Kid-Tested Recipes

A recent search for our grill's manual, led me to a whole stack of kiddie cookbooks and recipes on file I'd kind of forgotten about. Lately I've been letting Ella pick one recipe each week that she wants to try (we usually make it on Friday). Here are some of the favorites we'd recommend:

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(This one's purely for fun-- ain't nothing healthy about it!)

Haystacks or Birds Nests

1 2/3 cup peanut butter chips

1 Tbs. shortening (not butter, oil or margarine)

3 cups chow mein noodles

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Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Place chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and zap (on high) 1 minute. Stir. If necessary, keep microwaving in 15 second intervals until mixture is melted and smooth when stirred. Immediately mix in chow mein noodles. Drop mixture by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared tray. Let stand until firm-- use fridge to speed progress. Store in covered container.

(Admittedly, I was not a fan of the overripe, mashed bananas in this one, but my girls gobbled it up!)

Monkey Mash

1 or 2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins

sliced apples

Peel bananas and mash. Mix in peanut butter, raisins and cinnamon. Spread on or dip in apple slices.

(These chewy cookies were such a hit, Delia continues to ask, "Honey?" each time we start baking something!)

Honey Bee Cookies

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

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Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, honey and egg on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Leave enough space between them, they'll spread! Bake until set and light brown around the edges, 7 to 9 minutes. Let cookies stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. We sprinkled our cookies with a little cinnamon/sugar (2 Tbs. sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon) as soon as they came out the oven.

(This is actually a recipe from Teri that we make regularly. TRY IT!! It makes a bunch and lasts much longer than the stuff you buy. It's cheap and safe if you have a play dough eaters. And there is just nothing like playing with soft, warm play dough!)

Homemade Play Dough

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2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

4 Tbs. oil

4 tsp. cream of tartar

food coloring

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients, including food coloring. Stir in a large sauce pan over medium heat. When mixture pulls away from the sides and forms a ball, remove from heat. Turn mixture on counter and knead 10-15 times.

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