My children adore grilled cheese, but sometimes I want a little variety. One of my favorite, easy grilled sandwiches is the Grilled Pizza Sandwich. My kids love pizza and grilled cheese, and combining the two can is always a smashing success.

What you’ll need to make a Grilled Pizza Sandwich (Serves two children):

• 2 slices of thickly cut bread (like Texas toast)

• 1 slice mozzarella cheese (grated works, too)

• 2 tbsp pizza sauce (in a pinch, use spaghetti sauce)

• 3 slices pepperoni

• 2 tbsp butter or margerine

How to make a Grilled Pizza Sandwich:

1. Spread butter thinly on one side of both pieces of bread and lay them butter down on a plate.

2. Thinly spoon and spread sauce onto both pieces of bread. It shouldn’t be too thick or the sandwich will be super messy and won’t stay together well.

3. Put a slice of mozzarella on one of the pieces of bread.

4. Place pepperoni on the cheese and add the other piece of bread, sauce side in.

5. In a heated pan, place your sandwich and grill one side until it’s a nice golden brown.

6. Flip the sandwich and brown other side.

7. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 3-5 minutes, cut in half and serve.

Because these sandwiches are hefty and rich, I only serve half a sandwich per child with a small garden salad and some applesauce for sides. My guys love these pizza sandwiches, and I like that they’re a nice break from the old standards.

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Today is Elephant Appreciation Day, so in honor of all the world’s fabulous pachyderms, my family is going to make our quick version of carnival-style elephant ears. This recipe is so simple, quick and tasty, you’ll want to celebrate these giant mammals every day!

This recipe does call for the use of hot oil, so if you’d like to involve your children in the cooking process, let them help you mix up the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it on after the cooking is finished. They’ll still have fun helping, but will be safely away from the stove.

Ingredients:

6 flour tortillas

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Prep:

Put oil in a skillet on medium heat and warm until it’s hot enough for a drop of water to sizzle. While it’s heating up, Cover a plate with a couple paper towels to absorb excess oil. In a small bowl or baggie, mix cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Instructions:

1. Carefully place a tortilla in heated oil.
2. Allow to brown on one side and flip. Brown other side until it’s a light, golden brown.
3. Remove tortilla from skillet and place on paper towel-covered plate.
4. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
5. Cut into triangles (like a pie).
6. Repeat process for each tortilla.

Bonus Tip: These elephant ears are tasty on their own, but if you’d like to jazz them up, you can add vanilla ice cream, honey, jam or apple pie filling to really make them a decadent treat.

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One of my favorite fall treats has always been caramel apples. The gooey caramel. The crunchy apple. The salty peanuts. Yum, yum and yum. The simple decadence has made the traditional caramel apple on a stick an autumn staple.

After having children, my obsession with caramel apples hasn’t changed, but I’m less enchanted with the hard caramel-apple on a stick combo. They’re difficult for the munchkins to eat, and I get nervous about them choking. I may be paranoid, but I worked really hard to bring my little dudes into the world and no caramely goodness can outweigh the risk.

Instead of serving my sons the traditional caramel apples on sticks, I’ve turned to peeling and chopping the apples and peanuts and using soft, melty caramel dessert topping. I combine them into a sundae with ice cream for an awesome fall treat. The results are just as scrumptious as the original caramel apples, but I can control the size of the apple pieces, nuts and the thickness of the caramel. Check it out!

Ingredients:

• 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced or diced
• 1/4 cup caramel dessert topping
• 1 tbsp butter
• 6 scoops vanilla or caramel ice cream
• 3 tbsp finely chopped peanuts
• Whipped cream (optional)
• 6 Maraschino cherries (optional)

Preparation Instructions:

In a small saucepan, melt butter on medium heat and add apples. Cook the apples until they’re softened (about 4 or 5 minutes). Turn off stove burner and add caramel topping. Stir apples until evenly coated. Scoop ice cream into six separate dessert dishes. Spoon apple and caramel topping evenly over ice cream. Sprinkle each caramel apple sundae with finely chopped peanuts and add a dollop of whipped cream. Top with a cherry and serve.

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Kids love nachos because they combine two things that munchkins adore: eating and getting a tad messy with mom’s permission. Nachos are a family favorite around the Cooper house but, when we’re feeling super saucy, we serve them up for dessert.

Dessert nachos are a clever twist on the savory classic, but rather than spicy meat, tomatoes and onions, the tortilla chips are sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and the toppings are sweet and fruity.

Ingredients

4-6 flour tortillas
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable oil
Sugar
Cinnamon
1 can of apple pie filling, dice up large chunks
Vanilla ice cream (1 scoop per person)
Caramel Syrup (optional)

To Prepare Chips

Heat oil in a skillet a quarter inch deep. When the oil is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles in it, put a tortilla in. When the tortilla is crispy and lightly browned, pull it out and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon while it’s still hot. Slice it into triangles, like a pizza. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Repeat with each tortilla.

Divide finished chips and place on individual dessert plates.

Nacho Toppings

Warm the apple pie filling in the microwave. You don’t want it piping hot, but warm enough to pour or drizzle more easily. Pour pie filling over nacho chips. Put one scoop of ice cream on warm chips and pie filling. Drizzle with caramel syrup and serve.

Try other pie fillings, such as peach, cherry or blueberry for a different, but decadent treat.

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My kids love Tater Tot Casserole, because it’s simple and they can tell what’s in it. Mystery casseroles where they spend more time guessing the ingredients than actually tasting the dishes are hard sells for little ones. This dish is easy to make and is essentially a cheeseburger and tater tots all in one simple, but scrumptious, recipe.

Tater Tot Casserole (serves 6-8)

Ingredients

2 pounds lean ground beef

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

13-14 slices American cheese

1 lg bag tater tots

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Brown the beef and drain off the grease. In the pot, add the can of cream of mushroom soup and stir in well. Put mixture in a 13 x 9 glass baking dish and spread evenly. Once the beef mixture is smoothed out, lay the cheese slices side by side on top. Finally, arrange the tater tots in rows to cover the cheese and beef completely. Lightly salt and pepper if desired.

Bake at 375, uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until tater tots are golden brown. Remove from heat and let stand at least 5 minutes to cool and firm.

Serve to hungry family.

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Smoothies have taken America by storm, but why should grownups be the only ones to enjoy these delicious treats? If you choose the right ingredients, they can be healthy and refreshing for the whole family. They’re easy to make and, depending on your personal tastes, can be modified by adding your blend of sweet yogurts and fruits.

Here is a basic recipe that you can modify to make your own signature kid-friendly smoothies, perfect for a family of four.

Ingredients

6 ounces of low-fat yogurt, your choice of flavor (vanilla or lemon yogurts make great smoothies)

20 ounces of crushed pineapple with juice

1/2 cup ice cubes

1/2 cup low-fat milk

6 pieces of your choice of fruit chopped (add more or less depending on your desired thickness)

Directions

Throw your personalized ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Serve right away and enjoy.

Ice cream no longer corners the market on hot weather refreshments. Not only are smoothies just as scrumptious and satisfying, but you’ll sneak in your kids’ servings of fruit and dairy, too.

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Hot chocolate (or hot cocoa, although I think they are pretty much interchangeable now) is a true comfort drink. It’s the kind of drink that immediately transports you back to childhood. You might think that a hot chocolate mix is the easy way to go, but you can make your own hot chocolate from scratch and make enough to outdo any mix on the market.

Ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 ½ cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Just get a mixing bowl and stir everything together so it’s all pretty evenly spread out. Grab a coffee mug and fill it about halfway full with the mixture and the other half full with hot water or milk. Top with your favorite marshmallows and enjoy.

You can the store the mix in a cabinet for a very long time, but odds are that its quality won’t last long very long. I make it a point that as soon as the first snow falls, I either make it from scratch or head to the store and get some cocoa mix.

At least once a week, if not more, the kids and I come inside from playing, or I come inside from shoveling the snow. Every year, I keep telling myself that I am going to buy a machine to help with the snow, but I never do. Why? Perhaps I am a purist, or just too cheap to buy a machine when I have a shovel. In the end, there is just something so perfect about drinking a warm cup of hot cocoa when you are cold and your muscles ache. I can’t wait until my children are old enough to enjoy that feeling, too.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/uzi978/4021764983

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One of the first casualties of the hustle and bustle is the kids’ breakfast. The excuses are many. You don’t have time to make it. They will have a lunch or snack at school. They just woke up, so they can’t be hungry. Even though you have heard since you were a kid that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it is often the most overlooked. In its place, you have coffee.

Breakfast gives your body the food to make energy to get you through the morning. Without it, you can feel sluggish, and your children are not starting the day in the best possible shape. So, what are you going to do? You know you need a breakfast, but you don’t have the time to butter the toast. Why not try out a smoothie?

Smoothies are healthy and contain fruit and dairy. Below is a quick recipe for a smoothie and then some quick tips on saving even more time.

Ingredients: Fruit, yogurt and orange juice.

You can choose whatever fruit you like, from bananas to strawberries, and mix-match several at once. You simply add a ½ cup yogurt, ½ cup orange juice and as much or as little fruit as you want. Place them in a blender and blend away.

I suggest freezing the fruit ahead of time to let it survive the blender a bit better, leaving you with some chunks in the smoothie.

You can save even more time in the morning by preparing the smoothie the night before and sticking it in the freezer covered in plastic wrap. When you wake up in the morning, breakfast is already made and waiting for you.

Smoothies are great a couple of times a week, and they work in a pinch. Still, they cannot replace a healthy breakfast. A child cannot survive on smoothies alone. Besides, sitting down for breakfast is great family time, and you should always make time for family.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/wildtofu/4443377532

Related posts:

1. Five Quick Breakfasts to Start the School Day
2. The Juice on the Best Fruit Juice
3. Pizzagna: A Family-Favorite Recipe for Kids

One day, I decided to get a little creative with a vegetable tray and create a visual masterpiece that my children would actually want to eat. The Veggie Flower was born. It’s simple to make and was a hit with the kiddies.

First, you need an assortment of vegetables that can be cut into thin slices. I prefer radishes, cucumbers, carrots, etc.

A cherry tomato is the start of the flower, so surround it with a couple of layers of the circular vegetable slices. These are the “petals” that will create the major part of the flower and take up the most vegetables. I like to make a big bloom to maximize the veggie levels and exercise my creativity.

The “stem” can be a few strips of celery. One long piece for the primary stem and a couple of small off-shoots will work, and you can create small flowers using radishes for the petals. Complete the flower with a couple spinach leaves for effect, and you have a healthy piece of art. You can even go the extra mile by adding a bed of bean sprouts, small carrots or other vegetable to act as “grass” and “soil.” But don’t get too attached to your masterpiece, as it will go fast.

The final touch is a cup of vegetable dip or low-fat salad dressing for dipping. When you bring these out on a plate, don’t be surprised if there are a few gasps followed swiftly by a crunching sound of your flowers being obliterated.

I am all for creativity, so feel free to go crazy. Mix, match and combine to create the coolest veggie flowers, and then share your genius with your friends and family. This will not only make a great kids’ treat, but it will also work as a great dish-to-pass at family get-togethers.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cacophonyx/749462883/

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It was something that was simple, but I looked forward to it every year and it is a tradition that I have held on to for my own children. Below is a great recipe for making popcorn balls that you can share with your children and maybe create your own Halloween tradition.

Ingredients you will need:

• ¾ cup of light corn syrup
• ¼ cup margarine
• 2 teaspoons of cold water
• 2 5/8 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 cup of marshmallows
• 5 quarts of plain popcorn (I prefer kettle popped versus the microwave variety)

Set your burner to medium heat and add the corn syrup, water, sugar and marshmallows in the saucepan and heat mixture until boiling. Combine the mixture with the popcorn and with gloved hands covered in shortening, shape the popcorn into balls before the mixture cools.

As added safety note, my children help combine the ingredients, but the ball making is a parent’s job. There is no sense in risking burns for a popcorn balls. In fact, it’s a good idea to let the mixture cool a little so mom and dad don’t risk burning themselves.

Once the popcorn has been shaped into balls, wrap them in cellophane or plastic wrap until cooled.

This is a tasty treat that you and your children will enjoy making and eating, but leave some for everyone else as well.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/bkgoddard/4030130615/

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