(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Yvette Garfield looked at kids and said she thought they can do more than just eat, they can cook-and learn. That's how her Handstand Kids international cookbook series sparked almost a decade ago. It teaches kids foreign words and cultures through cooking, as well as associated gear like placemats. This year, Garfield, a law school grad, who initially was working in international children's rights, looked at kids patterns of enjoying sweets'-filled holidays and surmised it would be interactive for them to gain pride from making treats themselves.
Her Handstand Kids Cooking Company Chocolate Shoppe products are hands on, as are classes and parties she plans for her proteges. The holiday sets from the Chocolate Shoppe include recipe cards and molds for making nutrition-conscious portions of small-sized chocolates in the shape of candy canes, gingerbread men, Santa Claus, stockings, presents, snowmen and Christmas trees.
"DIY-do it yourself-is so popular with adults," Garfield said. "But for kids, it's not only fun and delicious, but a competence builder."
Emmy Award-winning actress Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "All My Children") was saddened by the fact that when her two children tried to accomplish DIY culinary projects the ingredients included in traditional baking mixes often were not up to the standards of those in her and her actor-husband Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s home. She and two friends started Foodstirs, a baking kit company that includes holiday gift sets.
The holiday sets can be given to kids for future fun projects or made by kids to give as gifts. Don't be surprised if the skills learned mean recipients think the treats are from pros: Often included are stencils for creating leaves and other eye-catching details atop cakes.
The candy recipe below can be made in Handstand Kids Cooking Company Chocolate Shoppe molds (which are made of BPA-, Phthalates-, lead- and PVC-free silicone) or those of your choice. Both recipes that follow should include adult supervision.
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You-and your kidlets-effortlessly become better cooks, since these are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations. They can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.
PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE
1 cup dark, milk or white chocolate
1/4 cup finely diced chocolate-covered peppermint patties candies
Yields about 12 small chocolates.
Place molds in refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes before using.
In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and the finely diced chocolate-covered peppermint patties in 10 second intervals, until melted. (Watch carefully, as it may melt quickly.)
Carefully gently stir melted chocolate mixture.
Carefully pour into a piping bag and pipe into molds or carefully pour into molds without a piping bag.
Place mold into refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes, or until set. Carefully pop out of molds.
-Adapted from
Handstand Kids Cooking Company.
APPLE SPICE COOKIES
1/2 stick cold unsalted butter 1 egg white
1/4 cup applesauce
1 package Foodstirs Sugar Cookie Mix or a dry sugar cookie mix of your choice
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 ground teaspoon ginger)
Yields about 12 cookies.
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat butter with hand mixer until creamy. Add egg white and applesauce and continue blending. Add dry sugar cookie mix, flour and pumpkin pie spice and mix with clean hands or mixer until combined.
Cover dough in bowl with plastic wrap, and freeze for 20 minutes, or until dough is firm.
Remove dough from freezer. Use a spoon to drop 1 & 1/2-inch balls of dough on parchment-lined cookie sheet and press lightly with fingers to flatten.
Carefully place in oven and bake for 14 to 18 minutes, or until edges are brown.
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Foodstirs.com
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: For a poultry option,
Sheila Ellison and
Judith Gray, authors of,
365 Foods Kids Love to Eat: Fun, Nutritious and Kid-Tested, recommend considering sometimes substituting ground lean turkey for ground pork in won ton recipes. Then, instead of fried rice, serve with white or brown rice mixed with stir-fried vegetables.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet(Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
