd grade class Holiday party.  The cups were stuffed with strawberries (halved), and then raspberries, and finally, kiwi for the trees.  We used some refined white sugar to sprinkle on the raspberries to make them a bit sweeter (because they were slightly out of season).  I’m sure you could use Fructose or some other natural sweetener if you wanted to.  I originally used silver mini cupcake liners for the base of the fruit cup, but they didn’t hold as much fruit as I wanted them to.  They looked a lot prettier, but the Dixie Cups were easier for the kids to hold and gave them a healthy serving of fruit.  We were happy that we could contribute something that was a lot healthier than the Christmas cookies that are usually served during school parties.

My friend made the trees: spinach wraps rolled up with cranberry sauce, turkey, lettuce and provolone cheese, and then sliced to make the spiral circles.  She used star shaped cutters for the cheese decorations.

Finally, I made Brown Rice Krispie treats in the shapes of Christmas Trees.  For this recipe, we used Barbara’s Brown Rice Krispies (not Kelloggs) with mini marshmallows and butter.  We also added a few dried cranberries for color, although something smaller, such as currents, might have worked better.

Do you have any fun stories and photos to share about cooking with YOUR kids?  I hope to share at least one reader story every week and can’t wait to hear about your adventures in the kitchen with your kids.  Here is what you need to do.

p.s.  Pass it on!