kids in the kitchen: homemade cheese crackers

Ethan and I admittedly love browsing Pinterest and finding fun ways to occupy ourselves during Carmen's naptimes. I mean, Carmen naps. With joy and without protest. This is not a reality I'm used to as He Who Never Sleeps (ahem, Ethan) never napped with such grace and bliss. So, Ethan and I have been trying to find fun ways to spend some one-on-one time together while Carmen naps. Pinterest for the win.

Ethan saw the post about homemade cheese crackers and we decided to try it. He's always loved cooking and baking but lately he's into taking over. I guess he's at an age where he can sort of figure out how to measure out what the recipe calls for and with me helping him read the steps, he did everything on his own. (Minus putting them into the oven.) I went with child-led over perfection so our crackers are misshapen and some are too big and some are too small, but Ethan was just beaming with pride when they came out of the oven.

Not going to lie, they're pretty delicious.

You'll Need:
12 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
1/2c butter, softened and chopped into pieces
1 1/2c all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your baking pan.
2. Place all ingredients except milk into a food processor and pulse until combined.
3. Slowly add milk and pulse until a dough forms.
4. Roll the dough out into a big ball with your hands and then flatten with a rolling pin -- or your hands, if you're 5. I hear it's the only way to do it.
5. Using a pizza cutter, cut your squares. Or whatever shape you feel like making.

6. If you feel like getting fancy, you can sprinkle on some sea salt or use a straw to make the famous Cheese-It hole in the center of your crackers.

7. Transfer crackers to baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. They'll be nice and crispy when they cool!

healthy flourless brownie bites

Ethan and I baked today, on a whim. He wanted to make brownies. I had a zucchini to use up. We compromised.

Behold, these super yummy (and healthy) flourless brownie bites!

They contain no flour or gluten or added refined sugar. They're still chocolate-y and delicious and healthy which makes them a perfect special-treat addition to both Ethan's lunch and my (Celiac) husband's lunch. I probably wouldn't say no if he asked for one for breakfast or as a midday snack, so Ethan has that going for him.

Here is how we made them:

Ingredients:
1c all-natural peanut butter
1/2c honey
1/4c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp chia or flax seed (ground)
2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 banana
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 zucchini, peeled

The directions are pretty simple: throw it all into your blender or food processor.

We tossed everything into our Blendtec and pulsed until smooth.

Once your batter is smooth, take your mini muffin tins (lightly greased) and pour in the batter, 3/4 way full.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Let cool and then pop out.

This recipe made 40 brownie bites in our mini muffin tins.

Enjoy!

cooking with kids: peanut butter banana donuts

A few months ago, Ethan and I bought a mini donut pan on a whim. It was a pretty fabulous decision and we've had a great time experimenting with donut recipes. Ethan's favorite part about the mini donut pan is piping the batter into the wells -- and the fact they only take, like, 7-8 minutes to bake. Instant gratification, or close to it.

Ethan had been asking to make banana bread but instead, we decided to make banana donuts. We used 2 1/2 ripe bananas for this recipe so -- that basically means it's healthy, right? I'm just saying.

Anyway, to make these, you'll need:

- 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed (we had 2 1/2 for some reason, so, 2 1/2 it was)
1c flour (we used a gluten free blend)
1 egg
1/2c nonfat or lowfat milk
1/4c brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whisk the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl.

Put your batter into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner cut off and pipe into your donut pan.

Bake for 8 minutes at 425 degrees.

For the icing, we melted a cup of peanut butter and then spread it on the top.

Of course, Ethan insisted we added sprinkles. Who could argue that?

cooking with kids: homemade ketchup

Tomatoes are one of Ethan's favorite foods and, no surprise, ketchup is probably also at the top of that last. This kid has always loved to dip everything and for that reason, we go through a lot of "red dip" (as Ethan calls it) in our house. I usually buy the organic ketchups that don't have high-fructose corn syrup in the ingredient list, but even so, you're still getting a bunch of junk and sugar and dyes and preservatives. And even more than I dislike the yucky stuff, I love, love, love sharing time in the kitchen with Ethan. Cooking with Ethan and watching him explore the fun of preparing his own food is such a special time. What better way to have some all-day fun in the kitchen than whipping up a big batch of homemade ketchup?! I say "all day" because we made our ketchup in the crock pot. It was the perfect rainy day activity that was ready to be enjoyed by dinnertime!

You'll need 2.5 lbs overripe tomatoes, with the skins on. (And, if you're anything like Ethan, go ahead and sample them. You know, for quality assurance.)

Washing the tomatoes and pulling off the stickers are perfect tasks for little hands to do themselves.

Ethan got to work chopping up the tomatoes (leave the skins on!). The knife he uses is from Montessori Services for just over $2.

Once the tomatoes are chopped, you toss them in the crock pot along with:

1/2c water
1/3c organic cane sugar
1/4c honey
1/2c distilled white vinegar
2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp celery salt
1/8 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
4 tbsp organic tomato paste

Combine the ingredients and let simmer (we used the 6 hour heating option). Stir occasionally and use the back of a wooden spoon to mash up the tomatoes as they soften.

About four hours into cooking, I ladeled the tomato mixture into the Blendtec to puree it smooth. If you have an immersion blender, you can use it instead.

Six hours into cooking, our ketchup was ready! First, I let it cool (cold ketchup is a must, Ethan informed me) and then bottled it. I had an empty barbecue sauce bottle and (coincidentally) an empty ketchup bottle on hand. These were the perfect sized bottles for the amount of ketchup this recipe makes!

(Don't mind our table -- Ethan was busy playing with Mars Mud at the same time)

And there you have it, ketchup!

I think I was most impressed by how delicious it actually was. Ethan couldn't wait to enjoy some at dinnertime.

green smoothie muffins

I am very lucky because I have no problem getting Ethan to eat his fruits and veggies. His preferred snack is always some vegetables and hummus, he can't keep his hands out of the tomatoes when I'm trying to get lunches ready and he chugs green smoothies with weirder ingredients than I admittedly would touch (like spirulina). Still, smoothies can be messy and sometimes I don't have time to prepare one before we rush out the door on our daily adventures or errands. Muffins are super convenient because they freeze well, are filling and you can prepare a whole bunch of them to last you a long time. Muffins make the perfect to-go snack which is helpful in our always-on-the-go life. These are the kind of muffins that I'm totally cool with letting Ethan have for breakfast or as just a snack.

If I had adequate baking gear, I would have made these completely in mini-muffin tins. However, I ran out of mini muffin tins and so I made the rest in regular sized muffin tins. The regular sized muffins took longer to cook by a good 10-12 minutes and seem to be Ethan's preferred breakfast meal whereas the mini muffins are a better little snack because they're not as filling.

The first thing you need is some vegetable puree -- aka the green smoothie portion of these green smoothie muffins. I didn't really measure how much of everything I put in, but I wound up with a tiny bit more than 2 2/3c of vegetable puree and it worked perfectly. I threw in some steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower, a banana, 1/2 pear, carrots, zucchini, spinach and a couple splashes of some prune juice. My mixture needed a little more liquid so I added a Happy Baby banana, beet and blueberry puree pouch. I threw this all in a food processor and pureed until smooth and then set aside.

In my mixer, I threw in two eggs, 3 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/4c brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of honey and beat until smooth. Blend the puree mixture into the egg mixture until combined and then add 1/4c Greek yogurt (I used plain).

In another bowl, add 2c flour (I used a gluten free blend), 1/4c raw cacao powder (optional, but Ethan is pro-all things chocolatey) and 3/4 tsp baking soda. I also added a few dashes of cinnamon, cloves and allspice but didn't really measure. Whisk the dry ingredients together and fold into the wet ingredients.

Pour into muffin tins (preferably mini muffin tins if you have!) and bake at 350 degrees. It took my mini muffins 20 minutes to be ready and my standard size muffins 30 minutes to be ready.

ethan's eats + introducing kid food friday! (& a giveaway, too!)

I'm pretty excited about this week's edition of Ethan's Eats because I've decided to turn it into a weekly link-up! Hooray!

Every Friday, I'll be posting my regular Ethan's Eats lunchbox ideas as usual but with a fun link-up party at the end for everyone reading along to share their little ones lunches from the past week. No, it doesn't have to be limited to lunchboxes or a week's worth of meals or even lunch at all! Make something yummy for your little one? Whip up a super cute snack? A sweet little breakfast? Go for it and share away!

Each week I'll also feature a spotlight area highlighting a couple of the submissions that were submitted the previous week. All you have to do to be featured is link up your fun kid food creations! There is also a button below to take with you if you wanted to help add some Kid Food Friday love to your linked up posts!

Ethan's Weekly Eats:

Hummus, cucumber heart, carrots, grape tomatoes, Pirate's Booty, clementine, strawberries, grapes, peanut butter sandwich square

Grapes, clementine, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, carrots, hummus, peanut butter heart sandwich, Organicasaurus snacks, cheddar cheese cubes

Peanut butter sandwich squares, plum slices, grapes, sweet potato & cinnamon crackers, carrots, hummus, crinkle-cut strawberries, grape tomatoes and mozzarella cubes on toothpicks

Link up and join the fun!

<center><a href="http://www.youaretheroots.com/search/label/ethan%27s%20weekly%20eats"><img src="http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/soundtracktosayinggoodbye1/youaretherootsblog/kidfoodfriday.png" border="0"></a></center>

And what's a celebratory kick-off without a giveaway? (Hint: not nearly half as fun, that's what!) Everyone is always asking about the lunchboxes we use and I'm so excited to be able to give away a set of Easy Lunchboxes plus a cooler bag (winners can choose their color) to one of my readers! Easy Lunchboxes are our favorite BPA-free, microwave safe, freezer safe sectioned lunchboxes and I don't know what we would do without them!

This giveaway is open to US residents and closes on September 12th! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ethan's eats

Black bean burrito, cheese cubes, avocado, strawberries, grapes, cucumber, snap peas and hummus.

Playdate lunches! Peanut butter sandwich, cheese & crackers, toasted coconut strips, plum, strawberries, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus & piece of a Dancing Deer blondie cookie.

Apple, peanut butter and grape "cars," peanut butter sandwich "road," cheese, crackers, snap peas, hummus, carrots.

Cucumber alligator, tomatoes, carrots, strawberries, crackers, cheese, peanut butter bear sandwich and snap peas.

Cheese, peanut butter sandwich, Pirate's Booty, hummus, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, blueberries.

Pizza bagel, Organicasaurus snacks, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hummus, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, strawberries.

Peaches, Pirate's Booty, red velvet brownie piece, hummus, cheese quesadilla hearts, broccoli, cucumber stars, tomatoes, carrots.

Peanut butter sandwich flowers, cheese, cucumber stems and leaves, honeydew grass, strawberries, yellow pepper, snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, hummus.

Cheese ravioli, marinara sauce (in squirt bottle), Shawnee's Green Thumb popcorn, cheese, strawberries, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, hummus.

Peanut butter sandwich, pineapple, grapes, strawberries, Equal Exchange chocolate mini-bar, carrots, yellow pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, hummus.

Peanut butter sandwich, Pirate's Booty, watermelon, strawberries, cheese, crackers, hummus, tomatoes, carrots.

Lunchboxes: EasyLunchboxes
Plates: Target
Crackers: Last week I got a Facebook message asking what brand crackers I used in Ethan's lunchboxes. All crackers are Back To Nature brand, either their wheat crackers, sweet potato & cinnamon crackers, classic round crackers or their roasted garlic & spinach crackers.