Four Easy Kid Friendly Recipes & Other Ideas

 
We are in the midst of summer holidays - so a lot of my thinking is about how to entertain the bunnies. One of the things we like to do a lot of in this house is simple baking. If it can’t be made quickly and easily I try to stay away from it. It allows me to be relatively successful in the kitchen and juggle the seemingly endless demands from the three bunnies! Recently my eldest (four is very grown up you know) has decided she wants to bake alone – with no help what so ever. So I wanted to share these recipes we use which seem pretty fool proof. It doesn’t seem to matter how they get mixed – they seem to turn out yummy. 

Don't want the kids to cook with you? Give them a range of random ingredients (1 tablespoon each) and let them mix to their hearts content alongside you.

When I can I like to amend recipes to add some whole wheat flour into the mix. If the kids have to eat cake and cookies – let there be some whole wheat flour in there! Because whole wheat flour is much more absorbent than plain flour - we have been able to add much more zucchini to our zucchini bread and more bananas to our banana bread. 

 Ready to start!

I measure out all the ingredients before my bunny starts. Then she gets to add and mix in what ever order she desires. I always do a bit of final mixing – but I do allow her to portion out the cookie dough & scoop batter into tins etc. That is why you will not find any directions to how to mix the ingredients below. 

A cheap toy mixer will give you hours of fun & allow your kids to make their own 'recipes'.

Zucchini Bread

Tip: this recipe freezes really well. I cut the loaves in half and freeze each portion defrosting as we need them.

Original Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/

Makes: 2 loaves 8” x 5”

Oven temp:  350F

Time: 55-60mins

Ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2  cups white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups grated zucchini (about 2 large zucchini)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Cut slabs of sponge cake into different shapes (like building blocks) and let your little ones construct things out them. Here is a car my eldest built & decorated for Father's Day. (I did help her a little - but she made it very clear who was in charge!)

Banana Bread

Tip: when our banana’s go a bit brown and the kids don’t want to eat them we put them in the freezer until we have enough to make banana bread. This recipe also freezes really well. I cut the loaves in half and freeze each portion - defrosting as we want them.

Original Recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Aunt-Hollys-Banana-Bread-239027

Makes: 2 loaves

Oven temp: 350F

Time: 55-60mins

Ingredients:

8 mashed bananas – we use defrosted frozen ones.

½ cup melted butter

2 cups sugar

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

My girls & their friends baking Chocolate Layer Cake together.

Chocolate Cupcakes or Cake or Slab

Tip: once you eat this you might never use another cupcake recipe again.

Original Recipe:This is the original recipe from Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook Pg 168 ‘ One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes’

Makes: 24+ cupcakes or 2 x 8" layer cakes or 1 x 13"x9" slab

Oven temp: 350F

Time: 20-25 mins for cupcakes 45 mins for layer cake/slab.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups cocoa powder

2 ½ cups of sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

2 large whole eggs, plus 1 large yolk

1 ¼ cups of milk

½ cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ warm water

Purple icing and endless sprinkles make everything delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Original Recipe: Page 149 of Annabel Karmel’s First Meals  ‘ White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies’ – my eldest just likes chocolate chips in her cookies.

Makes: 30 ish cookies

Oven temp: 375F

Time: 10-12 mins - these cookies are good on the softer and on the crispier side so don't worry if your little one scoops out uneven portions. 
Ingredients:

½ cup softened unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

½ light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup + 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon of salt

1 cup of chocolate chips

 

Don't like cooking? Buy a pre-made cake and let your little ones ice it. Here is a cake (store brought) the girls iced themselves for Daddy's Birthday. Yes - the icing is as thick as it looked. Daddy was a good sport and ate a whole slice!! 

If your little ones prefer making mud pies outside than making a mess in your kitchen check out this great post by Happy Hooligans - Mud Kitchen Activity. 

Tutu Tutorial (Part 5): Basic Sewn Tutu

This is by far my favored method of making tutu's. The resulting tutu is clean, neat, crisp, fluffy and provides a blank canvas for such a wide variety of options and decorations.

You will need:

- 10 yards of 54” tulle - you can use a different width of tulle too - it will just result in a shorter tutu.

- cotton for sewing – the same color as your tulle.

- elastic (I used 1” non roll elastic – but any sort would work)

- a long blunt instrument for threading your elastic – I used a large crochet hook

1)  Prepare your tulle

Fold your tulle together once and then again so you have four layers of tulle. Pin the folded edges. You will sew along the edge that has the two folds. The other edge will have two edges and one fold. Because of the yardage of tulle folding the fabric can be a bit fiddly. I hang the tulle over the banister while I fold and pin.

It is important that your tulle layers lie flatly on top of each other and the folds are tight.

2) Sew your tulle layers together.

Sew a little over 1” down from the folds. Sew one straight line securing all four layers together down the entire 10 yards of tulle. I used a walking foot which helped prevent the tulle layers from slipping

OPTIONAL: Adorn your tulle.
Now is a the time to sew on ribbon, stick on gems or stuff your tulle with pom poms/petals etc Do these kinds of decorations BEFORE you insert the elastic. Once the elastic is inserted the tutu becomes so full it becomes tricky to work with.   

(I stuck gems to the tulle with a glue gun - practice first - those glue guns can make a mess!)

(I sewed ribbon to the entire length of one layer of tulle before inserting the elastic)

 

3)  Insert your elastic

Cut your elastic to your desired waist size (this chart might help you.) A blunt, easy to handle instrument is easiest to help you thread your elastic into the waist band. I impaled (literally) my elastic on a large crochet hook – and used that to thread the elastic through the gap on your waist band.

There is a lot of tulle here. Take your time threading the elastic in – you do not want to rip the tulle or loose the elastic half way through.

Sew the elastic firmly together. When I sew elastic together I like to sew the two ends together with a straight stitch first (forward & back once).

And then fold the seam over one way and secure again with a zigzag stitch (forward and back once).

I used the same color thread as the elastic (I used black thread on white elastic here for demonstration purposes only.)

5) Sew the back seam

Ensure all your tulle layers are flat when you sew the back seam together.

Once you have sewn all the layers together - trim neatly

OPTIONAL: Decorate your finished tutu

Add a bow to your waist band, sew on flowers or butterflies ...

... the final touches are endless.

UPDATE: I love seeing anything that my blog inspired you to make. Here is a tutu that Michele at MicMac' Bows made using this tutorial. This tutu was made for a 12mth old. So we adjusted the measurements.
For a shorter tutu for younger girls. 
- Purchase 5 yards of 54" tulle.
- Cut the 5 yards to 2 strips of 27" x 5 yards.
- Sewed the two lengths together into 1 strip of 27" x 10 yards.
- Then follow the tutorial to make a tutu that is approx 6.75" long & super cute.

Previous Tutu Tutorials: 

No Sew Tulle Tutu

No Sew Tutu with Crochet Elastic Ribbon

Recycled Plastic Bag Tutu

Fabric Scrap Tutu's

Easter Tree

The ornaments from our Valentines Tree have been taken down and carefully stored for next year and my eldest has been busy at work decorating our now permissed Easter Tree!! You can read about how our tree came to life here. (But just to quickly recap this is a branch we found in our garden and the girls lovingly decorated it with glue and glitter. Our aim is to keep the tree up all year around and have the girls make crafts and decorations for it with a seasonal or holiday theme.) 

We made some cute hanging flower ornaments out of cupcake cases. 

I had found these sweet bright birds in Michaels. 

 

Paper eggs got covered with fluffy pom poms. 

 

We tied our colorful feathers to the end of the branches with bright green ribbon. 

 

What the kids see as they walk around and underneath it looks is pretty cool. 

  

We are all getting so much enjoyment from this branch we found in the garden. I can't wait to see how the tree develops and morphs over the coming year. 

Tutu Tutorial (Part 4): Using Fabric Scraps - Tutu Ideas

This is less of a 'tutorial' and more of an ideas page of how you can use fabric scraps to make tutu's.

Recycled Shirt Tutu
Using the No Sew Crochet Elastic Tutu method I made this tutu. I had some strips of cotton left over from this fun project in 2008 (yes I keep scraps from that long ago!) - so I decided to make them into a little fabric tutu. I don't know it it reminds me of a little kilt or one of those raggy morris men outfits!

(Men's cotton shirts yield a lot of fabric that can be recycled into all sorts of things - you might remember I recycled lots of shirts into a quilt. We still have it - in fact is it now in our little boys room.)

Silk Tie Tutu
Using the No Sew Crochet Elastic Tutu method I made this tutu. The 1st layer is white tulle and the 2nd layer is re purposed white ties. Because of the size of knot that the ties make the ties are knotted on every other space in the crochet elastic. I used a binding stitch on the end of the tie pieces to try and minimize future fraying.

 

Previous Tutu Tutorials: No Sew Tulle Tutu

                                        No Sew Tutu with Crochet Elastic Ribbon

                                        Recycled Plastic Bag Tutu

Stay tuned for my next post:

- Basic Sewn Tutu 

How to fix Barbie clothes

I really hate it when things get broken. We have a pot called 'the fixing pot' were anything that needs mending gets put. I fear our first born thinks that Mummy can fix anything and everything and it is always a nasty sad shock when I can't and things end up in the trash. Once in a while we go through that pot and glue things back together. Recently our Barbie clothes have been suffering from the untrained but determined hands of little people. I don't know how they make Barbie clothes fit so tightly, with such detail, in such shiny slippery materials and with such small seams! The materials they use fray so easily. The fraying means that there seems to be no fabric left to sew the dresses back together. They seem impossible to fix - so I wanted to show you my method of mending them.

Turn your barbie outfit inside out. 

Iron a small amount of fusible to some cotton or other light weight fabric - try and keep the hue of the fabric similar to that of the frayed fabric. I stuff the outfit with some rolled up scrap fabric - which makes handling the dress and ensuring you don't get burnt by the iron a bit easier. Peel off the backing of the fusible and iron a small strip onto the frayed fabric.

Now you have 'rebuilt' the fabric - sew the seam. Invisible thread will be your friend here if you don't have a whole host of different cotton colors. I use a combination of a straight stitch and then a small tight binding stitch. Trim any remaining frayed threads bits away.

When you turn your Barbie dress right side out it will look like new.

This method will also help you mend holes and rips in random places that don't have seams.

 

Don't be afraid to replace ribbon straps, velcro strips and hem dresses shorter where the fraying is out of control. I also can't say enough about snipping all those frayed and pulled threads away. Just tidying up a little bit - can make those barbie outfits look like new again - and give those little hands months more play with their favorite dresses.

I hope this helps you save some of Barbie's favorite outfits in your household!

Tutu Tutorial (Part 3): Recycled Plastic Bag Tutu

Using the same knotting method as you would make a No Sew Tulle Tutu you can also make tutu's out of plastic bags. It was SO quick and easy and the girls had a blast.

You will need:
- Strip of non roll elastic (please see my chart for waist sizes) 
- Approx 20 standard plastic grocery bags (I stuck to plain white, Target and Trader Joe plastic bags - a red and white color scheme)

1) Cut the handles off your bags.

2) Cut the bags down the middle in half.

3) Cut up the edge seams.

4) Using the same knot as I used in the No Sew Tulle Tutu knot your elastic bags onto your elastic.

(Image from http://www.craftster.org/)

5) Fluff, scrunch and fiddle with your plastic bags to get maximum volume on your tutu.

I can see some really cool Halloween outfits being made using black trash bags!

Previous Tutu Tutorials: No Sew Tulle Tutu

                                        No Sew Tutu with Crochet Elastic Ribbon

Stay tuned for my next posts:
- Tutu using Fabric scraps
- Basic Sewn Tutu