Cooking and Food Tips

Food Pyramid

Healthy eating starts with a food pyramid, and the net has a lot of resources to help kids learn how to build a healthy pyramid of eating habits. Try these sites to get you started:

Food Guide Pyramid Take an online quiz to find out how much you know about healthy eating.

Here's How Well You Know the Food Pyramid Kids submitted menues they felt were healthy. How well did they do?

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Finger Foods

Finger foods are great for parties, campouts, or goofing off. You can make up your own recipes by looking for things around the house that go well together. (Check with your parents first.) Here are some recipes to get you started:

Puppy Chow This recipe is really for kids, not dogs.

Butterfly Bites When you are finished, your treat will look like a butterfly.

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Pizza

Everyone-practically-loves pizza. Pizza from scratch can be a bit of work, but there are pizza recipes a kid can manage. Be creative when you are thinking up toppings. You don't have to use exactly what the recipe says to top it with-but check with a parent first. Try these recipes for starters:

Quick Pizza Pies This recipe uses refrigerator biscuits for the crust.

Fruit Pizza This pizza recipe would make a great snack instead of a main dish, since it uses a sugar cookie for the crust.

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Cupcakes

Cupcakes are fun to bake. Not only do you have the fun of making and eating them, but you also get to decorate them. Try decorating them to fit a theme. You could even have a group of friends get together and have a decorating party. Then donate some of the decorated cakes to a senior center home or a school for special needs kids, or even a bake sale to raise money for a good cause. Here are two cupcake recipes to get you started:

Banana Cupcakes Add a little nutrition to these easy to make cupcakes. (The recipe is for kids, but the site is also for adults, so surf with a parent.)

Cupcake Graveyard This is a good one to serve at your Halloween party.

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Brownies

Brownies are fun to make. You can use a mix for a quick treat or try making your own. These three recipes are for older children or for younger children with adult supervision.

Brownie Graveyard (This Halloween recipe starts with a brownie mix.)

Mini Brownie ButtonsThis recipe requires some stovetop cooking, so you may need help.

Triple Valentine Brownies This recipe may require adult supervision.

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Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie always makes me think of holidays. If you want to make some for your family this year, try these recipes:

Vegan Pumpkin Pie If you like your food healthy and without eggs, try this pumpkin pie recipe that uses tofu.

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie For a more traditional pie, try this easy recipe. Except for mixing the eggs, you just dump everything together and bake.

Pumpkin Pie Game After you're done cooking, try playing this easy to make game.

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French Toast

French toast is a good recipe for beginning cooks. However, it usually requires using the stovetop, so you should be tall enough to reach without standing on a chair. Otherwise, you need a parent's help. Try these recipes on your family this weekend:

Andrea's French Toast: Andrea is ten years old, and makes this recipe herself.

Crunchy French Toast: This is a different recipe. It uses cereal to make the crunch.

Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast: This recipe is harder and more expensive. It is better for older kids, but it sounds really good!

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are among the most popular cookies. They aren't too hard to make with a little practice. Try these recipes:

My Chocolate Cookies This recipe is written in easy language.

M&M Cookies With Frosting This recipe is a little long, so have an adult help.

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Lunchbox Recipes

Tired of peanut butter sandwhiches and a cookie in your lunchbox. Some people have worked really hard to find good stuff to put in school lunches. Try these sites to get ideas:

Lunchbox Recipes from Family Education.com Smoothies in your lunch box? This site has great ideas. It isn't just for kids, so surf with a parent.

Quick and Easy Lunchbox Recipes No time to make something fancy? These are easy sandwich and snack ideas.

Fight BacMake sure your lunch doesn't make you sick. Here's how to keep your school lunch safe.

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Pages for Parents

Cooking is a wonderful experience for children, but the kitchen can be dangerous for children who are not supervised carefully. Did you know that foil in the microwave can lead to a fire? Check out these pages to learn how to keep your children safe in your kitchen:

Kitchen Safety for Young Children This site offers tips about keeping children safe whether they are working or playing in your kitchen.

Thoughts for Food Are your kids home alone and cooking? Make sure you put this list on the fridge first!

Kitchen Safety Checklist Take this checklist into your kitchen and find out how your house measures up.

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School Lunches

Many schools serve lunches that have too much fat and salt, and too many calories. Learn the facts and then talk to your principal or teacher about how healthy your school lunches are. Try these sites to get the facts:

Choice Find out what is wrong with most school lunches and how schools are putting you in danger.

Healthy School Lunches If your school doesn't serve a healthy lunch, try packing your own. This site offers good tips for great lunches.

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Recipes for Diabetics

Having diabetes doesn't mean your food has to be boring. The internet is full of sites with recipes for great food. Be sure to check with your parents before deciding to make something. Each diabetic person has different rules for what is okay to eat. Try these sites to get some recipes:

Children With Diabetes Recipes This page has great recipes for kids that don't use sugar and are safe for kids with most kids with diabetes. Try smoothies, cheesecake...even chocolate.

The Diabetic Digest This site has recipes organized by meal and helps you find substitutions for popular foods.

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Camp Food

Camping is a lot of fun, especially if you help with the cooking. Remember to keep the food simple. You don't want to spend all your time cooking and cleaning up. Here are a few recipes with nice, outdoorsy, insect names to get you started:

Ants on a Log Don't worry. There aren't really any ants in this recipe-just peanut butter, raisins and celery.

Caterpillars No caterpillars in this one either, but it will look like one when you are done. Keep the cream cheese good and cold-this is best for the first day.

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Milk Shakes

Milkshakes are a great way to cool off on a hot summer day. The basic recipe is just ice cream and milk and maybe some chocolate syrup, but be creative. Look at these recipes to get some new ideas:

Easy Pudding Milkshake This recipe uses a box of pudding to help make your shake.

Breakfast Shake Yum! Shakes for breakfast! This one has a lot of fruit and is actually good for you.

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Grow Your Own Dinner!

Food always tastes best when it comes straight from the garden, and it tastes even better if you grow it yourself. Here are some sites to help you become a great gardener.

Kids Gardening Surf with a parent. Most of this site is meant to help parents and teachers teach gardening to kids, but you can learn a lot from it too. All the basics of gardening are here.

Kids Valley Gardening This site is meant just for kids. There is even a glossary so you can sound like an expert.

Kid Friendly Plants Learn about four plants that are fun for kids to grow.

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Food Safety

It's really important when you cook to know and follow safety rules. Did you know you can get very sick from touching raw meat if you don't wash your hands? These web sites will help you stay safe in the kitchen:

FDA Food Safety Quiz Find out how much you know about handling food when you cook.

Just Look at Those Hands Don't start cooking until you've washed your hands. Aren't sure why? This page will tell you.

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