Santa’s Favorite Malted Hot Chocolate
Five Little Chefs - Santa's Favorite Malted Hot Chocolate
Since we are on a hot chocolate kick right now we are trying another one, Santa's Favorite Malted Hot Chocolate. The Little Chefs were so confused why it had Santa in the name, but I explained perhaps someone makes it every Christmas Eve. That seemed to satisfy them for the moment. Mom can make a pretty convincing case!
We had all the ingredients in our pantry. Why would we have malted milk powder? Someone told me if you add a ...
Divine Breadsticks
Five Little Chefs - Divine Breadsticks
It was spaghetti and meatballs night. The Little Chefs wanted something else so they decided breadsticks would be a great new recipe to try. We found Divine Breadsticks from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Luckily we had the ingredients on hand. That is what I love about bread, the ingredients are staples right in your pantry. While we were making these, Little Chef A made a GREAT observation. She said, "Mom, we just COPY recipes. I want my own book with my ...
Chocolate Nutella Cookies
Five Little Chefs - Chocolate Nutella Cookies
Little Chef A came home from school recently and said at school for a party they had apples dipped in Nutella. Since the rest of us have not tried Nutella we decided to find a recipe, or a couple, using it. The first is Chocolate Nutella Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod.
Little Chef D was originally going to make this recipe, but the other Little Chefs couldn't resist and had to join in! Little Chef D was gracious enough to let them help ...
French Toast
Five Little Chefs - French Toast
We LOVE French Toast! My Little Chefs especially love making French Toast with their Grandma at their special escape. This recipe from Robert Irvine is slightly different then our usual way with the addition of ground nutmeg and actually cooking it in butter. Little Chef C woke up so excited to try another of Chef Robert's recipes as we had planned the night before to make this recipe for breakfast.
Little Chef C cracked all the eggs, all by ...
Recipe Redo: Delicious Hot Chocolate
Five Little Chefs - Recipe Redo: Delicious Hot Chocolate
In my attempt to help my Little Chefs learn from their mistakes in life, we frequently discuss what could have been said or done next time to obtain a better outcome. This has spilled over into our cooking. I do mean "our" because when I cook a meal its usually Little Chef A that will say, "probably if you did ..... next time it would be better." She says this matter of factly without me even asking for opinions!
When Little Chef A ...
Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake
Five Little Chefs - Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake
We thought it would be fun to try some recipes from other blogs. The first recipe we are trying is Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake from Picky-Palate. The Little Chefs thought they could do this recipe because it is a simple dump recipe with most everything from a can. I like this recipe because it is common pantry items.
The recipe calls for chicken. I thought it would be interesting to ...
Raspberry-Orange Smoothie
Five Little Chefs - Raspberry-Orange Smoothie
This week for our new drink my Little Chefs tried Raspberry-Orange Smoothie found on the food network site. This was super simple. Everything was dumped into the blender and the button pushed. The ingredients are almost all described in the title, raspberries, orange juice, plain yogurt and of course ice. The recipe was doubled because there are a lot of us!
After the ingredients were measured out Little Chef D dumped them all ...
Sure Fire, No Fire S’mores
Five Little Chefs - Sure Fire, No Fire S'mores Little Chef D has another fun recipe today! If you love to camp you probably love S'mores. This Sure Fire, No Fire S'mores is a great indoor Smore recipe. The ingredients are the same you take camping. The graham crackers were broken in two and placed on a cookie sheet. You would think breaking the crackers in two would be easy, but those crackers want to break in different sizes very easily. Eventually 6 crackers were broken in ...
School’s Out Scalloped Potatoes
We are always in need of a good side dish. Potatoes are cheap themselves which makes a good option, depending on the cost of the additional ingredients. This potato recipe had ingredients that we either already stock in our pantry, or were easy to find.
All the ingredients were prepped. Little Chef C was able to grate the cheese with this type of cheese grater very well.
We opted to only use 1/2 onion. The onion was peeled and then cut into fourths. The onion was diced ...
Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs
Five Little Chefs - Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs Steak was requested for dinner so we were talking about what we could make as a side dish. We stumbled on Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs. This appealed to Little Chef A because she loves cheese in her mashed potatoes, if there isn't gravy. This recipe calls for 4 pounds of potatoes. That would make way too much for my family. We we are not fans of leftovers ...
Delicious Hot Chocolate
Its cold here and wet, well semi-cold this winter. Little Chef A wanted to help make some Delicious Hot Chocolate. When she found out she had to cut the orange she wanted to try out her knew knife which is made especially for kids. I first explained she did not need to cut the orange in half, just the rind which is the outside orange part. She said "Why don't I just peel the orange?" I explained the white part is bitter and that wouldn't taste good. She took ...
Fabulous Fudge
Little Chef 3 LOVES desserts! She chose Fabulous Fudge by Anne Thornton. This is a perfect recipe for little ones. It is easy and quick for those with short attention spans. Make sure all everything is chopped and measured out ready to go. Once you start it goes quick and there isn't time to measure. The ingredients were gathered. A 9x9 glass pan was covered in foil, long enough to overhang to help in pulling it out later. The only ingredient that needed to ...
Ratatouille
Five Little Chefs - Ratatouille This Ratatouille recipe was chosen because Little Chef C was watching an episode of Restaurant Impossible where this was made. Our only other experience with Ratatouille is the movie by Disney. The ingredients were gathered, except for the herbes de Provence we didn't find. Luckily, it was an optional ingredient. The eggplant was going to be interesting, we have never had this in our kitchen before! Next, everything was chopped. This time ...
Lemon Spaghetti
Little Chef A loves pasta! Lemon Spaghetti by Giada de Laurentiis seemed like a quick meal with not many ingredients. The pasta cooked by itself, the lemon sauce only needed to be whisked with fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and shredded parmesan cheese. The only thing needed to be cut was the basil. Seems pretty simple, right? That is what I usually think at the beginning as well. This time it really was the case! The ingredients were gathered. A saucepan with water was put ...
Orange Banana Smoothie
Five Little Chefs - Orange Banana Smoothie My Little Chefs LOVE bananas and juice. We seem to have both around quite frequently. I have been known to buy a lot of bananas, eat some, and freeze some for later. When I came across this recipe I thought it would be perfect for us! I know this recipe calls for everything fresh. In fact all the recipes we have been making call for everything fresh. In our world (home) we have so much going on fresh everything isn't possible or affordable. We ...
Coriander and Mustard Seed Crusted Salmon
Five Little Chefs - Coriander and Mustard Seed Crusted Salmon Today's recipe was chosen by Little Chef C, Coriander and Mustard Seed Crusted Salmon fromChef Robert Irvine. We watched an episode of his show, Restaurant Impossible, where he was making over a school restaurant. I think because he was working with High School student chefs my Little Chefs were OVERLY excited and enthrawled. Since viewing this episode every time I ask Little Chef D to do something she responds "Yes, Chef!" ...
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cupcakes
Five Little Chefs - Chocolate Chip Walnut Cupcakes Little Chef A chose Chocolate Chip Walnut Cupcakes from Giada De Laurentiis. We thought it was funny that it is called cupcakes, but you actually use a brownie mix! The first thing was to gather the ingredients. The 12-cup muffin pan was lined with cupcake liners and set aside. The oven was turned on to 350 degrees.The walnuts needed to be chopped. This time I thought we would see how the chopper would work instead of a ...
Vanilla Milkshake
Five Little Chefs - Vanilla Milkshake We thought it would be fun to try a new drink each week. Ice cream is a favorite treat, so naturally the first drink we wanted to try was a Vanilla Milkshake by Paula Deen. All my Little Chefs were excited and knew we had the ingredients to make it. Little Chef D has a hard time eating her meals most of the time. Sometime the gentle coaxing works, sometimes it doesn't. I finally said we are making the Vanilla Milkshake after dinner. You need ...
Top Secret Chocolate Cookies
Some people choose recipes by their ingredients while others, like Little Chef D, choose recipes by their pictures. For her first recipe Little Chef D wanted a "brown cookie" and found Top Secret Chocolate Cookies by Christy Hyer. The first thing we always do is measure out all the ingredients. I have found this makes the mixing/cooking/baking process go a lot smoother. The prep time seems to be long and sometimes hard if there is cutting involved, but when we are really ready to start follow...
Mahi Mahi with Rice
Not too long ago we went to a new restaurant. We ordered, sat down, and started eating when Little Chef C said "Mom, did Chef Robert come here?" I had to laugh. "Did he change this place to make it look nice?" I asked. "No, he didn't come here, this is a new restaurant." It has only been open for a few months if I remember correctly. It still had a "new" look to it. It was very bright with the lights, the huge windows and the colors were vibrant. No wonder she thought Chef Robert fixed this ...
Crostini Alla Romana
Little Chef A absolutely loves Giada De Laurentiis! Whenever we are watching the Food Network and Giada comes on the excitement level goes through the roof! I quickly hear, "Ooooh I love Giada, she is my favorite!" What surprises me is the conviction and true passion she has for this show and cooking. It would not come as a surprise to hear that Little Chef A's recipes will all come from her favorite chef, Giada. The first recipe that was chosen was Crostini Alla Romana. We saw ...
