Today I’m combining the boys two true passions; food and play.
I have one who eats enormous meals and is very light on the snacks.
One who will feels snacks and milk are the better choice-always and OK if I have to eat a meal I will very slowly and whine all the way through.
One who is just happy to eat everything that is about if he can feed himself. He’s been known to climb to get what he wants and wrappers are no test when you can bite a hole in it and squeeze the little something out!
About once a week we bake a cake or cookies.
Everyone gets involved with the weighing ( Yes we use scales!) We use those lovely cup scoops to pour into the bowl. The older boys get to collaborate together. It’s funny how they learn to be a bit more understanding when they know the pay off!
The youngest gets to scoop and pour and the oldest gets to check the measure. Apart from that they swap out who does what.
What I love about cooking with the boys
They get so enthusiastic
They have so many fun ideas like can you add mint and raisins together in a cookie and if we make carrot cake can you have aubergine cake. ( Not tried any of those suggestions…..can’t see how they would work) But their willingness to try and experiment makes me smile. I know one day I won’t be able to distract them.
Most of the time they keep it together.
They do the cookie happy dance and peer into the oven to see if it is done yet.
They are learning about so many things without even realising it.
We have great conversations while we cook.
………….the clean up is amazing and huge but well worth it to me.
Cookies we’re eating this week
85g Crunchy Peanut Butter
175g Soft Butter
175g Soft Brown Sugar
300g Self Raising Flour
2 tbsps of milk
85g Roasted peanuts (2/3 roughly chopped or any combination of seeds/craisins
175g Plain chocolate, roughly chopped.
180C/360F/GM4
Line 2 large baking sheets with non stick paper. Beat the PB.B and S until light and fluffy. ( use an electric whisk or processor)
Add the dry ingredients, stir in the flour and milk then the chopped nuts and chocolate. Bring the mixture together to make a dough
There’ll be approximately 18.
Roughly shape into a ball by rolling the in palm of your hand. Space well apart to allow for spreading.
Flatten each cookie with a fork and sprinkle the remaining nuts.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes until cookies are pale and golden around the edges but still soft in the centre.
Cool for about 5 minutes before packing away.
Ours were crunchy this time instead of chewy. We made small ones and big ones for little hands and little snacks times……well that’s the theory
What cookie recipes do you enjoy cooking with your kids from scratch?
There is a program I loved to watch in the UK called Ready Steady Cook…..well I think it was this one. Contestants would bring in 3 things and the chefs had to cook a meal using those items. Some would choose foods they had never heard of and fancied trying, some would choose things they always wanted to cook but never knew how. I loved how the cooks would come up with easy meals in such a short time.
So what does play have to do with Ready Steady Cook?
Do you have toys and games you see languishing in the corner that the kids don’t use and haven’t for a while?
When you have just 5 ingredients you have to think creatively and use that old imagination. Same with toys. Bring out 3 groups of the toys that aren’t played with much and start playing with them yourself. Your child will probably come over and want to play with you. Gradually let them lead in the play until you are playing by their rules. This is your exit strategy. Adding the second set into the first set of play slowly and the third until you are interweaving all three things.
Grouping toys and showing how they interact is something you may need to demonstrate with some children. We label their toy areas with Manipulative, blocks, trains, cars, balls etc that they often tend to play with just one thing then another thing but forget they can mix and match. ..just like the new meal. It takes a while to get the flavours right and the right toy combinations. There is a lot of trial and error but usually the marriage of toys leads to better play. It does take intervention from us in just 3 things
to set up situations
allow time for development of the ideas
Be present to intervene, encourage, observe, participate or redirect
What two or three toys to you know that are at the back of the toy box? Go dig them out and have a think ‘Ready Steady Cook’ style- What recipe can you come up with?
Join our community
Ok I know you’re hoping to see a Ready Steady Cook to be inspired for dinner tonight.
We went up to a Christmas market in Belluno, Italy. Belluno is up in the mountains so it was much cooler than we expected when the sun went down.
It was a festive atmosphere with lots of music and smells.
On our way back to the car we found a crowd of people at this window. You could buy fresh pasta made on site. Another time we actually watched through the window a team, probably the local family owners, making long pasta. I don’t know which type. It was too cold to stay for long. I’m thinking they made all different types of pasta judging by the range we see here in the photo.
I love this picture of pasta. It reminds me so much of all the wonderful pasta we had and the fun we had in Italy.
People can be so imaginative. I can’t imagine how fiddly this must have been.
But beautiful.
Please visit the others at Tell me Thursday to find out the story behind their Wordless Wednesday post.
Sign up to our play-activities email and you will receive a new, fun, educational activity to try at home with your child each week. Best of all, it's completely FREE!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3adaa600-71c7-4627-af7a-eefe7c86ab4e)
Subscribe by RSS
