KidsFood.com Recipes for Kids

One of my family’s favorite meals is called “little pizzas”. We take an English muffin and split it, put some tomato sauce on it, then some low fat mozzarella cheese with some pepperoni slices (hey sometimes you just have to splurge)! However, some healthier toppings would be ham (lean), Canadian bacon, turkey sausage, peppers, olives, or sliced or diced onions.

We toast our English muffins before we start the process and then pop them into the oven until the cheese melts. My husband’s parents had a toaster oven and they cooked theirs in that.

One night while at my girlfriends house the kids were hounding her for pizza for dinner and I suggested these instead. They loved them. They especially loved adding their own individual toppings (pepperoni slices were not available and you shouldn’t eat them on a consistent basis). Dessert was Jell-O with fruit. The kids got to have their pizza, and their mom was much happier with the healthier meal.

Kids School Lunches - 13 Alternatives To Promote Healthy Eating And Avoid Fast Food

For parents, providing your kids with healthy, nutritional lunches that they find interesting can be quite a challenge. The "if it is good for you then it must be boring" mentality makes this particularly challenging and you have such favorites as lollies, sweets and fizzy drinks to compete with.

Don't despair, it can be done and here are 13 alternatives to get you started. Instead of...

High fat savoury biscuits -- why not try
* Plain dry crackers, rice cakes, corn thins or Scottish oatcakes.
* Raw carrots or celery cut into small pieces are also an excellent choice.
Pies, pastry or sausage rolls -- why not try
* Meat or cheese sandwiches or pasta with mince beef sauces (you can buy wheat/gluten free bread and pasta if required).
* Tuna and sweetcorn.
* Brown rice (or white) with tuna and roasted vegetables.
* Falafel (Lebanese delicacy made from chick peas).
Processed meats such as frankfurters, salami or other -- why not try
* Mince burger (home made), lentil burgers or bean burgers.
* Leftovers from main meals.
* Quality ham (e.g. Virginia) or cooked bacon, which has been grilled, and the fat/rind removed.
* Quality sausages that are mostly meat and not too fatty (gluten free sausages are a great alternative if you can find them).
Biscuits (cream filled or chocolate) -- why not try
* Crackers or plain sweet biscuits, oatcakes, rice crackers or rice cakes.
You can make these interesting by having different topics like tuna and sweet corn or avocado (too much avocado may be regarded as fattening).
Chocolate / candy bars - why not try
* Cheese cubes or dried fruit or yoghurt with fresh fruit to add to it.
* Dairy products may make you feel bloated, so sheep's or goat's yogurt make a great alternative to cows yoghurt and have a different texture and taste. They are less bulky and easier to digest).
Muesli bars and breakfast bars (these are often full of sugar and preservatives) -- why not try
* Fresh fruit such as grapes, melon cubes, oranges or mandarins/satsumas.
* Nut muesli bars (check the ingredients first though).
Cordial or fizzy drinks -- why not try
* Water is the best option to add to any lunch box.
* Dairy, soy or rice milk are also good alternatives.
Chocolate spreads -- why not try
* Sesame seed spread (tahini).
* Humous.
* Dip such as yoghurt, avocado or one that you make yourself, dipping for example, pitta bread or cut up vegetables.
Lollies / sweets -- why not try
* Dried fruit, nuts and raisins.
* Make a nibbles bag with a variety of nuts and dried fruit and add sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Chips / crisps or hot chips -- why not try
* Hot homemade soups with the addition of sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds.
* Pecan nuts, almonds and flax seed are all great snacks as they are high in essential fatty acids and are best eaten raw (cooking them can destroy the essential fatty acid component).
The best way to encourage your children to eat these is to add them to soups as an alternative to croutons and to sprinkle them on yogurt and cereal/muesli in the morning.
Fruit leather straps - why not try
* If you have your own fruit drier, then you can dry the fruit yourself.
* Fresh fruit, plain dried fruit e.g. sultanas, dried apricots, mixed nuts, 100% fruit bars.
Donuts -- why not try
* Raisin bread (you can buy wheat free raisin bread if required).
* Muffins.
* Flapjacks.
* Scottish oatcakes with a banana.
* Tuna and sweetcorn.
Potato crisps, corn chips, or similar snack food - why not try
Rice crackers, or rice cakes with a homemade dip or spread, or a bought one as long as it has a low fat content.

About the Author:
Helen Thompson is a qualified child care worker (Nursery Nurse) and Brain Gym® consultant who has spent many years working with children aged between 0 - 8 years. Her website at http://www.ChildLearningSupport.com includes recipes, craft activities and more.

Christmas Cookie Decorating 101

Many bakers ask for tips and instructions on decorating cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as many ways to decorate cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and experienced bakers alike to help you generate your own ideas for cooking decorating.

Cookies can be decorated before baking with materials that withstand the heat of baking. Some things that you can place on your cookies before baking are:

-colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar
-jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and other sprinkles
-raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries
-nuts

These items can be placed on top of almost any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a more festive appearance.

Paint a masterpiece
You can also paint your cookies before baking them. Make an edible food paint out of an egg yolk mixed with a few drops of food coloring and paint the cookies with a clean paintbrush. The paint will dry while baking and give the cookie a colorful, glazed appearance. This is a fun activity for kids!

A bit of trompe l’oeil
The folks at Better Homes and Gardens have a creative recipe for Colored Cream Dough ( http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=2&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbh g%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11429.xml&catref=SC1407 ) which is a dough of frosting consistency that can be piped onto cookies with a pastry bag fitted with a writing or star tip, and then baked. The result is a cookie that looks like it has been frosted but the frosting is baked on and hard.

Decorating cookies after baking them requires that you apply some kind of liquid-based substance that will adhere to the baked cookie, or that will act as a glue to attach other items. Usually, this takes the form of frosting, icing, or melted chocolate.

Frosting vs. Icing
There is a big difference between frosting and icing. Frosting is thick and holds shapes like rosettes and shells like those you see piped around the edges of a birthday cake. It remains soft to the touch and has a creamy texture, and most people think it tastes better because of the creamy buttery flavor. Icing, on the other hand, is a thinner, more liquid substance, and as it dries it thins out, becomes very smooth across the surface of your cookie, and hardens. This is the icing to use for the most beautiful, professional results.

Working with frosting
You can use frosting in two ways. One way is to simply use a knife or rubber spatula to spread the frosting across the whole surface of your cookie. The other way is to place the frosting in a pastry or decorating bag fitted with a small tip and piping out thin lines or rosettes of icing onto the cookie. Either way, once the frosting has been applied to the cookie you can then further embellish it by using colored sugars, non-pareils, or any of the decorating items mentioned in the Decorating Before Baking section above. Christmas-Cookies.com has a delicious recipe for Buttercream Frosting at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=306. See detailed instructions on piping frosting from Better Homes and Gardens at http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=3&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbh g%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11430.xml&catref=SC1407

Working with icing
Icing is a little more difficult to work with but its smooth surface produces the most beautiful results! Icing should always be piped onto a cookie because it will run off the edges if spread with a knife. Once iced you can apply silver dragées, or other sprinkles just as mentioned with the frosting above, before it hardens. Christmas-Cookies.com has an excellent recipe for Royal Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=42. There is also a recipe for Powdered Sugar Icing ( http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=288 ) that dries less hard than Royal Icing and has a shiny surface. Martha Stewart's website features an excellent article on how to pipe icing onto cookies for professional-looking results ( http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel172011& catid=cat258 ).

Melted chocolate
Just about any cookie can be embellished simply by dipping it in chocolate or drizzling chocolate over it. You can even dress up the everyday chocolate chip cookie for gift-giving or serving at parties. Melting chocolate is a simple process, but a few rules must be followed in order to make it a success. For Easter, try using white chocolate tinted in pastel shades with food coloring. Use the gel, paste or powdered kind of food color, because the liquid drops may make the chocolate seize up.

What you need
You can either use chocolate chips or baking chocolate (the kind that comes in 1-ounce squares) and the same process applies whether you use dark chocolate or white chocolate. A small amount of shortening should be added at the ratio of 2 tablespoons shortening for 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped up baking chocolate.

Double boiler
Place chocolate and shortening in the top half of a double boiler or in a metal bowl that has been placed on top of a saucepan filled with hot water. The water must be very hot, but not boiling, because the steam generated by boiling water could get moisture into the melting chocolate which makes it curdle. Allow the chocolate to melt over the hot water and stir it occasionally until it has achieved a liquid consistency.

Microwave
Place your chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue microwaving 20 seconds, stir again. Keep doing this until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove it from the microwave and stir it until completely melted.

Dipping
Dip one end of your cookie, or half the cookie, or even the whole cookie into the melted chocolate. Set the cookie on a wire rack to let the chocolate harden. If you wish, you can sprinkle chopped nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over the melted chocolate before it hardens.

Drizzling
Scrape melted chocolate into a ziplock baggie. With a sharp scissors, snip off a very small corner of the baggie. Drizzle top of cookies with zig-zags of melted chocolate. Cool until chocolate is set.

Using these simple techniques will help you produce a variety of beautiful-looking cookies at Christmastime and throughout the year.

Mimi Cummins is co-author of the book "Christmas Cookies Are for Giving: Recipes, Stories, and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts." This book, "enthusiastically recommended" by Midwest Book Review, is full of baking tips and hints, including nearly 50 recipes each with a full-color photo. For more information visit http://www.christm ascookiesareforgiving.com/ or order from your favorite online bookstore.

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Christmas Cookie Decorating 101