WHY MAKE HOMEMADE FRUIT SNACKS:

For health: Almost all store bought fruit snacks come with gross additives like high fructose corn syrup, fake chemical colors, and other icky stuff your kids don’t need. Homemade organic fruit snacks are chemical, pesticide, and preservative free. Plus, while fruit snacks aren’t exactly health-food, homemade fruit snacks have less sugar and are a healthier alternative to store bought.

For the planet: Store bought fruit snacks come in little plastic or foil wraps which are then packaged into bigger boxes. Such a waste! And don’t forget about all the manufacturing and transport energy used.

For fun and education: Cooking green with kids is the perfect intro to green. Green cooking is easy, fun, and you can work in topic discussions like creating less waste, health, organics, and more. These are also fun to make for a child’s birthday party activity.

INGREDIENTS FOR HOMEMADE ORGANIC FRUIT SNACKS:

• A pound of assorted dried fruit. Grab a reusable bag or container and hit your local co-op or the natural bulk food section at any grocery store. Look for unsweetened, organic, bulk dried fruit. Dried fruit we’ve tried at my house includes; blueberries, pineapple, papaya, apricots and more. we’ve never tried super crunchy dried fruit like bananas or strawberries – I’m not sure that would work. You can also build your own solar food dehydrator and make your own dried fruit.
• Organic orange juice. You can buy a tiny carton of organic or squeeze your own fresh. FYI: My son is allergic to oranges so we make our fruit snacks with mandarin or lemon juice which is a little more tart but it works.
• Citrus rind – about as much as you’d get from one medium to large sized fruit.
• Optional – Finely ground nuts of any flavor. We don’t like them with nuts at my house, but my pal’s household loves these fruit snacks with nuts. Experiment to see what your family enjoys.

MAKING YOUR HOMEMADE ORGANIC FRUIT SNACKS:

1. Grind up dried fruit in a blender on chop, then grind. A food processor might do the job better, but I refuse to buy an extra appliance for fruit snacks, so we use the blender.
2. Add the citrus rind and grind until nicely combined.
3. Slowly add the citrus juice. You want the mixture to be a sort of sticky mass that will hold together but you don’t want it watery.
4. Have your kids grab a nice spoonful of the sticky mixture. Roll with hands into small balls. Alternatively you can roll the mixture out with a rolling pin and cut into bite sized squares or other fun shapes with a cookie cutter.
5. If you made sticky ball shapes and are using nuts roll the balls in the nuts.
6. You can munch these right away or store them in an airtight container.

Safety Note: These are chewier than store bought fruit snacks and could pose a sticky choking hazard for little ones under the age of three to five years. Use your best judgment and your child’s chewing ability as a guide when it comes to offering sticky treats and never leave your tot alone with food.

[image via stock.xchng]

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Homemade Organic Fruit Snacks

One of my favorite things about Monster Cookies is all the flavors you can get in one bite. You put everything in them but the kitchen sink!

Image (c) L Gerlach

Here’s my favorite recipe for Monster Cookies:

3 eggs

1 stick of butter

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

4 1/2 cups oatmeal

2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup m & m candies

1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350.` Cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together. Then add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients, add the oatmeal last, one cup at a time. Drop the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet by teaspoon. These cookies grow quite a bit when you bake them. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they’re just starting to brown.

Enjoy!

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Cooking With Kids: Monster Cookies!

More than that, however, since this is a cookbook for kids, I asked you what was the thing you first learned to cook as a kid. My first food item was French toast, and it looks like I wasn’t alone. French toast was a popular answer, as were brownies and cookies. (Looks like baking is a popular thing to do with our kids.)

Mac ‘n cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches also ranked as a popular “first food” items. A few of you learned to make recipes passed down from family member to family member, like corn bread or pancakes. Others, (sadly) said their parents never let them cook when they were a kid! What a shame.
I think what we’ve learned is that cooking with our kids is a great way to bond with them, and it also encourages them to eat what’s on their plate. They will be more inclined to eat something they helped prepare.

Image: sxc.hu.

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Winner of Kitchen Basics

Image (c) L Gerlach

Simply peel your potatoes so you have half sweet potatoes and half regular potatoes. Slice into long thin strips. If you have a fancy spiral cutter you can make them extra fun. Let the kids help you toss the potatoes in a bowl with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, a little coarse salt, and some dried parsley or oregano. Spread them into a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at for.

Image (c) L Gerlach

Serve these fries with fish sticks, or homemade chicken strips. Give them some light sour cream or ketchup to dip them in. They won’t even know you’re trying to get them to eat something healthy.

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Cooking With Kids~ Fun Oven Fries

The basic premise behind the recipe is that as the water from the sugar water mixture evaporates, the leftover sugar will crystalize and attach itself to the string or stick placed in the container. Due to the fact that this activity involves the stove, please ensure adequate adult supervision.

How to:

• In a saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and then add 4 cups of sugar to the boiling water.
• Stir sugar mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture returns to a boil and is clear.
• Pour the mixture in to a glass jar or other tall glass container and cover with wax paper – you can add some food coloring at this point for fun if you’d like. Let it cool.
• Take a string that is not quite as long as your glass container and tie one end to a pencil and tie a washer to the other end of the string.
• Dampen the string and roll it in sugar then let dry.
• Once the string is dry, place the string into the jar washer first so the pencil lays across the top of the jar.
• Cover the jar and set aside where you can check on the daily progress of your sugar crystal growing.
• After a few days, remove rock candy from jar and let dry then enjoy.

For more on the science behind candy and other fun science related activities for kids, check out one of my favorite sites – The Science of Cooking at the Exploratorium.
Don’t miss any of the fun – stop back in tomorrow or visit the Camp Weary Parent page for a complete listing of all the activities to date.

Image: Amazon

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Where Science Meets Yum – Make Your Own Rock Candy

Here are some of her favorites:

Spatulatta.com – this cooking site is for kids and by kids! The sister team of Isabella and Olivia Gerasole have done an amazing job of putting together fun videos of them preparing their favorite recipes, basic cooking skills, a quick reference on weights and measures, links, and even a shop. The girls just released their first cookbook, Spatulatta Cookbook, and my daughter is asking for it already.

Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids – This has got to be my daughter’s favorite cookbook ever. Rachael Ray uses kid friendly ingredients and mixes them up with funky names like “A Nice Italian Girl’s Salad”, “Worms & Eyeballs” (a pasta recipe), “Candy Sushi”, and “Italian Flag Sundaes”. The book is full of fun illustrations, helpful hints, and plenty of “Rachael-isms.”

Cooking Mama – Cook all you want and never make a mess!! Cooking Mama is a fun game for Nintendo DS and Wii that challenges kids to follow recipes, virtually chopping, stirring, frying and baking. There is a nice variety of skill levels and even my 6 year old has fun with it.

One of my daughter’s favorite things to make are her own “specialty” – Oven Roasted Potatoes. She peels and dices potatoes and then places them in a gallon zip lock baggie. She adds a few teaspoons of EVOO (that’s Rachael speak for Extra Virgin Olive Oil), some salt and pepper, a little garlic salt and then gives it all a good shake. Next she spreads the potatoes out on a cookie tray and cooks them in the oven (on 350) for 30 minutes. They are seriously delish!!

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Cooking with the Kids