* Kids Can Make It - Beef Stew

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Easy, Fun, Lunch - Cheese Beanos

Here is one of my very favorite, easy, fun lunches for kids - Cheese Beanos. It's easy enough for them to make, with some supervision on the cooking part and, if you're not careful, it makes just enough mess to be fun. You can use this recipe to help your kids learn how to: open a can, and use the broiler. The origins of this recipe are lost in the family archive, but it really doesn't take a lot of imagination!

Ingredients
1 can of beans in tomato sauce
8 slices of bread
8 cheese slices or a block of cheese (vegan cheese slices, or cheese, work too)
Fresh tomatoes or fruit to serve with

Equipment
can opener
spoon
cheese slicer or knife (if you're using block cheese)
baking tray
oven mitts
broiler - put the shelf 2 rungs down

Directions
Open the can of beans. Place the bread slices on the baking tray. Spoon beans onto the bread slices. Slice off cheese if you're using a block. Top the beans with cheese slices. Place the tray under the broiler (of course you'll turn it on first). DO NOT walk away - stay and watch because it browns up fast. If the edges of the bread are brown before the cheese is, move the tray down to a lower shelf and watch it until the cheese is browned.

Serve the Cheese Beanos with a knife and fork and tomatoes or fruit. The mess comes when you try to lift up the beanos and get them in your mouth without dropping beans - it's a good exercise in motor control and it makes a little bit of a fun mess :-) My kids have learned to use the knife and fork and cut off small pieces instead.

Try it and let me know what your kids think.

Crinkle Cut Give Away

There is something just a little special about crinkle cut veggies. This week I am giving away a crinkle cutting vegetable chopper, otherwise known as a wavy chopper. It is designed just for kids, but it works fine for adults too, as the photo here shows; I was the one who chopped these potato, carrot, and sweet potato pieces.

I've written before about the joys of working with my grandmother in her kitchen. When Gran was preparing potatoes for making fries (known as chips in Scotland) she would keep me involved by first peeling and slicing the potatoes then letting me chop them into wavy fries using a chopper much like this one. A kid can use this pretty easily two-handed and it's safer than using a knife. I was always delighted not only to be involved in preparing the meal, but to be making the chips look extra special!

Now, I'm not giving away the veggies to the lucky winner. Just the cutter. The veggies are going into the soup for my family today. To be entered in the drawing just leave a comment. If you want to spread the word through your blog, or by some other means, you can have an extra entry. Enter by midnight Central Standard Time on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009. I will announce the winner next Wednesday.

Related posts:

• Reminiscing on oatmeal - Porridge Tales from Grandma's Kitchen
• How to use a knife safely in the kitchen - Best Cooking Knife Skills Video
• A quick recipe - Easy Lunch at Home
• Soup without bread? Why Homebaked Bread is a Necessity
  

By the way I purchased this cutter from Montessori Services. Its one of their range of food preparation items which are all wonderful and designed for kids aged 3-9 years. I don't have a business relationship with Montessori Services, but I thoroughly recommend that you check out what they have to offer.

Easy Lunch At Home

Here's a quick and easy lunch for eating at home which serves 3 adults, or 1 adult and two homeschooled teens who haven't had massive exercise! Serve with bread to feed more.

Includes kitchen skills for kids: safe knife skills to chop the onion and tomatoes; learn how to crack eggs; younger kids can be in charge of washing the vegetables, adding the salt and pepper, mixing the eggs, and chopping the red pepper with a table knife (once you remove the seeds and stalk).




Veggie Omelet with Salsa

1 large onion (or 2 small, or 1 leek)
oil (I use golden olive oil)
4 eggs
water - 1/2 egg shell for each egg
salt and ground black pepper
1 red pepper (green if you prefer)
shredded cheese (I like to use Irish cheddar)

3-4 plum tomatoes or 1 can of chopped tomatoes
Mama Socorro's Salsa Mix or other salsa spices

1. Peel and chop the onion. Compost the ends and skins. Wash onion after removing the skin.
2. Wash the pepper. Remove the stalk and seed core - compost. Chop pepper into strips.
3. Wash the tomatoes, remove the stalk area for compost. Cut into slices then chunks. Follow the directions on the Socorro's Salsa Mix packet (basically you warm the spices with the tomato in a pan on the stove).
   
4. Shred the cheese if it didn't come that way - depending on taste you will want somewhere around 1/2 cup worth. If you are short of time, small slices of cheese work fine.
   
5. Warm the oil (1-2 tbsp) in a cast iron or non-stick skillet. Note - your skillet needs to be OK with being put under the broiler.
6. Gently cook the onion on medium heat.
7. Meantime - crack the eggs one at a time checking that each is fresh before adding to the others.
8. Add one 1/2 egg shell of water for each egg.
9. Mix eggs with a fork and add a sprinkling of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
10. When the onion is turning transparent, add the eggs to the pan.
11. Do not stir the eggs. Add the strips of pepper on top.
12. Warm up the broiler.
13. When the eggs are beginning to cook on top sprinkle on the shredded cheese then take off the stove and put under the broiler.
14. Watch the pan closely under the broiler because it will cook quickly. Remove from the broiler (use oven mitts) when it is golden on top.
15. Serve with the salsa.

Please let me know what you think. Is this the right amount of detail on the recipe, too much detail? Do you like to have a list of tools and utensils with a recipe?

My kids enjoyed this quick lunch and I hope you do too.

Choose from 14 different children's cookbooks from Usborne. Starting Cooking is a Parent's Choice approved book which teaches the skills of cooking with eggs, using the stovetop, and using a broiler.

Mama Socorro's Salsa Mix is manufactured in Raytown, MO. You can contact Socorro's Mexican Products at (816) 358-9332.