Kid Friendly Meals

In an effort to get the kids a little more excited about dinner and to change things up a bit around here, we  had some little 'critters' for dinner.

My daughter, Natalie, received a kids' cook book as a birthday present from her grandparents.  We made a list last week of a few meals she wanted to try and used two of her recipes tonight. 

The first 'critter' was just made using a simple buttermilk pancake batter- and shaped into faces in the pan.  Then we used nutella (to make the faces stick) and frozen berries for the eyes, nose, and mouth.  

To make the second little critters (the hash brown faces), we used almost a full bag of frozen, shredded potatoes-slightly thawed, and mixed them with 2 eggs, 3/4 stick of butter, and some salt.  Wearing gloves, we rolled the mixture into balls, flattened onto greased baking sheets, and baked at 425 F until golden on the underside.  Then we flipped them over and baked until both sides were golden brown.  The faces were made with red peppers, radishes, and ketchup.

Our two boys were THRILLED to eat their dinner tonight and want Natalie to cook a lot more often.  I am much more encouraged to let them help a lot more in the kitchen-- especially after Natalie kept telling me that this was one of the best days of her entire life! It was truly quality one-on-one time in the kitchen.