Cooking with Kids Part II: Turkey Burgers and Cheesy "Smashed Potatoes"

Our second night of kid's cooking this past weekend was based on food my daughter wanted to cook. In fact, this is one often unrealized benefit of cooking with your kids. If you leave it up to them to choose the recipe, you'll be surprised what they pick out! Rebecca picked two recipes out of Rachel Ray's book Cooking with Kids that she really wanted to try: cheesy smashed potatoes and turkey chili, cheddar and bacon burgers. Had it not been for this cooking night, you could never have told me she would eat a turkey burger!

We started on the potatoes first and this time the little guy wanted in on the prep work so I let him and his sister wash potatoes:

While our potatoes boiled, we went to work on making the turkey burgers. As always, her favorite part was mixing the meat with the veggies and spices, this time while her brother watched.

 If you are familiar with Rachel Ray recipes you know she makes different varieties of "smashed" potatoes which is really non-whipped mashed potatoes with added ingredients. These add 2 cups of shredded cheddar, chives, sour cream and salt and pepper.

The turkey burgers cooking in the skillet made the house smell wonderful! 

We sliced our own 2% sharp cheddar to put on top and as always, when a recipe calls for any brand barbecue sauce, we  use Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. We baked our bacon in the oven and served the burgers on sesame rolls.The final plate:

The turkey burgers were the star with everyone devouring them. My family said they thought the potatoes were too dense and I think that was partly due to my over-mashing versus smashing them but probably also a product of the fact they think my mashed potatoes are the best in the world! We saved the leftover potatoes and I'll be adding some warm milk and butter to them and whipping them into cheddar mashed potatoes for a side to go with this weeks Greek flavor chicken.

If you haven't cooked with your kids, give it a try. You'll be surprised at the fun AND learning that takes place and the new things they will try just because they get to make it.

Cooking with Kids: Part I - Porcupine Balls

I had "meatballs" on the menu for Friday night but wasn't sure how I wanted to prepare them. I have some tried and true recipes but then it occurred to me that we could take advantage of another night for our daughter to cook in the kitchen.

A very brief search landed me on a Paula Deen recipe for "porcupine balls" A VERY easy recipe and pretty much everything was stuff I had on hand or something that could be easily substituted.

First of all, we used 1 pound of meatloaf mix instead of just ground beef. We added 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire and 1/4 cup of Parmesan to the meatballs for added flavor based on some of the comments on the recipe.  The girl's favorite part of this recipe was making the "meatballs"...here is her "ITSA MEATBALL (add the Italian accent)" face:

I also had half of a package of onion soup mix leftover from another recipe, so we used that in the rice instead of the dried onion, seasoned salt and Italian seasoning. We also substituted one can of roasted garlic diced tomatoes and a can of vegetable broth for the regular tomatoes and beef broth.

One hour later and we had this:

Before trying them I can tell you I knew we should have made sure the meat was submerged in the sauce, as some of the rice on the outside was a little chewy. However, the rice in the sauce was super flavorful and personally my favorite part of the dish. We all agreed the meatballs themselves need to be seasoned more. I agree with my girl that some pepper and garlic slat should do the trick.

At the end of dinner, we only had TWO meatballs left, so I believe it was a success!

Mac n' Cheese with "Stolen" Sauce: Cooking with Kids Update

I had mentioned in my recent Cooking with Kids post that the Rachel Ray recipe we used produced a lot of cheese sauce. I had already decided that the sauce would make for a great impromptu macaroni and cheese so that’s exactly what we did.

I reheated the sauce on low in a saucepan, adding a little more milk to thin it out. To the sauce I also added a teaspoon of red pepper flake, fresh ground pepper and about a teaspoon of garlic salt. Next, I boiled about ¾ of a box of whole wheat elbow-shaped pasta to just al dente (about 1 minute less than the recommended cooking time).

 

After draining the pasta, I added it to a deep casserole dish that I had sprayed with cooking spray. I poured in the heated and melted cheese sauce and combined it well with the pasta. I topped it with whole wheat bread crumbs and put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

 

This was the side dish for my less than successful roast chicken but every member of the family ate it and enjoyed what my son calls “noodle mac n’ cheese”. The only future upgrade is to amp up the cheese flavor a little more as the additional milk did lessen the cheese flavor. However, not a bad way to use one recipe for two dishes!

Cooking with Kids: Meatloaf Muffins and Cheesy Fries

My mother cooked ALL the time and she taught me to cook. I would be in the kitchen with her and ask questions. She would explain why she was doing certain things and would share little tricks with me. I sometimes still call her for advice or with questions and I am thankful that she gave me such a useful life skill.

As a mom now, I want my kids to learn and enjoy cooking too. I have always tried to keep them involved in the fun stuff like cookie and cupcake making, but with my step-daughter now being 11 and with her showing an interest in learning more, I decided to add a night to our monthly menu in which she is in charge of planning and helping with the preparation.

This month is courtesy of  Rachel Ray and her 30-Minute Meals for Kids. If you want to get your kids involved in the kitchen, Rachel Ray's books and website are a wonderful resource. For someone who only has fur-kids, she is very into getting kids involved in the kitchen and the kids like her and her enthusiasm. My dear tween girl chose meatloaf and cheese fries:

Entree: Meatloaf Muffins with Barbecue Sauce
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (we used 93% lean)
1 small yellow onion cut into quarters
1 small green pepper
A splash of milk
1 large egg beaten
1 cup plain bread crumbs (we used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (we used Canadian steak seasoning)
1 cup smoky BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's )
1/2 cup tomato salsa
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and brush a 6-muffin tin with Olive Oil. (We did not have a 6 muffin tin so we used a regular 12-muffin tin and just made smaller portions)

The ground beef goes in a bowl. The onions and bell pepper went into the food processor until they were finally chopped. This was added to the meat. The splash of milk was whisked into the beaten egg and also added to the meat. Finally, we added the bread crumbs and grill seasoning.

The sauce consisted of the BBQ sauce, salsa
and Worcestershire. Half the sauce is added to the bowl and the other half set aside. Then came my step-daughter's favorite part: mixing it by hand. Then she filled the muffin tin with the mixture and each "muffin" was topped with a spoonful of reserved sauce. Rachel's recipe says to bake about 15 minutes but we checked them at that time and had to put them in for another 4 minutes before they were done. The flavor was great and the meat was very juicy!
Side: Cheese Fries
1 sack frozen French fries prepared to package direction
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
1/4 cup ketchup (about 3 squirts)

(A funny story about the French fries. The only frozen potatoes we keep on hand are sweet potato fries and tater tots. Interestingly, we had eaten out Friday night at a local burger joint and come home with a good amount of leftover fries. So, we reused those fries and added tater tots!)

So basically the recipe calls for making a roux which in this case is comprised of the butter melted in a sauce pan over medium heat and cooked with the flour. Both kids enjoyed whisking that together. Then, the little guy got to add the milk while daughter added it. I helped her determine when it had thickened enough to add the cheese. Both kids got to add the cheese and my little guy was very excited about squirting in the ketchup. The sauce was very creamy and had a yummy flavor...we also had a ton left over, so tonight it's being used to make macaroni and cheese!

The kids cooking night was a huge hit and she's already chosen the recipes for next month. Not only is the learning component there but so is the opportunity to try new things. I am hoping the 3 year-old is encouraged to expand his palate as we get him more involved too.